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Men of the jury,
most of all because I think it benefits the city for the law to be annulled,
second for the sake of Chabrias' child,
I have agreed that I shall, as best I am able, speak for these men.
Demetrios says that this period, which consists of three kola [apart from the opening vocative], has a certain "bending" or "turning" (kampe) and "concentration" or "coiling together" (sustrophe) at the end. What gives it this quality? Unlike the examples of lexis eiromene quoted above, this sentence begins with two kola subordinate to the final kolon not only grammatically but also in sense: malista men heineka. . . ./eita kai. . .heineka. . . . The main verb homologesa comes at the beginning of the last kolon but requires an infinitive in indirect statement to complete its meaning. Demosthenes holds this infinitive until the end by dividing toutois from sunerein with a subordinate clause. The whole sentence is aimed at an end, which sunerein provides.
Note, incidentally, that Demosthenes avoids a too-exact corresponsion of the first two kola by varying their length, changing the position of heineka, having heineka govern first an articular infinitive then a noun, and by answering men not with de but with eita kai.
Demetrios' re-arrangement of this into a non-period is instructive.
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I shall speak for these men, citizens of Athens.
For Chabrias' son is a friend of mine,
and much more than him the city,
for which it is right for me to speak.
As Demetrios remarks, the period has disappeared. Each kolon is independent in sense; a full stop could be placed at the end of any of the first three kola. Nothing forces us to look ahead for a conclusion to come. (Indeed, Demosthenes' final word has become Demetrios' first.) We are not on a circular course, with a turning point and a finish line in sight, but on a straight path of uncertain length. Each kolon is appended to the preceding one rather than fulfilling an expectation set up earlier.
For excerpts from Demetrios' essay, click here.
A longer periodic sentence of Demosthenes is analyzed below.
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Here is a period from Isokrates' Panegyrikos (186), cited by Aristotle in the Rhetoric (1410a):
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Fame and memory and glory
how much ought one to think
those will either possess while alive
or leave behind when they die
who in deeds of this sort excel?
Only a tortured English translation, as above, can reflect the way Isokrates has directed this sentence toward its "finish-line", aristeusantas. Each element of the sentence requires something later to complete its meaning: first come three accusatives; then they are made part of a question governed by the verbs khre and nomizein, the first of which requires an accusative subject, the second an infinitive; then come two parallel accusatives and infinitives, but since the accusative words are participles we still don't know who the sentence is about; finally, the phrase tous. . .aristeusantas, with a prepositional phrase enclosed, tells us.
Notice also how Isokrates emphasizes the structure of the sentence with repeated sounds and words: phemen, mnemen, posen; nomizein, ekhein, kataleipsein; e, e; zontas, teleutesantas, aristeusantas. Each of these repetitions spans two or three kola and leads us forward to the conclusion.
A longer periodic sentence of Isokrates is analyzed below.
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houtos d' en kalos men, megas d' ou.This (river) was beautiful, but not large.
Then Thucydides' description of the Acheloos (2.102.2, Demetrios 45):
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For the river Acheloos,
flowing down from Mount Pindos through Dolopia and the Agraioi and Amphilochoi,
and through the Akarnanian plain,
skirting the city Stratos upland
and discharging into the sea by Oiniadai and creating a marsh around their city,
makes it impossible, because of the water, in winter to mount a campaign.
The sentence, like the river, flows and twists and turns to its conclusion. Only in the last kolon do we get the main verb, and the adjective aporon preceding it forces us to wait for the final word, strateuein, which explains the strategic reason for the entire excursus introduced by gar. An appropriately serpentine periodos!
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But if you think it necessary
the men whom those ones omitted to harm
yourselves to ruin,
none of the citizens will be left.
In the protasis of this conditional sentence Lysias gains extra force first by using ei plus the indicative rather than the more usual ean plus subjunctive (making the whole sentence in effect a future most vivid or minatory conditional sentence), then by bringing the relative clause forward to precede the infinitive apolesai on which it depends. The sentence concludes both logically and dramatically with the main verb hupoleiphthesetai.
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More periods of Lysias are analyzed below.
