Allegory, Allegoreza, and Ancient Oratory

Abstract

The article focuses on the problem of understanding allegory in antiquity. The author, on the one hand, gives and analyzes various examples of the use of this figure in ancient oratory, on the other, examines certain aspects of the rhetorical theory concerning allegory and its place in the system of other stylistic figures. The article pays particular attention to the epidectic kind of eloquence and related genres — their genesis and formation under the influence of poetic patterns, as well as the poetics of epidectic speeches, largely focused on Ancient Greek lyric and dramatic poetry. Among the various cases of the use of allegory by antique orators, the article draws on extensive material from the speeches of Dion Chrysostom and Aelius Aristides, the major representatives of the so-called “Second Sophistic” — the main trend in the history of the late Greek eloquence, which has not been hitherto sufficiently studied in contemporary Russian classical philology.

Keywords

• allegory
• allegoreza
• ancient rhetoric
• ancient Greek oratory
• Second Sophistic
• Aelius Aristides
• Dion Chrysostom