Erotema (e-ro-tem’-a): The rhetorical question. To affirm or deny a point strongly by asking it as a question. Generally, as Melanchthon has noted, the rhetorical question includes an emotional dimension, expressing wonder, indignation, sarcasm, etc.
“Why would we ever want to fly?” That was a question asked by my great, great, great grand father countless times. He used the argument every religious crank used at the time. “If God wanted us to . . . .” It went all the way back to the wheel: “If God wanted you to roll around on wheels, you would’ve been born with them.” Battles are fought over innovations: take the war of knitting needles, for example. The Knitting Needle was invented in 601 by Joseph Millgrain, humble peasant potato digger from York, England. He had a hobby of collecting clumps of wool from the roadside that had fallen off of sheep being driven to shearing. He sold the clumps to a spinner who made it into yarn, where in turn, he sold it to people who wove it —even to the King. into placemats and coasters for royalty.
As he collected wool from roadsides, Joseph stuck the balls of wool on two sticks to carry them—he had one pocket, but no carrying sack. On his way home, he stuck the wool sticks into his pocket. But first, he rubbed the wool between his hands, making a wool strand the he could wind around the sticks.
He was a peasant who was so poor he took one bath per year and ate weeds for every meal. He got “home” one evening after a hard day of digging potatoes. His wife harvested some fresh weeds for dinner—from the tiny weed patch they had growing behind their hovel—a small home made of mud and sticks with a roof made of stolen thatch that will result in hanging if Joseph is caught.
Joseph went to pull the wool out of his pocket. The sticks got stuck. He took one stick in each hand and moved them back and forth as he gently pulled on them. Finally, they came lose. He held them up and looked at them. The wool had been “knitted” together by the sticks’ agitation. He made points on the end of the sticks so they would more easily slide around the wool. He called them “knitting needles” for their pointed ends.
Instead of selling his wool, Joseph had it made into yarn. After months of study, he mastered knitting—with knitting needles. Joseph knitted vests for he and his wife. Eventually, he figured out how to affix sleeves. He sold knitting needles, yarn and sweaters at the York Farmers Market where he became rich (by peasant standards). One day at the market, a maniac who believed that knitting needles were the work of Satan, and who declared war on them, stabbed Joseph in the eye. He yelled “The war has begun.” Joseph lopped off his head with the saber he kept under his counter. York was filled with maniacs at the time and most merchants had a saber standing by. There were an average of three decapitations per week. Joseph’s saber episode led to Joseph’s notoriety. He was identified as the thatch thief and hanged in the market square as an example.
Definition courtesy of “Silva Rhetoricae” (rhetoric.byu.edu)
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