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Who came to so great a point of arrogance
that, thinking it was a small task to subjugate Greece
and wanting to leave a monument so great
that it is not a thing of human birth,
he did not earlier stop (5)
until he discovered and compelled
the thing which all men talk about:
how with his army
to sail through the mainland
and march through the sea, (10)
yoking the Hellespont
and digging through Athos.
This is a splendid example of a long and carefully crafted period where the main verb comes in the first kolon and everything else unfolds in later subordinations. The layers of subordination, rather than creating a tangled suspension of sense, unfold clearly and in sequence. Note how small the elements are which make up most of this sentence. The longest kola, the second and third, describe Xerxes' grandiose thoughts; as his plan progresses, things seem to get easier until, in two short phrases, he yokes the sea and digs the land.
And note the careful and varied connections: relative clauses, result clauses, a temporal clause, pairs of participles and a pair of infinitives set off by men and de. Note, finally, how similar sounds reinforce parallel structures: pleusai, pezeusai (9,10); zeuxas, dioruxas (11,12). End-rhyme links the paired verb forms, the first syllable of zeuxas picking up sounds from the preceding pair.
Another period of Isokrates is analyzed above.
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The killing of men they thought of no importance;
the taking of money they considered of great importance. (12.7)
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These men
many of the citizens to our enemies they banished;
many they wrongly killed and left unburied;
many with civic rights they disenfranchised;
of many the daughters about to be married they balked. (12.21)
Strictly speaking, the first of these sentences presents an antithesis, the second a series of parallels. In each, however, as commonly, the kola are closely parallel in form: in the first, each kolon consists of infinitive + direct object + phrase with peri + main verb; at the end the rhyme hegounto/epoiounto (homoioteleuton) reinforces the parallel and brings closure. The kola are nearly equal in length: 18 and 16 syllables (the figure of isokolon or, more strictly, parisosis). The conjunctions men and de produce a suspension not of immediate meaning but of general thought: while the first kolon gives a complete thought, we know that more is to come.
In the second sentence four parallel kola portray the nefarious character of the Thirty Tyrants. Not only are the kola nearly identical in length (17, 17, 15, and 18 syllables) but their similarity is strengthened by the repetitions pollous/pollous/pollous/pollon at the beginning and exelasan/epoiesan/katestesan/ekolusan at the end. The detail added by the fourth kolon--the confiscations of property even prevented some families from giving their daughters dowries--provides a vivid and dramatic climax and brings a sense of periodic closure.
For excerpts from Demetrios' essay, click here.
For a graphic of Lysias 12.99-100 laid out in kola and kommata, click here.
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Herodotou Halikarnasseos histories apodexis hede. . . .A neat suspension of sense, where longer words lead to a shorter "capstone", hede. Since this period is part of a longer sentence, it is worth quoting the whole thing:Of Herodotos of Halikarnassos' inquiry the result is this.
For a graphic image of the Greek text, click here.
Of Herodotos of Halikarnassos' inquiry the result is this,
that neither may the things done by men with time become extinct
nor may great and wondrous deeds,
some by Greeks,
some by foreigners shown forth,
become obscure,
both the other events and through what cause they warred with each other.
Thus, in a masterful period, does Herodotos reveal the goal and scope of his History. Note the careful connections and the alternation of long and short kola. Note the double purpose clause (hos mete. . .genetai, mete. . .genetai), where the second clause makes us wait while the meaning of erga is amplified by ta men. . . ta de. . . in apposition. Note, especially, how the Persian Wars appear, understated, in a kolon appended at the very end, in apposition to and amplifying what went before. Isokrates could have done no better.
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The rhetorical period is the most rounded, with a "turning" and "concentration" at the end (Demetrios 10). Examples are the passages from Demosthenes (20.1), Thucydides (2.102.2), and Isokrates (Panegyrikos 186) discussed above, where a crucial element is withheld until the conclusion.
