The Shadow of Helen: The Status of the Visual Image in Gorgias’s Encomium to Helen

Diana Shaffer

doi:10.1353/rht.1998.0012

Rhetorica Jun 1998

The Shadow of Helen: The Status of the Visual Image in Gorgias’s Encomium to Helen

Diana Shaffer

Abstract

Gorgias's Encomium to Helen presumes a similarity between verbal and visual art. Where language, envisaged as masculine, attempts a logical persuasion, the visual image, seen as feminine and disruptive, overwhelms the beholder and leads the mind astray. Gorgias's account of Helen takes as its starting point an interpretation of her role which originates in book three of the Iliad, where her beauty is seen as causing the Trojan war and inspiring Homer's epic. The tragic poets identify her with destruction. Gorgias proves her innocence, but only by transforming her from a voluntary subject to a passive object. Because Helen was overcome by eros caused by visual stimuli she cannot be held responsible for the consequences of her actions. In this assertion Gorgias has used verbal logic to delimit and overcome the emotional force of previous images of Helen.

Journal: Rhetorica
Published: 1998-06-01
DOI: 10.1353/rht.1998.0012
CompPile: Search in CompPile ↗
Open Access: Closed
Topics: classical rhetoric argument
Export: BibTeX RIS

Citation Context

Cited by in this index (0)

No articles in this index cite this work.

Cites in this index (0)

No references match articles in this index.

CrossRef global citation count: 1 View in citation network → Build reading path →

The Shadow of Helen: The Status of the Visual Image in Gorgias’s Encomium to Helen

Abstract

Citation Context

Cited by in this index (0)

Cites in this index (0)

Related Articles