Lucas O’Brien

Jerilyn Sambrooke

Encomium of Helen

            In the Encomium of Helen, Gorgias is making a plea to aquit Helen of what are believed to be her wrongdoings. In passage 8, Gorgias makes a case for persuasive discourse being the real cause of any wrongdoings, not Helen, who is merely the victim of this persuasion.

            Gorgias begins the section by examining the nature of what was being deceived, that, “persuasive discourse deceived her soul.” He does not examine the possibility of it deceiving her mind, it is instead her soul that the discourse targets. There is something inherent in this type of persuasion that is deeper than that of just the mind. By questioning whether or not it was the soul, it refutes any possibility of Helen being able to be conscious of the efforts of persuasion, and makes it impossible for her to avoid such persuasion. The soul defies logic and conventional thinking, it transcends the conscious world and lies in a world of its own. If discourse were powerful enough to reach it, the owner of that soul would be powerless to its pressure. That is why Gorgias continues that sentence to say, “it is not on that account difficult to defend her and absolve her of responsibility.” Not only is the discourse powerful enough to make a case to defend her, Gorgias says that it should be easy to absolve her. With this line he turns Helen from the perpetrator into the victim. Being a victim implies that she was utterly powerless in the situation and it was by no action of her own what happened to her. One could go so far as to say that wrong was in fact done on her. Gorgias calls this power of discourse “a greate potentate,” meaning a great ruler or monarch. If a King gives a command, the subject does not only obey, but does not even think to question it. In this situation, the discourse was the ruler, and Helen was the subject that had no power to even consider doing otherwise.

            While discourse can persuade the soul and thus the owner of that soul to act, Gorgias states that its power goes beyond that of compulsion. He argues, “it can stop fear and assuage pain and produce joy.” The power to assuage pain is something typically associated with a drug, not something as simple as discourse. Convincing his audience that discourse has this much power is the crux of his entire appeal. If this is true and the discourse was so persuasive that Helen had not even the power to consider disobeying, it would be impossible to hold her accountable for her acts. With this once sentence, Gorgias takes a woman that is believed to be guilty of many acts of wrongdoing, and not only acquits her and absolves her of any responsibility, but also turns her into a victim, a victim of deception. Not simple deception of the mind, but a deception of the soul, one that is impossible to refute, and one that should bear all responsibility for her actions.