L’Encomio di Elena di Isocrate nella Retorica di Aristotele.

Abstract

The paper analyses the passages in the Rhetoric where Aristotles judges Isocrates’ Encomium of Helen. Aristotles observes the same problems that modern criticism indicates, that is, the function of the excursus and of the proem, above all in the connection they have with the discourse. However, his conclusion is positive: he sees in Isocrates’ result a paradigm for the technical elaboration of the discourse. We recognise in the passages of Aristotles a hint of the didactical perspective that is in our opinion central in Isocrates’ Encomium of Helen, a text born in the school as a model for the pupils to follow.