The Rhetoric of Liturgies in Demosthenes' Against Meidias

In this paper I analyze passages in Demosthenes 21 (Against Meidias) where the orator employs the rhetoric of liturgies, while focusing on the specific context of the occasion of the legal dispute. I maintain that Demosthenes does not refer to his liturgical record in order to request charis. In fact, he speaks about charis and liturgies as part of this reciprocal exchange in order to undercut Meidias’ character. Contrary to the conclusion commonly drawn, that orators appeal to liturgies for charis, Demosthenes puts the rhetoric of liturgies in the mouths of Meidias and his associates in order to portray them as men who abuse the people’s good will and the liturgical system.

The traditional method used to research the relationship between liturgical service and appeals to charis has been to gather as many statements pertaining to liturgies as possible, remove them from the full context of their particular legal dispute, and then compare them with references gathered from other speeches and authors. This approach leads some scholars to conclude that Athenian liturgists could expect charis from their jury or audience (Davies 1981; Ober 1989). Other scholars suggest that litiguries serve primarily as a way of establishing the character of the litigants (Johnstone 1999). Also, the traditional methodology has been challenged by Todd (1990), who persuasively argues that the unique circumstances of each speech and the rhetorical nature of the genre ought to guide interpretation and use of the contents of Athenian oratory.

By applying Todd’s (1990) and Johnstone’s (1999) approaches to Demosthenes 21, I will illustrate that references to liturgies and charis in the oration are more appropriately explained by the circumstances of the dispute (choregia liturgy) and Demosthenes’ attempt to represent Meidias’ character as inferior to his own.