Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-t5tsf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-19T11:11:10.878Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Chapter 10 - Herodotean Material in a Late Version of the Alexander Romance

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 December 2018

By
Corinne Jouanno
Edited by
Adam J. Goldwyn  and
Ingela Nilsson
Adam J. Goldwyn
Affiliation:
North Dakota State University
Ingela Nilsson
Affiliation:
Uppsala Universitet, Sweden
Get access

Summary

This chapter focuses on the Alexander Romance, detailing the ways that a late (fifteenth-century) Byzantine version of the romance interpolated Herodotean material into the narrative to re-work the text as a memento mori. For instance, an episode that appears in the surviving Greek version and its Slavonic source, and must therefore have been part of the lost original text, shows Alexander inspecting his troops and suddenly seized by a melancholy crisis, while thinking how short-lived he and his men are fated to be. This episode is, in fact, a rewriting of a Herodotean anecdote which involved Xerxes. This chapter, then, does two things: first, it examines Herodotus’ influence on the Byzantine versions of the Alexander Romance and, second, uses this as a way to examine Herodotean borrowings throughout the Byzantine corpus, such as in the works of Stobaios, Tzetzes and Nikephoros Gregoras.
Type
Chapter
Information
Reading the Late Byzantine Romance
A Handbook
 , pp. 211 - 229
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2018

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Primary Sources

Kroll, W. (ed.), Historia Alexandri Magni. Volumen i. Recensio vetusta (Berlin 1926).Google Scholar
Bergson, L. (ed.), Der griechische Alexanderroman. Rezension β (Stockholm 1965).Google Scholar
Trumpf, J. (ed.), Anonymi byzantini. Vita Alexandri Regis Macedonum (Stuttgart 1974).Google Scholar
Lolos, A. and Konstantinopoulos, V. L. (eds.), Ps.-Kallisthenes: Zwei mittelgriechische Prosa-Fassungen des Alexanderromans, 2 vols. (Königstein im Taunus 1983).Google Scholar
Veloudis, G. (ed.), Διήγησις ̓Αλεξάνδρου τοῦ Μακεδόνος. ̔Η Φυλλάδα τοῦ Μεγαλεξάνδρου (Athens 1989; 1st edn, 1977).Google Scholar
Stoneman, R. (trans.), The Book of Alexander the Great: A Life of the Conqueror (London 2012).Google Scholar
Büttner-Wobst, T. and Roos, A. G. (eds.), Excerpta de virtutibus et vitiis, (Berlin 1906).Google Scholar
Searby, D. M. (ed.), Corpus Parisinum: A Medieval Anthology of Greek Texts from the Presocratics to the Church Fathers, 600 BC–700 AD, 2 vols. (Lewiston 2007).Google Scholar
van der Valk, M., Eustathii archiepiscopi Thessalonicensis Commentarii ad Homeri Iliadem pertinentes, 4 vols. (Leiden 1971–87).Google Scholar
Odorico, P. (ed.), Il prato e l’ape: il sapere sentenzioso del monaco Giovanni (Vienna 1986).Google Scholar
Rabe, H. (ed.), Hermogenis opera (Leipzig 1913).Google Scholar
Böhlig, G. (ed.), Ioannis Cameniatae de expugnatione Thessalonicae (Berlin 1973).Google Scholar
Deseille, P. (trans.), L’Échelle sainte (Bégrolles-en-Mauges, 1978).Google Scholar
Leone, P. A. M. (ed.), Joannis Tzetzae epistulae (Leipzig 1972).Google Scholar
Leone, P. A. M. (ed.), Ioannis Tzetzae Historiae (Naples 1968).Google Scholar
Sargologos, É. (ed.), Un traité de vie spirituelle et morale du xie siècle: Le florilège sacro-profane du manuscrit 6 de Patmos (Thessaloniki 1990).Google Scholar
Schopen, L. (ed.), Nicephori Gregorae historiae Byzantinae, 3 vols. (Bonn 1829, 1830, 1855).Google Scholar
PG 136, cols. 765–1244 (Paris 1865).Google Scholar
