Persuasion is a technique that has been used as far back as historians can track language (Encyclopaedia Britannica V.12, p.334). Persuasion is utilized in many of the Greek stories, including Prometheus Bound, by Aeschylus, and The Iliad, by Homer. The art of persuasion is best exhibited in these passages: lines 308-31 in Prometheus Bound, and book twenty-two, lines thirty-seven to seventy-eight in The Iliad. The persuasion in these tales reveals many of the similarities and differences in the plot of the two stories, along with disclosing information about the emotions, pride and suffering of many of the characters.
In Prometheus Bound, Oceanus is trying to persuade Prometheus. Oceanus is a longtime and loyal friend of Prometheus. He is at Prometheus's punishment site to give advice about how to keep his punishment as small as possible. Prometheus, though, is openly speaking of how Zeus, the king of all the gods, is a terrible ruler, which Oceanus does not believe will help his cause. Oceanus describes his language as, "words that are whetted swords," in a metaphor displaying Prometheus's rashness. Oceanus is afraid that the words that Prometheus is speaking are too harsh and that Zeus will hear them and punish Prometheus even further. Oceanus tries to tell Prometheus to "be quiet," and warn him of possible punishments to come. Even after all of the effort that Oceanus makes, he is unsuccessful is his task and only gets a nasty retort from Prometheus as a reward.
Priam, the king of Troy, gets similar results in his attempt at persuading Hector, the best worrier of the Trojans, during a scene in The Iliad. At this point in the story, Hector is standing alone outside the walls of Troy. He is there by himself because his strategy not to retreat the day earlier led to many Trojan deaths, and now he is embarrassed and thinks that fighting Achilles is the only way to prove himself.
