This chapter explores ancient Greek depictions of the force or pressure contained within the person and action of peithō by comparison with anankē (constraint, necessity). Literary and linguistic analyses of passages from Homer, Lysias, Xenophon, and Sappho, re-situate πείθω (to win over) as a causative verb that, while often paired with logos, can also induce compliance through nonverbal means. The chapter specifically explores presentations of peithō’s deceptive and constraining actions as compared with anankē in three fifth-century bce texts: Aeschylus’ Prometheus Bound, a passage from Herodotus’ Histories, and Gorgias’ Encomium of Helen. The juxtaposition of these two daemonic forces foregrounds the unscrupulous yet potentially resistible qualities of peithō’s power and how it operates upon individuals or groups. The chapter includes a brief analysis of texts containing the term peithanankē (winning constraint), to represent a form of menacing diplomatic coercion in military situations.

Chapter 6 outlines the ways different practitioners of peithō’s arts managed her ambiguity through expressions and performances of piety toward her divinity. The chapter examines diverse figures from ancient Greek comedy and oratory who used prayerful reverence toward Peithō to bolster their own ēthos and secure success for their rhetorical projects. The chapter surveys the persuasive work of characters from the Aristophanes’ Lysistrata and Menander’s Epitrepontes as well as historical speeches from Demosthenes and Isocrates. Each of the orator-like figures examined reveals both the advantages and pitfalls of partnering with Peithō and the degrees to which the coercive or corrupting qualities of her influence might be deflected. These performances offered the ancient audience a variety of educational models for how one might productively harness Peithō’s assistance in rhetorical speech: by cultivating respectful deference toward her divinity and reconciling oneself to a lack of complete control before her power.

This chapter illustrates the ways that shared images of the goddess Peithō on Greek vase paintings may have functioned as a resource for processing ambivalence toward her power over male–female sexual relations in and outside marriage. Evidence from cult worship and textual references including Aeschylus’ Suppliants, works of Plutarch, and Nonnus’ Dionysiaca, showcase complex perceptions of Peithō’s influence and role as a marriage goddess in association with both Artemis and Aphrodite. The bulk of the chapter examines several vase paintings representing Peithō participating in seemingly paradoxical roles throughout the Athenian wedding ritual. Romanticized depictions of Peithō beautifying the bride in one scene and supporting an abduction in another underscore the acute ambivalence surrounding her vested interest in seduction and sex. Collective giving, receiving, and consideration of these images, however, allowed viewers to acknowledge and, through humor, to tolerate Peithō’s socially necessary yet at times unscrupulous influence over male–female sexual relations.

Chapter 1 links current concerns about the ambiguities of persuasion to ancient Greek preoccupations with peithō (inducement). The chapter outlines the central contribution of the book: a recontextualization of peithō as a necessary yet dangerous force that demanded cautious attention within ancient Greek communities, particularly those committed to democracy. This study is then situated as a series of synchronic analyses of peithō as a goddess or abstract force presented throughout a breadth of textual, visual, and material source material from the archaic through the Hellenistic ages and even into late antiquity, with particular focus on Athenian evidence from the fifth and fourth centuries BCE. An analysis of Aesop’s fable of the North Wind and the Sun re-positions peithō a fraternal twin to bia (physical force) and outlines different manifestations of her coercive action. The chapter concludes with an overview of methodology and the social-psychological principles of ambiguity tolerance and psychological reactance that are used to reframe collective practices from ancient Greece as tools for fostering communal resilience before peithō’s threats.