Sargologos, É. (ed.), Florilège sacro-profane du Pseudo-Maxime Syros/Hermoupolis 2001) [Maxi]; Ihm, S., Ps.-Maximus Confessor. Erste kritische Edition einer Redaktion des Sacro-Profanen Florilegium Loci communes (Stuttgart: 2001) [Maxii and MaxU].Google Scholar
Regnault, Dom L. (trans.), Les sentences des Pères du désert: Troisième recueil (Sablé-sur-Sarthe 1976).Google Scholar
Adler, A. (ed.), Suidae Lexicon, 5 vols. (Leipzig 1928–38).Google Scholar
Wachsmuth, C. (ed.), Joannis Stobaei Anthologii libri duo priores, 2 vols. (Berlin 1884);Google Scholar
Hense, O. (ed.), Joannis Stobaei Anthologii libri duo posteriores, 3 vols. (Berlin, 1894–1912).Google Scholar

Secondary Sources

Kroll, W. (ed.), Historia Alexandri Magni. Volumen i. Recensio vetusta (Berlin 1926).Google Scholar
Bergson, L. (ed.), Der griechische Alexanderroman. Rezension β (Stockholm 1965).Google Scholar
Trumpf, J. (ed.), Anonymi byzantini. Vita Alexandri Regis Macedonum (Stuttgart 1974).Google Scholar
Lolos, A. and Konstantinopoulos, V. L. (eds.), Ps.-Kallisthenes: Zwei mittelgriechische Prosa-Fassungen des Alexanderromans, 2 vols. (Königstein im Taunus 1983).Google Scholar
Veloudis, G. (ed.), Διήγησις ̓Αλεξάνδρου τοῦ Μακεδόνος. ̔Η Φυλλάδα τοῦ Μεγαλεξάνδρου (Athens 1989; 1st edn, 1977).Google Scholar
Stoneman, R. (trans.), The Book of Alexander the Great: A Life of the Conqueror (London 2012).Google Scholar
Büttner-Wobst, T. and Roos, A. G. (eds.), Excerpta de virtutibus et vitiis, (Berlin 1906).Google Scholar
Searby, D. M. (ed.), Corpus Parisinum: A Medieval Anthology of Greek Texts from the Presocratics to the Church Fathers, 600 BC–700 AD, 2 vols. (Lewiston 2007).Google Scholar
van der Valk, M., Eustathii archiepiscopi Thessalonicensis Commentarii ad Homeri Iliadem pertinentes, 4 vols. (Leiden 1971–87).Google Scholar
Odorico, P. (ed.), Il prato e l’ape: il sapere sentenzioso del monaco Giovanni (Vienna 1986).Google Scholar
Rabe, H. (ed.), Hermogenis opera (Leipzig 1913).Google Scholar
Böhlig, G. (ed.), Ioannis Cameniatae de expugnatione Thessalonicae (Berlin 1973).Google Scholar
Deseille, P. (trans.), L’Échelle sainte (Bégrolles-en-Mauges, 1978).Google Scholar
Leone, P. A. M. (ed.), Joannis Tzetzae epistulae (Leipzig 1972).Google Scholar
Leone, P. A. M. (ed.), Ioannis Tzetzae Historiae (Naples 1968).Google Scholar
Sargologos, É. (ed.), Un traité de vie spirituelle et morale du xie siècle: Le florilège sacro-profane du manuscrit 6 de Patmos (Thessaloniki 1990).Google Scholar
Schopen, L. (ed.), Nicephori Gregorae historiae Byzantinae, 3 vols. (Bonn 1829, 1830, 1855).Google Scholar
PG 136, cols. 765–1244 (Paris 1865).Google Scholar
Sargologos, É. (ed.), Florilège sacro-profane du Pseudo-Maxime Syros/Hermoupolis 2001) [Maxi]; Ihm, S., Ps.-Maximus Confessor. Erste kritische Edition einer Redaktion des Sacro-Profanen Florilegium Loci communes (Stuttgart: 2001) [Maxii and MaxU].Google Scholar
Regnault, Dom L. (trans.), Les sentences des Pères du désert: Troisième recueil (Sablé-sur-Sarthe 1976).Google Scholar
Adler, A. (ed.), Suidae Lexicon, 5 vols. (Leipzig 1928–38).Google Scholar
Wachsmuth, C. (ed.), Joannis Stobaei Anthologii libri duo priores, 2 vols. (Berlin 1884);Google Scholar
Hense, O. (ed.), Joannis Stobaei Anthologii libri duo posteriores, 3 vols. (Berlin, 1894–1912).Google Scholar
Bandiera, A. 1997. ‘Per un bilancio della tradizione papiracea delle Storie di Erodoto’, in Akten des 21. Internazionalen Papyrologenkongress, Berlin 13–19.8.1995, ed. Kramer, B. et al. Stuttgart and Leipzig, 49–56.Google Scholar
Baragwanath, E. 2008. Motivation and Narrative in Herodotus. Oxford.Google Scholar
