Re: Any Idea What Work Clement and Epiphanius Are Citing?
Posted: Fri Jul 21, 2017 1:46 pm
A chreia (khreia) is a brief saying or action making a point, attributed to some specified person or something corresponding to a person, and maxim (gnômê) and reminiscence (apomnêmoneuma) are connected with it. Every brief maxim attributed to a person creates a chreia. A reminiscence is an action or a saying useful for life. The maxim, however, differs from the chreia in four ways: the chreia is always attributed to a person, the maxim not always; the chreia sometimes states a universal, sometimes a particular, the maxim only a universal; furthermore, sometimes the chreia is a pleasantry not useful for life, the maxim is always about something [] useful in life; fourth, the chreia is an action or a saying, the maxim is only a saying. The reminiscence is distinguished from the chreia in two ways: the chreia is brief, the reminiscence is sometimes extended, and the chreia is attributed to a particular person, while the reminiscence is also remembered for its own sake. A chreia is given that name par excellence, because more than the other (exercises) it is useful (khreiôdês) for many situations in life, just as we have grown accustomed to call Homer “the poet” because of his excellence, although there are many poets.
The most general categories of the chreia are three: some are verbal (logikai), some describe an action (praktikai), some mixed. Verbal are those that have their authority through words, without action; for example, “Diogenes the philosopher, when asked by someone how to become famous, replied that it was by thinking least about fame.” There are two species of verbal chreias, declarative (apophantikon) and responsive (apokritikon). Of the declarative, some are statements volunteered by the speaker; for example, “Isocrates the sophist used to say that those of his students with natural ability were children of gods.” Others relate to a circumstance; for example, “Diogenes, the Cynic philosopher, seeing a rich young man who was uneducated, said ‘He is dirt plated with silver.’ ” Here Diogenes did not make a simple statement but one based on what he saw. In addition, there are four species of responsive chreias: in response to a question; in response to an inquiry; giving a cause for the answer to a question; and what is called “apocritical,” having the same name as the genus. A question (erôtêsis) differs from an inquiry (pysma) in that in response to a question it is necessary only to agree or disagree— for example, to toss or nod the head, or answer “yes” or “no”—while an inquiry demands a longer answer. Thus, a reply to a question is, for example, “Pittacus of Mitylene, when asked if anyone escapes the gods’ notice when doing wrong, said ‘No, not even in contemplating it.’ ” [] Anything added after the negative is superfluous, since the response is sufficient when he has made a denial. A pysmatic chreia is, for example, the following: “Theano, the Pythagorean philosopher, having been asked by someone how soon after sexual intercourse with a husband may a woman go to the Thesmophoreion, replied, ‘From her own husband, immediately, from somebody else’s, never.’ ” Those giving a cause for the answer to a question are those that, apart from the answer to the question, include some cause or advice or something of the sort; for example, “Socrates, having been asked if the king of the Persians seemed to him to be happy, said, ‘I cannot say, for I cannot know the state of his education.’ ” Apocritic chreias are those not in answer to a question or inquiry but in response to some statement; for example, “Once, when Diogenes was eating his lunch in the market place and invited Plato to join him, Plato said, ‘Diogenes, how pleasant your lack of pretension would be if it were not pretentious!’ ” Diogenes was not asking Plato about anything nor was he inquiring of him, but he simply invites him to lunch, which is neither. There is, besides these, also another species of chreia falling into the verbal category and called “double.” A double chreia is one having statements by two persons where either statement makes a chreia by one person; for example, “Alexander, the king of Macedon, stood over Diogenes when he was sleeping and said, ‘A man who is a counselor should not sleep all night’ (Iliad .), and Diogenes replied (with Iliad .), ‘A man to whom the people have been entrusted and who has many cares.’ ” In this case, there would have been a chreia even without the addition of the answer. Chreias are actional (praktikai) when they reveal some meaning without speech, and some of these are active, some passive. Active ones describe some action; for example, “When Diogenes the Cynic philosopher saw [] a boy eating fancy food, he beat his pedagogue with his staff.” Passive are those signifying something experienced; for example, “Didymon the flute player, taken in adultery, was hung by his name.” Mixed chreias are those that partake of both the verbal and the actional but have the meaning in the action; for example, “Pythagoras the philosopher, having been asked how long is the life of men, going up onto the roof, peeped out briefly, by this making clear that life was short.” And further, “A Laconian, when someone asked him where the Lacedaimonians set the limits of their land, showed his spear.” These then are the species of chreias. Some are expressed as gnomic sayings, some as logical demonstrations, some as a jest, some as a syllogism, some as an enthymeme, some with an example, some as a prayer, some with a sign, some as tropes, some as a wish, some with metalepsis, and others are composed of any combination of the ways just mentioned. Cf. Epictetus ... Diogenes’ point was that he was not a ruler. Cf. Libanius, Progymnasmata .. Reading Didymôn with Lana and Butts (pp. –) for the Didymus of the mss; cf. Diogenes Laertius .. I.e., hung from didymoi, “the twins,” = his testicles, as an appropriate punishment. A chreia as a gnomic saying is, for example, “Bion the sophist said that love of money is the mother city of all evil.” As a logical demonstration, for example, “Isocrates the orator used to advise his acquaintances to honor teachers ahead of parents; for the latter have been only the cause of living but teachers are the cause of living well.” Isocrates expressed his statement with a logical reason. As a jest, for example, “When Olympias learned that her son Alexander was proclaiming himself the child of Zeus, she said ‘Will he not stop slandering me to Hera?’ ” Syllogistically, for example, “When Diogenes the philosopher saw a young man adorning his person excessively, he said ‘If you are doing it to attract husbands, you are making a mistake; if for wives, you are doing wrong.’ ” Enthymematically, for example, “When his acquaintance Apollodorus said to him, ‘The Athenians have unjustly condemned you to death,’ Socrates broke into a laugh and said, ‘Were you wanting them to do so justly?’ ” [] We need to add a proposition that it is better to be condemned unjustly than justly, which seems to have been omitted in the chreia but is potentially clear. With an example, as when Alexander, king of the Macedonians, being urged by his friends to amass money, said, “But even Croesus didn’t gain much from it.” In the form of a wish, for example, “Damon the athletic trainer had swollen feet; when his shoes were stolen, he said. ‘I hope they fit the thief!’ ” By using a sign, for example, “When Alexander, the king of the Macedonians, was asked by someone where he kept his treasures, ‘Here,’ he said, pointing to his friends.” As a trope (i.e., metaphor), for example, “Plato the philosopher used to say that the sprouts of virtue grow with sweat and toil.” With ambiguity, for example, “Isocrates the orator, when a boy was being enrolled as a student with him and the person who was enrolling him asked what he needed to have, said, ‘A tablet kainou and a pencil kainou.’ ” It is ambiguous whether he means a tablet “and a mind” (kai nou) and a pencil “and a mind” or a new (kainou) tablet and new pencil. There is metalepsis whenever, in answering, someone changes what is said to something other than what is being asked; for example, “Pyrrhus the king of the Epirotes, when some people at a drinking party asked whether the flute player Antigennidas or Satyrus was the better, said, ‘To me, the general Polysperchon (is better).’ ” The combined form is not unclear, because it often occurs; for the gnomic can be melded into the jesting, or the use of a sign combined with an example, or ambiguity with metalepsis, or, simply put, there can be a combination of all the other forms, two or more being taken together into one chreia; for example, “Diogenes the Cynic philosopher, seeing a young man born from adultery who was throwing stones in the marketplace, told the youth to stop, ‘Lest out of ignorance [] you hit your father.’ ” The answer includes at one and the same time a sign and a jest. Chreias are practiced by restatement, grammatical inflection, comment, and contradiction, and we expand and compress the chreia, and in addition (at a later stage in study) we refute and confirm. Practice by restatement is self-evident; for we try to express the assigned chreia, as best we can, with the same words (as in the version given us) or with others in the clearest way. Inflection takes many forms; for we change the person in the chreia into all three numbers and do this in several ways: (expressing it as) one person speaking about one or two or more; and conversely two speaking about one and two and more, and also plural persons speaking about one and two and more. If the chreia is that Isocrates the orator said that those with natural ability are the children of the gods, we inflect it as one person speaking of one other by saying, “Isocrates the orator said that the student with natural ability was a child of gods”; and as two of two, that “The twin orators Isocrates said the twin students with natural ability are children of gods”; and as plural of plural, that “The orators Isocrates said the students with natural ability are children of gods.” From these examples it is evident how we shall inflect the other forms; for (the original statements) are changed into the five grammatical cases. But since some chreias report sayings, some actions, and some a mixture of both of these, and since there are in turn other species of these, in each of these we shall try to teach inflection on the basis of an example. The nominative presents no difficulty; for each of the chreias is customarily presented in that case. We practice the genitive as follows. If the chreia is a saying, we shall add to it that the saying “has become memorable,” or “The story is remembered of X saying. . . .” The former is appropriately added after the statement [] of the whole chreia; for example, “The saying of Isocrates, remarking (genitive) that those students with natural ability are children of gods, has become memorable.” The second phrase can be in the middle or in the beginning of the statement; for example, “Pittacus the Mitylenean’s saying, upon being asked if anyone escapes notice of the gods when doing wrong, is remembered: ‘Not even if contemplating it.’ ” “The story is remembered” well fits all chreias about a saying except for a volunteered statement; for that use “The saying of X . . . has become memorable.” If the chreia describes an action, and if that is passive, one should add, “The experience of X . . . has become memorable”; if it is active, “The action of X . . . has become memorable,” and similarly in the case of a mixed chreia. Each of these, of course, ought to be put at the end of the chreias; for example, “Of Didymon the flute player, having been taken in adultery and hung by his ‘name,’ the experience is memorable,” and “Of Diogenes the Cynic philosopher, seeing a boy eating fancy food and beating his pedagogue with his staff, the action is memorable.” In the dative case, in all chreias except the passive, we shall add “It seemed to X,” or “It appeared to X,” or “It occurred to X,” or “It came to X,” or something of that sort; for example, “To Diogenes the Cynic philosopher, seeing a rich young man who was uneducated, it seemed right to say, ‘He is dirt plated with silver.’ ” In the case of a passive chreia, we add “It happened to X”; for example, “To Didymus the flute player, being taken in adultery, it happened that he was hanged from his ‘name.’ ” In the accusative we shall generally add to every chreia, “They say,” or “It is said;” for example, Diogenes (accusative) the Cynic philosopher, on seeing a rich young man who was uneducated, they say to have said, ‘He is dirt plated with silver.’ ” The vocative is clear; for we address the remark to the person to whom the chreia is attributed as though present with us; for example, “O Diogenes, Cynic philosopher, on seeing a rich young man [] who was uneducated, did you say ‘He is dirt plated with silver?’ ” We can add a comment (epiphônein), appropriately and briefly approving what is said in the chreia, to the effect that it is true or noble or beneficial, or that other famous men have thought the same; for example, “Euripides the poet said the mind of each of us is a god.” We shall comment from the point of view of truth as follows: “For the mind of each is truly a god in regard to the benefits it brings by exhorting us and keeping us from loss.” A comment from that of the noble is, for example, “It is noble for each one to think god is not in gold or silver but in himself.” From that of the beneficial, the following: “. . . in order that we might not have ease of doing wrong by thinking that punishment lies far off.” From the witness of the famous, whenever we say that a wise man or lawgiver or poet or some other renowned person agrees with the saying; for example, in the chreia just mentioned we shall say (Odyssey .–), “For such is the mind of men who live on the earth / As the father of men and gods grants for a day.” We contradict chreias from their contraries; for example, against Isocrates’ saying that teachers ought to be honored above parents because the latter provided us with life, but teachers with living well. In opposition, we say that it would not be possible to live well if parents had not provided us with life. One should, however, understand that it is not possible to contradict every chreia, since many are said well and are in no way faulty, just as it is not possible to praise all, because the absurdity of some is immediately obvious. We expand the chreia whenever we lengthen the questions and answers in it, and the action or suffering, if any. We compress by doing the opposite. For example, this chreia is brief: “Epaminon The chreia is thus recast in indirect discourse with subject accusative and verb infinitive. Euripides, frag. , ed. Nauck; sometimes attributed to Menander or other poets.
