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A form of rhetoric in which “praise is based on action,” epideictic rhetoric is traditionally envisioned as a form of speech that “makes clear the greatness of virtue” (Aristotle 84).
In his reexamination of traditional rhetoric, Chaim Perelman extends the goals of epideictic rhetoric as a way to “strengthen a consensus around certain values which one wants to see prevail and which should orient action in the future” (20). He argues that previously held explanations of the epideictic have been limited to the role of the rhetor and asserts that “the epideictic genre is central to discourse because its role is to intensify adherence to values” (19). He adds that any level of “adherence without the discourse that aim at provoking action cannot find the lever to move or to inspire . . . listeners [or viewers]” (19).