2004
Volume 54, Issue 3
  • ISSN: 0165-8204
  • E-ISSN: 2667-1573

Abstract

Abstract

This article studies the reception of the comedies of the Athenian playwright Aristophanes in 12th-century Byzantium. It takes as its starting point various scholarly and didactic texts that facilitated this reception. These texts were written by Gregory of Corinth, John Tzetzes and Eustathius of Thessaloniki, who all used Aristophanes, and ancient literature more generally, in their teaching and scholarly practice. This article explores (1) what moral functions Byzantine scholars ascribe to ancient drama; (2) how they instruct Byzantine writers to weave elements of humour and ridicule into their own work by either imitating Aristophanes’ techniques or quoting his verses; (3) how they use the Athenian playwright as a model for correct atticizing language; (4) and how Tzetzes engages on a personal level with Aristophanes as a historical figure and with the comedies he wrote. This examination of the reception of Aristophanes in the work of Gregory, Tzetzes and Eustathius thus demonstrates the versatility of the Byzantine reception of ancient comedy.

Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.5117/LAM2021.3.004.BERG
2021-12-01
2024-11-08
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

/deliver/fulltext/01658204/54/3/LAM2021.3.004.BERG.html?itemId=/content/journals/10.5117/LAM2021.3.004.BERG&mimeType=html&fmt=ahah

