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The blind bard and ‘I’: Homeric biography and authorial personas in the twelfth century

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 January 2016

Eric Cullhed
Eric Cullhed*
Affiliation:
Uppsala University
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Abstract

This paper explores correspondences between biographical attributes of Homer and self-representation in twelfth century texts: The first section deals with the blind bard’s presence in Theodoros Prodromos’ Sale of poetical and political lives and the ‘rhetoric of poverty’ in his poetry; the second with Ioannes Tzetzes’ class-room persona and the emplotment of Homer’s biography in the Exegesis on the Iliad; the third with the same author’s take on ancient traditions about the initially unstable situation of the Homeric text and his struggle to secure the immortality of his own name.

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Articles
Information
Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies , Volume 38 , Issue 1 , 2014 , pp. 49 - 67
Copyright
Copyright © The Centre for Byzantine, Ottoman and Modern Greek Studies, University of Birmingham 2014

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References

1 Foucault, M., ‘Qu’est-ce qu’un auteur?’, Bulletin de la Société française de Philosophie 63 (1969) 73-104Google Scholar: 77; translation from Harari, J. V., Textual strategies: perspectives in post-structuralist criticism (Ithaca, NY 1979) 142 Google Scholar.

2 See Foucault’s answer to the criticism of Lucien Goldmann: ‘Définir de quelle manière s’exerce cette fonction, dans quelles conditions, dans quel champ, etc., cela ne revient pas, vous en conviendrez, à dire que l’auteur n’existe pas’ (Foucault, op. cit., 100); cf.Gallop, J., The deaths of the author: reading and writing in time (Durham, NC 2011) 2–4 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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6 Orations, ed. Lampros, S. P., Μιχαήλ Άκομινάτου Χωνιάτου τά σωζόμενα, I (Athens 1879) 1.1Google Scholar; cf.Magdalino, P., The empire of Manuel I Komnenos, 1143-1180. (Cambridge 1993) 337 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Bourbouhakis, ‘Rhetoric and performance’, 179.

7 Cf. Scholia on Dionysius Thrax, 304, 2-1; 471.34-472.2.

8 For this Barthian term and its implications for a reader’s desire for the author see Gallop, The deaths of the author, 44-8.

9 See Graziosi, B., Inventing Homer: the early reception of epic (Cambridge 2002) 126-32Google Scholar.

10 Ibid. 159 n. 100.

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13 The dialogue is provided as an example of this satirical mode by Bakhtin, M., Problems of Dostoevsky’s poetics, trans. Emerson, C. (Minneapolis 1984) 116 Google Scholar.

14 Cf.Roilos, P., Amphoteroglossia: a poetics of the twelfth-century medieval Greek novel (Washington, DC 2005) 51-3Google Scholar.

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18 Eustathios, Parekbolai on the Iliad, ed. van der Valk, M., Eustathii archiepiscopi Thessalonicensis Commentarli ad Homeri Iliadem pertinentes (Leiden 1971-87) 38.26-7Google Scholar; Parekbolai on the Odyssey, ed. Stall-baum, J. G., Eustathii archiepiscopi thessalonicensis Commentarli ad Homeri Odysseam (Leipzig 1825-1826) 1380.5Google Scholar; cf.Pontani, F., Sguardi su Ulisse (Rome 2005) 172-3Google Scholar; Basilikopoulou-Ioannidou, A., Ήάναγέννησις των γραμμάτων κατά τόν IB’ αίώνα είς τό Βυζάντιον καί ό ‘Όμηρος (Athens 1971-72) 57-9Google Scholar.

19 Exegesis on the Iliad, ed. Papathomopoulos, M., Έξήγησις Ίωάννου Γραμματικοϋ τοϋ Τζέτζου εΐς την Όμήρου Ίλιάδα (Athens 2007) 343.12-14Google Scholar.

20 Allegories on the Odyssey, ed. Hunger, H., ‘Johannes Tzetzes, Allegorien zur Odyssee’, BZ 48 (1955) 4-48Google Scholar (books 13-24) and 49 (1956) 249-310 (books 1-12): verses 9.31-4.

21 Allegories on the Iliad, ed. Boissonade, J. F., Tzetzae Allegoriae Iliadis (Paris 1851) verses 15.37–41 Google Scholar.

22 Aethiopica, 2.34.5; 3.13.3-15; cf. Eustathios, Parekbolai on the Iliad, 4.21; Parekbolai on the Odyssey, 1379.64-1380.1; Tzetzes, Exegesis on the Iliad, 9.13-14.

