Progymnasmata
Progymnasmata was a set of rudimentary exercises designed to prepare students of rhetoric for the creation and performance of orations. Following the stage of progymnasmata, the student engaged in gymnasmata and then in their own declamations.
There are 14 progymasmata, some of which involve exercises on different parts of a typical oration, others involved practice on different oratory genres.
The 14 Progymnasmata
The following 14 progymnasmata are taught in order, with similar ones grouped together.
- Fable
- Narrative
- Chreia
- Proverb
- Refutation
- Confirmation
- Commonplace
- Encomium
- Vituperation
- Comparison
- Impersonation
- Description
- Thesis or Theme
- Defend / Attack a Law
Related Figures
Gibson, Craig (2008). Libanius's Progymnasmata: model exercises in Greek prose composition and rhetoric. Atlanta, GA: Society of Biblical Literature. Google Books: http://books.google.com/books?id=kRi-If9IAOYC&pg=PR22&lpg=PR22&dq=of+the+progymnasmata+of+Aphthonius+and+of+Libanius&source=bl&ots=xHnyFubNmH&sig=oShSzz5Uq4w3zO39QbC-x94-vN4&hl=en&ei=wq2CS7rDGZDg8QblraCmBQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CAkQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=of%20the%20progymnasmata%20of%20Aphthonius%20and%20of%20Libanius&f=false Retrieved April 5, 2010.
Heath, Malcolm (1997). Translation of Aphthonius: Progymnasmata
http://www.leeds.ac.uk/classics/resources/rhetoric/prog-aph.htm Retrieved April 5, 2010.
Hermogenes of Tarsus, developed progymnasmata in the second century CE and Aelius Festus Aphthonius, and Libanius of Antioch did so in the third century.
Johnson, Francis (1943). Two Renaissance Textbooks of Rhetoric: Aphthonius' "Progymnasmata" and Rainolde's "A Booke Called the Foundacion of Rhetorike" The Huntington Library Quarterly, Vol. 6, No. 4 (Aug., 1943), pp. 427-444
Nadeau, Ray (1952) The Progymnasmata of Aphthonius in translation
Communication Monographs, Volume 1919, 4, 264-285. http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/title%7Edb=all%7Econtent=t713695619%7Etab=issueslist%7Ebranches=19 - v1919