Complete Story
06/09/2015
Epideictic Rhetoric: Questioning the Stakes of Ancient Praise
Title: Epideictic Rhetoric: Questioning the Stakes of Ancient Praise
The Ashley and Peter Larkin Series in Greek and Roman Culture, June 2015
ISBN 978-0-292-76820-8
Speeches of praise and blame constituted a form of oratory put to brilliant and creative use in the classical Greek period (fifth to fourth century BC) and the Roman imperial period (first to fourth century AD), and they have influenced public speakers through all the succeeding ages. Yet unlike the other classical genres of rhetoric, epideictic rhetoric remains something of a mystery. It was the least important genre at the start of Greek oratory, but its role grew exponentially in subsequent periods, even though epideictic orations were not meant to elicit any action on the part of the listener, as judicial and deliberative speeches attempted to do. So why did the ancients value the oratory of praise so highly?
http://utpress.utexas.edu/index.php/books/pernot-epideictic-rhetoric#sthash.FOVEm9JN.dpuf
CONTENTS
Preface vii
Acknowledgements xi
A Note on Sources xiii
1. The Unstoppable Rise of Epideictic 1
2. The Grammar of Praise 29
3. Why Epideictic Rhetoric? 66
4. New Approaches in Epideictic 101
Epilogue 121
Notes 123
Bibliography 133
Index 155
