Revisiting the Hill of Pnyx: The Physical, Rhetorical, and Sociocultural Contexts

Abstract

This paper offers a holistic reconsideration and reexamination of what the transmitted texts say about the political and rhetorical processes on the hill of Pnyx in classical Athens. It has three specific aims: (1) to explore existing ancient literature references to the Pnyx as a physical and constitutional/political place; (2) to identify and discuss a wide range of aspects of rhetoric in action, or performance, in a suitable sample of symbouleutic (or political) speeches – specifically, the three Olynthiacs and the four Philippics of Demosthenes; and (3) to offer answers to the question about the how physical conditions and the architectural form of the Pnyx might have affected acoustics and delivery of speeches, and why the hill was chosen to be the location of the Athenian Assembly meetings.