Tweet
(Written by ULRICH MOENNIG)
THE MAIN FORMS AND THEMES of this first period included scholarly and popular epic songs celebrating the new champions of Hellenism, the young warrior Armouris and Digenis Akritas, defender of the Byzantine Empire; long compositions; verse romance, which bore the stamp of influence from Western courtly tradition, but a genre nevertheless rooted in the Hellenistic and imperial Roman ages; ancient stories reviving mythical and historical figures such as Achilles and Theseus and Alexander the Great; and didactic, sardonic texts, concerned with philosophy and the allegory of daily life, with birds and animals taking the leading roles. But these will prove to be also the mainstay of Modern Greek literature, modified, of course, by the various aesthetic and other values specific to each era.
This period can be dated from the 11th century to the Fall of Constantinople; its literature developed throughout the Greek world, although the cultural and educational centre was undoubtedly Constantinople. This is where everything began, where everything was planned and where everything developed, and where the centuries-old Byzantine Empire came to an end - hence the map of Constantinople at the beginning of this section, to represent both the geographical and symbolic centre of this world.
Folk Stories about Alexander the Great
Just one historical figure from antiquity enjoyed an undisputed place in the world chronicles of Byzantium: Alexander the Great, the third of the four masters of the world. Achilles held second place, although it was not so much Achilles himself who was at the centre of interest as the subject of the Trojan War and the events that followed it, including, most prominently, the flight of Aeneas to the West and the foundation of Rome.
Narrative literature of the late Byzantine and post-Byzantine periods numbers many works whose theme is Alexander the Great or the Trojan War. A similar range of interest in the narrative and literary treatment of subjects taken from antiquity is to be found in the French works of the twelfth century, with the so-called romans d’antiquite (Roman d’Eneas, Roman de Thebes and Roman de Troie). The Byzantine poets, however, show greater independence as they adapt the themes of antiquity to their own notions of the world and its past.
An outstanding example of the adaptation of the figure of Alexander the Great to the literary needs of the age is provided by the fourteenth-century Greek Alexander Romance, consisting of 6120 lines of ‘political’ verse. The audience follows the hero on his conquest of the ancient world and at the same time is taken on a tour to the corners of the earth, and even beyond. In the work, the geographical perception of the world stems from the Scriptures rather than from classical or empirical geographical knowledge. Alexander departs from Macedonia and makes his first stop in Rome. From there he proceeds to the western edge of the world, which is encircled by the great Stream of Ocean. Then he marches along the coast of North Africa until he reaches Egypt, where he establishes the city of Alexandria. He then continues east until he reaches Jerusalem, where he is welcomed by the prophet Jeremiah; he carries on to Babylon, where he visits the site of the Tower of Babel, and then heads for the uninhabited regions of the eastern end of the world. In this last part of his travels he passes through the land of eternal damnation for the sinners of this world, while he also has the good fortune to get a glimpse of the earthly paradise, although he is unable to enter here as no living man is allowed entry. Like another Messiah, this Alexander struggles to free the world from the bonds of idolatry.
This version of the Greek Alexander Romance was popular reading material for no less than five centuries, undergoing linguistic adaptation and various narrative alterations in the course of time. As early as the fourteenth century it was translated into Slavonic and from Slavonic into other languages, including vernacular Greek. The audience for the text was broadened substantially with the expansion of the Ottoman Empire north and west, and it came to be identified, in general terms, with the limits of Orthodox Christianity. The Greek audience increasingly identified the Persian heathens of the Greek Alexander Romance with their Turkish overlords. A revised version of the Life was printed for the first time in Venice in 1750 under the title Phyllada tou Megalexandrou (Chap-book of Alexander the Great), while in the same year the first ‘researched’ biography of Alexander was published in the modern Greek language as part of the Palaia Istoria of Charles Rollin. Gradually the historical figure of Alexander the Great took the place of the legendary Alexander of the Byzantine tradition. The cover pages of editions of the Phyllada in the nineteenth century and the first decades of the twentieth show Alexander wearing a crown of indeterminate ancient augustness and supposedly historical armour.
From the late fifteenth century onwards, a further Life of Alexander, known as the Rimada tou Megalou Alexandrou, again portraying him more as a fictional than as an historical character, was published, though this account owed more to the ancient sources than the Phyllada. When Dimitrios Zenos, a Greek scholar living in Venice, made the first collection of Greek vernacular literature he preferred to use this thematically more venerable version for inclusion in his printed collection.
The collection in question represented an effort to combine both the ‘delightful’ and the ‘edifying’ elements of Greek lore. Similar criteria lay behind the selection, for printing, of other such texts of a superficially classical content but written in the vernacular: the Theseid (a translation and reworking of Giovanni Boccaccio’s Teseida), the Battle of the Frogs and Mice (a parody of the Homeric epics), the Iliad of Nikolaos Loukanis, and a collection of Aesop’s Fables.