Bianconi, D. 2005. Tessalonica nell’ età dei Paleologi. Le pratiche intellettuali nel riflesso della cultura scritta. Paris.Google Scholar
Blänsdorf, J. 1971. ‘Herodotos bei Curtius Rufus’, Hermes 99: 11–24.Google Scholar
Bompaire, J. 1976. ‘Les historiens classiques dans les exercices préparatoires de rhétorique (Progymnasmata)’, in Recueil Plassart: études sur l’Antiquité grecque offertes à André Plassart. Paris, 1–7.Google Scholar
Bouffartigue, J. 1992. L’Empereur Julien et la culture de son temps. Paris.Google Scholar
Bowersock, G. 1989. ‘Herodotus, Alexander, and Rome’, American Scholar 58: 407–14.Google Scholar
Briant, P. 1996. Histoire de l’Empire perse: De Cyrus à Alexandre. Paris.Google Scholar
Briant, P. 2003. Darius dans l’ombre d’Alexandre. Paris.Google Scholar
Bridges, E. 2015. Imagining Xerxes: Ancient Perspectives on a Persian King. London.Google Scholar
Cantore, R. 2002. ‘Citazioni erodotee nei commentari di Eustazio’, BollClass, n.s. 3 (23): 9–30.Google Scholar
Cupane, C. 2013. ‘Una passeggiata nei boschi narrativi. Lo statuto della finzione nel “Medioevo romanzo e orientale”, in margine a un contributo recente’, Jahrbuch der Österreichischen Byzantinistik 63: 61–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dagron, G. 2012. ‘De la mappa à l’akakia: Divagations symboliques’, in Idées byzantines, vol. ii. Paris, 511–24.Google Scholar
Grethlein, J. 2009. ‘How Not to Do History: Xerxes in Herodotus’ Histories’, American Journal of Philology 130: 195–217.Google Scholar
Grünbart, M. 2008. ‘Der Kaiser weint: Anmerkungen zur imperialen Inszenierung von Emotionen in Byzanz’, Frühmittelalterliche Studien 41: 89–108.Google Scholar
Harrison, T. 2000. Divinity and History: The Religion of Herodotus. Oxford.Google Scholar
Hausherr, I. 1944. Penthos. La doctrine de la componction dans l’Orient chrétien. Rome.Google Scholar
Hemmerdinger, B. 1981. Les manuscrits d’Hérodote et la critique verbale. Genova.Google Scholar
Hense, O. 1916 ‘Ioannes Stobaios’, in Realencyclopädie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft 9.2, ed. Pauly, A. and Wissowa, G.. Stuttgart, col. 2549–86.Google Scholar
Hinterberger, M. 2006. ‘Tränen in der byzantinischen Literatur: ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der Emotionen’, Jahrbuch der Österreichischen Byzantinistik 56: 27–51.Google Scholar
Hollmann, A. 2011. The Master of Signs: Signs and the Interpretation of Signs in Herodotus’ Histories. Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Hornblower, S. 2006. ‘Herodotus’ Influence in Antiquity’, in The Cambridge Companion to Herodotus, ed. Dewald, C. and Marincola, J.. Cambridge, 306–18.Google Scholar
Immerwahr, R. 1954. ‘Historical Action in Herodotus’, Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association 85: 16–45.Google Scholar
Jacoby, F. 1913 ‘Herodotos 7’, in Realencyclopädie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft, Suppl. ii, ed. Pauly, A. and Wissowa, G.. Stuttgart, col. 504–20.Google Scholar
Jouanno, C. 2002. Naissance et métamorphoses du Roman d’Alexandre. Domaine grec. Paris.Google Scholar
Jouanno, C. 2014. ‘Alexandre en Grèce: roi de guerre, homme de boue’, in La Fascination pour Alexandre le Grand dans les littératures européennes (xe–xvie siècle). Réinventions d’un mythe, vol. ii, ed. Gaullier-Bougassas, C.. Turnhout, 1223–68.Google Scholar
Kaldellis, A. 2007. Hellenism in Byzantium: The Transformation of Greek Identity and the Reception of the Classical Tradition. Cambridge.Google Scholar
