The Art of Rhetoric in the Metamorphoses

The Art of Rhetoric in the Metamorphoses Among the numerous passages covered in The Metamorphoses of Ovid, there are many stories regarding the origins of the Earth, the activities of the Roman gods, and some of Rome’s significant rulers and founders. Within each of these stories, Ovid injects an overall idea that can be taken away from the text. Many of these overall ideas are themes and lessons, but also there are arts that are illustrated to the reader such as poetry, singing, or weaving. One idea in particular that Ovid portrays is the art of Rhetoric in Greco-Roman culture.Rhetoric was used in Greco-Roman culture often as a means of putting together words in a certain order to persuade or inform your audience of a specific idea. The two stories regarding the discussion between Ajax and Ulysses over Achilles armor exemplifies the idea of rhetoric. Ovid uses the episodes of Ajax and Ulysses in book thirteen f the Metamorphoses to illustrate to the readers the art of rhetori c. Ovid draws upon previous texts covered in class such as Homer’s Odyssey and Virgil’s Aeneid to form some of his stories in the Metamorphoses. However, Ovid’s style of writing is much different than that of Homer and Virgil.Homer and Virgil both write about post Trojan War events, but from two different perspectives, the Greeks and the Trojans respectively. Despite their difference in perspective, their style is the same in that they both focus on the glorification of war. They both portray violent events vividly and give praise to war heroes. Ovid, on the other hand, talks about certain parts in the Odyssey and the Aeneid that Homer and Virgil did not discuss such as the rescue of Achaemenides, the crewman Ulysses left behind on the island of Polyphemus, in book fourteen.Ovid seems to dismiss the glorification of war and briefly pass over violent scenes or portray them in a different, more comical, manner. Rather Ovid focuses on the arts of Greco-Roman cultur e. Ovid focuses on stories of Mythology concerning poetry, singing, crafting, and even the art of rhetoric. Rhetoric is â€Å"the study and practice of effective communication,† (Nordquist). There are three types of rhetoric employed: epideictic, judicial, and deliberative. These three branches of rhetoric can be used in various ways to communicate to your audience.Epideictic rhetoric is the commemoration or blame of an individual. Epideictic rhetoric is often used in â€Å"funeral orations, obituaries, graduation and retirement speeches, letters of recommendation, and nominating speeches at political conventions,† (Nordquist). Judicial rhetoric is â€Å"primarily employed by lawyers in trials decided by a judge or jury,† (Nordquist). Deliberative rhetoric is the use of communication to persuade or dissuade an individual or audience of a statement or action.Ovid does not only use the three branches of rhetoric however, he also shows the use of a technique called amplification and minimization through Ajax and Ulysses which is essentially amplifying good qualities and minimizing bad qualities. The technique of amplification and minimization goes hand in hand with deliberative and epideictic rhetoric. Ovid employs all three branches of rhetoric in his stories of Ajax and Ulysses to demonstrate their arguments and to illustrate the art of rhetoric itself. The bulk of Ovid’s illustration of rhetoric is contained within the stories of Ajax and Ulysses in book thirteen.After the Trojan War is over, the Greeks set aside Achilles’ armor and decide, through a debate, who the receiver of the armor will be. The two in debate over the armor are Ajax and Ulysses. Both employ deliberative rhetoric as their means of persuading the audience to decide who will keep the armor, but they also use the other branches as well to strengthen their argument. The discussion between the two as a whole is a deliberative and judicial rhetoric battle, but both make use of epideictic rhetoric to strengthen their positions.Ajax is the first to present his argument. Immediately Ajax makes use of epideictic rhetoric by slandering Ulysses’ actions, â€Å"he was one who did not hesitate to beat retreat when he was forced to face the torches Hector threw, while I withstood those deadly flames: the fleet was only rescued because of me,† (Ovid 427). Ajax gives evidence that Ulysses was a coward by exposing his retreat in the face of Hector. He also uses amplification and minimization to show how detrimental it was that Ulysses fled, and how great it was that Ajax held his position.Ajax then uses another epideictic statement when he brings in his heritage: And even if you were to doubt my courage, it’s I who claim the nobler lineage. I am the son of Telamon, the friend who helped the sturdy Hercules destroy the walls of Troy and, then, in Jason’s ship, sailed off and reached the distant coast of Colchis. And Telamon was born of Aeacus, who is a judge whitin the silent world—precisely in the place where Sisyphus, the son of Aeolus, must struggle with the weight of his great stone; and Aeacus was born of Jove—as Jove himself admits. (Ovid 427-428) Once again Ajax draws upon a feature that will increase his deservingness.Throughout the rest of his presentation, Ajax continually employs epideictic rhetoric to commemorate his actions and defame those of Ulysses. The use of only one dimension of the three branches of rhetoric by Ajax shows that the body of his presentation is insulting Ulysses. This weakens Ajax’s argument, â€Å"Many amateur rhetors think of debate as an ‘us-versus-them’ sort of affair, and that the readers who disagree are the enemy whose inferior arguments must be ground into the dirt. Accordingly, they mistakenly believe that ridiculing or attacking these mistaken beliefs is the most effective way to ‘win’ the argument,† (Whe eler).The constant insults diminish in value in their numerous quantities. Ulysses is fortunate to present after Ajax. Ajax is at a disadvantage because of his eagerness to present first. This gives Ulysses a chance to gather his argument and also turn what Ajax says against him. Ulysses begins in a different manner. Ulysses sets the tone of somberness by recalling Achilles, â€Å"If things had gone as you and I had wished, o Greeks, we would hat ask who should succeed to this extraordinary weaponry; Achilles, you’d still have your arms, and we would still have you,† (Ovid 432).Ulysses uses epideictic rhetoric not to depreciate Ajax’s deeds, but to honor Achilles as one does at a funeral. Soon after Ulysses honors Achilles, he begins to strengthen his image through more epideictic rhetoric just as Ajax did. Ulysses draws upon his own lineage on page 433 claiming to be descendent of not only Jove but Mercury as well. He also minimizes Ajax’s lineage by cla iming that one of Ajax’s ancestors was an exiled criminal. Ulysses then moves on to say, â€Å"Just judge by deeds—and deeds alone . . . it’s only one’s worth that weighs,† (Ovid 433).Ulysses defeats Ajax’s argument about his kinship to Achilles, but then claims that the victor should be determined by his actions not his external goods. Aristotle, in Nicomachean Ethics, talks about the importance of external goods, but he says that the goods of the mind (deeds and actions) are more important. So Ulysses goes on to give a myriad of good deeds he has performed such as convincing Achilles to return to battle, going as an ambassador into Troy to try to negotiate the return of Helen, the plan for the Trojan horse, and inciting the warriors and Ajax with courage when they ere on the brink of retreat.As an entirety, Ajax is only able to spill insults and talk down about Ulysses, but Ulysses is able to combat all of Ajax’s insults and turn th em against him. Also going second plays into Ulysses’ favor because Ajax has no opportunity for rebuttal whereas Ulysses does. Therefore Ulysses is declared the victor of the argument and wins on the basis of his rhetorical skills. Ovid pays more respect to the battle between two rhetors than he does to two warriors clearly through the great detail he goes into in the discussion between Ulysses and Ajax.Instead of depicting great violent battle scenes, he depicts a great rhetoric argument between two individuals. Ovid briefly touches on the Trojan War itself, but takes great measure in illustrating the use of rhetoric in the discussion after the War.Bibliography Ovid, Metamorphoses Nordquist, Richard. About. com, â€Å"Rhetoric. † Accessed November 28, 2011. http://grammar. about. com/od/rs/g/rhetoricterm. htm. Wheeler, Dr. L. Kip. â€Å"Rhetoric. † Last modified September 26,2011. Accessed November 28, 2011. http://web. cn. edu/kwheeler/resource_rhet. html.

