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Um caso típico de encómio corno técnica de amplificação em Fílon de Alexandria

1988; University of Lisbon; Volume: 16; Linguagem: Inglês

10.1484/j.euphr.5.126617

2736-3082

Manuel Alexandre Júnior,

Historical and Linguistic Studies

The impassioned eulogy of toil in De Sacrificiis 35-41 is a typical illustration of the encomium as an exercise in epideictic oratory; a rhetorical structure including essentially four main topics, besides proemium and epilogue, in accordance with the literary conventions of the day. Mental structures like this, inculcated by the educational system in the formative stages of Philo’s literary experience are freely and creatively used as a generally accepted norm for coordinating the argumentative logic of amplifying digressions and composing literary units, such as the one studied here. This particular example of encomiastic elaboration is just an evidential sign of the fact that the formal and literary structures used by Philo in the composition of his exegetical and philosophical treatises have their roots in the rhetorical theory of argumentation; that they represent, not just those refered in the tradition which preceded him, but also the most elaborate structures cultivated in the grammar schools of the Second Sophistic, covering the whole spectrum of the progymnasmata; and that, in doing so, he masters the art of rhetorical composition in the literary practice of his voluminous work.