SOURCE: Schmitz, Thomas A. “Plausibility in the Greek Orators.” American Journal of Philology 121, no. 1 (2000): 47-77.

In the following essay, Schmitz analyzes the rhetorical strategies Antiphon and other orators used to convince judges of the accuracy of their arguments in representing reality.

When Tzvetan Todorov edited a special issue of the journal Communications on vraisemblance (verisimilitude) in 1968, he described the origin of the concept as follows (I paraphrase):

One day during the fifth century b. c., there was a trial in some Sicilian city. Neither the plaintiff nor the defendant could produce witnesses or any other form of evidence to corroborate their version of the events, so they had to convince the judges by the sheer power of their arguments. This was the day the principle of vraisemblance was discovered.

Todorov's tongue-in- explanation refers to a concept which in Greek was called εἰaός. The word combines two aspects that...