A Philological Interpretation On Gorgias’Encomium Of Helen

As the most successful sophist in the fifth century BC in aspect of rhetoric, Gorgias’ Encomium of Helen is significant not only for understanding the idea of Gorgias,but to a large extent for reflecting the rhetorical argumentation situation of the fifth century BC in Greek.With such ideas,this dissertation tends to read Gorgias’ Encomium of Helen with a great carefulness so as to get a better understanding of some basic issues involved in the text.The philological interpretation was built on the annexed translation and annotation of the Encomiun,and chaptered according to the structure presented in the text itself.Chapter Ⅰ is an overview of the background of Sophists and Gorgias and his Encomium of Helen, of the study on this Encomium at China and abroad, and of the idea of thisdissertation.Chapter Ⅱ (paragraphs1-5)is designed to handle the speech type, style and purpose of the Encomium.Paragraph1is the exordium listed something that should be condemned and praised. Paragraph2leads to the theme that the condemner who have proved Helen was a misfortune eunanimously should be refuted according to the author. In view of this,we cited the "testimonies" in ancient Greek literary tradition and found that it wasn’t seem "unanimous" from the testimonies of the epic poets,the lyric poets to the tragic poets.Paragraphs3-4briefly presented the origin and beauty of Helen,and the presentation came to an abrupt end in paragraph5in which Gorgias officially stated his intention of defending Helen and then made the audience reach pleasure with some novel arguments.We cited some historical records to analyze the speech style with which Gorgias "amuse" his audience.Chapter Ⅲ (paragraphs6-19) is the part of defense to which Gorgias transferred,it presented four possibilities of Helen’s going to Troy, and showed in sequence the reasons cannot condemn Helen on every possibility.Paragraph6-7was the argument of "Gods’ arrangement" and "force reduced",it borrowed the old ideas from literary tradition, but was also injected new vitality:the supremacy of these two possibilities in the range of "nature". Paragraph8-14demonstrated the emotional power of logos, the false logos it relied on,and the persuasion it caused, as well as the analogy between logos and drug. Paragraphs15-19discussed the reason why Helen was innocent when her behavior drove by Eros. Eros is the inevitable result of visual. The main issues involved in this chapter are:The real purpose of Gorgias "to defense rhetoric". the contradiction between views of logos in the Encomium and his philosophical proposition, the analogy between logos and the visual arts, etc.Chapter IV (paragraphs20-21) is the epilogue of the Encomium. The last word"game" made the whole serious and rigorous argument being universally questioned. Scholars nowadays trended that the views in the Encomium can represent the thoughts of Gorgias absolutely.Some scholars suggested that the word "game" had a high correlation with the true purpose hide behind the Encomium, and others suggested that it was related to the "pleasure" of logos Gorgias asserted.Chapter V is the conclusion,the encomium an defense mixed type of speech in Gorgias’Encomium of Helen,the grand style of speech, the real purpose to "defense rhetoric", the naturality of logos and its impact on human soul, the analogy between logos and visual art and so on are systematically discussed.