La rhétorique de la prière dans l'Antiquité grecque

This volume presents a collection of papers given at the 16th Conference of the International Society for the History of Rhetoric (Strasbourg, 24-28 July 2007), two sessions of which were dedicated to Ancient Greek prayer. As a discourse addressed to the divinity, prayer raises the question of approaching gods whose presence and action cannot be guaranteed. Such a situation implies the use of oratorical strategies, as in the supplication addressed to a human being. The specifically rhetorical approach of the prayer constitutes a field which as yet has not been widely researched. These contributions form a coherent collection which testifies to the fecundity of this approach. The large palette of authors discussed in this volume range from Homer to the Church Fathers, via the tragic authors, the historians, without forgetting poets of Hellenistic and Roman times.

Johann Goeken, specialist of Greek language and literature, is associate professor at the University of Strasbourg.