Page:History of the Literature of Ancient Greece (Müller) 2ed.djvu/523

501 LITERATURE OF ANCIENT GREECE. 501 served in ordinary conversation, and did not trouble himself with the structure of periods, which were just coming into fashion : although, at the same time, he shows that he understands the art of combining sen- tences in one whole ; and, when the occasion serves, he can group his thoughts together and present them to his hearers with a vivid conception of their unity.* The figures of thought, as they are called, which we have mentioned above as interruptions to the natural current of our feel- ings, arc used by Lysias very sparingly : but, at the same time, he alto- gether neglects the figures of speech, which made up the old-fashioned ornaments of rhetoric, and indeed, the more so in proportion as the tone of the particular speech is plainer and more simple. In the individual words and expressions Lysias keeps strictly to the ordinary language of every clay life, and repudiates all the trickery of poetic diction, compound words, and metaphors. His object is to supply his client with as many convincing arguments as he can deliver before the judges in the short time which the water-clock {clepsydra) allowed to the plaintiff and defendant in an action. The procemium is designed solely to produce a favourable impression, and to conciliate the good will of the judges : the narrative part of the speech, for which Lysias was particularly famous, is always natural, interesting, and lively, and is often relieved by a few mimic touches which give it a wonderful air of reality ; the proofs and confutations are distinguished by a clearness of reasoning, and a boldness and confidence of argument, which seem to leave no room for doubt ; in a word, the speeches of Lysias are just what they ought to be in order to obtain a favourable decision, which was the only object proposed by their writer ; an object in which, as it seems, he often suc- ceeded. § 5. The most conspicuous among the speeches of Lysias are those which are designed to resent the injuries brought upon Athens and her individual citizens, in the time of their depression, by means of the oligarchical intrigues which preceded the tyranny of the Thirty, and by means of that tyranny itself, and in which Lysias and his family had so grievously suffered. To this class belongs the speech against Agoratus, which, among his extant orations, immediately follows that against Era- tosthenes ;f and, although not delivered in the author's name, presents many points of resemblance to the latter. By suggesting that the party Hal., de Lysia jiul., (», p. 4(54. He differs from Thucydides in placing the con- firmatory sentences and participles sometimes before and sometimes after the main sentence: e.g. the external circumstances first, and the subjective reasons afterwards. f It was delivered 01. 04, 4. n.c. 401, and is an accusation avayuyr,;, i. c. directed towards an immediate execution of the punishment, hecausc the accuser regards Agoratus as a murderer, who, in defiance of the established law against murderers, still frequented the temples and public assemblies.
 * 'H tTU/rrpifwta to. iv/^mtu. kou (TTooyyCkois »f'ioi>vffa X<*;:, as it is called by Dionys.