Biblica_1_Layout 1 20/01/12 11:44 Pagina 585 585 PROSOPOPOETICS AND CONFLICT: SPEECH AND EXPECTATIONS Plutarch offers one example of such attributed speech in his Life of Alexander. In this bios Plutarch repeatedly expands a variety of chreia with statements attributed to Alexander and other characters in order to flesh out Alexander’s character 16. Indeed, it is from this bios that Plutarch’s comment about the importance of a “simple jest” or “phrase” for characterization cited above comes. Often framed in two- person dialogues, these expanded chreia include Alexander’s taming of Bucephalas. After watching his father’s men repeatedly fail in their attempts to control the horse, Alexander defiantly claims he can “man- age [this horse] better than others [his elders] have!” (Alex. 6.3 [PER- RIN, LCL]). Startled by his brash words — what Philip calls his “rashness” (propeth//j) — Alexander makes a wager with his father that he can reign in Bucephalas causing laughter to erupt from the sur- rounding crowd. Yet, when Alexander succeeds in taming the horse, Philip prophetically responds, “My son, seek thee out a kingdom equal to thyself; Macedonia has not room for thee” (Alex. 6.5 [PERRIN, LCL]). Alexander’s confident statements are matched by his ability in this chreia, which acts as a herald for future events (cf. Alex. 29.4). Such a portrait, while shocking to Philip and the other characters within the narrative, is nevertheless appropriate for Plutarch’s audi- ence who knows Alexander’s ambition and illustrious career. Another example comes from Chariton’s Chaereas and Callirhoe. In this novel, Callirhoe consistently speaks as a noblewoman who, while virtuous and chaste, is also characterized as a “proud” general’s daughter (1.3). For this reason, she lashes out when her first husband, Chaereas, falsely accuses her of adultery. Even more striking are her reactions to Dionysius’s praise after a tragic kidnapping separates her from a repentant Chaereas. Although she is Dionysius’s newly bought slave, Callirhoe cannot control her tongue but cries out against his in- sinuation that perhaps her behavior has caused her poor fortune: “Don’t insult me! I have nothing to be ashamed of. But I am of higher rank than my present condition suggests, and I do not want people to think I am making unjustified claims; I do not want to tell a story that people who do not know the situation will not believe; my previous life says nothing about my present condition” (2.5) 17. The audience, 16 See Theon, Prog. 96-97 on chreia as well as its similarities to and dif- ferences from anecdotes or “reminiscences”. 17 Translation taken from B.P. REARDON (trans.), “Chaereas and Callirhoe”, Collected Ancient Greek Novels. (ed. B.P. REARDON) (Berkeley, CA 1989).