Charles Explorer logo
🇬🇧

Paul in Progymnasmata of the Acts of Paul and Thecla

Publication |
2009

Abstract

This study concentrates on the analyses of chosen progymnasmatas which can be found in the apocryphal Acts of Paul and Thecla. “Ethopoiia” 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.

Ethopoiia is actually a prosopopoiia 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 “ekphrasis”, or description. Theon of Alexandria talks about ekphrasis 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 ekphrasis is concerned with are different and it is important to mention the description of personas.