“First”, “Only”, “One of a Few”, and “No One Else” 63 (megivstai") or the first (prwvtai") or the most numerous (pleivstai") honours. “Most numerous gods” applies to the Athenians: it is said that Dionysus, Apollo, Poseidon, Athena, Hephaestus, and Ares — all of these or most of them — have honoured Athens. “Best gods” applies to Zeus at Olympia and Nemea. “Greatest honours” is applicable to the Athenians because they claim that every provision comes from the gods. “Most necessary honours” are to be found in the case of the Egyptians, who claim that astronomy and geometry came from the gods. “Most ... ” applies to eloquence and philosophy; these are considered especially the prerogatives of the Athenians (10). The traditional marks of uniqueness (“best” and “first”) are clear; but new ones are added, “greatest number” of gods and “best” and “most numerous” benefits. Thus, Athens is unique among the Greek cities: the best god, Zeus, honors her with his benefaction; and the greatest number of gods labor to benefit the city (Dionysus, Apollo, Poseidon, Athena, Hephaestus, and Ares). Athens was the first to be so honored, or to be honored with the best benefactions, or to have received the most numerous honors (11). In summary, we should give considerable weight to the way deeds are amplified in rhetoric, because these criteria for praise represent the conscious, continuous articulation of the rhetorical tradition. Writers such as Aristotle may be primarily codifying the practice of his day; nonetheless he makes formal the general principle which others intuitively grasped or observed occurring in actual literary and forensic practice. 2. Rhetorical Practice a) Funeral Speeches Athenian funeral speeches constitute a distinctive body of rhetoric of praise, several of which Aristotle actually mentions in his Rhetoric. We visit them to examine their use of amplification by uniqueness. Together with rhetorical theory cited above, these examples attest that the principle of uniqueness was a constant literary tradition from Athens’ golden age down to the age of the progymnasmata. (10) D.A. RUSSELL – N.G. WILSON, Menander Rhetor (Oxford 1981) 1.362.4- 20. See also Plutarch, On the Fame of the Athenians 345F-346A. (11) Certain crimes and misdeeds were considered unique in wickedness; for example Rhetoric to Herennius: “We show that it is not a common but a unique (singular) crime, base, nefarious, and unheard-of (in-usitatum), and therefore must be the more promptly and drastically avenged” (2.30.49, emphasis added; see also Cicero, de Inventione 1.54.103).