References

  1. Adler, A. 1928-1938. Suidae lexicon, 4 delen, Leipzig.
    [Google Scholar]
  2. Agapitos, P.A. 2017. ‘John Tzetzes and the Blemish Examiners. A Byzantine teacher on schedography, everyday language and writerly disposition’,Medioevo greco17, 1-57.
    [Google Scholar]
  3. Barnes, T. 2010. ‘Christians and the Theater’, in I.Gildenhard en M.Revermann (eds), Beyond the Fifth Century. Interactions with Greek tragedy from the fourth century BCE to the Middle Ages, Berlijn, 315-334.
    [Google Scholar]
  4. Berg, B. van den. 2015. ‘Homerus als grammaticus, retor en bron van alle wijsheid. Eustathius’Parekbolai op de Ilias’, Lampas48, 131-147.
    [Google Scholar]
  5. Berg, B. van den.2017. ‘“The Wise Man Lies Sometimes”. Eustathios of Thessalonike on good hypocrisy, praiseworthy falsehood, and rhetorical plausibility in ancient poetry’, Scandinavian Journal of Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies3, 15-35.
    [Google Scholar]
  6. Berg, B. van den.2020. ‘John Tzetzes as Didactic Poet and Learned Grammarian’, Dumbarton Oaks Papers74, 285-302.
    [Google Scholar]
  7. Berg, B. van den.2021.‘Playwright, Satirist, Atticist. The reception of Aristophanes in 12th-century Byzantium’, in P.Marciniak en I.Nilsson (eds), 227-253.
    [Google Scholar]
  8. Bernard, F. 2014. Writing and Reading Byzantine Secular Poetry, 1025-1081, Oxford.
  9. Bernard, F. 2015. ‘Humor in Byzantine Letters of the Tenth to Twelfth Centuries. Some preliminary remarks’,Dumbarton Oaks Papers69, 179-195.
    [Google Scholar]
  10. Biles, Z.P. en S.D.Olson. 2015. Aristophanes. Wasps, Oxford.
    [Google Scholar]
  11. Budelmann, F. 2002. ‘Classical Commentary in Byzantium. John Tzetzes on ancient Greek literature’, in R.K.Gibson en C.S.Kraus (eds), The Classical Commentary. Histories, practices, theory, Leiden, 141-169.
    [Google Scholar]
  12. Chantry, M. 1994. Scholia vetera in Aristophanem, pars 3, fasc. 4a. Scholia vetera in Aristophanis Plutum, Groningen.
    [Google Scholar]
  13. Cullhed, E. 2016. Eustathios of Thessalonike, Commentary on Homer’s Odyssey. Deel 1: Rhapsodies A-B, Uppsala.
    [Google Scholar]
  14. Easterling, P.E. 1995. ‘Menander. Loss and Survival: ζώεις εἰς αἰῶνα (AP 9.187)’, in Stage Directions: Essays in Ancient Drama in Honour of E.W. Handley. Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies, Supplement 66, 153-160.
    [Google Scholar]
  15. Garland, L. 1990. ‘“And His Bald Head Shone Like a Full Moon …”. An appreciation of the Byzantine sense of humour as recorded in historical sources of the eleventh and twelfth centuries’,Parergon 8.1, 1-31.
    [Google Scholar]
  16. Gaul, N. 2008. ‘Moschopulos, Lopadiotes, Phrankopulos (?), Magistros, Staphidakes. Prosopographisches und Methodologisches zur Lexikographie des frühen 14. Jahrhunderts’, in E.Trapp en S.Schönauer (eds), Lexicologica Byzantina. Beiträge zum Kolloquium zur byzantinischen Lexikographie (Bonn, 13.-15. Juli 2007), Göttingen, 163-196.
    [Google Scholar]
  17. Kaldellis, A. 2009. ‘Classical Scholarship in Twelfth-Century Byzantium’, in C.Barber en D.Jenkins (eds), Medieval Greek Commentaries on the Nicomachean Ethics, Leiden en Boston, 1-43.
    [Google Scholar]
  18. Kock, T. 1880. Comicorum Atticorum fragmenta. Deel 1, Leipzig.
    [Google Scholar]
  19. Koster, W.J.W. 1962. Jo. Tzetzae Commentarii in Aristophanem. Fasc. III: Commentarium in Ranas et in Aves; Argumentum Equitum, Groningen.
    [Google Scholar]
  20. Koster, W.J.W. 1975. Prolegomena de comoedia, scholia in Acharnenses, Equites, Nubes. Fasc. I.I.a: Prolegomena de comoedia, Groningen.
    [Google Scholar]
  21. Koster, W.J.W. en D.Holwerda. 1954. ‘De Eustathio, Tzetza, Moschopulo, Planude Aristophanis commentatoribus I’, Mnemosyne7, 136-156.
    [Google Scholar]
  22. Koster, W.J.W. en D.Holwerda. 1955. ‘De Eustathio, Tzetza, Moschopulo, Planude Aristophanis commentatoribus II’, Mnemosyne8, 196-206.
    [Google Scholar]
  23. Labuk, T. 2016. ‘Aristophanes in the Service of Niketas Choniates. Gluttony, drunkenness and politics in the Χρονικὴ Διήγησις’,Jahrbuch der Österreichischen Byzantinistik66, 127-152.
    [Google Scholar]
  24. Lefkowitz, M.R. 2012 [19812]. The Lives of the Greek Poets, Baltimore.
    [Google Scholar]
  25. Leone, P.L.M.1972. Ioannis Tzetzae Epistulae, Leipzig.
    [Google Scholar]
