Encomium of Helen Gorgias of Leontini

Source: Rosamond Kent Sprague, ed. The Older Sophists: A Complete Translation by Several Hands of the Fragments in ie Fragmente er !orso"ratic"er #dited by iels$Kran% &ith a 'e& #dition of (ntiphon and of #uthydemus. )olumbia, South )arolina: *niversity of South )arolina +ress, ,-./. 01$02. Gorgias, the most famous rhetorician of the late fifth-century, composed this display speech as an exhibition of his talents. The brief he sets himself is to free elen of blame for her part in causing the famed Tro!an "ar through being seduced #or perhaps $idnapped% a&ay from her husband 'enelaus, $ing of Sparta, by the Tro!an prince (aris #Alexander%. Sections )-*+ represent a hymn to the po&er of rhetoric. 'G 3,4 5hat is becoming to a city is manpo&er, to a body beauty, to a soul &isdom, to an action virtue, to a speech truth, and the opposites of these are unbecoming. 6an and &oman and speech and deed and city and ob7ect should be honored &ith praise if praise&orthy and incur blame if un&orthy, for it is an e8ual error and mista"e to blame the praisable and to praise the blamable. 3/4 9t is the duty of one and the same man both to spea" the needful rightly and the refute the unrightfully spo"en. :hus it is right to refute those &ho rebu"e Helen, a &oman about &hom the testimony of inspired poets has become univocal and unanimous as has the ill omen of her name, &hich has become a reminder of misfortunes. For my part, by introducing some reasoning into my speech, 9 &ish to free the accused of blame and, having reproved her detractors as prevaricators and proved the truth, to free her from their ignorance. 3;4 'o& it is not unclear, not even to a fe&, that in nature and in blood the &oman &ho is the sub7ect of this speech is preeminent among preeminent men and &omen. For it is clear that her mother &as Leda, and her father &as in fact a god, <eus, but allegedly a mortal, :yndareus, of &hom the former &as sho&n to be her father because he &as and the latter &as disproved because he &as said to be, and the one &as the most po&erful of men and the other the Lord of all. 324 =orn from such stoc", she had godli"e beauty, &hich ta"ing and not mista"ing, she "ept. 9n many did she &or" much desire for her love, and her one body &as the cause of bringing together many bodies of men thin"ing great thoughts for great goals, of &hom some had greatness of &ealth, some the glory of ancient nobility, some the vigor of personal agility, some command of ac8uired "no&ledge. (nd all came because of a passion &hich loved to con8uer and a love of honor &hich &as uncon8uered. 304 5ho it &as and &hy and ho& he sailed a&ay, ta"ing Helen as his love, 9 shall not say. :o tell the "no&ing &hat they "no& sho&s it is right but brings no delight. Having gone beyond the time once set for my speech, 9 shall go on to the beginning of my future speech, and 9 shall set forth the causes through &hich it is li"ely that Helen>s voyage to :roy should ta"e place. 3?4 For either by &ill of Fate and decision of the gods and vote of 'ecessity did she do &hat she did, or by force reduced or by &ords seduced or by love possessed. 'o& if through the first, it is right for the responsible one to be held responsible@ for god>s predetermination cannot be hindered by human premeditation. For it is the nature of things, not for the strong to be hindered by the &ea", but for the &ea"er to be ruled and dra&n by the stronger, and for the stronger to lead and the &ea"er to follo&. God is a stronger force than man in might and in &it and in other &ays. 9f then one must place blame on Fate and on a god, one must free Helen from disgrace.