23 Prodromos, Sale of poetical and political lives, 128.55-8.

24 Contest between Homer and Hesiod, ed. Allen, T. W., Homeri opera, V (Oxford 1912) 237.319-38Google Scholar. Proclus, Life of Homer, ed. Allen, T. W., Homeri opera, V (Oxford 1912) 100.11-101.1Google Scholar Allen. See also section 3 below.

25 Prodromos, Sale of poetical and political lives, 128.60-1.

26 Prodromos, Sale of poetical and political lives, 128.80-4.

27 Prodromos, Sale of poeticall and political lives, 129.130-9.

28 Basilikopoulou-Ioannidou, Ή άναγέννησις τών γραμμάτων, 124-26 and 131-3; P. Magdalino, The empire of Manuel I Kotnnenos, 431; cf. also Bazzani, M., ‘The historical poems of Theodore Prodromos, the epic-Homeric revival and the crisis of intellectuals in the twelfth century’, BS 65 (2007) 211-28: 222-5Google Scholar.

29 Historical poems, ed. Hörandner, W., Theodoros Prodromos, Historische Gedichte (Vienna 1974) verses 4.256-7Google Scholar; cf. also 11.17-20.

30 Historical poems, ed. Hörandner, 3, 6 and 26a.

31 Historical poems, ed. Hörandner, 56a.55-8.

32 Beaton, R., ‘The rhetoric of poverty: the lives and opinions of Theodore Prodromos,’ BMGS 11 (1987) 1-28Google Scholar; Alexiou, M., ‘The poverty of écriture and the craft of writing: towards a reappraisal of the Prodromic poems’, BMGS 10 (1986) 1-40Google Scholar.

33 Cf. Alexiou, ‘The poverty of écriture’, 17 n. 33; Beaton, ‘The rhetoric of poverty’, 5; see also Bazzani, ‘The historical poems of Theodore Prodromos’, 220-2.

34 Historical poems, ed. Hörandner, 38.98-101.

35 Cf. Suda, ed. Adler, A. (Leipzig 1928-38) ε 2659 Google Scholar = Ephorus, FGrH 70 F 59b; Diogenianus 4.62.

36 Prodromos, Sale of poetical and political lives, 128.46-9.

37 Historical poems, ed. Hörandner, 38.116-18.

38 See Alexiou, M., ‘Ploys of performance: games and play in the Ptochoprodromic poems’, DOP 53 (1999) 92-109: 94-5Google Scholar, on ‘pain and disease, death and resurrection’ in these poems and 105-6; cf. also ‘The poverty of écriture’, 10. For ethopoiia in the ptochoprodromika, see Beaton, R., ‘Πτωχοπροδρομικό Г”: η ηθοποιία του άτακτου μοναχού’, in Kechagia-Lypourli, A. and Petridis, T. (eds.), Μνήμη Σταμάτη Καρατζά: ερευνητικά προβλήματα νεοελληνικής φιλολογίας και γλωσσολογίας (Thessalonike 1990) 101-7Google Scholar (reprinted in Beaton, R., From Byzantium to Modern Greece: medieval texts and their reception (Aldershot 2008) no. X Google Scholar.

39 Maiuri, A., ‘Una nuova poesia di Theodoro Prodromo in greco volgare’, BZ 23 (1920) 397–407 Google Scholar.

40 See Bourbouhakis, ‘“Political” personae’, 59-62 (on various parallels with the ptochoprodromic poems) and 73 (on Hades).

41 Mullett, M., ‘Aristocracy and patronage in the literary circles of Comnenian Constantinople’, in Angold, M. (ed.), The Byzantine aristocracy, IX-XIII centuries, British Archaeological Reports, International series, 221 (Oxford 1984) 173–201: 182Google Scholar.

42 Cf. Tzetzes, Prolegomena on comedy, ed. Koster, W. J. W., Scholia in Aristophanem, vol. 1.1a (Groningen 1975) 1 Google Scholar.144-5: ώς αρτι ποτέ την εφηβον ήλικίαν πατών καί τον αίθέριον έξηγούμενος “Ομηρον.

