epideictist

An epideictist is a rhetorician who specializes in epideictic rhetoric, the form of ceremonial oratory that praises or blames. Epideictic speeches typically celebrate virtue, commemorate individuals or events, or publicly condemn conduct in the present moment, rather than argue about policy or guilt. The term derives from Greek epideiktikos, meaning suitable for display, and is traditionally described by Aristotle as a distinct genre of rhetoric.

Epideictic rhetoric is most at home in public ceremonies such as funerals, inaugurations, weddings, and commemorations, and includes forms such as encomiums, panegyrics, and eulogies. The speech acts to reinforce shared values and collective memory, to honor exemplary character, and to bind a community through gratitude, reverence, or solemn judgment.

Techniques commonly include appeals to virtue and exemplar, the use of narrative biography and myth, and a heightened, performative style designed to inspire admiration. Epideictists often deploy stylistic devices such as parallelism, repetition, and vivid imagery to display moral character rather than to advance material argument.

In modern contexts, epideictic rhetoric persists in ceremonial addresses, memorials, commemorative speeches, and other public occasions, where the aim is to shape perception and communal identity. The term epideictist is less common in everyday usage but appears in rhetorical study to describe speakers who specialize in praise, blame, and ceremonial display.