SOURCE: "Aristotle's First Literary Effort: The Gryullus—A Work on the Nature of Rhetoric" in Aristotle: New Light on His Life and on Some of His Lost Works, Vol. II, University of Notre Dame Press, 1973, pp. 29-42.

In the following essay, Chroust argues that, based on the extant fragments of and references to Aristotle's Gryllus, the work appears to be an attack on certain types of rhetoric, as well as a defense of "proper" rhetoric, and is similar in content to passages in Plato's Gorgias.

In their respective 'catalogues' of Aristotle's writings, Diogenes Lacrtius,¹ Hesychius of Smyrna (the author of the Vita Aristotelis Hesychii)² and Ptolemy (-cl-Garib)³ include a composition entitled Concerning Rhetoric or Gryllus (generally cited as Gryllus or Grylus). With the exception of a few relatively insignificant fragments, excerpts or references, this Gryllus⁴ has been completely lost in the course of time, as were most of...