- This homepage provides an overview of the course. For course procedures, see the Syllabus; for what is due when, Assignments.
Peitho ("pay-THOE") is the Greek word for persuasion, the influencing of future action and thought. Yet peithō, as object of cult, a figure of myth, and an essential element in love, marriage, and much else, meant more to Greeks than simply speech calculated to change minds. Peitho was in fact a central, if ambiguous, feature of ancient Greek culture, and the study of it in context will open a window into the cultural-ideological landscape within which ancient Greeks practiced and talked about their politics, society, and much else as well.
BY TAKING THIS COURSE, you should expect to be challenged on a number of levels. First and foremost, you'll be digging deep into the processes of persuasion, how words and feelings, sights and sounds, can alter perceptions, change attitudes, and affect behaviors. Second, you'll be considering the relationship between persuasion and one particular form of government: democracy. Your laboratory: ancient Greek democracy (especially Athenian democracy) and ancient writings shedding light on the relationship between words and power in that time and place.
So this course should open a window into past worlds, but it should do more. By studying ancient realities, you also gain perspective on modern realities. Not that modern and ancient democracy are the same. But Athenian democracy as a well-defined and manageable focus of study will help you think about bigger issues of the power of words and the ethics of power.
COURSE MATERIALS: The course materials and assignments will progress more or less chronologically, and will move from general considerations to a more narrow focus on the emergence of speech-based democracy at Athens. You'll be dealing with primary (i.e., ancient) texts in English translation (Greek drama, philosophy, oratory, biography, etc. from about 850 BCE through 125 CE), secondary sources, and artistic and archaeological evidence.
COURSE WORK: Two solo oral presentations for the O-oral, two shorter Harpur writing assignments connected to those oral presentations. Reading, lecture, short fact-based quizzes, critical-thinking SWAs, discussion. No exams.
GENERAL EDUCATION, ETC.: This course counts toward the O - Oral Communication, T - Critical Thinking, H - Humanities, I - Information Literacy; GenEds; the W – Harpur Writing; and as a cognate course in the Philosophy, Politics and Law program (PPL).
Images: Abduction / Seduction of Helen
The following two images depict the abduction and/or seduction of Helen "of Troy." Of course, Helen's original home was not Troy, in modern-day Turkey, but Sparta, in southern Greece. There she lived with her husband, Menelaus, until Paris, a Trojan prince, brought her back to his city to live with him. Helen had been promised to Paris as reward for his having crowned Aphrodite (goddess of sex) the most beautiful in the contest known as "The Judgment of Paris."
Not unlike Gorgias' Encomium of Helen, the following pair of images, though from different periods and places (classical Athens, Roman Italy), problematize the role of persuasion/Peitho in bringing Helen to Troy. Was it by force that she was brought? Did she go of her own free will? If seduced, does persuasion here count as a kind of non-violent coercion?
And what goes into persuasiveness itself? Can arguments — and not just those relating to seduction or courtship, but political, religious, philosophical, and scientific arguments as well — perform the work they set out to do without "help" from what we might term rhetoric? Could Gorgias be right, even about science, when he suggests that it's really all about shaping impressions?
Think about it. We'll be returning to these topics again and again, so you'll have plenty of chance to voice your opinion!
Helen Brought to Troy, "Makron Vase"
Makron Vase. Boston 13.186. Potter: Hieron. Painter: Makron. Attic (= Athenian) red-figure, ca. 490-480 BCE. Side A: showing, from left to right, Aeneas, Alexandros (i.e., Paris), Eros, Helen, Aphrodite, and Persuasion. Side B (not shown) depicts Helen's reunion with Menelaus at Troy: he attacks, she flees. The pictorial elements of both sides are drawn from the so-called epic cycle, specifically, a lost poem known as the Cypria. Image from Kahil, Lilly. Les Enlèvements Et Le Retour D’hélène Dans Les Textes Et Les Documents Figurés. École Française D’athènes. Travaux Et Mémoires, Fasc. 10. Paris: E. de Boccard, 1955. Vol. 2 Plate IV. See vol. 1 p. 53.
QUESTION: Is Helen being dragged off, "enticed" off, or somehow just led off? Think about all the pictorial elements, including (but not confined to) the meaning of Eros, Aphrodite, and Peitho as symbolic presences. . . .
Seduction of Helen — Helen Relief, Naples
Helen Relief. Naples Museo Archeologico inv. 6682. Neo-Attic relief sculpture, first-cent. CE. (Roman date, though showing influences of earlier, Athenian sculpture.) Figures labeled in Greek. Pictured are, from left to right, Peitho ("Persuasion," spelled here "Pitho," sitting atop a pillar), Helen, Aphrodite, Eros ("Desire," = Greek Cupid), and Alexandros, better known as Paris. Image from Kahil Enlèvements, vol. 2 Plate XXIV, 1. See vol. 1 p. 225.
Here we see Aphrodite in her familiar role as parēgoros, that is, "consoler." Other evidence emphasizes her role in consoling young brides distressed by the wrenching change marriage will bring: new home, new family, etc. Here, Aphrodite seeks, evidently, to reconcile Helen to all that plus a change of husband.
But what is Eros doing, and what is Paris' role? Eros seems to be staring attractiveness into into Paris' eyes, or is that desire (erōs) for Helen? Note how Helen is clothed and Paris is nude. QUESTION: What is Peitho doing in the scene? How should we interpret her pose, positioning, etc.?. . .