School Rhetoric Techniques in Empress Eudocia’s Poem “Martyrdom of St. Cyprian”

Abstract

Examples of use of school rhetoric techniques (common exercises, figures of thought, figures of speech, tropes) in the poem of Empress Eudocia (V century) “Martyrdom of St. Cyprian” are considered. It is taken into account that the ability to freely use this kind of techniques was the basis of the ancient teaching of rhetoric, which was considered the highest level of education available to a few. It is reported that between school exercises (called progymnasmata) and independent creativity (both in prose and poetry) there was no impenetrable boundary, since the work of late antique and Byzantine authors was born from school. Eudocia’s poem is characterized as a paraphrase (which in itself is a rhetorical exercise) of an already existing life, probably with significant additions and complete replacement of words. It is shown that it is possible to observe the use of ekphrasis in the poem, sermocinatio, antithesis, anaphora, polysyndeton, asyndeton, hyperbola, simple and extended metaphors, etc.). It is proved that in this sense the poem “Martyrdom of St. Cyprian” is a typical example of late antique “scientific” poetry. The author of the article notes that in the case of Eudocia it is unusual only that all the above-mentioned rhetorical techniques are owned by a woman, since only a few women reached this higher level of education, especially in the Christian environment.