The subject of the Trojan War is found not only in texts dating from late antiquity but also from the Byzantine period.
Folk Versions of War of Troy (Iliad)
Within this context, it is necessary to bear in mind that in both medieval West and East tales of the Trojan War were familiar, as a rule, from the Ephemeris belli Troiani by Dictys Cretensis and the De excidio Troiae historia by Dares of Phrygia, or at second hand, via such texts as the chronicles of Ioannes Malalas and Konstantinos Manasses, who again drew on these two texts. The motive behind the western Europeans’ desire to tackle the subject of the Trojan War was similar to that of the Byzantines:
they considered themselves to be the successors of the Romans and, ultimately, the descendants of Aeneas.
The vernacular literary production of the fourteenth century also includes three long verse accounts of the Trojan War, each presenting a different treatment of the subject. The most popular of these, judging by the seven manuscripts preserving the text, was the Polemos tes Troados (War of Troy), an anonymous work that in essence comprises a loose translation, or paraphrase, in 14,400 lines of fifteen-syllable ‘political’ verse, of the Roman de Troie by Benoit de St. Maure (mid twelfth century).
The Greek version of the Roman de Troie was composed in accordance with the rules of the genre of the late Byzantine romance, though not without some divergences: it does not relate the love story of a central couple, but of many more characters, as the narrative recites the fortunes of successive generations and moves its focus of attention from one set of characters to another. The second of these works, the so-called Byzantine Iliad, or Diegesis genamene en Troia (Tale of Troy), by an anonymous author, also observes the conventions of the romance. The central hero is Paris in the first part and Achilles in the second. The work is comprised of 1166 fifteen-syllable lines and is written on the lines of the tales of fate: in the beginning we are told of an oracle predicting that the as yet unborn Paris will be the cause of the destruction of Troy. However much those around him may try to prevent this evil from occurring, they will succeed only in hastening the realization of the oracle. The third work, a vernacular paraphrase of the Iliad made by Konstantinos Hermoniakos at the court of the despotate of Epirus in about 1330, seems to follow the Homeric text fairly closely. However, in the twenty-four books of 8800 non-rhyming eight-syllable lines of Hermoniakos’ paraphrase, the narrative also relates the events that preceded the action described by Homer as well as the sequel to the sack of Ilium, all in an affected idiom comprised of both vernacular and learned linguistic features.
___________________________________
Odysseas Elytis - Our name is our soul
THE MAIN FORMS AND THEMES of this first period included scholarly and popular epic songs celebrating the new champions of Hellenism, the young warrior Armouris and Digenis Akritas, defender of the Byzantine Empire; long compositions; verse romance, which bore the stamp of influence from Western courtly tradition, but a genre nevertheless rooted in the Hellenistic and imperial Roman ages; ancient stories reviving mythical and historical figures such as Achilles and Theseus and Alexander the Great; and didactic, sardonic texts, concerned with philosophy and the allegory of daily life, with birds and animals taking the leading roles. But these will prove to be also the mainstay of Modern Greek literature, modified, of course, by the various aesthetic and other values specific to each era.
This period can be dated from the 11th century to the Fall of Constantinople; its literature developed throughout the Greek world, although the cultural and educational centre was undoubtedly Constantinople. This is where everything began, where everything was planned and where everything developed, and where the centuries-old Byzantine Empire came to an end - hence the map of Constantinople at the beginning of this section, to represent both the geographical and symbolic centre of this world.
Folk Stories about Alexander the Great
Just one historical figure from antiquity enjoyed an undisputed place in the world chronicles of Byzantium: Alexander the Great, the third of the four masters of the world. Achilles held second place, although it was not so much Achilles himself who was at the centre of interest as the subject of the Trojan War and the events that followed it, including, most prominently, the flight of Aeneas to the West and the foundation of Rome.
Narrative literature of the late Byzantine and post-Byzantine periods numbers many works whose theme is Alexander the Great or the Trojan War. A similar range of interest in the narrative and literary treatment of subjects taken from antiquity is to be found in the French works of the twelfth century, with the so-called romans d’antiquite (Roman d’Eneas, Roman de Thebes and Roman de Troie). The Byzantine poets, however, show greater independence as they adapt the themes of antiquity to their own notions of the world and its past.
