The ''Erotic Essay'' ( grc, Ἐρωτικός) was one of the two surviving
epideictic
The epideictic oratory, also called ceremonial oratory, or praise-and-blame rhetoric, is one of the three branches, or "species" (eidē), of rhetoric as outlined in Aristotle's '' Rhetoric'', to be used to praise or blame during ceremonies.
Orig ...
speeches (along with the
Funeral Oration) attributed to the Athenian statesman and orator
Demosthenes
Demosthenes (; el, Δημοσθένης, translit=Dēmosthénēs; ; 384 – 12 October 322 BC) was a Greek statesman and orator in ancient Athens. His orations constitute a significant expression of contemporary Athenian intellectual pr ...
. Ian Worthington dates the speech to between the late 350s BC and 335 BC.
Though part of the Demosthenic corpus, the Erotic
Essay
An essay is, generally, a piece of writing that gives the author's own argument, but the definition is vague, overlapping with those of a letter, a paper, an article, a pamphlet, and a short story. Essays have been sub-classified as formal a ...
is not generally believed to be an authentic work of Demosthenes, and its real author is unknown.
[ However, Robert Clavaud has argued that there are no strong arguments for the inauthenticity of the epideictic speeches, against almost unanimous scholarly consensus to the contrary.]Friedrich Blass
Friedrich Blass (22 January 1843, Osnabrück5 March 1907, Halle) was a German classical scholar.
Biography
After studying at Göttingen and Bonn from 1860 to 1863, Blass lectured at several gymnasia and at the University of Königsberg. In 1876 ...
believes that it belongs to a member of a school of Isocrates.[
The essay is written for a fictional youth named Epicrates.]
References
{{Demosthenes' works
Ancient Greek orations
Works by Demosthenes
Works of unknown authorship