The Ethos of Classical Rhetoric: From Epieikeia to Auctoritas

Abstract

Despite of its long tradition the research of classical rhetoric can provide many interesting perspectives even today, since through renewed readings of ancient works possible reinterpretations of certain concepts that belong to the ancient system of classical rhetoric are enabled. At the same time a detailed research of the classical rhetorical system offers one of the most useful starting points to refine our perception of its concepts and recognize the value of their application to the contemporary models of rhetorical and argumentative analysis. In this sense, one of the most interesting classical concepts appears to be rhetorical ethos, a strategy of (favorable) character presentation. Known and studied mostly either solely from Aristotle’s conceptualizations of pisteis entekhnoi or from the perspective of a moral character that comes from Isocrates and Plato, ancient rhetorical ethos in fact reveals a multifaceted nature that comes from different conception of the role of the speaker in Greek and Roman society. Based on this hypothesis, we present examples of different ancient conceptions of character presentation and propose two main interpretative directions that, only when joined together, fully constitute a complex concept of classical rhetorical ethos. Considering some contemporary notions of ethos that can be identified within modern rhetorical and argumentative theoretical models (e.g. Amossy, Poetics Today, 22(1):1–23, 2001; Inform Logic, 29(3):252–267, 2009; van Eemeren and Grootendorst 2004; Leff, Rhetoric and dialectic in Martin Luther King’s ‘Letter from Birmingham Jail’. In: van Eemeren FH, et al (eds) Anyone who has a view: theoretical contributions to the study of argumentation. Kluwer Academic, Dordrecht, pp 255–268; Argument 23:301–311, 2009; Tindale, Rhetorical argumentation: principles of theory and practice. Sage, London, 2004), we also demonstrate how such elaborated understanding of rhetorical ethos can contribute to modern rhetorical or/and argumentative analysis.