Rhetoric Before and Beyond the Greeks.

Matthews, Victor H.

Rhetoric Before and Beyond the Greeks. Edited by CAROL S. LIPSON and ROBERTA A. BINKLEY. Albany: STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK PRESS, 2004. Pp. vi + 267. $62.50 (cloth); $20.95 (paper).

As the editors note, the study of ancient rhetoric is generally dominated by Greek classical rhetoric. However, feeling it necessary to demonstrate that Greek culture is not the sole possessor of this innovation, they have provided a collection of studies that examine "other rhetorics" as found in the literature of ancient Mesopotamia, Egypt, China, and Israel. In particular, their aim is to develop "a better understanding of how different rhetorical approaches functioned and were situated within very different cultures" (p. 3). Among the themes found in these essays is how to recover vestiges and characteristics of these ancient rhetorics, and the need for an interdisciplinary approach--taking into account literature from a number of eras and cultures within a particular region and how they contribute to the creation of rhetorical style. One check on their research is the understanding that copies of written texts do not always reflect the rhetorics in actual use by a culture at the time the manuscript was composed.

The contents of the volume include three studies on Mesopotamian rhetoric, two on Egyptian rhetoric, three on Chinese rhetoric, one each on biblical rhetoric and "alternative Greek rhetoric" (from Rhodes), and two cross-cultural studies that deal with Near Eastern texts. Of particular interest here is the essay by William Hallo on "The Birth of Rhetoric," which provides a foundation, using Sumerian sources, for rhetoric in the ancient Near East. After examining the peculiarities of working with cuneiform literature, he focuses on the Gilgamesh Epic and its rhetorical devices. The two essays on ancient Egypt take diverging trajectories, but each contributes important insights to the discussion. Carol Lipson's examination of Maat as the central philosophical concept in Egyptian culture demonstrates how genre and forms of speech and textual expression are shaped by a value system. Deborah Sweeney brings the insights of an archaeologist into the mix and highlights the importance of examining everyday speech patterns in legal texts and court documents.

The authors of the three essays on Chinese rhetoric have the distinct advantage of intimate familiarity with the language and thus are not dependent on translations. George Xu's contribution, using a scale measuring moral valuation of types of speech, highlights the irony implicit in Confucian thought that advocates silence while accomplishing its goals through eloquent persuasion. Arabella Lyon's approach, while also examining Confucian rhetoric, is to caution against drawing too close a parallel between Aristotelian rhetoric and Chinese forms. Finally. Yameng Liu advocates a new paradigm for the study of Chinese rhetoric that separates it from the traditional ties to philosophy and linguistics. Instead, he suggests that Chinese rhetoric is a "discipline/practice in its own right" and the various "discourse communities actually shared much in their rhetorical thinking and modes of rhetorical practice" (p. 161).

In his essay on Biblical rhetoric in the Pentateuch, David Metzger, after discussing the Graf-Wellhausen literary hypothesis, contends that the various editors rhetorically represent the voices and agenda of competing power groups, including the Aaronides, the Levitic priesthood, the prophets, and the various factions associated with the monarchy. He suggests that gaps in the text can be overcome by positing "which power group would speak that way" (p. 18; my emphasis).

Richard Enos provides in his essay an opportunity to see, separate from the lens of Athenian rhetoric methods and forms, an alternative Greek approach from the island of Rhodes. In particular, he finds the flexible nature of Rhodian rhetoric to be typical of a culture that must deal with a wide variety of peoples, and that is to be expected of an island set at a crossroads between Asia and Europe. The originator of this rhetoric, Aeschines, was trained in Athens, but transcended its influence by stressing the need to recognize cultural differences (language and value system) in order to maximize the effectiveness of commercial speech.

The two cross-cultural studies that complete this volume attempt to draw on examples from entire regions (Watts includes Egypt, Mesopotamia, and Syro-Palestine; Swearingen draws on women's songs and lamentations in Homeric and Biblical texts). They each demonstrate the importance attached to a study of rhetorical patterns in any attempt to recreate the emic perspective of the authors and their ancient audiences.

This is a valuable collection of studies and one that should spark additional cross-cultural analyses of ancient rhetoric in all its forms. It is also a testament to the recognition that no one culture "owns" a particular literary genre.

VICTOR H. MATTHEWS

MISSOURI STATE UNIVERSITY