Helen’s argumentative coherence and the didactic element of Gorgias’ rhetoric

I argue in this paper that Gorgias’ Helen has a didactic element that has been overlooked by contemporary critique. I show in section I that Gorgias’ presents a commonsensical pattern of argumentation (the Gods and physical violence) to prepare the reader to the following digressions on logos and on love. I analyze in section II the argument on logos and argue that its reasoning structure depends on the two previous arguments, i.e., that Gorgias transforms logos into a sort of violence. I argue in section III that the argument on love depends on the same transformation. In the end, I show that Helen is both a coherent and a didactic speech.