Democracy, Poverty, Comic Heroism and Oratorical Strategy in Lysias 24
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Wilfred E. Major
Abstract
The disabled speaker of Lysias 24 argues for the retention of his public disability pension, but with little discussion of either his physical disability or his financial resources. Rather he primarily attacks his elite prosecutor as jealous, delusional and morally compromised. Unaddressed in scholarship is the question of why these techniques constitute effective oratorical strategy. Here two dynamics of stage comedy are relevant: (1) the success of a protagonist braggart and (2) how this model of success maps onto democratic ideology in Athens. Within the political landscape of democratic Athens, poverty was a major ideological flashpoint that elites struggled to navigate with the mass democratic working class. In the corpus of Classical Greek oratory, Lysias 24 is unique in its rhetorical stance in this ongoing discourse, in that it boldly asserts the moral superiority of the poor and resulting moral weakness of the wealthy. Taking this stance re-enacts the pattern of engagement from stage comedy and signals allegiance to the priorities of the democratic poor in Athens. This speech thus preserves a valuable and underrepresented dynamic in the dialogue in democratic Athens between the poor and the wealthy, and the role of comic abuse in that conversation.
Abstract
The disabled speaker of Lysias 24 argues for the retention of his public disability pension, but with little discussion of either his physical disability or his financial resources. Rather he primarily attacks his elite prosecutor as jealous, delusional and morally compromised. Unaddressed in scholarship is the question of why these techniques constitute effective oratorical strategy. Here two dynamics of stage comedy are relevant: (1) the success of a protagonist braggart and (2) how this model of success maps onto democratic ideology in Athens. Within the political landscape of democratic Athens, poverty was a major ideological flashpoint that elites struggled to navigate with the mass democratic working class. In the corpus of Classical Greek oratory, Lysias 24 is unique in its rhetorical stance in this ongoing discourse, in that it boldly asserts the moral superiority of the poor and resulting moral weakness of the wealthy. Taking this stance re-enacts the pattern of engagement from stage comedy and signals allegiance to the priorities of the democratic poor in Athens. This speech thus preserves a valuable and underrepresented dynamic in the dialogue in democratic Athens between the poor and the wealthy, and the role of comic abuse in that conversation.
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Contents V
- Acknowledgements VII
- Killing with a Smile: Comic Invective in Greek and Roman Oratory 1
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Part I: Intertextual and Multi-genre Invective
- Comedy and Insults in the Athenian Law-courts 25
- Comic Invective and Public Speech in Fourth-Century Athens 43
- Comic Invective in Attic Forensic Oratory: Private Speeches 65
- Rhetorical Defence, Inter-poetic Agōn and the Reframing of Comic Invective in Plato’s Apology of Socrates 81
- “You are Mad!” Allegations of Insanity in Greek Comedy and Rhetoric 107
- Comic Invective in Cicero’s Speech Pro M. Caelio 125
- How to Start a Show: Comic Invectives in the Prologues of Terence and Decimus Laberius 147
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Part II: The Cultural Workings of Invective
- Comic Somatisation and the Body of Evidence in Aeschines’ Against Timarchus 171
- Comic Invective, Decorum and Ars in Cicero’s De Oratore 191
- No Decorum in the Forum? Comic Invective in the Theatre of Justice 211
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Part III: Invective in Ancient Socio-political Contexts
- Political Rhetoric and Comic Invective in Fifth-Century Athens: The Trial of the Dogs in Aristophanes’ Wasps 235
- Democracy, Poverty, Comic Heroism and Oratorical Strategy in Lysias 24 257
- Notes on Editors and Contributors 273
- General Index 275
- Index Locorum 279
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Contents V
- Acknowledgements VII
- Killing with a Smile: Comic Invective in Greek and Roman Oratory 1
-
Part I: Intertextual and Multi-genre Invective
- Comedy and Insults in the Athenian Law-courts 25
- Comic Invective and Public Speech in Fourth-Century Athens 43
- Comic Invective in Attic Forensic Oratory: Private Speeches 65
- Rhetorical Defence, Inter-poetic Agōn and the Reframing of Comic Invective in Plato’s Apology of Socrates 81
- “You are Mad!” Allegations of Insanity in Greek Comedy and Rhetoric 107
- Comic Invective in Cicero’s Speech Pro M. Caelio 125
- How to Start a Show: Comic Invectives in the Prologues of Terence and Decimus Laberius 147
-
Part II: The Cultural Workings of Invective
- Comic Somatisation and the Body of Evidence in Aeschines’ Against Timarchus 171
- Comic Invective, Decorum and Ars in Cicero’s De Oratore 191
- No Decorum in the Forum? Comic Invective in the Theatre of Justice 211
-
Part III: Invective in Ancient Socio-political Contexts
- Political Rhetoric and Comic Invective in Fifth-Century Athens: The Trial of the Dogs in Aristophanes’ Wasps 235
- Democracy, Poverty, Comic Heroism and Oratorical Strategy in Lysias 24 257
- Notes on Editors and Contributors 273
- General Index 275
- Index Locorum 279