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Of Dareios and Parysatis were born two children,According to Demetrios this sentence consists of two kola, each of which, while an integral part of the sentence, completes its own thought. [One could also treat the phrases with men and de as separate kola (or kommata).] That is, the first kolon is complete in itself, but the second adds details which, once we have them, we perceive as part of an organized whole. Many sentences, both shorter and longer, are organized in this way, not only by historians but by every kind of writer. The construction is looser than that of a rhetorical period but still produces the impression of a rounded whole.
the older Artaxerxes, the younger Kyros.(Anabasis 1.1; Demetrios 3)
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I went down yesterday to PeiraiosDemetrios notes that kolon is piled on kolon in apparent artlessness--yet, as critics have long remarked, this is one of the most studied and artful of Greek sentences. [See, for example, Denniston's remarks (Greek Prose Style, p. 41).] Plato is said to have puzzled long over the order of the opening words. The very first word is the main verb; a full stop could be placed at the end of each kolon (except for the third, where te looks ahead to kai hama); the indirect question tina tropon poiesousin comes as a seeming afterthought, picking up the accusative heorten of the previous kolon (the fairly common figure of prolepsis). Yet by the end we have run a full course, a periodos. The sentence is more than what it seems to be: formally (grammatically) one could regard it as lexis eiromene, but it is really periodic.
with Glaukon, Ariston's son,
to pray to the goddess
and also wanting to see the festival,
how they would perform it,
since now they're holding it for the first time.(Plato, Republic 327a1-3; Demetrios 21)
There is no one formula, then, for a periodic sentence nor, as we are reading an author, should we expect to be able to say with certainty whether this or that sentence or passage is "loose" or "periodic", much less classify each sentence as rhetorical, historical, or philosophical. Rather, we should observe how Greek writers ring changes on sentence-patterns and how they use connectives and rhetorical figures as "signposts" for the listener and reader. Labels, where we can assign them, are means, not ends.
For Demetrios' remarks on the three types of period, click here.
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For either by Fortune's volitions
and the gods' counsels
and Necessity's decrees
she did what she did,
or by force seized (5)
or by words persuaded
{or by love captured}.
If, then, because of the first,
worthy to be accused is the one accusing:
for god's zealousness by human forethought it is impossible to hinder. (10)
For it is natural not for the stronger thing by the weaker to be hindered,
but for the weaker by the stronger to be ruled and guided,
and for the stronger to lead
and the weaker to follow.
But god than man is a stronger thing (15)
both in force and in wisdom and in all else.
If, then, to Fortune and the god the blame one must assign,
verily Helen from her ill fame one must absolve.
Not only is the passage composed for the most part of very short elements (kommata rather than kola) but many of these are the same or nearly the same in length (isokolon or parisosis): Tukhes boulemasi, theon bouleumasi, and Anagkes psephismasin (lines 1-3) are 6, 6, and 7 syllables; to men kreisson hegeisthai and to de hesson hepesthai (13-14) are each 7 syllables.
End-rhyme (homoioteleuton) is everywhere: boulemasi, bouleumasi, psephismasin; harpastheisa, peistheisa,
Parallel phrases follow one another in staccato
succession: genitive noun + dative noun (1-3); substantive + phrase with hupo + infinitive(s)
(11-12); substantive + infinitive (13-14). Parallelism of sound and structure comes from plays on
sound (parechesis) and meaning (paronomasia) within and between phrases, with similar words and
even forms of the same word
juggled kaleidoscopically: boulemasi/bouleumasi (1-2); aitiasthai/aitiomenos (9), where the
first form is passive, the second middle; kreisson. . .hessonos. . .hesson. . .kreissonos. .
.kreisson. .
.hesson (11-14), a double chiasmus. Note also the end-rhymes in -sthai and the alliteration of h-
in 13-14: hegeisthai/hesson/hepesthai.
Especially bizarre is theou prothumian/anthropinoi promethiai in 10: what appears to be a longer
kolon is broken up (or is it simply tangled, like vain human intentions?)
by these nearly impenetrable phrases.
Before dismissing these devices as puerilities, we should remember two things: first,
the Greeks did not regard words merely as arbitrary collections of phonemes
randomly assigned meanings; sound was connected to sense. Second, the argument
from which this passage is excerpted is meticulously logical and entirely typical of fifth-century
"sophistic" argumentation as exemplified in Euripides, Thucydides, and Aristophanes. [See the works of
John Finley cited in the bibliography.]
