Isocrates’ Encomium of Helen: Argumentation in Many Layers

Abstract

Around 390 BC, Isocrates wrote a text dedicated to the mythical Helen, Encomium of Helen. According to the rhetorician, his objective was to praise that character, who was recognized in two of Homer’s main works, the Iliad and the Odyssey. Although the isocratic text has already been thoroughly studied, we believe that Discourse Analysis will provide a more in-depth view of the text and its argumentative strategies. Thus, our objective is to analyze how the argumentative construction of the Encomium of Helen took place. From the analysis, it was possible to notice that discourses have different layers, that Isocrates uses Helen’s story as a foundation for his argumentation and that the rhetorician reproduces imaginaries of femininity and masculinity, although this was not an explicit objective.