The most general categories of the chreia are three: some are verbal (logikai), some describe an action (praktikai), some mixed. Verbal are those that have their authority through words, without action; for example, “Diogenes the philosopher, when asked by someone how to become famous, replied that it was by thinking least about fame.” There are two species of verbal chreias, declarative (apophantikon) and responsive (apokritikon). Of the declarative, some are statements volunteered by the speaker; for example, “Isocrates the sophist used to say that those of his students with natural ability were children of gods.” Others relate to a circumstance; for example, “Diogenes, the Cynic philosopher, seeing a rich young man who was uneducated, said ‘He is dirt plated with silver.’ ” Here Diogenes did not make a simple statement but one based on what he saw. In addition, there are four species of responsive chreias: in response to a question; in response to an inquiry; giving a cause for the answer to a question; and what is called “apocritical,” having the same name as the genus. A question (erôtêsis) differs from an inquiry (pysma) in that in response to a question it is necessary only to agree or disagree— for example, to toss or nod the head, or answer “yes” or “no”—while an inquiry demands a longer answer. Thus, a reply to a question is, for example, “Pittacus of Mitylene, when asked if anyone escapes the gods’ notice when doing wrong, said ‘No, not even in contemplating it.’ ” [] Anything added after the negative is superfluous, since the response is sufficient when he has made a denial. A pysmatic chreia is, for example, the following: “Theano, the Pythagorean philosopher, having been asked by someone how soon after sexual intercourse with a husband may a woman go to the Thesmophoreion, replied, ‘From her own husband, immediately, from somebody else’s, never.’ ” Those giving a cause for the answer to a question are those that, apart from the answer to the question, include some cause or advice or something of the sort; for example, “Socrates, having been asked if the king of the Persians seemed to him to be happy, said, ‘I cannot say, for I cannot know the state of his education.’ ” Apocritic chreias are those not in answer to a question or inquiry but in response to some statement; for example, “Once, when Diogenes was eating his lunch in the market place and invited Plato to join him, Plato said, ‘Diogenes, how pleasant your lack of pretension would be if it were not pretentious!’ ” Diogenes was not asking Plato about anything nor was he inquiring of him, but he simply invites him to lunch, which is neither. There is, besides these, also another species of chreia falling into the verbal category and called “double.” A double chreia is one having statements by two persons where either statement makes a chreia by one person; for example, “Alexander, the king of Macedon, stood over Diogenes when he was sleeping and said, ‘A man who is a counselor should not sleep all night’ (Iliad .), and Diogenes replied (with Iliad .), ‘A man to whom the people have been entrusted and who has many cares.’ ” In this case, there would have been a chreia even without the addition of the answer. Chreias are actional (praktikai) when they reveal some meaning without speech, and some of these are active, some passive. Active ones describe some action; for example, “When Diogenes the Cynic philosopher saw [] a boy eating fancy food, he beat his pedagogue with his staff.” Passive are those signifying something experienced; for example, “Didymon the flute player, taken in adultery, was hung by his name.” Mixed chreias are those that partake of both the verbal and the actional but have the meaning in the action; for example, “Pythagoras the philosopher, having been asked how long is the life of men, going up onto the roof, peeped out briefly, by this making clear that life was short.” And further, “A Laconian, when someone asked him where the Lacedaimonians set the limits of their land, showed his spear.” These then are the species of chreias. Some are expressed as