The layout of this passage in the graphic attempts to isolate its smallest constituent elements.
Gorgias encourages this with his insistent repetitions and isokola. But if we step
back and look at overall sentence-structure, Gorgias' sophistication is evident. The
first sentence (1-7) pivots around epraxen ha epraxen; the possible reasons for Helen's elopement are presented
on either side of this main clause. Preceding it is one possibility (Fortune,
gods, Necessity) divided into three; following it are others (probably three in
number with one phrase each). Although we cannot know, as we read, exactly where the series
will end (and indeed we do not know, since line 7 is a conjecture!), Gorgias
suspends the sense nicely near the center of the sentence.
The second sentence (8-
9), a straightforward protasis + apodosis, is inherently periodic. In the next
(10) the predicate adjective adunaton, which reveals the grammatical construction,
comes
next to last, and the direct object prothumian receives its infinitive (the subject of
the sentence) only at the end.
By contrast, in the longer sentence which follows (11-
14) everything depends on the first word, pephuke: the first kolon, introduced by ou,
leads to the second, which answers ou with alla and where koluesthai is answered by two
infinitives, arkhesthai and agesthai; at the end (13-14) two further articular
infinitives amplify the idea expressed in line 12. Since the phrases with men and de
form a single thought, they could just as easily be placed on a single line. They
would then complete an ascending trikolon.
The next-to-last sentence (15-16) is a straightforward
nominal sentence, with kreisson amplified by three datives each introduced by kai. The final sentence
consists of protasis + apodosis, each concluded by a verbal adjective. [In line 18 the first word is
MacDowell's conjecture (CQ [n.s.] 11 [1961] p. 121).]
Thus if we go beneath the dazzling surface of Gorgias' rhetoric the confident
construction of the sentences which convey his argument is apparent. Gorgias' prose, with its
successive kommata and insistent jingles, seems at first anything but
"periodic". Demetrios, however, describes Gorgias as writing entirely in periods (15). Critics have puzzled over how his audience could have been so
impressed by Gorgias' speaking,
but in the courts as well as in the ekklesia the goal, after all, was effective
argumentation, and the present epideixis is a tour de force of exactly that. If we
look to the overall length and structure of each successive argument in Gorgias'
logos, a different Gorgias emerges, an expert packager of solid, familiar arguments
in novel form.
Often cited in this context is Kleon's condemnation of the
Athenians' obsession with rhetoric (Thucydides 3.38). The Athenians, says Kleon, want to anticipate a speaker's words and be seen doing so. Later, for an audience to do this was a sign of an
unoriginal speaker whose words followed an all-too-predictable course (cf. Demetrios 15). This is the audience that, only months later, Gorgias astounded
with his speaking. Such a seasoned, even jaded audience was ready for something
new. Gomme's notes ad loc., citing several passages from Aristophanes, evoke well
the intellectual atmosphere attending Gorgias' arrival.
To conclude this section here is an appropriately rhetorical translation of this
passage by Larue Van Hook:
[Published in his introduction to Isokrates' Helen, in vol. 3 of the Loeb
edition of Isokrates, pp. 55-57.]
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For a graphic image of the Greek text, click here.
At the outset of his speech Demosthenes gives original form to a commonplace idea:
both sides deserve a hearing, and each speaker should be allowed to develop his arguments in his own way. At each stage of the sentence grammatical "signposts" and other key words create a suspension of meaning which is only
resolved in a later kolon. Demosthenes casts the entire sentence as a prayer (as he does the conclusion of the speech
[324], which
repays comparison).
The prayer has two main parts, introduced by proton men (1) and epeith' (4). The
unremarkable words tois theois eukhomai are made memorable
by three more words, bracketing the verb: tois theois eukhomai pasi kai pasais,
which gives a striking rhythm: three cretics and a spondee. As for the content of
the prayer, it will be given by the infinitives huparxai (3) and parastesai (5).
Preceding the first is a relative clause introduced by hosen, which looks ahead to
the correlative tosauten for the completion of its meaning: in return for his
efforts on behalf of the city and its citizens, Demosthenes asks an equal
recompense (a point reinforced by humin. . .par' humon). The second infinitive, parastesai, is
again preceded by a relative clause, this time introduced by hoper,
which looks ahead to its antecedent touto (and note, in 4 and 5, huper humon and
humin, forming an elegant chiasmus with the earlier pronouns humin [2] and
humon [3]).
