This claim is articulated pretty strongly in Gorgias's Encomium of Helen. The piece is a kind of thought experiment where Gorgias attempts to defend Helen. He points out that language (or speech) is "a powerful lord, which by means of the finest and most invisible body effects the divinest works: it can stop fear and banish grief and create joy and nature pity" (sec. 8). Part of his defense, then, is that Helen almost didn't have a choice; the speech was too powerful, god-like even. I found a .pdf copy of it here: http://myweb.fsu.edu/jjm09f/RhetoricSpring2012/Gorgias%20Encomium%20of%20Helen.pdf

This claim is articulated pretty strongly in Gorgias's Encomium of Helen. The piece is a kind of thought experiment where Gorgias attempts to defend Helen. He points out that language (or speech) is "a powerful lord, which by means of the finest and most invisible body effects the divinest works: it can stop fear and banish grief and create joy and nature pity" (sec. 8). Part of his defense, then, is that Helen almost didn't have a choice; the speech was too powerful, god-like even. I found a .pdf copy of it here: http://myweb.fsu.edu/jjm09f/RhetoricSpring2012/Gorgias%20Encomium%20of%20Helen.pdf