Risk and Quality Management Assessment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Risk and Quality Management Assessment - Essay Example Hospitals usually contain specialized personnel and equipment that need a lot of training and experience. Apart from their treatment services, they also provide rooms and beds for patients and always have emergency and trauma sections. Discussion Quality management is basically about the patients’ confidence whereas risk management is about patients’ needs and priorities, and protection of hazards. Quality management puts more focus on the effectiveness of results and efficiency in utilizing the resources whereas risk management is more focused on the potential effectiveness of results and potential efficiency to utilize resources. Patients’ safety is generally very important to both the patients and the authorities (Joshi, 2009). This is why governments and medical practitioners including other professionals have launched a lot of researches to assess the severity, occurrence and reasons behind many adverse events. Ways to enhance safety and reduce risks in heal th organizations through quality and risk management range from good coordination, human resources, good communication, updated information technology, standardization and improvements of the health organization. ... These include wound infections, wrong site surgeries and medication errors. There is therefore a relatively high risk of unsafe situations in hospitals and thus calls for measures to prevent them through quality and risk management (Kavaler, 2012). Hospitals should have flexible, participative and customer focused administrations. They should also possess values that are associated with participation, affiliation and teamwork in each and every improvement to make the quality if the services given better. There should also be a developmental culture based on risk-taking innovations that are supposed to improve the overall services of the hospital. Therefore the idea is to improve the institution while keeping the patients and the staff out of hazards that may be brought about by errors and other causes in the hospital. The key concept of quality management in the hospital is the development of the systems to prevent hazards, and of risk management is the process of minimizing risk by developing the systems to identify and analyze potential hazards (Lighter and Fair, 2004). Risk management, being an on going activity, should not only be about identifying the risks upfront and then forging ahead regardless. It plays a critical role in identifying, managing and containing risks related to patients’ safety. In a hospital environment, communication and good governance together with a systematic and an integrative approach will make risk management easy and adjustable according to the size of the organization. The steps followed in risk management start with a risk strategy which is basically the establishment of the internal and external risk management context and defining its structure. The second step is risk identification

