THE CHREIA AND ANCIENT RHETORIC; Classroom Exercises

Hock, Ronald F. & Edward N. O'Neil (Eds. )

ISBN 10: 1589830180 / ISBN 13: 9781589830189

Published by Society of Biblical Literature, 2002

About this Item

Very Faint shelfwear.; This book provides the first translations in English and a preliminary analysis of the commentaries on the chreia chapter in Aphthonius's standard Progymnasmata, a classroom guide on composition. The chreia, or anecdote, was a popular form that preserved the wisdom of philosophers, kings, generals, and sophists. Aphthonius used the chreia to provide instructions on how to construct an argument and to confirm the validity of the chreia by means of an eight-paragraph essay. His treatment of this classroom exercise, however, was so brief that commentators needed to clarify, explain, and supplement what he had written as well as to situate the chreia as preparation for the study of rhetoric the kinds of public speeches and the parts of a speech. By means of these Byzantine commentaries, we can thus see more clearly how this important form and its confirmation were taught in classrooms for over a thousand years.; Writings From The Greco-Roman World, 2; 8vo 8" - 9" tall; 424 pages.

Seller Inventory # 43327

Bibliographic Details

• Title: THE CHREIA AND ANCIENT RHETORIC; Classroom Exercises
• Publisher: Society of Biblical Literature
• Publication Date: 2002
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1589830180
• ISBN 13: 9781589830189
• Binding: Softcover
• Condition: Very Good+
• Seller catalogs:
  • Greek Literature
  • Byzantine Studies
  • Late Antiquity

About this title

Synopsis

Reading, writing an inflected language, and composing an argument were among the skills taught in Greco-Roman schools. At all three curricular levels students developed these skills by learning how to use a literary form known as the chreia, or anecdote. Beginners at the primary level learned to read and write by copying different examples of the chreia. Students at the secondary level used it to learn how to decline nouns and conjugate verbs and form them into grammatically correct sentences. Advanced students learned how to elaborate a simple chreia into an eight-paragraph essay that argued for the truth of whatever saying or action was celebrated in the chreia. This volume incorporates thirty-six texts, most translated for the first time, that illustrate the use of the chreia at all three levels, a use that can be documented from the first century on through late antiquity and the Byzantine world. It demonstrates that people with all levels of education were intimately familiar with this important literary form, which not only preserves the wit and wisdom of famous philosophers, orators, kings, and poets but also explains its pervasive and enduring use in ancient literature.