gnomic sayings, some as logical demonstrations, some as a jest, some as a syllogism, some as an enthymeme, some with an example, some as a prayer, some with a sign, some as tropes, some as a wish, some with metalepsis, and others are composed of any combination of the ways just mentioned. Cf. Epictetus ... Diogenes’ point was that he was not a ruler. Cf. Libanius, Progymnasmata .. Reading Didymôn with Lana and Butts (pp. –) for the Didymus of the mss; cf. Diogenes Laertius .. I.e., hung from didymoi, “the twins,” = his testicles, as an appropriate punishment. A chreia as a gnomic saying is, for example, “Bion the sophist said that love of money is the mother city of all evil.” As a logical demonstration, for example, “Isocrates the orator used to advise his acquaintances to honor teachers ahead of parents; for the latter have been only the cause of living but teachers are the cause of living well.” Isocrates expressed his statement with a logical reason. As a jest, for example, “When Olympias learned that her son Alexander was proclaiming himself the child of Zeus, she said ‘Will he not stop slandering me to Hera?’ ” Syllogistically, for example, “When Diogenes the philosopher saw a young man adorning his person excessively, he said ‘If you are doing it to attract husbands, you are making a mistake; if for wives, you are doing wrong.’ ” Enthymematically, for example, “When his acquaintance Apollodorus said to him, ‘The Athenians have unjustly condemned you to death,’ Socrates broke into a laugh and said, ‘Were you wanting them to do so justly?’ ” [] We need to add a proposition that it is better to be condemned unjustly than justly, which seems to have been omitted in the chreia but is potentially clear. With an example, as when Alexander, king of the Macedonians, being urged by his friends to amass money, said, “But even Croesus didn’t gain much from it.” In the form of a wish, for example, “Damon the athletic trainer had swollen feet; when his shoes were stolen, he said. ‘I hope they fit the thief!’ ” By using a sign, for example, “When Alexander, the king of the Macedonians, was asked by someone where he kept his treasures, ‘Here,’ he said, pointing to his friends.” As a trope (i.e., metaphor), for example, “Plato the philosopher used to say that the sprouts of virtue grow with sweat and toil.” With ambiguity, for example, “Isocrates the orator, when a boy was being enrolled as a student with him and the person who was enrolling him asked what he needed to have, said, ‘A tablet kainou and a pencil kainou.’ ” It is ambiguous whether he means a tablet “and a mind” (kai nou) and a pencil “and a mind” or a new (kainou) tablet and new pencil. There is metalepsis whenever, in answering, someone changes what is said to something other than what is being asked; for example, “Pyrrhus the king of the Epirotes, when some people at a drinking party asked whether the flute player Antigennidas or Satyrus was the better, said, ‘To me, the general Polysperchon (is better).’ ” The combined form is not unclear, because it often occurs; for the gnomic can be melded into the jesting, or the use of a sign combined with an example, or ambiguity with metalepsis, or, simply put, there can be a combination of all the other forms, two or more being taken together into one chreia; for example, “Diogenes the Cynic philosopher, seeing a young man born from adultery who was throwing stones in the marketplace, told the youth to stop, ‘Lest out of ignorance [] you hit your father.’ ” The answer includes at one and the same time a sign and a jest. Chreias are practiced by restatement, grammatical inflection, comment, and contradiction, and we expand and compress the chreia, and in addition (at a later stage in study) we refute and confirm. Practice by restatement is self-evident; for we try to express the assigned chreia, as best we can, with the same words (as in the version given us) or with others in the clearest way. Inflection takes many forms; for we change the person in the chreia into all three numbers and do this in several ways: (expressing it as) one person speaking about one or two or more; and conversely two speaking about one and two and more, and also plural persons speaking about one and two and more. If the chreia is that Isocrates the orator said that those with natural ability are the children of the gods, we inflect it as one person speaking of one other by saying, “Isocrates the orator said that the student with natural ability was a child of gods”; and as two of two, that “The twin orators Isocrates said the twin students with natural ability are children of gods”; and as plural of plural, that “The orators Isocrates said the students with natural ability are children of gods.” From these examples