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Defining EkphrasisThe ancient handbooks on rhetoric (known as the Progymnasmata) define ekphrasis thus:Ekphrasis is a descriptive speech which brings the thing shown vividly before the eyes. 1 As has recently been emphasised, this Graeco-Roman definition by no means refers only to descriptions of works of art, by contrast with the usual modern meaning of the word ekphrasis, and our use of the term in this volume. 2 On the contrary, the subjects listed by the handbooks include persons (prosopa), places (topoi), time {chronoi) and events (pragmata), with the later Progymnasmata adding plants (phyta), animals (zoa) and festivals (panegyreis). 3 These are themselves glossed by examples:An example of people is Homer's 'he was bandy-legged and lame in one foot'; of actions, the description of a land or sea battle; of times, peace and war; of places, harbours, sea-shores and cities; of seasons, spring, summer and festival. You could also have a mixed ekphrasis-such as the night battle in Thucydides. For night is a time, but battle is an action. 4 These examples (especially the focus on battles) show that ekphrasis is as much a venture into descriptive narrative as into description per se. 5

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