Team Demeter Argument Analysis

As a Greek, I attended last week’s debate to hear out my fellow citizens of Lesbos as they tried to convince the audience to either support the new regime of Pittacus (Team Apollo) or to reject his false message (Team Demeter). Pittacus recently declared himself champion of Lesbos and now holds absolute power on our Island. It has been a heated topic of concern lately among the people. Some believe his military experience and expertise will bring our Island glory, while others believe it’s on the battlefield where he shall stay. After listening to both sides, I felt Team Demeter was more persuasive in their efforts to convince me that Pittacus is unfit to rule as they were superior orators, offered greater concrete arguments, and excelled in
demonstrating the values of us Greeks. If this was Baseball, Kristin hit a leadoff home run with her role as the introducer for Team Demeter. She immediately caught my attention with her voice that featured a perfect volume and pitch for the size of the room. With my full and undivided attention, she continued her introduction by speaking with passion that made me believe she sincerely cared about the topic. In addition, she walked around giving focus and attention to all sides of the room and spoke with our interests at heart making us fell important as she said she “just want what’s best for you.” Thus, she invoked Pathos with her passion and emotion as a speaker and Ethos as she seemed like an expert up there and recognized the importance of the audience. Next up was another great orator in Patrick, who was very well-spoken and made great eye-contact with the audience in his effort to convince us of Pittacus’ lack of experience as a leader. He also used Logos as he questioned Pittacus’ knowledge of the political world which I will go into greater detail in later. Out of all of the debaters, the one that stood out the most was Kat, without question. She prepared her argument in the form of a poem which she spoke very eloquently. It was voiced without pause denying the disruption of the flow and her tone at the end of each line emphasized the rhymes. She invoked Pathos in her efforts at an emotional form of delivery and Ethos as she was very effective and seemed like a pro remembering all of her lines for her four minutes. In debate it’s not a just about being a good speaker, it’s also about bringing the persuasive information to the forefront.
Team Demeter did a great job about intertwining both into a solid debate. One of the considerable points of concern among the debate was that Pittacus pardoned the murderer of his son. Team Apollo argued it showed him as a sympathetic man however, I feel Team Demeter did a wonderful job countering that. Taylor of Team Demeter, explained that the policy of “pardon is better than punishment” would lead Lesbos into chaos. She also argued that we “should not let them (murderers) walk around the Polis. I felt she made a fantastic point that used logic and reason of Logos to convince me that his policies on crime is dangerous. The final two debaters of Team Demeter, Katie and Chloe both also used logic, reason, and evidence in their efforts to oppose Pittacus. Katie brought up the point that for being a proclaimed military general, he’s “only won one battle.” That alone made me question his reputation. Chloe, who was the concluder, offered a great role as the friend of Pittacus. She used reverse ethos to try and convince us of his unfitness to rule, which hits home harder seeing that a close friend of his is willing to speak ill of him. She also did very well in recapping the team’s arguments with strong phrases like he’s a “warrior not a leader”, “bad temperament will lead to war”, and commented on his controversial policy on pardoning murders yet making drunken crimes twice the punishment calling him “very
contradictive.” As Team Demeter spoke with rhetorical technique and presented their historical contents, they did it in Greek styles by upholding some of their dearest values. One of which is their inquisitive nature as a people. Patrick employed this value as he questioned if Pittacus had the experience to run a Polis. He asked “Where did he learn agriculture?” “Where did he learn economics?” and “Did he learn trade routes?” By utilizing this value and logos, he effectively highlighted Pittacus’ inexperience. In addition, they held the Greek value on the arts, especially literature. They achieved this as Kat orated her argument in the form of poem, a truly Greek thing to do, in a positive way of course. She made me feel like I was really in Ancient Greece listening to her poem with the accompaniment of a great feast. Similar to the poets of that time, she also emphasized the value of memory as she recalled the entire poem without fail. Of equal importance, Katie mentioned the Greek values of family, property, and morality as she questioned what would happen to them if we allowed Pittacus to lead our Polis. This was especially true of family because he dismantled the family role in the historically Greek aristocracy. All things considered, even though I felt Team Demeter were superior orators and presented preferable historical information, I still thought Team Apollo did a good job with their choice of roles. They covered many bases including an advisor, two warriors/soldiers, two friends, and even Pittacus himself. However, I felt the depiction of Pittacus was poor as he was portrayed as very soft spoken and weak, not that of a leader of a Greek polis. Ultimately, Team Demeter was more persuasive in their oration and historical content and left a greater impression on me through their use of Greek values that simulated an actual Ancient Greek debate.