In class on Thursday, I was assigned to take notes and post them on this here blog. The first thing we did after we came in and sat down was look at a rhetorical speech called Gorgias' Encomium of Helen. Gorgias is a famous rhetorician who can get anyone to believe anything. The rhetorical speech that we read was very controversial. Gorgias' was trying to convince the people of his land that that Helen was not guilty because the God’s choose our destinies and that our destinies are chosen, no matter what bad or wrong happens. He then said at the end, though, that the speech was only, “a diversion to himself.” It was pretty much a way of him saying that he can make anyone believe what he wants them to believe through the power of rhetoric.
The next thing we did was get into groups to analyze bits and pieces of the rhetorical speech. We were divided into five groups of four subjects: speech, love, rape, and goddesses. We came to the conclusion that the forcible rape sequence was aimed towards anybody who was against rape or willing to listen to the argument. We came to the conclusion that the God sequence would be aimed towards religious people and the Greek culture. We came to the conclusion that the speech sequence would be aimed towards intellectuals or superstitious people. It was also demonstrating the power of words.
Our teacher told us that spelling is kind of like putting a spell on somebody. If you tell someone to go close the door and they go and close the door, you put a spell on them to do so. The power of words is powerful.
Then we spent the rest of the class researching our topics.
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