which was used to ‘‘draw’’ someone to one. The refrain goes ‘‘Iunx, draw that man to
my home.’’ Simaitha’s sorcery is a miniature display no less carefully orchestrated than
public sacrifice. Its success depends (in her eyes) on her ability to utter words and
perform actions pleasing to the gods thought responsible for this department of
human activity: love magic. The prayer isperformativein the same way: the ritual
actions and accouterments are intended to frame and underline the verbal message.
Prayer, one might say, is a multimedia performance, involving sounds, sights, and
smells. I doubt this is the kind of private prayer or meditation on the ‘‘deep meaning of
life’’ which Pope Benedict XVI had in mind when he recommended prayer on holiday.
Persuasive Strategies
Having sketched what one might term the ‘‘ritual framing’’ of prayer and hymn-
singing, I wish to turn to the rhetoric of these forms of utterance. By rhetoric I mean
‘‘strategies of persuasiveness’’ used largely unconsciously by the speaker/singer. As
Race (1990:103) has said: ‘‘Every element in a cultic hymn is part of a rhetorical
strategy whose purpose is to dispose the god favorably toward the request.’’ The
standard view is that prayers and hymns generally follow a tripartite structure of
invocation–argument–prayer. That is, the worshiper first addresses the god(s) by
name, adding ‘‘second-names’’ (epikle ̄seis) to invoke specific attributes of the
god(s); next he states a number of reasons why the god(s) should hear his address;
then, having prepared the ground, he utters the request. So this analysis is not much
different to the careful formulation of a written application nowadays: one addresses
the letter carefully to the appropriate recipient; one states the reason why one’s
request is justified or one’s application for the job or grant appropriate, and one
ends with an expression of hope that one’s petition will be looked on favorably. This
comparison is intended to show the importance of words in applying for aid of an
existential nature and to convey that sense of anxious anticipation of the reaction of
invisible fickle powers that the ancient pagan worshiper presumably felt.
Naming
Zeus, whoever he really is, if this
is the name by which he likes to be called,
I call him by this name.
I have no other guide,
weighing all things up,
but Zeus, if I must unburden my heart
truly of its fruitless worry
(Agamemnon160–6)sings the Chorus of Argive elders in Aeschylus’Agamemnonwhen it recalls the
dreadful sacrifice of Iphigeneia before the Trojan War and anticipates the doom
which may mark Agamemnon’s return.
122 William D. Furley