Consolatory Rhetoric: Grief, Symbol and Ritual in the Greco-Roman Era [Hardback]

Consolatory Rhetoric explores Greco-Roman funeral rituals to reveal how opposing symbols functioned rhetorically to comfort communities afflicted by the death of one of their members. While the bulk of rhetorical criticism interprets written texts, Donovan Ochs broadens the traditional focus to consider non-verbal symbols as well as action and object languages. Ochs demonstrates that non-discursive dimensions of Greco-Roman burial rites held a place of particular persuasive significance in consoling the populace and he attributes funeral customs practiced in contemporary western civilization to the legacy left by the ancient Greeks and Romans.