Abstract

RAMIREZ VIDAL, Gerardo. El ornatus en la retórica griega clásica. Nova tellus [online]. 2006, vol.24, n.2, pp.147-165. ISSN 0185-3058.  https://doi.org/10.19130/iifl.nt.2006.24.2.180.

Even though it is considered a secondary and unnecessary virtus (if compared with aptum, perspicuitas and puritas, indisputable virtutes in every speech), ornatus turns out, through a phenomenon of synecdoque, to be the central part of rhetoric, the very essence of the art. In this article I intend to show that such a concept, understood in its ornating aspect as something just added to the speech, did not exist in Classical Greece. Isocrates’ and Aristoteles’ doctrines clearly point out that the ornating elements make the speech “not only more pleasant, but also more reliable and convincing”. The tropes and figures, constituent parts of the ornatus, are inherent qualities of language that the rhetorical art re-elaborates from common and daily usage, with the purpose of providing the speech with a more persuasive strength.

Keywords : actio; Aristóteles; discurso; estilo; figuras literarias; Isócrates; ornatus; retórica griega; tropos.

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