The heroic body as a site of contestation : Polemo’s declamations Εἰς Κυναίγειρον καὶ Καλλίμαχον
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Date
2023
Authors
Oikonomopoulou, Katerina
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Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Center for Hellenic Studies, Harvard University
Abstract
This chapter examines the representation of the heroic body in the two surviving declamations of the imperial sophist Polemo, devoted to the Marathonian heroes Callimachus and Cynaegirus. Set within a fictional dispute between the heroes’ fathers over whose son deserves greater honour, the speeches explore competing understandings of bravery, bodily integrity, and paternal authority. The article argues that Polemo’s distinctive contribution to this well-established declamatory theme lies in his deployment of the body as a site of rhetorical and ideological contestation. Through the contrasting images of Callimachus’ upright corpse and Cynaegirus’ severed hands, which supposedly continue fighting independently, Polemo draws on the language and aesthetics of paradoxography and physiognomy to evoke wonder, shock, and admiration. The speeches also interrogate the relationship between bodily integrity and the soul, as well as the opposition between action and passivity. Ultimately, the article demonstrates how Polemo’s epideictic oratory reimagines the Greek past through the creative interaction of rhetorical and literary traditions.
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Keywords
Second Sophistic, Polemo, Declamation, Persian Wars, Body, Heroism