Kaldellis, A. 2014. A New Herodotos: Laonikos Chalkokondyles on the Ottoman Empire, the Fall of Byzantium, and the Emergence of the West. Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Konstan, D. 1987. ‘Persians, Greeks, and Empire’, Arethusa 20: 59–73.Google Scholar
Konstan, D. 1998. ‘The Alexander Romance: The Cunning of an Open Text’, Lexis 16: 123–38.Google Scholar
Lateiner, D. 1987. ‘Nonverbal Communication in the Histories of Herodotus’, Arethusa 20: 83–119.Google Scholar
Lattimore, R. 1939. ‘The Wise Adviser in Herodotus’, Classical Philology 34: 24–35.Google Scholar
Luzzatto, M. J. 1998. ‘Leggere i classici nella biblioteca imperiale: Note tzetziane su antichi codici’, Quaderni di storia 48: 69–86.Google Scholar
Mansfeld, J. and Runia, D. T., 1997. Aëtiana: The Method and Intellectual Context of a Doxographer. i: The Sources. Leiden.Google Scholar
Mazzuchi, C. M. 2002. ‘Passato e presente nei marginalia bizantini’, in Talking to the Text: Marginalia from Papyri to Print, vol. i, ed. Fera, V., Ferraù, G. and Rizzo, S.. Messina, 153–66.Google Scholar
Merkelbach, R. 1977. Die Quellen des griechischen Alexanderromans, ii. Neubearbeitete Auflage unter Mitwirkung von J. Trumpf. Munich.Google Scholar
Messis, C. 2006. ‘La mémoire du « je » souffrant: Construire et écrire la mémoire personnelle dans les récits de captivité’, in L’Écriture de la mémoire: La littérarité de l’historiographie, ed. Odorico, P.. Paris, 107–46.Google Scholar
Mikalson, J. D. 2003. Herodotus and Religion in the Persian Wars. Chapel Hill.Google Scholar
Moennig, U. 1992. Die spätbyzantinische Rezension * ζ des Alexanderromans. Cologne.Google Scholar
Murray, O. 1972. ‘Herodotus and the Hellenistic Culture’, Classical Quarterly 22: 200–13.Google Scholar
Nagy, P. 2000. Le Don des larmes au Moyen Âge: Un instrument spirituel en quête d’institution (ve–xiiie siècle). Paris.Google Scholar
Odorico, P. 1986. Il prato e l’ape: Il sapere sentenzioso del monaco Giovanni. Vienna.Google Scholar
Pearson, L. 1960. The Lost Histories of Alexander the Great. New York.Google Scholar
Piccione, R. M. 1994. ‘Sulle fonti e le metodologie compilative di Stobeo’, Eikasmos 5: 281–317.Google Scholar
Piccione, R. M. 2003–4. ‘Le raccolte di Stobeo e Orione: Fonti, modelli, architteture’, in Aspetti di letteratura gnomica nel mondo antico, vol. i, ed. Funghi, M.. Florence, 241–61.Google Scholar
Priestley, J. 2014. Herodotus and Hellenistic Culture: Literary Studies in the Reception of the Histories. Oxford.Google Scholar
Rogkotis, Z. 2006. ‘Thucydides and Herodotus: Aspects of Their Intertextual Relationship’, in Brill’s Companion to Thucydides, ed. Rengakos, A. and Tsakmakis, A.. Leiden, 57–86.Google Scholar
Rosivach, V. J. 1984. ‘The Romans’ View of the Persians’, Classical World 78: 1–8.Google Scholar
Sakellaridou–Soteroudi, A. 1993. ‘Ο Ηρόδοτος στις παρεκβολές του Ευσταθίου Θεσσαλονίκης στον Διονύσιο τον Περιηγητή’, Hellenica 43: 13–28 and 415–16.Google Scholar
Searby, D. M. 1998. Aristotle in the Greek Gnomological Tradition. Uppsala.Google Scholar
Searby, D. M. 2007. The Corpus Parisinum: A Critical Edition of the Greek Text, with Commentary and English Translation. Lewiston, NY.Google Scholar
Sevcenko, I. 1974. ‘Society and Intellectual Life in the Fourteenth Century’, in Actes du xive Congrès International des Études Byzantines (Bucharest, 1971), vol. i, ed. Berza, M. and Stanescu, E.. Bucharest, 76–92; reprinted in I. Sevcenko, Society and Intellectual Life in Late Byzantium. London 1981.Google Scholar
Skidmore, C. J. 1996. Practical Ethics for Roman Gentlemen. The Work of Valerius Maximus. Exeter.Google Scholar
Stadter, P. 1980. Arrian of Nicomedia. Chapel Hill, NC.Google Scholar
