In this article the author tries to point out the convenience of seeing the speeches of the tragic characters as compositions that contribute to articulate the overall design of the dramatic pieces they belong rather than as an expression of individual and idiosyncratic ηθος of the characters who pronounce them. These characters are also subordinate to the articulation of that design and their characterization does not depend on our modern standards of consistency, but on its assembly in the compositional project of the whole work. While more or less observable discrepancy between rhetoric ηθος and dramatic ηθος in euripidean agons has divided critics between two opposing approaches (psychological realism and atomism), the particular study of the Phaedra’s rhesis, lacking of that agonal component, does allow to find a balance between the two approaches. The author analyses the degree of connection between the characterizing features present in this rhesis and the words and actions of the character before and after pronouncing it. The higher this connection, the greater also the potential for characterization of the rhesis; otherwise, it will be necessary to determine to what extent contributes to the overall design of the work and also to the characterization the discrepancy between Phaedra’s rhetoric and dramatic ηθος.
Gómez Seijo, Francisca. La rhesis de Fedra (373-430): retórica y caracterización. En: Tycho, 2016, No. 4: 59
