[2] Ethopoeia was a technique used by early students of rhetoric in order to create a successful speech or oration by impersonating a subject or client.
Ethopoeia, derived from the Greek ethos (character) and poeia (representation), is the ability to capture the ideas, words, and style of delivery suited to the person for whom an address is written.
[4] Finally, ethopoeia is the art of discovering the exact lines of argument that will turn the case against the opponent.
[5] Ethopoeia is largely related to impersonation, a progymnasmata exercise in which early students of rhetoric would compose a dialogue in the style of a person they chose to portray.
These dialogues were often dramatic in nature, using description and emotional language where appropriate, fitting the speech to the character of the speaker and the circumstances.
This view wasn’t one shared by many; people at the time seemed to mostly associate the rhetoric strategy with speech and play writers.
He asks Achilles for pity, stating that "I have endured what no one on earth has ever done before - I put my lips to the hands of the man who killed my son.