Ethical Article Analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Ethical Article Analysis - Essay Example The banks will have expectations that loans are returned in full without default. The owners of the firm will expect that some black money is not being invested in their firm; they expect of the employees that their output or productivity matches their emoluments. They may have concerns as to there should not be wastage of resources and maximum production is being ensured at minimum cost. The consumers expect that they are charged reasonable prices for goods and services and firms are not seeking exorbitant profits. Moreover, consumers’ interests are not infringed by firms’ cartels or by price discrimination. General public will expect from firms that their operations are not detrimental for their health or not generating environmental pollution. The environmentalists concerns are that firms operations are not leading to ozone-layer depletion or loss of biodiversity. Government expectations are that corporate laws are not violated and firms pay taxes without evasion. Th e employees concerns are that they are paid fully for the services they render and there is no discrimination in salaries and promotions on the basis of sex differences or on any other ground. When so many different things from different quarters enter into the scene the financial decision will naturally be affected. In the business organization referred to in the article under consideration ethical concerns are categorized on the basis of the various publics with which the financial manager has to deal; these publics include the board of directors, the medical staff, vendors, regulatory agencies, employees, and consumers. A board of directors’ member interests may be in conflict with that of the organization due to his multiple roles; the board member may also represent an organization that is in competition with the institution for certain goods or services. Ethical concerns may also come up as a result

Media and Reality Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Media and Reality - Research Paper Example According to Friedman (2002), we live in a technological phase since persons spend several hours on electronic screens conversing or inquiring on diverse topics. Evidently, television programs; for example, â€Å"All in the Family† can alter people’s perceptions of individuals from other races (Dill, 2009). Exposure to this episode can influence the person to generate an optimistic attitude to other races and compel them to initiate interactive relationships. Such a program can instigate a substantial urge to destroy racial bigotry; thus, becoming a force of societal changes (Dill, 2009). However, this program can differ from the realistic situations existent in the country. Racism can be extensive in numerous areas; however, the program acts on our perception since it shuns the reality. Indeed, reality is our discernment of the truth despite the obvious anomalies in the details that can be existent in the background. Television commercials are created in entertaining f orms to lure the audience. They usually encompass an appealing story displayed repeatedly in attractive designs hoping it will induce the audience to ponder on the commercial message. Perception and Reality Friedman (2002) affirms individuals are currently living in two dissimilar worlds that have contrasting realities. One entails the world that the media channels portray and a world that one experiences by engaging in real processes. There are instances where the conceptualization of these diverse worlds significantly varies; thus, shocking the people since it is differs from the expectations (Dill, 2009). As such, the Media controls how we react to gender roles, sexuality, politics and institutional matters (Friedman, 2002). For example, the American Media relays numerous reports on the security threat of other nations to its citizens. Thus, the media portrays violent content leading to a feeling of paranoia amidst the citizens. Consequently, the sensation of exterior threats and violence propagated by the media was instrumental in propelling the US invasion witnessed in diverse countries; for example, Iraq and Afghanistan. Moreover, the obsession of the media with potential repercus sions of external threats continues to influence airlines, immigration authorities and corporations, which have boosted their security protocols. Interestingly, the repetitive conveyance of the Muslim countries as threats continues to shape the perception of the US populace towards Muslims (Dill, 2009). As such, there were incidences of racial attacks towards American Muslims who fail to engage in the acts of distant relatives. Indeed, this is one of the adverse implications of media on societal perceptions. According to Dill (2009), such influential power of the media is escalating to controversial levels since it is instigating widespread changes in the mannerisms and circumstantial implications on individual lives. Technological advancements are consistently becoming a mechanism of

