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for this is a piece of advice. [4] Again, they may be derived from forensic exordia, that is to say, from appeals to the hearer, if the subject treated is paradoxical, difficult, or commonly known, in order to obtain indulgence, like Choerilus1: “ But now when all has been allotted.
” These then are the sources of epideictic exordia—praise, blame, exhortation, dissuasion, appeals to the hearer. And these exordia2 may be either foreign or intimately connected with the speech. [5] As for the exordia of the forensic speech, it must be noted that they produce the same effect as dramatic prologues and epic exordia （for those of dithyrambs resemble epideictic exordia: “For thee and thy presents or spoils）.3” [6] But in speeches4 and epic poems the exordia provide a sample of the subject, in order that the hearers may know beforehand what it is about, and that the mind may not be kept in suspense, for that which is undefined leads astray; so then he who puts the beginning, so to say, into the hearer's hand enables him, if he holds fast to it, to follow the story. Hence the following exordia: “ Sing the wrath, O Muse.5
” “ Tell me of the man, O Muse.6
” “ Inspire me with another theme, how from the land of Asia a great war crossed into Europe.7
” Similarly, tragic poets make clear the subject of their drama, if not at the outset,
like Euripides, at least somewhere in the prologue, like Sophocles, “ My father was Polybus.8
” It is the same in comedy. So then the most essential and special function of the exordium is to make clear what is the end or purpose of the speech; wherefore it should not be employed, if the subject is quite clear or unimportant. [7] All the other forms of exordia in use are only remedies,9 and are common to all three branches of Rhetoric. These are derived from the speaker, the hearer, the subject, and the opponent. From the speaker and the opponent, all that helps to destroy or create prejudice. But this must not be done in the same way; for the defendant must deal with this at the beginning, the accuser in the epilogue. The reason is obvious. The defendant, when about to introduce himself, must remove all obstacles, so that he must first clear away all prejudice; the accuser must create prejudice in the epilogue, that his hearers may have a livelier recollection of it. The object of an appeal to the hearer is to make him well disposed or to arouse his indignation, and sometimes to engage his attention or the opposite; for it is not always expedient to engage his attention, which is the reason why many speakers try to make their hearers laugh. As for rendering the hearers tractable, everything will lead up to it if a person wishes, including the appearance of respectability,
1 Of Samos, epic poet, author of a poem on the Persian war, from which this half-line and the context preserved in the Scholiast are taken. He complains that whereas the poets of olden times had plenty to write about, the field of poetry being as yet untilled, it was now all apportioned, and he, the last of the poets, was left behind, unable to find “a new chariot for the race-course of his song. ”
3 A parenthetical remark to the effect that epideictic exordia are different. Those of a forensic speech are like prologues and epic exordia, but it is different with epideictic, which may be wild, high-flown, as in the example given from an unknown author.
4 That is, forensic speeches. δράμασι has been suggested for λόγοις.
7 From Choerilus （sect. 4）.
8 Soph. OT 774. But this can hardly be called the prologue.
9 That is, special remedies in the case of the hearers suffering from “inattention, unfavorable disposition, and the like” （Cope）.
Aristotle in 23 Volumes, Vol. 22, translated by J. H. Freese. Aristotle. Cambridge and London. Harvard University Press; William Heinemann Ltd. 1926.
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