An outstanding example of the adaptation of the figure of Alexander the Great to the literary needs of the age is provided by the fourteenth-century Greek Alexander Romance, consisting of 6120 lines of ‘political’ verse. The audience follows the hero on his conquest of the ancient world and at the same time is taken on a tour to the corners of the earth, and even beyond. In the work, the geographical perception of the world stems from the Scriptures rather than from classical or empirical geographical knowledge. Alexander departs from Macedonia and makes his first stop in Rome. From there he proceeds to the western edge of the world, which is encircled by the great Stream of Ocean. Then he marches along the coast of North Africa until he reaches Egypt, where he establishes the city of Alexandria. He then continues east until he reaches Jerusalem, where he is welcomed by the prophet Jeremiah; he carries on to Babylon, where he visits the site of the Tower of Babel, and then heads for the uninhabited regions of the eastern end of the world. In this last part of his travels he passes through the land of eternal damnation for the sinners of this world, while he also has the good fortune to get a glimpse of the earthly paradise, although he is unable to enter here as no living man is allowed entry. Like another Messiah, this Alexander struggles to free the world from the bonds of idolatry.
This version of the Greek Alexander Romance was popular reading material for no less than five centuries, undergoing linguistic adaptation and various narrative alterations in the course of time. As early as the fourteenth century it was translated into Slavonic and from Slavonic into other languages, including vernacular Greek. The audience for the text was broadened substantially with the expansion of the Ottoman Empire north and west, and it came to be identified, in general terms, with the limits of Orthodox Christianity. The Greek audience increasingly identified the Persian heathens of the Greek Alexander Romance with their Turkish overlords. A revised version of the Life was printed for the first time in Venice in 1750 under the title Phyllada tou Megalexandrou (Chap-book of Alexander the Great), while in the same year the first ‘researched’ biography of Alexander was published in the modern Greek language as part of the Palaia Istoria of Charles Rollin. Gradually the historical figure of Alexander the Great took the place of the legendary Alexander of the Byzantine tradition. The cover pages of editions of the Phyllada in the nineteenth century and the first decades of the twentieth show Alexander wearing a crown of indeterminate ancient augustness and supposedly historical armour.
From the late fifteenth century onwards, a further Life of Alexander, known as the Rimada tou Megalou Alexandrou, again portraying him more as a fictional than as an historical character, was published, though this account owed more to the ancient sources than the Phyllada. When Dimitrios Zenos, a Greek scholar living in Venice, made the first collection of Greek vernacular literature he preferred to use this thematically more venerable version for inclusion in his printed collection.
The collection in question represented an effort to combine both the ‘delightful’ and the ‘edifying’ elements of Greek lore. Similar criteria lay behind the selection, for printing, of other such texts of a superficially classical content but written in the vernacular: the Theseid (a translation and reworking of Giovanni Boccaccio’s Teseida), the Battle of the Frogs and Mice (a parody of the Homeric epics), the Iliad of Nikolaos Loukanis, and a collection of Aesop’s Fables.
The subject of the Trojan War is found not only in texts dating from late antiquity but also from the Byzantine period.
Folk Versions of War of Troy (Iliad)
Within this context, it is necessary to bear in mind that in both medieval West and East tales of the Trojan War were familiar, as a rule, from the Ephemeris belli Troiani by Dictys Cretensis and the De excidio Troiae historia by Dares of Phrygia, or at second hand, via such texts as the chronicles of Ioannes Malalas and Konstantinos Manasses, who again drew on these two texts. The motive behind the western Europeans’ desire to tackle the subject of the Trojan War was similar to that of the Byzantines:
they considered themselves to be the successors of the Romans and, ultimately, the descendants of Aeneas.
The vernacular literary production of the fourteenth century also includes three long verse accounts of the Trojan War, each presenting a different treatment of the subject. The most popular of these, judging by the seven manuscripts preserving the text, was the Polemos tes Troados (War of Troy), an anonymous work that in essence comprises a loose translation, or paraphrase, in 14,400 lines of fifteen-syllable ‘political’ verse, of the Roman de Troie by Benoit de St. Maure (mid twelfth century).
The Greek version of the Roman de Troie was composed in accordance with the rules of the genre of the late Byzantine romance, though not without some divergences: it does not relate the love story of a central couple, but of many more characters, as the narrative recites the fortunes of successive generations and moves its focus of attention from one set of characters to another. The second of these works, the so-called Byzantine Iliad, or Diegesis genamene en Troia (Tale of Troy), by an anonymous author, also observes the conventions of the romance. The central hero is Paris in the first part and Achilles in the second. The work is comprised of 1166 fifteen-syllable lines and is written on the lines of the tales of fate: in the beginning we are told of an oracle predicting that the as yet unborn Paris will be the cause of the destruction of Troy. However much those around him may try to prevent this evil from occurring, they will succeed only in hastening the realization of the oracle. The third work, a vernacular paraphrase of the Iliad made by Konstantinos Hermoniakos at the court of the despotate of Epirus in about 1330, seems to follow the Homeric text fairly closely. However, in the twenty-four books of 8800 non-rhyming eight-syllable lines of Hermoniakos’ paraphrase, the narrative also relates the events that preceded the action described by Homer as well as the sequel to the sack of Ilium, all in an affected idiom comprised of both vernacular and learned linguistic features.
___________________________________
Odysseas Elytis - Our name is our soul
Comment