| Modern rhetorical scholarship has frequently downplayed the importance of delivery to the origins of rhetoric in ancient Greece and to its subsequent role in the arts of persuasion ever since. While Aristotelian rhetoric has maintained its relevance, delivery is rarely discussed. When it is introduced as a canon of rhetoric, delivery typically receives only very brief treatment, usually in terms of electronic media. In this way, persuasive artistry is restricted to a narrow conception of speech, in which only written words and mental theory are considered relevant.; An examination of ancient Greek practices of persuasion suggests that early rhetoric relied much more heavily on delivery or hupokrisis than is typically recognized by traditional historical scholarship. These practices required an implicit rhetorical theory based on a culturally informed body habitus which is rarely theorized or explicitly articulated. Delivery is further neglected because of the paradoxical necessity in ancient Greek practice to conceal performative artistry. To recover delivery, one must first understand its connection to other patterns of cultural practice, fields for individual action, and genres of performance. By looking at the semantic field established by terms like sophos, metis, strophe, and mimesis, the importance of delivery as a practice, a type of action, and the defining feature of performance stands out. Delivery not only stylized individual speeches, but constituted the means through which orators presented their public selves, gaining personal honor and political influence. In ancient Greece, selfhood and the characteristics of selfhood that we consider to be innate and biological were understood to be changeable and constantly at risk of being lost. Thus, they had to be constantly performed, and performed well, without appearing to have been "composed" or feigned through artistry. The case of Demosthenes and his opponents illustrate the degree to which rhetorical artistry and political influence depended upon carefully constructed patterns of deportment, gesture, dress, and voice, while at the same time demonstrating why and how the arts of self-presentation were disavowed and scorned as unmasculine and soft. Rhetorical delivery was central to the ancient Greek art of self-fashioning and to all persuasive artistry. |
