Archetypes of Eloquence and Cultural Matrices: the case of Menelaus (Cic. Brut. 50)

In a section of the Brutus (§§ 40 and 50), Cicero points out that some illustrious Greek heroes like Menelaus, Ulysses and Nestor were celebrated by Homer as the most skilled speakers. In reference to Menelaus, in particular, Cicero intentionally alludes to the lliad in order to evoke and strengthen the rhetorical reception of the past, i.e. to link the discourse of the hero with the plain style. In my paper I examined in detail a selection of passages from the Iliad and from the Brutus to pick up and highlight the nuances and peculiarities of Menelaus’s oratorical skills both in Homer and Cicero.