Ancient Literacies

(Marvins-Underground-K-12) #1

between Christianity and ancient philosophy.^15 Thechreiais usually a


single sentence or brief exchange culminating in a witty or profound put-


down. It is associated with Cynic philosophy in particular, the biting, dog-


like retort: ‘‘Diogenes is to be praised for rubbing away on his genital


organ in public and saying to the bystanders, ‘If only it were as easy to rub


away hunger.’’’^16 This is not philosophy as Plato would understand it:


there is no question of giving alogosand constructing an extended dia-


lectical argument toward truth. Nor is it perhaps quite as David Sedley


describes it, ‘‘a practical approach to life’’;^17 at least this example of


Diogenes is unlikely to prove practical in any normal city, ancient or


modern. It is closer perhaps to what Foucault would probably call a


stylistics of living: an attitude. It captures a view of the world not through


rules or argument but through exemplary expression. Most historians


believe that the sayings of Jesus circulated separately from the narrative


biographies of the Gospels precisely in this form of thechreia: hence one


motivation for the considerable interest in them.


For the purposes of my argument today, perhaps the most relevant


Second Sophistic example of thechreiatradition is Lucian’sDemonax,
which, although it has the form of a biography, contains at its core fifty


examples of Demonax’s put-downs (Lucian 9.12–62).^18 Each is a brief


paragraph or sentence. There is no structure to the list, no chronology or


narrative. Most importantly, each is offered as an example of his ‘‘pithy


and witty expressions’’ (9.12) and is available for recirculation as a dis-


creteexemplumof how the Cynic philosopher faced (down) the world.


This probably looks back to the tradition of collected material, oral and


then written, on Pythagoras—the exemplary sage. His sayings, as the


master of the sect, were collected and circulated, and used as part of the


group formation of the sect. Demonax may not have a sect, but in


Lucian’s biography of him, he has a gospel for any future disciples.


The chreiacan prove in this way a serious and effective form of


circulating a way of doing things. It is not by chance that so many


hagiographic saints’ lives, at the point of martyrdom, turn to the witty


put-down as a form of assertion of authoritative control. Thechreiahas


the advantage of being memorable, short, and, above all, powerful—a sign


of power, and repeated as a demonstration of power. Hence its effective-


ness in circulation. Thechreiawill turn out to be an important model for


my argument because it shows how powerful an ideological tool—an


educative or persuasive form—the brief and pointed remark can be in


practice. It circulates a view of the world with striking efficiency.



  1. See Hock and O’Neil 1986; 2002 (and Kennedy 2003, for translations of the
    progumnasmata). Also Mack and Robbins 1989; Mack 1987; Robbins 1988. Good back
    ground in Morgan 1998; Cribiore 2001.

  2. Plutarchde Stoic. repugn. 21, 1044b.

  3. Sedley 1980, 5.

  4. OnDemonax, see Branham 1989, 57 63.


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