Search

Skip to main content Accessibility help

Only show content I have access to (0)

Chapters (1)

Last 3 years (1)

From year:

To year:

Apply

Classical Studies (1)

Cambridge University Press (1)

1 results

Chapter 3 - Cultural Appropriation and the Performance of Exegesis in John Tzetzes’ Scholia on Aristophanes
- By Aglae Pizzone
Edited by Baukje van den Berg, Divna Manolova, University of York, Przemysław Marciniak, University of Silesia, Katowice
Book:

Byzantine Commentaries on Ancient Greek Texts, 12th–15th Centuries

Published online:

07 August 2023

Print publication:

08 September 2022, pp 100-129
- Chapter
- - Get access
    
    Check if you have access via personal or institutional login
    
    Log in Register
- Export citation
Summary

Taking its cues from John Tzetzes’ commentaries on Aristophanes, this chapter investigates the idea of exegesis as performance. Commenting on texts was far from a disembodied act in Byzantium; on the contrary, it required an effort that was both intellectual and physical. Not unlike today, holding a class was an exercise calling for a series of structured bodily and mental practices to be successful. The first part of this chapter addresses the entanglements between performativity and manuscript production by looking at what Tzetzes’ scholia on Aristophanes tell us about the setting and the execution of the actual exegetical activity. The second part focuses on Commentary on Aristophanes’ Frogs 843a in order to show that appropriation of non-Hellenic traditions played a part in the performative and exegetical engagement with the classics in Constantinople toward the end of the twelfth century.