The polymath Empedocles has not been considered a prominent figure in the history of rhetorical studies nor contemporary appropriations of antiquity, despite the reported attribution of his invention of rhetoric by Aristotle. This neglect is understandable, as the surviving fragments of Empedocles' work provide no significant reference to rhetoric…

Plato's "Symposium" is a significant but neglected part of his elaborate and complex attitude toward rhetoric. Unlike the intellectual discussion of the "Gorgias" or the unscripted conversation of the "Phaedrus," the "Symposium" stages a feast celebrating and driven by the forces of "Eros." A luxuriously stylish performance rather than a rational…