43 Exegesis on the Iliad, 5.12 (including the scholium).

44 Ibid. 421.4-9 (scholium on 5.20): xò βάροςάφείςτών λόγων τοΰ άνδρος [...] έμοί πρόσσχες, ούφιλοσόφφ γε οντι πλουσίφ καί περιβλέπτφ καί τρυφηλω, άλλά γραμματικής έκ γένους μέν τών λίαν εύγενεστάτων σπάσαντι την σποράν, πένητι δε αλλως καί δυστυχεΐ.

45 Note that this anonymous commentary has survived and was edited by Wolf, Hieronymus in Hermetis philosophi de revolutionibus nativitatum libri duo incerto interprete (Basel 1559)Google Scholar. See also Tzetzes’ own schol, ad loc. (438.12) and the scholium on Allegories on the Iliad 4.66-7.

46 Cf. also Tzetzes, Little Big Iliad, ed. Leone, P. L. M., loannis Tzetzae Carmina Iliaca (Catania 1995) 160 Google Scholar and 162 (scholia on 2.27 and 34).

47 Tzetzes, Little Big Iliad, 2.142-50; 3.284-9 (with scholium), 620-5; 702 and 753-8; It is also discussed in Tzetzes’ unedited Exegesis on Porphyry’s Isagoge, see Vind. phil. gr. 300, fol. 71r-v. Cf.Jeffreys, M. J., ‘The nature and origins of the political verse’, DOP 28 (1974) 141-95:147Google Scholar; P. Magdalino The empire of Manuel I Komnenos, 348-49; Kaldellis, A., ‘Classical scholarship in twelfth-century Byzantium’, in Barber, Ch. and Jenkins, D. (eds.), Medieval Greek commentaries on the Nicomachean Ethics (Leiden and Boston 2009) 1-43: 25Google Scholar.

48 Exegesis on the Iliad, 19.17-20.6.

49 Exegesis on the Iliad, 8.11: οϋνεκα δή γενεήφι νεώτατός είμι μεθ’ ύμΐν.

50 Exegesis on the Iliad, 7.14-1-7.

51 Exegesis on the Iliad, 7.2-8.

52 Exegesis on the Iliad, 56.18-19: Τοιούτφ γάρ άνδρί κοά έτέροις μυρίοις τοιούτοις συνατυχών, εύτυχώ.

53 Budelmann, F., ‘Classical commentary in Byzantium: John Tzetzes on ancient Greek literature’, in Gibson, R. K. and Kraus, C. S. (eds.), The classical commentary: histories, practices, theory (Leiden 2002) 141-69: 153-7CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

54 Exegesis on the Iliad, 42.1-5.

55 Chiliades, ed. Leone, P. A. M., Ioannis Tzetzae Historiae (Naples 1968)Google Scholar scholium on 13.620a.

56 Scholium on Exegesis on the Iliad, 8.3, p. 423.10-16; cf. Budelmann, ‘Classical commentary in Byzantium’, 150-1; Conley, ‘Byzantine criticism and the uses of literature’ 684-5.

57 Chiliades, 8.204.479-88.

58 For particularly incriminating examples see Conley, ‘Byzantine criticism’, 684 and add Parekbolai on the Odyssey, 1410.25-7 ( Tzetzes, , Letters, 14, p. 25 Google Scholar, 5-6 Leone and Chiliades, 7.106-9).

59 Exegesis on the Iliad, 56.11-17.

60 Exegesis on the Iliad, 68.8-69.8.

61 Eustathios, Parekbolai on the Iliad, 5.32-36 and 6.42.

62 Cf. Tzetzes, Prolegomena on comedy, 2.38-9: ώς καί ετεροί τινες κομψοί καί αίθεροβάμονες.

63 Exegesis on the Iliad, 5.6-7: παρασποράδην δέ καί περιπετάδην περί τούτων, άλλ’ ού κατατμήδην καί συλλήβδην έξηγήσαντο.

64 On this patron see now Rhoby, A., ‘Verschiedene Bemerkungen zur Sebastokratorissa Eirene und zu Autoren in ihrem Umfeld’, Nea Rhome 6 (2009) 305-36Google Scholar.

65 See Rhoby, A., ‘Ioannes Tzetzes als Auftragsdichter’, Graeco-Latina Brunensia 15 (2010) 155-70: 163-4Google Scholar.

66 Allegories on the Iliad, 16.1-6.

67 I wish to express my gratitude to Ingela Nilsson for valuable comments at various stages of this paper and to Przemysław Marciniak for helpful discussions about Prodromos’ Sale of poetical and political lives. I would also like to thank the anonymous referee for very helpful comments.