The ordo of rhetoric and the rhetoric of order

TY - CHAP

T1 - The ordo of rhetoric and the rhetoric of order

AU - Squire, Michael

PY - 2014/1/1

Y1 - 2014/1/1

N2 - This chapter takes its rhetorical cue from an epigram inscribed in prominent Greek letters on a small tablet housed in Rome’s Musei Capitolini (Figure 11.1). The marble relief is one of twenty-two objects that have come to be termed Tabulae Iliacae (‘Iliac tablets’), dating from the late first century bc or early first century ad, and discovered (where provenances are known) in or around Rome. Like the majority of other examples, this particular tablet – the so-called Tabula Capitolina – concerns itself with images of epic poetry, visualizing not only the Iliad (in the lateral friezes to the side), but also the Ilioupersis, Aethiopis and Little Iliad (at the original centre and lower central bands); two stelai, framing the central scene of the sack of Troy, once added a verbal summary in miniature text (Figures 11.2–11.3). If the object brings together words and images, its epigram throws in a rhetorical invocation of its own: [τέχνην τὴν Θεοδ]ώρηον μάθε τάξιν Ὁμήρου ὄφρα δαεὶς πάσης μέτρον ἔχῃς σοφίας. Understand [the technē of Theod]orus so that, knowing the order of Homer, you may have the measure of all wisdom. Following the conceits of numerous Hellenistic epigrams on artworks, these images (are said to) talk back to the reader. Where Simonides famously declared that painting was ‘silent poetry’ and poetry ‘speaking painting’, the inscription bestows our tablet with a literal voice. As a result, the object itself instructs audiences as to how to proceed; indeed, it even addresses the viewing/reading subject directly, speaking in both the second-person subjunctive (ἔχῃς, ‘you may have’) and imperative forms (μάθε, ‘understand!’).

AB - This chapter takes its rhetorical cue from an epigram inscribed in prominent Greek letters on a small tablet housed in Rome’s Musei Capitolini (Figure 11.1). The marble relief is one of twenty-two objects that have come to be termed Tabulae Iliacae (‘Iliac tablets’), dating from the late first century bc or early first century ad, and discovered (where provenances are known) in or around Rome. Like the majority of other examples, this particular tablet – the so-called Tabula Capitolina – concerns itself with images of epic poetry, visualizing not only the Iliad (in the lateral friezes to the side), but also the Ilioupersis, Aethiopis and Little Iliad (at the original centre and lower central bands); two stelai, framing the central scene of the sack of Troy, once added a verbal summary in miniature text (Figures 11.2–11.3). If the object brings together words and images, its epigram throws in a rhetorical invocation of its own: [τέχνην τὴν Θεοδ]ώρηον μάθε τάξιν Ὁμήρου ὄφρα δαεὶς πάσης μέτρον ἔχῃς σοφίας. Understand [the technē of Theod]orus so that, knowing the order of Homer, you may have the measure of all wisdom. Following the conceits of numerous Hellenistic epigrams on artworks, these images (are said to) talk back to the reader. Where Simonides famously declared that painting was ‘silent poetry’ and poetry ‘speaking painting’, the inscription bestows our tablet with a literal voice. As a result, the object itself instructs audiences as to how to proceed; indeed, it even addresses the viewing/reading subject directly, speaking in both the second-person subjunctive (ἔχῃς, ‘you may have’) and imperative forms (μάθε, ‘understand!’).

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84942855418&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1017/CBO9780511732317.017

DO - 10.1017/CBO9780511732317.017

M3 - Chapter

AN - SCOPUS:84942855418

SN - 9781107000711

SP - 353

EP - 417

BT - Art and Rhetoric in Roman Culture

A2 - Elsner, Jas'

A2 - Meyer, Michel

PB - Cambridge University Press

CY - Cambridge

ER -