Error logging sentence corrections Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Error logging sentence corrections - Essay Example Woman defends the product of her tenderness and devotion for her children and others, and the sacrifices of women in life’s events, in which we all participate. The participation of women in performing their role as mothers in society always appears predominantly as related to their children. Working tirelessly for them to have the best and she is always concerned about what happens to them. The primary factor in creating a family bond is the mother, because she contributes to the formation of her child’s emotional and social development. Her children are gaining most of the behavioral patterns from their mother. My days go by more quickly with the help of my family and with my role of being a sty-at-home mother. These responsibilities are things that I adore, but also a demanding job. As a mother, I must provide care for my children, take responsibility for my family and love them all at the same time. I put my family together through affection, love patience, gentle l istening, consoling and encouragement. I also have to try to extinguish interpersonal conflicts in the family by watching over each member with true tenderness. The home should be well cared for and the education of children is essential for the proper functioning of the family and society. This is all a part of a mother‘s devotion to her children.

Finance Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 2

Finance - Assignment Example To create a child day care center the YMCA must identify the space for the project. Then it must invest in infrastructure improvements as well as equipment and accessories for the day care center. The required human resource and its monthly cost must be determined. The second cash flow aspect of the project would be once the center is built. The YMCA must pay for maintenance expenses, payroll, utilities, and other expenses associated with the day care center. The demand for the services might exceed the supply capacity of the center. The company should establish a fee to the mothers or fathers of children that are attended in the day care center in order to cover operating expenses. The weekly fee for services in the child day care of the YMCA should be below market value for similar services in the community. Despite the YMCA’s best intentions there is no way that the YMCA can offer the child day care services for free. If it was free the center would receive an incredible amount of applications since everyone desires free child day care

Analysis of the Hospitality and Tourism Provision in Portsmouth Essay

Analysis of the Hospitality and Tourism Provision in Portsmouth - Essay Example the funding provided to the council was utilised for improving the notorious accident prone areas and a number of road junctions (The Berkeley Group, 2012). Approximately 31 cities and night time economy centres of the UK have been granted the Purple Flag status. These include, Bournemouth, Bristol, Leicester Square, and Winchester. Upon adopting this methodology for improving evening and night time offer, Gunwharf Quays can acquire the Purple Flag accreditation. In addition, it will be able to provide better and varied evening and night time fare for those who reside, work, study or visit Portsmouth (Shaping the Future of Portsmouth, 2013). As such, the Purple Flag accreditation informs visitors that there is vibrant, easy and safe access to evening entertainment. Moreover, it would provide businesses with a lucrative area to invest in. This accreditation emerged from the research project conducted by the Civic Trust. This project discerned that centres are used to a greater extent at night, only when they are accessible, safe and provide variety (Shaping the Future of Portsmouth, 2013). Moreover, the presence of a diverse clientele enhances perceptions. In this context, the Portsmouth Community Safety Survey 2012 demonstrated the presence of a substantial difference betwixt the perception of crime and anti-social behaviour, in comparison to the actual experience of such crime. Furthermore, the presence of a vast array of attractions and consumers results in long term economic viability and improved tourism (Shaping the Future of Portsmouth, 2013). A pragmatic and all inclusive audit of the evening and late night economy is provided by the Purple Flag accreditation process of the Association of Town Centre Managers. The evaluation is on the basis of certain specific criteria. Some of these are appeal or the wide variety of venues providing several different types of activity. Movement or the presence of safe, well managed and affordable public transport. Such