it is evident how we shall inflect the other forms; for (the original statements) are changed into the five grammatical cases. But since some chreias report sayings, some actions, and some a mixture of both of these, and since there are in turn other species of these, in each of these we shall try to teach inflection on the basis of an example. The nominative presents no difficulty; for each of the chreias is customarily presented in that case. We practice the genitive as follows. If the chreia is a saying, we shall add to it that the saying “has become memorable,” or “The story is remembered of X saying. . . .” The former is appropriately added after the statement [] of the whole chreia; for example, “The saying of Isocrates, remarking (genitive) that those students with natural ability are children of gods, has become memorable.” The second phrase can be in the middle or in the beginning of the statement; for example, “Pittacus the Mitylenean’s saying, upon being asked if anyone escapes notice of the gods when doing wrong, is remembered: ‘Not even if contemplating it.’ ” “The story is remembered” well fits all chreias about a saying except for a volunteered statement; for that use “The saying of X . . . has become memorable.” If the chreia describes an action, and if that is passive, one should add, “The experience of X . . . has become memorable”; if it is active, “The action of X . . . has become memorable,” and similarly in the case of a mixed chreia. Each of these, of course, ought to be put at the end of the chreias; for example, “Of Didymon the flute player, having been taken in adultery and hung by his ‘name,’ the experience is memorable,” and “Of Diogenes the Cynic philosopher, seeing a boy eating fancy food and beating his pedagogue with his staff, the action is memorable.” In the dative case, in all chreias except the passive, we shall add “It seemed to X,” or “It appeared to X,” or “It occurred to X,” or “It came to X,” or something of that sort; for example, “To Diogenes the Cynic philosopher, seeing a rich young man who was uneducated, it seemed right to say, ‘He is dirt plated with silver.’ ” In the case of a passive chreia, we add “It happened to X”; for example, “To Didymus the flute player, being taken in adultery, it happened that he was hanged from his ‘name.’ ” In the accusative we shall generally add to every chreia, “They say,” or “It is said;” for example, Diogenes (accusative) the Cynic philosopher, on seeing a rich young man who was uneducated, they say to have said, ‘He is dirt plated with silver.’ ” The vocative is clear; for we address the remark to the person to whom the chreia is attributed as though present with us; for example, “O Diogenes, Cynic philosopher, on seeing a rich young man [] who was uneducated, did you say ‘He is dirt plated with silver?’ ” We can add a comment (epiphônein), appropriately and briefly approving what is said in the chreia, to the effect that it is true or noble or beneficial, or that other famous men have thought the same; for example, “Euripides the poet said the mind of each of us is a god.” We shall comment from the point of view of truth as follows: “For the mind of each is truly a god in regard to the benefits it brings by exhorting us and keeping us from loss.” A comment from that of the noble is, for example, “It is noble for each one to think god is not in gold or silver but in himself.” From that of the beneficial, the following: “. . . in order that we might not have ease of doing wrong by thinking that punishment lies far off.” From the witness of the famous, whenever we say that a wise man or lawgiver or poet or some other renowned person agrees with the saying; for example, in the chreia just mentioned we shall say (Odyssey .–), “For such is the mind of men who live on the earth / As the father of men and gods grants for a day.” We contradict chreias from their contraries; for example, against Isocrates’ saying that teachers ought to be honored above parents because the latter provided us with life, but teachers with living well. In opposition, we say that it would not be possible to live well if parents had not provided us with life. One should, however, understand that it is not possible to contradict every chreia, since many are said well and are in no way faulty, just as it is not possible to praise all, because the absurdity of some is immediately obvious. We expand the chreia whenever we lengthen the questions and answers in it, and the action or suffering, if any. We compress by doing the opposite. For example, this chreia is brief: “Epaminon The chreia is thus recast in indirect discourse with subject accusative and verb infinitive. Euripides, frag. , ed. Nauck; sometimes attributed to Menander or other poets.