Gorgias's Ecomium of Helen

For this past reading I struggled to understand what these men were talking about. I definitely understand why they are considered to be great philosophers. One idea that I did latch onto though was with Gorgias's Ecomium of Helen. This text sought to use rhetoric to prove that Helen was not to blame for the the Trojan war. In the beginning of the text there is a paragraph that says, "for it is equal error and ignorance to blame the praiseworthy and to praise the blameworthy".  By having this idea at the beginning of his paper he was able to force the readers to pay attention. He almost calls them out by pointing out their ignorances. If the reader were to ignore this and not listen to his argument then he would have to face his ignorance. This then makes them pay attention to the entire document and possibly acknowledge the argument that Gorgias makes. This is a double edged sword though because if Gorgias is wrong he faces being ignorant for praising Helen. The rhetoric used here though is an incredible tool though it helped draw the reader in.