Argumentative Oath in Demosthenes
Greeks were an independent nation in the beginning
of their history. Unacquainted with coercion, they lived under a democratic
system till the reign of King Philip, the father of Alexander the Great. Philip
established his personal rule. He had to face the pro-democratic powers which
offered him very fierce opposition. Many bloody battles between both the
parties ensued. The greatest Greek orator Demosthenes headed the opposition.
When the democratic powers were defeated by King Philip, Demosthenes made a historical
speech to the Athenians in order to dress their feelings and to praise their
bravery and love for freedom. In this speech, he defended his views and negated
those of his opponent Æschines, who sided with the king. We reproduce relevant
parts of his speech in the following:
No, my countrymen, it
cannot be that you have acted wrong in encountering danger bravely for the
liberty and the safety of all Greece. Your forefathers had already left a model
for you to emulate. They were certainly not on the wrong; those of your forefathers
who fought at Marathon, those who offered their lives at
The public did not welcome their victory and did not
show respect to it. Rather they honored their bravery, courage and love for
liberty. Same is your case. If you have not carried the day this time do not
fret over it. It is glorious enough that you risked your lives for the sake of
liberty and freedom of the country.
Let us ponder over the oaths of Demosthenes. He
depicts their forefathers and their courage and valiance for his audience in
order to fill their hearts with pride and passion. He has successfully invoked
their valiant and brave deeds as evidence of the failed yet rightful and brave
cause of his audience. Such true depiction has only been made possible by
couching the words in the form of oaths that serve the purpose of emphasizing
the statement.
This form of oaths is known for its cogence. It has
been considered an excellent literary device by the literary experts of ancient
times as well as those of later periods. However, I believe that the later
Greek scholars could not appreciate the essence of these oaths. So did our
scholars. We see that hardly six hundred years after Demosthenes, Longinus, the
famous Athenian literary critic and teacher of rhetoric, discusses this type of
oaths in his book on rhetoric. Regarding the oaths taken by Demosthenes, he
holds that the beauty of these oaths is the abounding glorification of muqsam
bihī in them. The oath-taker has indeed put the ancients at the stead of
deities. He rejects the view that this type of the oaths is of the genre
applied by the poet Eupolis, who swore an oath by his crown.
Now, I present the oath taken by Eupolis, which is
yet another example from the Greek literature. You will learn that the view
rejected by Longinus is the only plausible one.
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