Bianchi Mancini, Sofia (2018) Shame in Athenian Oratory. Masters thesis, University of Wales Trinity Saint David.
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Abstract
My study explores the use of shame as an oratorical and rhetorical technique designed to lead the jurors during a court trial to sympathise with the speakers of the following orations of the fifth and fourth centuries B.C.: Lysias’ On the Murder of Eratosthenes (1), Against Simon (3), Demosthenes’ Against Conon (54) and Aeschines’ Against Timarchus (1). The usage of shame in oratory has not been extensively studied due to the potential difficulty in reconstructing how the jurors may have reacted during a court trial. However, by using a linguistic approach to the analysis of the role of shame in Athenian oratory, it will be possible to determine how the use of shame could have affected the jurors’ mind. This idea will be argued by the detection of a two-fold feeling of shame: passive and active. Passive shame will be seen in one’s target who due to the outrages suffered at the hands of his perpetrator, experienced a feeling of shame and loss of honour. On the other hand, active shame will be perceived through those people who were considered immoral in the eyes of the Athenians since they intentionally dishonoured and humiliated their targets. Clear examples that can support this latter type of shame can be found in the matters that the speeches chosen for this project explore e.g. adultery in Lysias 1, shameful outrages which the speakers in Lysias 3 and Demosthenes 54 were subject to and in the corrupted lifestyle of Timarchus in Aeschines 1. From the analysis of Lysias 1, 3, Demosthenes 54 and Aeschines 1 it will also emerge that both typologies of shame are emphasised in the speeches through the usage of αἰσχρός, αἰσχύνη, αἰσχύνω, ὑβρίζω and ὕβρις.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Masters) |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | shame, Athenian oratory, classics, Greece and Rome |
| Subjects: | P Language and Literature > PA Classical philology |
| Divisions: | Theses and Dissertations > Masters Dissertations |
| Depositing User: | Users 10 not found. |
| Date Deposited: | 04 Feb 2020 09:35 |
| Last Modified: | 09 Dec 2022 10:21 |
| URI: | https://repository.uwtsd.ac.uk/id/eprint/1186 |
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