Chreia

The chreia (χρεία or chria) was, in antiquity and the Byzantine Empire, both a genre of literature and one of the progymnasmata.

Definition

A chreia was a brief, useful ("χρεία" means useful) anecdote about a particular character. That is, a chreia was shorter than a narration—often as short as a single sentence—but unlike a maxim, it was attributed to a character. Usually it conformed to one of a few patterns, the most common being "On seeing..." (ιδών or cum vidisset), "On being asked..." (ἐρωτηθείσ or interrogatus), and "He said..." (ἔθη or dixit).^[1]

Examples

The following chreia, the most common in ancient sources, is illustrative:

Diogenes, on seeing a youth misbehaving, struck his paedagogus, adding "Why do you teach such things?"

Chreiai could be silly:

Olympias, on hearing that her son Alexander was proclaiming himself the offspring of Zeus, said "Won't this fellow stop slandering me to Hera?"

Or solemn:

A Laconian, who had become a prisoner of war and was being sold, on being asked by someone what he could do, said, "Be free."

Wise:

Aristeides, on being asked what justice is, said: "Not desiring the possessions of others."

Or witty:

Diogenes, on being asked why people give to beggars but not to philosophers, said: "Because they suppose they might become lame and blind but they never suppose they might take up philosophy."

Or all of these:

Socrates the philosopher, when a certain student named Apollodorus said to him, "The Athenians have unjustly condemned you death," said with a laugh, "But did you want them to do it justly?"

As a literary genre the chreia was a subject of collection. Scholars such as Plutarch or Seneca kept their own private collections of chreiai. Published collections were also available. The chreia is primarily known, however, for its role in education. Students were introduced to simple chreiai almost as soon as they could read. Later they practiced the complex grammar of Greek by putting these chreiai through changes of voice and tense. As one of the last stages in their preparation for rhetoric—this is where chreiai serve as one of the progymnasmata—they would elaborate the theme of a chreiai into a formal eight-paragraph essay. The student would praise, paraphrase, explain, contrast, compare, provide an example, make a judgment, and, in conclusion, exhort the reader.

References

• Hock, Ronald F., Edward N. O'Neil. 1986. The Chreia in Ancient Rhetoric. Vol. 1. Atlanta: Scholars Press.
• Hock, Ronald F., Edward N. O'Neil. 2002. The Chreia in Ancient Rhetoric. Vol. 2. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature.

Notes

1. ^ On the meaning of chria cf. Quintilian, Institutio oratoria 1,9,4. and Seneca, Epistulae morales 33,7.