Abstract
This study concentrates on the analyses of chosen progymnasmata which can be found in the apocryphal Acts of Paul and Thecla. zèïðïéÀá can be considered fundamental. This "school exercise" can be defined as an imitation of a character of a person that appears in speech during certain specified circumstances and is ideal for use in romances and in ancient novels. zèïðïéÀá is actually a ðñïóùðïðïéÀá of a human person, that being a specific person or a person of a certain type (i.e.
Apostle). The second progymnasma which can be mentioned is hêöñáóéo, or description.
Theon of Alexandria talks about hêöñáóéo as a separate progymnasmatic exercise and defines it as a descriptive treaty that is supposed to capture that which is vividly displayed in the eyes (of the listeners). The subjects that hêöñáóéo is concerned with are different and it is important to mention the description of personas.
In the Acts of Paul and Thecla, the physiognomic description of the apostle Paul is given (AThe 3), which is not centered on the description of Paul's manly beauty, but metonymically, from a certain perspective, uncovers Paul's "soul", which is in accord with the "genre" of Acts and the aim of the author to present Paul in these apocryphal acts. Both progymnasmata characterize Paul's person and form the readers' point of view of Paul and the gospel which he preaches.