Classical, with a later addition. Aristotle observed that every speech has three elements: a speaker, a subject and an audience, and that the audience determines the speech's purpose. Audiences either judge or watch. Those who judge decide either about the future or the past. From this he derived three kinds of rhetoric, a framework teachers used for the next two thousand years.
Deliberative speech
Deliberative rhetoric, in Greek symbouleutikon, “advisory,” is the speech of the Assembly and council. It concerns the future: what should we do? Its aim is to show that a course of action is advantageous or harmful. The speaker either urges or dissuades. Aristotle listed the main subjects of deliberation: finances, war and peace, defense of the country, imports and exports, and legislation. A good deliberative speaker, he advised, must know the facts, such as the size of the city's revenues or the strength of its army and its enemies.
Forensic speech
Forensic or judicial rhetoric, in Greek dikanikon, is the speech of the law courts. It concerns the past: what was done? Its aim is to show that an act was just or unjust. The speaker either accuses or defends. Aristotle discussed the motives that lead people to commit wrongs, the states of mind of wrongdoers, and the kinds of people who are likely to be wronged, all of which helped a speaker build arguments from probability.
Epideictic speech
Epideictic rhetoric, “display” or ceremonial speech, is addressed to an audience of spectators rather than judges, at festivals, funerals and celebrations. It concerns the present, though it often recalls the past and anticipates the future. Its aim is to praise or blame, showing that someone or something is honorable or shameful. Aristotle advised the epideictic speaker to amplify, magnifying the subject's virtues by comparison and by showing that the deeds were done first, alone or with difficulty.
The funeral oration
The most famous epideictic genre in Athens was the funeral oration for citizens killed in war, delivered each year by a speaker chosen by the city. The historian Thucydides records the oration given by Pericles in 431 BCE, after the first year of the Peloponnesian War. Pericles praised not only the dead but the city they died for: its democracy, its openness to strangers, its freedom in private life and its respect for law. He called Athens an education to all of Greece. Thucydides admitted that he could not remember speeches word for word and wrote what each speaker seemed likely to have said, keeping as close as possible to the general sense, so the speech we read is partly his composition.
The audience's role
Aristotle's scheme is built on the audience. In deliberative and forensic speech, the audience must make a decision; in epideictic, it judges the speaker's skill and shares in the values being praised. Epideictic speech mattered more than its name suggests: by praising virtues and blaming vices, it reinforced the community's shared values, which deliberative and forensic speakers would later appeal to. Isocrates especially valued epideictic writing as a way to shape public opinion.
Stasis: finding the issue
Later. In the second century BCE, the Greek teacher Hermagoras of Temnos developed a method for forensic cases, known as stasis theory, from a word meaning “standing” or the point where the two sides take their stand. Before arguing, a speaker identifies what is really in dispute. The main types are:
- Conjecture: did it happen? “I never took the money.”
- Definition: what was it? “I took the money, but it was a loan, not theft.”
- Quality: was it justified? “I took it, it was theft, but I did it to save a life.”
- Objection: is this the right court or procedure? “This case should not be heard here.”
Hermagoras's handbook is lost, but Roman writers such as Cicero and Quintilian preserved his system, and it became a standard part of rhetorical education.
Worked example: one subject, three speeches
Take a single subject, the city's new harbor wall, and compose a short opening for each kind of speech.
- Deliberative (future, advantage): “Citizens, if we build this wall, our ships will winter safely and our trade will double. If we do not, the next storm may sink the fleet we have spent our fortune on.”
- Forensic (past, justice): “Jurors, the money given to Philon to build the wall was spent, yet the wall stands half built. Where did the silver go? I will show you it went into his own house.”
- Epideictic (present, honor): “Today we honor the builders of this wall, who labored through winter rains so that our sons and daughters might sail without fear. Their hands have made the sea itself a friend to our city.”
Notice how the same subject changes completely depending on the audience and its task. Before writing any speech, a Greek student first asked: who is listening, and what must they decide? It remains the best first question for any speaker.