  26. Leone, P.L.M.2007 [19682]. Ioannis Tzetzae Historiae, Galatina.
    [Google Scholar]
  27. Leutsch, E.L. von en F.G.Schneidewin. 1965 [1839]. Corpus Paroemiographorum Graecorum. Deel 1, Hildesheim.
    [Google Scholar]
  28. MacDowell, D.M. 1971. Aristophanes. Wasps, Oxford.
    [Google Scholar]
  29. Marciniak, P. 2009. ‘A Dramatic Afterlife. The Byzantines on ancient drama and its authors’,Classica et Mediaevalia60, 311-326.
    [Google Scholar]
  30. Marciniak, P. 2013. ‘Theodore Prodromos’ Bion Prasis. A reappraisal’, Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies53, 219-239.
    [Google Scholar]
  31. Marciniak, P. 2016a. Taniec w roli Tersytesa, Katowice.
    [Google Scholar]
  32. Marciniak, P. 2016b. ‘Reinventing Lucian in Byzantium’, Dumbarton Oaks Papers70, 209-224.
    [Google Scholar]
  33. Marciniak, P. en I.Nilsson (eds). 2021. Satire in the Middle Byzantine Period. The Golden Age of laughter?, Leiden en Boston.
    [Google Scholar]
  34. Massa Positano, L. 1960. Jo. Tzetzae Commentarii in Aristophanem. Fasc. I: Prolegomena et commentarius in Plutum, Groningen.
    [Google Scholar]
  35. Meineke, A. 1841. Fragmenta comicorum Graecorum. Deel 4, Berlijn.
    [Google Scholar]
  36. Messis, C. 2021. ‘The Fortune of Lucian in Byzantium’, in P.Marciniak en I.Nilsson (eds), 13-38.
    [Google Scholar]
  37. Nilsson, I. 2016. ‘Poets and Teachers in the Underworld. From the Lucianic katabasis to the Timarion’, Symbolae Osloenses 90.1, 180-204.
    [Google Scholar]
  38. Nünlist, R. 2012. ‘Homer as a Blueprint for Speechwriters. Eustathius’ commentaries and rhetoric’, Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies52, 493-509.
    [Google Scholar]
  39. Opstall, E.M. van.2015. ‘The Pleasure of Mudslinging. An invective dialogue in verse from 10th century Byzantium’, Byzantinische Zeitschrift 108.2, 771-796.
    [Google Scholar]
  40. Patillon, M. 2014. Corpus Rhetoricum. Deel 5, Parijs.
    [Google Scholar]
  41. Pizzone, A. 2017a. ‘Towards a Byzantine Theory of the Comic?’, in M.Alexiou en D.Cairns (eds), Greek Laughter and Tears, Antiquity and After, Edinburgh, 146-165.
    [Google Scholar]
  42. Pizzone, A. 2017b. ‘The Historiai of John Tzetzes. A Byzantine “book of memory”?’, Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies41, 182-207.
    [Google Scholar]
  43. Pizzone, A. 2018. ‘The Autobiographical Subject in Tzetzes’Chiliades. An analysis of its components’, in C.Messis, M.Mullett en I.Nilsson (eds), Storytelling in Byzantium. Narratological approaches to Byzantine texts and images, Uppsala, 287-304.
    [Google Scholar]
  44. Pontani, F. 2015. ‘Scholarship in the Byzantine Empire (529-1453)’, in F.Montanari, S.Matthaios en A.Rengakos (eds), Brill’s Companion to Ancient Greek Scholarship. Deel 1, Leiden, 297-455.
    [Google Scholar]
  45. Reinsch, D.R. 1998. ‘Die Zitate in der Alexias Anna Komnenes’, Symmeikta12, 63-74.
    [Google Scholar]
  46. Roilos, P. 2021. ‘Satirical Modulations in 12th-Century Greek Literature’, in P.Marciniak en I.Nilsson (eds), 254-278.
    [Google Scholar]
  47. Schäfer, G.H. 1811. Gregorii Corinthii et aliorum grammaticorum Graecorum libri de dialectis linguae Graecae, Leipzig.
    [Google Scholar]
  48. Sickinger, J.P. 1999. Public Records and Archives in Classical Athens, Chapel Hill en Londen.
    [Google Scholar]
  49. Silk, M.S. 2000. Aristophanes and the Definition of Comedy, New York.
    [Google Scholar]
  50. Valk, M.H.A.L.H. van der.1971-1987. Eustathii archiepiscopi Thessalonicensis commentarii ad Homeri Iliadem pertinentes, 4 delen, Leiden.
    [Google Scholar]
  51. Tafel, T.L.F. 1832. Eustathii Metropolitae Thessalonicensis Opuscula, Amsterdam.
    [Google Scholar]
  52. Verdenius, W.J. 1970. Homer, the Educator of the Greeks, Amsterdam.
    [Google Scholar]
  53. Walz, C. 1834. Rhetores Graeci. Deel 7.2, Stuttgart.
    [Google Scholar]
  54. Webb, R. 2008. Demons and Dancers. Performance in Late Antiquity, Cambridge MA.
    [Google Scholar]
  55. Zagklas, N. 2021. ‘Satire in the Komnenian Period. Poetry, satirical strands, and antagonism’, in P.Marciniak en I.Nilsson (eds.), 279-303.
    [Google Scholar]
/content/journals/10.5117/LAM2021.3.004.BERG
Loading
This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was a Success
Invalid data
An Error Occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error