Breves considerações sobre os conceitos de ethos e de persona poética na antiguidade clássica

Abstract

This essay aims to bring an analysis of what Ancient culture, particularly Aristotle, considered to be ethos and reflect briefly, according to philosophical contributions from both Ancient and Modern thinkers, upon the author’s relationship with his/her discourse. For instance, this relationship may be understood through the concept of poetic persona, also referred to as ego by authors who follow Paul Veyne’s nomenclature. Those concepts are more recent elaborations, but are certainly informed by Ancient writings. In order to pursue our purpose, we articulate some hermeneutic studies. Hence, our focus is to promote a productive reading of what came to be known as ethos, mainly in Aristotelian thought. We will not overlook, however, Latin texts (especially Cicero's), since even though the aforementioned (ethos) word had not been vastly employed by Romans, we believe that it is valuable to verify in which manner those authors understood this fundamental rhetorical concept.