Stone, A. F. 1999. ‘The Library of Eustathios of Thessaloniki: Literary Sources for Eustathian Panegyric’, Byzantinoslavica 60: 351–66.Google Scholar
Stoneman, R. and Gargiulo, T., 2007 . Il Romanzo di Alessandro, vol. i. Rome.Google Scholar
Trisoglio, F. 1973. ‘San Girolamo e Plinio il Giovane’, Rivista di Studi Classici 21: 343–83.Google Scholar
Vasiliev, A. 1932. ‘Harun ibn Yayah and his Description of Constantinople’, Seminarium Kondakovianum 5: 149–63.Google Scholar
de Vries-van der Velden, E. 2001. ‘Exempla aus der griechischen Geschichte in Byzanz’, in Novum Millennium: Studies on Byzantine History and Culture Dedicated to Paul Speck, ed. Sode, C. and Takacs, S.. Aldershot, 425–38.Google Scholar
Zakythinos, D. A. 1975. Le Despotat grec de Morée: Vie et institutions, Édition revue et augmentée par C. Maltevou. London.Google Scholar
Zali, V. 2014. The Shape of Herodotean Rhetoric: A Study of the Speeches in Herodotus’ Histories with Special Attention to Books 5–9. Leiden.Google Scholar
Kroll, W. (ed.), Historia Alexandri Magni. Volumen i. Recensio vetusta (Berlin 1926).Google Scholar
Bergson, L. (ed.), Der griechische Alexanderroman. Rezension β (Stockholm 1965).Google Scholar
Trumpf, J. (ed.), Anonymi byzantini. Vita Alexandri Regis Macedonum (Stuttgart 1974).Google Scholar
Lolos, A. and Konstantinopoulos, V. L. (eds.), Ps.-Kallisthenes: Zwei mittelgriechische Prosa-Fassungen des Alexanderromans, 2 vols. (Königstein im Taunus 1983).Google Scholar
Veloudis, G. (ed.), Διήγησις ̓Αλεξάνδρου τοῦ Μακεδόνος. ̔Η Φυλλάδα τοῦ Μεγαλεξάνδρου (Athens 1989; 1st edn, 1977).Google Scholar
Stoneman, R. (trans.), The Book of Alexander the Great: A Life of the Conqueror (London 2012).Google Scholar
Büttner-Wobst, T. and Roos, A. G. (eds.), Excerpta de virtutibus et vitiis, (Berlin 1906).Google Scholar
Searby, D. M. (ed.), Corpus Parisinum: A Medieval Anthology of Greek Texts from the Presocratics to the Church Fathers, 600 BC–700 AD, 2 vols. (Lewiston 2007).Google Scholar
van der Valk, M., Eustathii archiepiscopi Thessalonicensis Commentarii ad Homeri Iliadem pertinentes, 4 vols. (Leiden 1971–87).Google Scholar
Odorico, P. (ed.), Il prato e l’ape: il sapere sentenzioso del monaco Giovanni (Vienna 1986).Google Scholar
Rabe, H. (ed.), Hermogenis opera (Leipzig 1913).Google Scholar
Böhlig, G. (ed.), Ioannis Cameniatae de expugnatione Thessalonicae (Berlin 1973).Google Scholar
Deseille, P. (trans.), L’Échelle sainte (Bégrolles-en-Mauges, 1978).Google Scholar
Leone, P. A. M. (ed.), Joannis Tzetzae epistulae (Leipzig 1972).Google Scholar
Leone, P. A. M. (ed.), Ioannis Tzetzae Historiae (Naples 1968).Google Scholar
Sargologos, É. (ed.), Un traité de vie spirituelle et morale du xie siècle: Le florilège sacro-profane du manuscrit 6 de Patmos (Thessaloniki 1990).Google Scholar
Schopen, L. (ed.), Nicephori Gregorae historiae Byzantinae, 3 vols. (Bonn 1829, 1830, 1855).Google Scholar
PG 136, cols. 765–1244 (Paris 1865).Google Scholar
Sargologos, É. (ed.), Florilège sacro-profane du Pseudo-Maxime Syros/Hermoupolis 2001) [Maxi]; Ihm, S., Ps.-Maximus Confessor. Erste kritische Edition einer Redaktion des Sacro-Profanen Florilegium Loci communes (Stuttgart: 2001) [Maxii and MaxU].Google Scholar
Regnault, Dom L. (trans.), Les sentences des Pères du désert: Troisième recueil (Sablé-sur-Sarthe 1976).Google Scholar
Adler, A. (ed.), Suidae Lexicon, 5 vols. (Leipzig 1928–38).Google Scholar
Wachsmuth, C. (ed.), Joannis Stobaei Anthologii libri duo priores, 2 vols. (Berlin 1884);Google Scholar
Hense, O. (ed.), Joannis Stobaei Anthologii libri duo posteriores, 3 vols. (Berlin, 1894–1912).Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×