Corax (, ''Korax''; fl. 5th century BC) was one of the founders (along with Tisias) of

ancient Greek Ancient Greek (, ; ) includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the classical antiquity, ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Greek ...

rhetoric Rhetoric is the art of persuasion. It is one of the three ancient arts of discourse ( trivium) along with grammar and logic/ dialectic. As an academic discipline within the humanities, rhetoric aims to study the techniques that speakers or w ...

. Some scholars contend that both founders are merely legendary personages, others that Corax and Tisias were the same person, described in one fragment as "Tisias, the Crow" (''corax'' is

for "

crow A crow is a bird of the genus ''Corvus'', or more broadly, a synonym for all of ''Corvus''. The word "crow" is used as part of the common name of many species. The related term "raven" is not linked scientifically to any certain trait but is rathe ...

"). And according to

Aristotle Aristotle (; 384–322 BC) was an Ancient Greek philosophy, Ancient Greek philosopher and polymath. His writings cover a broad range of subjects spanning the natural sciences, philosophy, linguistics, economics, politics, psychology, a ...

Empedocles Empedocles (; ; , 444–443 BC) was a Ancient Greece, Greek pre-Socratic philosopher and a native citizen of Akragas, a Greek city in Sicily. Empedocles' philosophy is known best for originating the Cosmogony, cosmogonic theory of the four cla ...

was the actual founder of rhetoric, but this is also unlikely. It is believed that

William Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 23 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

derived the name Sycorax from Corax of Syracuse. Corax is said to have lived in

Sicily Sicily (Italian language, Italian and ), officially the Sicilian Region (), is an island in the central Mediterranean Sea, south of the Italian Peninsula in continental Europe and is one of the 20 regions of Italy, regions of Italy. With 4. ...

Magna Graecia Magna Graecia refers to the Greek-speaking areas of southern Italy, encompassing the modern Regions of Italy, Italian regions of Calabria, Apulia, Basilicata, Campania, and Sicily. These regions were Greek colonisation, extensively settled by G ...

, in the 5th century BC, when Thrasybulus, tyrant of Syracuse, was overthrown and a democracy formed.

Contributions to rhetorical study

Corax originated some of the basic principles and laid the groundwork for the Greek scholars to follow – particularly

Socrates Socrates (; ; – 399 BC) was a Ancient Greek philosophy, Greek philosopher from Classical Athens, Athens who is credited as the founder of Western philosophy and as among the first moral philosophers of the Ethics, ethical tradition ...

Plato Plato ( ; Greek language, Greek: , ; born BC, died 348/347 BC) was an ancient Greek philosopher of the Classical Greece, Classical period who is considered a foundational thinker in Western philosophy and an innovator of the writte ...

, and

. They took these properties and applied them to other rhetorical uses, particularly in government. However, Corax developed these methods specifically for the law court, not the assembly. Under the Deinomenids, the land and property of many common citizens had been seized; these people flooded the courts in an attempt to recover their property. Corax devised an art of rhetoric to permit ordinary men to make their cases in the courts. His chief contribution was in helping structure judicial speeches into various parts: proem, narration, statement of arguments, refutation of opposing arguments, and summary. This structure is the basis for all later rhetorical theory. His pupil Tisias is said to have developed legal rhetoric further, and may have been the teacher of

Isocrates Isocrates (; ; 436–338 BC) was an ancient Greek rhetorician, one of the ten Attic orators. Among the most influential Greek rhetoricians of his time, Isocrates made many contributions to rhetoric and education through his teaching and writte ...

. As in the case of

, all we know of the work of Corax is from references made by later writers, such as Plato, Aristotle, and

Cicero Marcus Tullius Cicero ( ; ; 3 January 106 BC – 7 December 43 BC) was a Roman statesman, lawyer, scholar, philosopher, orator, writer and Academic skeptic, who tried to uphold optimate principles during the political crises tha ...

. He never wrote any of his teachings himself; they were all recorded and published by his pupil, Tisias. Various rhetorical treatises record a story of how Tisias tried to cheat his teacher. According to this tale, Tisias convinced Corax to waive his customary teacher's fee until Tisias won his first lawsuit; however, Tisias conspicuously avoided going to court. Corax then sued Tisias for the fee, arguing that if Corax won the case, he would get his pay, but if Tisias won (his first lawsuit) he would then have to fulfil the terms of their original agreement. Some versions of the tale end here. Others attribute a counterargument to Tisias: that if he lost the case, he would escape paying under the terms of the original agreement (having not yet won a lawsuit), and if he won there would still be no penalty, since he would be awarded the money at issue. At this point, the judge throws both of them out of court, remarking "κακοῦ κόρακος κακὸν ᾠόν" ("a bad egg from a bad crow").

Logic

Corax is probably best known for developing the "reverse-probability argument", also known as the Art of Corax. If a person is accused of a crime which he is not likely to have committed (for example, a small man physically attacking a large man, against whom he is almost certainly doomed to fail), his defense will be that it is unlikely that the crime occurred. His argument draws on the lack of means of the accused. However, if a person is accused of a crime which he is likely to have committed (in the case of a larger man attacking a smaller man), he can also use the defense that it is unlikely that he did it, for the very reason that it appears too probable. This man draws on the lack of prospect of getting away unsuspected. It works by anticipating the audience's expectations, and then combatting that expectation with a countermove. This pattern of anticipating and then contradicting an audience's expectation has continued to be a typical move in reverse probability arguments to this day. Of course, another countermove of this same type can also be employed (it could be argued that the large man could have committed the crime precisely because he thought he would be too obvious a suspect), and then another, and then another. For this reason, the Art of Corax has been labeled a " logical paradox". This method of argumentation has also been called quasi-logical: "it maintains that self-referential logic that is typical of the human mind even if it is circular."

References

{{Authority control Ancient Greek rhetoricians Ancient Greek lawyers 5th-century BC Syracusans Year of birth unknown Year of death unknown Place of birth unknown Place of death unknown