Corax of Syracuse

Corax (Greek: Κόραξ, Korax; fl. 5th century BC) was one of the founders (along with Tisias) of ancient Greek rhetoric. 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 ancient Greek for "crow"). And according to Aristotle, Empedocles was the actual founder of rhetoric, but this is also unlikely. It is believed that Shakespeare derived the name Sycorax from Corax of Syracuse. Corax is said to have lived in Sicily in the 5th century BCE, when Thrasybulus, tyrant of Syracuse, was overthrown and a democracy formed.

Corax originated some of the basic principles and laid the groundwork for the Greek scholars to follow- particularly Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. 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. As in the case of Socrates, all we know of the work of Corax is from references made by later writers, such as Plato, Aristotle, and Cicero. He never wrote any of his teachings himself; they were all recorded and published by his pupil, Tisias.

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