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3.4 =ut if she &as raped by violence and illegally assaulted and un7ustly insulted, it is clear that the raper, as the insulter, did the &ronging, and the raped, as the insulted, did the suffering. 9t is right then for the barbarian &ho undertoo" a barbaric underta"ing in &ord and la& and deed to meet &ith blame in &ord, eAclusion in la&, and punishment in deed. (nd surely it is proper for a &oman raped and robbed of her country and deprived of her loved ones to be pitied rather than pilloried. He did the dread deeds@ she suffered them. 9t is 7ust therefore to pity her but to hate him. 3B4 =ut if it &as speech &hich persuaded her and deceived her heart, not even to this is it difficult to ma"e an ans&er and to banish blame as follo&s. Speech is a po&erful lord, &hich by means of the finest and most invisible body effects the divinest &or"s: it can stop fear and banish grief and create 7oy and nurture pity. 9 shall sho& ho& this is the case, since 3-4 it is necessary to offer proof to the opinion of my hearers: 9 both deem and define all poetry as speech &ith meter. Fearful shuddering and tearful pity and grievous longing come upon its hearers, and at the actions and physical sufferings of others in good fortunes and in evil fortunes, through the agency of &ords, the soul is &ont to eAperience a suffering of its o&n. =ut come, 9 shall turn from one argument to another. 3,14 Sacred incantations sung &ith &ords are bearers of pleasure and banishers of pain, for, merging &ith opinion in the soul, the po&er of the incantation is &ont to beguile it and persuade it and alter it by &itchcraft. :here have been discovered t&o arts of &itchcraft and magic: one consists of errors of soul and the other of deceptions of opinion. 3,,4 (ll &ho have and do persuade people of things do so by molding a false argument. For if all men on all sub7ects had both memory of things past and a&areness of things present and fore"no&ledge of the future, speech &ould not be similarly similar, since as things are no& it is not easy for them to recall the past nor to consider the present nor to predict the future. So that on most sub7ects most men ta"e opinion as counselor to their soul, but since opinion is slippery and insecure it casts those employing it into slippery and insecure successes. 3,/4 5hat cause then prevents the conclusion that Helen similarly, against her &ill, might have come under the influence of speech, 7ust as if ravished by the force of the mightyC For it &as possible to see ho& the force of persuasion prevails@ persuasion has the form of necessity, but it does not have the same po&er. For speech constrained the soul, persuading it &hich it persuaded, both to believe the things said and to approve the things done. :he persuader, li"e a constrainer, does the &rong and the persuaded, li"e the constrained, in speech is &rongly charged. 3,;4 :o understand that persuasion, &hen added to speech, is &ont also to impress the soul as it &ishes, one must study: first, the &ords of (stronomers &ho, substituting opinion for opinion, ta"ing a&ay one but creating another, ma"e &hat is incredible and unclear seem true to the eyes of opinion@ then, second, logically necessary debates in &hich a single speech, &ritten &ith art but not spo"en &ith truth, bends a great cro&d and persuades@ and, third, the verbal disputes of philosophers in &hich the s&iftness of thought is also sho&n ma"ing the belief in an opinion sub7ect to easy change. 3,24 :he effect of speech upon the condition of the soul is comparable to the po&er of drugs over the nature of bodies. For 7ust as different drugs dispel different secretions form the body, and some bring an end to disease and others to life, so also in the case of speeches, some distress, others delight, some cause fear, others ma"e the hearers bold, and some drug and be&itch the soul &ith a "ind of evil persuasion. 3,04 9t has been eAplained that if she &as persuaded by speech she did not do &rong but &as unfortunate. 9 shall discuss the fourth cause in a fourth passage. For if it &as love &hich did all these things, there &ill be no difficulty in escaping the charge of the sin &hich is alleged to have ta"en place. For the things &e see do not have the nature &hich &e &ish them to have, but the nature &hich each actually has. :hrough sight the soul receives an impression even in its inner features. 3,?4 5hen belligerents in &ar buc"le on their &arli"e accouterments of bron%e and steel, some designed for defense, others for offense, if the sight sees this, immediately it is alarmed and it alarms the soul, so that often men flee, panic stric"en from future danger as though it &ere present. For strong as is the habit of obedience to the la&, it is e7ected by fear resulting from sight, &hich coming to a man causes him to be indifferent both to &hat is 7udged honorable because of the la& and to the advantage to be derived from victory. 3,.4 9t has happened that people, after having seen frightening
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sights, have also lost presence of mind for the present moment@ in this &ay fear eAtinguishes and eAcludes thought. (nd many have fallen victim to useless labor and dread diseases and hardly curable madnesses. 9n this &ay the sight engraves upon the mind images of things &hich have been seen. (nd many frightening impressions linger, and &hat lingers is eAactly analogous to &hat is spo"en. 3,B4 6oreover, &henever pictures perfectly create a single figure and form from many colors and figures, they delight the sight, &hile the creation of statues and the production of &or"s of art furnish a pleasant sight to the eyes. :hus it is natural for the sight to grieve for some things and to long for others, and much love and desire for many ob7ects and figures is engraved in many men. 3,-4 9f, therefore, the eye of Helen, pleased by the figure of (leAander, presented to her soul eager desire and contest of love, &hat &onderC 9f, being a god, Love has the divine po&er of the gods, ho& could a lesser being re7ect and refuse itC =ut if it is a disease of human origin and a fault of the soul, it should not be blamed as a sin, but regarded as an affliction. For she came, as she did come, caught in the net of Fate, not by the plans of the mind, and by the constraints of love, not by the devices of art. Ho& then can one blame of Helen as un7ust, since she is utterly ac8uitted of all charge, &hether she did &hat she did through falling in love or persuaded by speech or ravished by force or constrained by divine constraintC 9 have by means of speech removed disgrace from a &oman@ 9 have observed the procedure &hich 9 set up at the beginning of the speech@ 9 have tried to end the in7ustice of blame and the ignorance of opinion@ 9 &ished to &rite a speech &hich &ould be a praise of Helen and a diversion to myself.

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