The term I decided to excavate is logographers, ancient
“Logographers wrote prose speeches for the courts, mythographies, geographies, reports on non-Greek customs, local stories, including founding legends, and chronological works like kings' lists.”
The type of logographer that I am most interested in is that of the professional speech writer. My choice is based on the generally negative attitude that the classical rhetoricians’ have held regarding the logographers. The various classical rhetoricians at one point or another seem to attack the practice of logography. Isocrates in Antidosis illustrates this when he makes a comparison between philosophy and that of the logographers, “those who appear to be skilled in judicial speech are tolerated on the day they happen to be pleading, whereas the others are well regarded and highly respected in all public gatherings at all times. In addition, if the if the former are seen twice or three times in the law courts, they are hated or criticized, whereas the latter are more admired the more often they appear and the more people hear them.” Here we see, through Isocrates, that the logographers are viewed in a very negative light.
I believe that the classical rhetoricians’ negative view towards the logographers stems from the negative perception of speaking the logographers create. The logographers were who the ancient Greeks would turn to in order to help win their cases. They were turned to because they had the necessary knowledge and skills to secure victory due in part to literacy. “If an ordinary person had to consult a logographos in the first place, he would most probably have been unacquainted with the rhetorical handbook and various rhetorical techniques.” Perhaps the logographers were a face to rhetoric that the classical rhetoricians disagreed with.
Our field no longer seems to attack a specific career like the logographers but has become more of one of respectful criticism. A contemporary logographer would perhaps be considered a speech writer. There seems to be a general acceptance of all communication behavior and styles now with our field only seeking to improve and evaluate rather than negative view other communication attempts.
Isocrates I. David C. Mirhady & Yun Lee Too, Trans.
About.com
http://ancienthistory.about.com/od/geography/g/012508logograph.htm
Once More, the Client/Logographos Relationship
I.
The Classical Quarterly, New Series, Vol. 43, No. 1. (1993), pp. 67-72.
Stable URL: http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0009-8388%281993%292%3A43%3A1%3C67%3AOMTCR%3E2.0.CO%3B2-H
2 comments:
Michael, (or anyone else looking for a reply credit)
Interesting read. Now I want to know the difference between the Greek logographer and a modern day defense lawyer. After reading your post, they seem similar to me, and even today we still have a negative few of many defense lawyers. This relation came from your idea that “The logographers were who the ancient Greeks would turn to in order to help win their cases” and made even more sense when you said they were looked down on. Finally, (and I’m only trying to understand, not criticize 350 words is nearly impossible to explain everything) did the logographers actually give the speeches they wrote, or did the client deliver the speech that the logographer wrote? Example: today speech writers write for the President, but the President speaks. Is that how it was, or would the logographer actually speak like a defensive lawyer would today?
Michael,
You honestly think that our field is open to all communication styles and behaviors? I would contend that this field is just like everyone else that uses its publishing, graduating, speaking, etc. requirements as a way to steer logographers into a 'dignified' direction.
The reason we're trained to cite stuff, the reason we have to complete certain assignments and the reason we teach rhetorical sensitivity all point towards this function of changing the previous meaning of logographers. We don't want people coming from communication programs that are just good off the cuff public speakers; we want people who can research and put that research into a bulleted outline and use transition statements.
Whereas logographers and sophists use their natural ability to reason out an argument for argument's sake, now communication teaches us the Tulmin model and other theories of communication that ensure we have to ground what we say in something before us rather than going out on a limb and actually use the skills one has to perform.
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