But the second part of the prayer is not complete. Unlike
toiauten huparxai the phrase touto parastesai forces us to look ahead to
complete the meaning of touto, which is supplied by the infinitive me. .
.poiesasthai, in apposition to touto. But we are not through yet. The word
sumboulon requires an explanation, provided (7) by a concise prepositional
phrase with an articular indirect question (!). Demosthenes then pauses for a
parenthetical remark (8). Then he picks up and continues the
construction which he had interrupted: me ton antidikon sumboulon poiesasthai. . .alla tous nomous
kai ton horkon. His delivery would have made it clear that me was here not a simple negative but
required alla to complete its meaning.
The period
concludes with a relative clause explaining the jurors' oath--a clause whose
culmination is prepared for by a prepositional phrase with pros and by the pronoun
touto, in apposition to which comes the final articular infinitive--the point of the
whole sentence, an equal hearing for both sides, invested now with the authority of
the gods and the solemnity of the oath.
A complex period, with many suspensions of sense. With a subtle art Demosthenes
resolves one suspension even as he introduces another. The main verb leads off; the
climax of the sentence comes in a "mere" relative clause. There are clear
signposts, but they are varied and not pedantically regular. The same variety is
apparent in the
two parts of the prayer (2-3, 5-11). Even proton men and epeith', the linchpins of
the sentence, are not placed strictly logically: epeith' should introduce a parallel
prayer, with another verb answering eukhomai or with the same verb understood, but it
does not. It introduces the second prayer dependent on eukhomai. Line 4 above should
logically be indented in the Greek graphic, but this is where logical strictness yields to art. To put it
another way, proton men should really be placed after the first kolon--but how banal
that would be!
A shorter period of Demosthenes is analyzed here. To return to the table of contents, click here.
Click here to see Gorgianic periods.
Click here to see Isokratean periods.
Click here to see Demosthenic periods.
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For either by the disposition of fortune and the ratification of the gods and the determination of
necessity she did what she did, or by violence confounded, or by persuasion dumbfounded, or to Love
surrendered. If, however, it was against her will, the culpable should not be exculpated. For it is
impossible to forestall divine disposals by human proposals. It is a law of nature that the stronger is
not subordinated to the weaker, but the weaker is subjugated and dominated by the stronger; the stronger
is the leader, while the weaker is the entreater. Divinity surpasses humanity in might, in sight, and in
all else. Therefore, if on fortune and the deity we must visit condemnation, the infamy of Helen should
find no confirmation.
A Final Demosthenic Example
Here, lastly, is an example of the finest periodic style in Greek, the mature style
of Demosthenes.
Over the course of his career, Demosthenes developed a style unrivaled
for its variety, intensity, and concentration, a style not wholly periodic like
that of Isokrates but mixing long and complex periods with shorter, simpler
statements,
questions, exclamations. A good Demosthenic periodos, often cited, is the opening of
the speech On the Crown:
First, Athenian men, I pray to all the gods and goddesses,
as much good will as I continually have to the city and all of you,
that so much be accorded me from you for this contest;
second, a thing which especially concerns you and your piety and reputation,
this for the gods to grant you: (5)
not to make my opponent your advisor
about how you ought to listen to me
(that would be outrageous)
but the laws and the oath,
in which, in addition to the other just things, this too is written: (10)
to listen to both in the same way.
More Periods of Gorgias, Isokrates, and Demosthenes
Here are some graphic representations of periods of Gorgias, Isokrates, and Demosthenes not discussed above.
Isokrates, Demosthenes, and Cicero
The distinction between the periodic structures favored by Isokrates and those of
Demosthenes is brought out well by Eric Laughton in his comparison of these orators with
Cicero, who is Demosthenic rather than Isokratean ("Cicero and the Greek Orators", AJP 82 [1961] 27-49; see especially pp. 41-49). Cf. H. C. Gotoff, "Thrasymachus of Chalcedon and Ciceronian Style."
