Definition:
An elementary exercise (progymnasmata) in which the speaker or writer comments briefly on a famous event or saying. See also: What Are the Progymnasmata?
Etymology:
From the Greek, "useful"Examples and Observations:
- "Chreia is an important link in a series of writing steps leading to full persuasive essays. It is the first exercise in the progymnasmata sequence where the student is not merely retelling a narrative.
"In this exercise the student takes a Chreia and amplifies it through a series of topics from a fixed outline. The aim of the exercise is for the student to show why the Chreia is wise and praiseworthy.
"Along with its twin-progymnasmata, Proverb, this exercise explains the meaning of a concept or idea. Amplifying a Chreia is, in terms of content, a simple exercise. The student is easily able to generate the support for the brief anecdote because its lesson is simple and commonsensical. He is therefore able to concentrate on how to say what he wants to say, while the content of the exercise is fairly easy to choose materials for."
(Lene Mahler Jaqua, "Chreia," June 2004) - "In chreia, ancient students moved from composing narratives to amplifying them, sometimes by fleshing out the bare narrative but more often by adding commentary on famous deeds or utterances. The ability to amplify on a theme was much prized in antiquity and throughout the premodern period, because it demonstrated the fruits of a rhetor's long study and well-trained memory. In his sixteenth-century textbook on copia, Erasmus wrote that amplification was 'just like displaying some object for sale first of all through a grill or inside a wrapping, and then unwrapping it and opening it out and displaying it fully to the gaze.'"
(Sharon Crowley and Debra Hawhee, Ancient Rhetorics for Contemporary Students, Pearson, 2004)
Pronunciation: CRAY-uh
Also Known As: anecdote
