[B-Greek] Learning Greek with Chreia's

Louis Sorenson llsorenson at hotmail.com
Mon Jul 28 00:09:05 EDT 2008


Hello all,

While trying to put together a page on Menander's one-line sayings ( http://www.letsreadgreek.com/menanander/index.htm ), e.g. "Evil communications corrupt good morals", I came across an article on the following two books on the Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2004:

Ronald F. Hock, Edward N. O'Neil, The Chreia and Ancient Rhetoric: Classroom Exercises. Writings from the Greco-Roman World v. 2.   Atlanta:  Society of Biblical Literature, 2002.  Pp. xi, 411.  ISBN 1-58983-018-0.  $49.95 (pb).   


George A. Kennedy, Progymnasmata: Greek Textbooks of Prose Composition and Rhetoric. Writings from the Greco-Roman World.   Atlanta:  Society of Biblical Literature, 2003.  Pp. xvi, 231.  ISBN 1-58983-061-X.  $29.95 (pb).   The Chreia are apparently short rhetorical phrases/passages which the student manipulated.  (The same were done for the Monostichoi of Menander). So my question is in regards to teaching Greek.  It is the custom of some to make student memorize short sections and lines of Greek.  Such a repertoire enables the student to fall back on a basic collection of Greek sayings which are representative of overall the Greek language and syntax and which are oral.  I doubt however that such an approach is part of today's pedagogy.  The oral and verbal (out-loud) aspect of learning Greek has often been hampered by the isolation new students of ancient Greek.  When I was young, I memorized several sections of the Odyssey and some passages from Romans.  Those passages still float around in my thoughts.  So, does anyone have a list of passages they have memorized and suggest their students memorize? 

Part of the discussion in the article at Bryn Mawr are as follows:

In the secondary classroom under the grammatikos, students began to
join in the grand game of classification. They learned to classify
words into parts of speech. They learned to decline nouns and inflect
verbs. And they learned to take whole chreiai through an advanced
declension exercise called klisis. For example, (nominative)
"Pythagoras the philosopher ... used to advise his pupils to abstain
from red meat." Genitive, "The statement of Pythagoras is remembered
for advising ..." Dative: "To Pythagoras the philosopher ... it seemed
best to advise..." and so on into the dual ("The two Pythagorases, the
philosophers ..." and plural (65-6). It should come as some consolation
to pedagogues of the modern era that the student who labored out this
exercise fouled up his verb forms on a number of occasions,
particularly in the dual (63). 
A klisis-exercise in Latin survives from late antiquity in the Ars grammatica
of Diomedes (67-77). Here the saying, "the roots of education are
bitter but the fruit is sweet," usually attributed to Isocrates or some
other Greek sage, is attributed to Cato (67-72). Was this exercise
perhaps intended not for native speakers of Latin but for Greek
speakers boning up on Latin to enter imperial service or the law school
in Beirut?
In the tertiary classroom under the rhetor, students learned to
elaborate their chreiai in preparation for full-fledged declamations.
Theon had his own system of elaboration; Hermogenes' system had
Hellenistic roots (as we can see from its similarities to the Rhetorica ad Herennium);
Aphthonius changed some terminology, and his system continued in use
for 1000 years (83-90). Under this system a student worked up his
chreia under eight headings. He would praise it, paraphrase it, give
its rationale, argue from the opposite, argue by analogy, give an
example, cite testimony of the ancients, and conclude with an epilogue
(90). Neither Aphthonius nor his predecessors seem to have felt the
need to explain how this sort of work-out strengthens the rhetorical
aspirant. In the fifth century Nicolaus pointed out that the first
heading corresponds to the encomiastic prooimia of a standard four-part
speech while the paraphrase corresponds to the narrative, and the next
five headings correspond to a diegesis while the last one is
like the epilogue. And Doxopatres, in the eleventh century, explained
that the person who has practiced the encomiastic elaboration of his
chreiai (the first of the eight headings) will be prepared to capture
the goodwill of his audience when he composes the introduction of a
real speech (91).
Louis Sorenson

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