Race to Glory Midterm Terms

Agōn: contest (formal or general), any situation involving competitiveness or rivalry.

A Fortiori Arguments: argument from the stronger reason

Cultural Capital: bankable prestige that comes from, among other things, an advanced education and what might be termed paideia.

Enargeia: among the meanings of enargeia is the one that will concern us, namely, rhetorical "vividness," that is, vivid description, vivid narrative. “Makes the audience feel they’re witnessing the truth”

Enthymeme: Rhetorical syllogism. Reasoning where the audience has to connect the dots. Enthymemes are plausible rather than true: they appeal to ways that an audience tends or likes to understand the world.

Epichireme: “taking in hand”, you’re “undertaking” to convey what it is that makes what you say convincing.

Ēthopoiia: “characterization”, “the representation of the character (êthos) of an orator or another person. That can involve the effort to convey a positive or negative view of a person’s character

Euergetism: A modern word coined from ancient Greek euergetēs, "benefactor." Related to that word is euergesia, "philanthropy." Euergetism was the practice of performing philanthropic works (i.e., commissioning and funding them)

Grammatikos: Or in Latin, grammaticus, a teacher of language arts (advanced lessons in literary Greek, study of classic literature, elementary rhetorical training) to upper-class, middle-school-age boys.

Gumansion: (gymnasion), in Latin, gymnasium. The word derives from gumnos, "nude/naked." It was where Greek men and boys exercised in the nude. Greco-Roman gymnasia were still a locus of physical training, but also offered a place for intellectual training. In addition to bathing facilities, such establishments might boast of a roofed, indoor track (a xustos) and an auditorium.

Liturgies: ad hoc financial responsibilities assigned to wealthy citizens. If a city has decreed that so-and-so must pay for such-and-such, that's a liturgy. Under the classical Athenian democracy, they helped pay for warships and festivals; later, in the Roman East, they likewise financed festivals, but also gymnasium expenses (as in the van Nijf chapter) and other things.

Khrōma: Rhetorical "coloring" (Latin color). "Χρῶμα ("color") is the slant or spin, as we say today, that an orator gives to his case to make it favorable to his side"

Meletē: "care", "attention", "practice." As a term for a rhetorical genre, it means "sophistic declamation," "one of the most prestigious cultural activities in the Greek world" during the period of the second sophistic, 1st-3rd cents. CE. This was rhetoric for its own sake.

Muthos: “fable”, “short story devised to convey some useful lesson”.  Fables are always fictional and often involve animals. Key to fables are the lessons they teach, what we call the "moral," what ancient Greek writers call the epimuthion or epilogos, the "conclusion."

Paideia: education. Cultural capital from extensive knowledge of the Greek language, literature, culture, and rhetoric. (breeding as well)

Pathos: emotion or passion.

Periodos: (periodonikēs) "way round.”  It's the four most important ancient Greek athletic festivals: the Olympic, Pythian, Isthmian, and Nemean Games. To win all four of those original four, or at least four of the expanded number, earned one the title periodonikēs.

Phthonos: "Envy," a prime concern of Greeks during our period, represented a shameful emotion (an antisocial emotion — you didn't want to be seen as envying someone/something) and posed a threat.

Progumnasma: "Preliminary rhetorical exercise. (pro-"preliminary" + gumnasma-"exercise," as in "gymnasium.") These were speeches, in Greek, that students would write and deliver orally; they formed a key part of education in Greek-speaking lands within the Roman empire.

Prospōpopoiia: "Personification," attributing human traits, especially speech, to animals / things not human. That can include abstractions, as in the case of the "Statuary" (i.e., the art of sculpture) and "Culture" (i.e., paideia), speakers in Lucian's Vision.

Rhētōr: The word rhētōr simply means "speaker" in ancient Greek, but during the Imperial period, it often referred to a teacher of rhetoric. The term "sophist" (sophistēs) could be interchangeable with rhētōr, but tended to refer to something more grand.

Rhetoric:(rhētorikē) “the art (or skill) of speaking”. The art of persuasion with an emphasis on it as a developed skill.

Rhetorical Question: The asking of a question as if the answer were obvious

Socialtity: The state or quality of being sociable; (the enjoyment of) friendly social interaction; sociability.

Sophia: wisdom, craft, skill, or cleverness. “Sophists” were those possessing sophia and those who teach sophia.

Sophist: (sophistēs) “master of one’s craft, adept, expert”, “wise, prudent or statesmanlike”. In ancient Greece, prior to the later 400s BCE, sophistēs was a "wise man," one who stood out for sophia, wisdom or skill. By about 430, sophistēs had come to refer to a professional (i.e., paid) teacher of subjects of interest to young men intending to enter public life. The term could carry negative connotations; under Athenian democracy, it came to suggest a teacher of the art of verbal deception.*

Xusto: Also spelled xystos (xystus), it was a covered running track and could form part of a gumnasion. But the word could also indicate an athletic association, or sunodos.

Zēlos: "Emulousness," i.e., the spirit not of envying another's success, but of being inspired by it to still greater achievement. Another term for basically the same idea was mimēsis, "imitation." To envy was shameful and antisocial. To be emulous was admired.

Zero-sum game: The idea of the zero-sum game comes from economics and game theory; it proposes that, in certain games and in certain game-like situations, what losers lose (represented by a negative number) corresponds to what winners win (represented by a positive number).