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 BYZANTINE

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BYZANTINE

one pagan and humanistic in tendency, the other Christian. The former is represented chiefly by \u r a- thias (sixth century) and Cliristophorus of Mitylene (eleventh century); the latter by the ecclesiastics. Georgius Pisides (seventh century) and Theodoras Studites (ninth century). Between the two groups, in point of time as well as in character, stands Joannes Geometres (tenth century). The chief phases in the development of the Byzantine epigram are most evident in the works of these three. Aga- thias. who has already been mentioned among the historians, as an epigrammatist. lias the peculiarities of the school of the semi-Byzantine Egyptian Nonnus (about a. D. 400). He wrote in an affected and tur- gid style, in the classical form of the hexameter; he abounds, however, in brilliant ideas, and in his skil- ful imitation of the ancients, particularly in his erotic pieces, he surpasses most of the epigrammatists of the imperial period. Agathias also prepared a collec- tion of epigrams, partly his own and partly by other writers, some of which afterwards passed into the "Anthologia Palatina" and have thus been preserved. The abbot Theodoras Studites is in every respect the opposite of Agathias; a man of deep earnestnes and simple piety, with a fine power of observation in nature and life, full of sentiment and warmth and simplicity of expression, his writings are free from servile imitation of the ancients, though he occasion- ally bet rays the influence of Nonnus. Of his epigrams, which touch on the most varied things and situations, those treating of the life and personnel of his mon- astery offer especial interest for the history of civi- lization. Joannes Geometres is in a way a combina- tion of the two preceding writers. During the course of his life he filled both secular and ecclesiastical offices; his poetry also was of a universal character; of a deeply religious temper, he was still fully appre- ciative of the greatness of the ancient Greeks. Along- side of epigrams on ancient poets, philosophers, rhetoricians, and historians, are others on famous Church Fathers, poets, and saints. In point of poetic treatment, the epigrams on contemporary and secu- lar topics are superior to those on religious and classic subjects. He is at his best when depicting histori- cal events and situations that have come within his own experience, and reflect his own spiritual moods (Krumbacher).

Less agreeable than the epigrams are the official panegyrics on emperors and their achievements, which unfortunately even the best writers often could not escape composing. Typical of this kind of literature are the commemorative poem of Paulus Silentiarius on the dedication of the church of St. Sophia, and that of Georgius Pisides on the victory of Heraclius over the Persians; each comprises over a thousand verses and celebrates not the importance of these great events, but the glory of the prince. Un- favourable conclusions must not be drawn, however, as lo the character of these poets, when it is borne in mind that such eulogies were composed not only ntiers like Psellus and Manuel Holobolos (thir- teenth century), but also by dignified and independ- ent characters like Eustathius and Michael Acom- inatus. In tut tin- species of literature had become

traditional, and had been handed down from im- perial Home to Byzantium as a part of ancient rhetoric with all the extravagance of a thoroughly decadent literature (I. Gregorovius). It was a sort of necessary concession to despotism; populai it in general offended by it. \- previously Btated, the i hie! kinds of poetry dur- ing the period of tin- decline (eleventh to thirteenth century) were Batire and pai »ly. didactic ami horta- tory poetry, the begging-poem, anil the erotic ro- mance. In form this literature is characterized by \i~ • xtensive use of the popular forms of speech ami verse, the latter being the "political" verse, a tro-

chaic verse of fifteen syllables, still the standard verse of modern Greek popular poetry. In content, however, all this literature continues to bear the im- print of Byzantine erudition. The father of Byzan- tine satire is Lucian. His celebrated "Dialogues of the Dead" furnished the model for two works, one of which, the "Timarion" (twelfth century), is marked by more rude humour, the other, "Mazaris" (fif- teenth century), by keen satire. Each describes a journey to the underworld and conversations with dead contemporaries; in the former their defects are lashed with good-natured raillery; in the latter, how- ever, under the masks of dead men, living persons and contemporary conditions, especially at the Byzantine Court, are sharply stigmatized; thus the former is more of a literary satire, the latter a political pam- phlet, with keen personal thrusts and without lit- erary value, but with all the greater interest for the history of civilization; the former is in a genuinely popular tone, the latter is vulgar and crude. [Ci Tozer in "The Journal of Hellenic Studies " (1881 I, II, 233-270; Krumbacher, op. cut.. 198-211.] Two popular offshoots of the "Timarion". the "Apoko- pos" and the "Piccatoros" will be discussed later. Another group of satires takes the form of dialogues between animals, manifestly a development from the Christian popular book known as the " Physiologus ". Such satires describe assemblages of quadrupeds, birds, and fishes, and recite their lampooning remarks upon the clergy, the bureaucracy, the foreign nations in the Byzantine Empire, etc. (Krumbacher, 3S5-390). Here belong also the parodies in the form of church poems which are mentioned below, ami in which the clergy themselves took part, e. g. Bishop Nicetas of Seme (eleventh century). One of the worst examples of this sacrilegious literature, which is not yet, how- ever, fully understood, is the ".Mockery of a Beard- less Man" in the liturgical form of Mass-Chants. This is one of the most obscene products of Byzantine literature (fourteenth century). (Krumbacher, 337.)

As the Byzantine satire had its prototype in Lucian, the didactic poetry found its model in the dialogue, "To Demonikos", erroneously ascribed to Isocrates. The greatest example of this type of literature in Byzantium is the "Spaneas" (twelfth century), a hortatory poem addressed by an emperor to his nephew, a sort of "Mirror for Princes . Some few offshoots from this are found in the popular litera- ture of Crete in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, handed down under the names of Sachlikis and Depharanas. Here also belong the ranting theo logical exhortations resembling those of the Capu- chin in Schiller's "Wallenstein. Such, for instance, are that of Georgillas after the great plague of Rhodes (lt'.tsi and the oracular prophecies on the end of the Byzantine empire current under the name of Emperor Leo (886 911). (Krumbacher, 332, 336, 343,352,366.)

A late Byzantine variety of the laudatory poem is the begging-poem, the poetical lament of hungry authors ami the parasites of the court. Its chief

representatives an- Th lorus Prodromus and the

still more contemptible Manuel Philes, the former of whom lived under the Comneni (twelfth century), the latter under the Palseologi (thirteenth century).

For the history of civilization such poetical wails of distress as Prodromus addressed to the emperor are of value because they give interesting pictures

of street and business life in the capital. (( 'f. Krum- bacher, 321. 333.)

The Alexandrian erotic romance "as imitated by tho'' late writers of the twelfth century: Eustathius Makrembolites, Theodoras Prodromus, ami Nicetas Eugenianus. E. Rohde's criticism of the last i a true of all three: " Nothing original is found anywhere; on th.- contrary, Nicetas unhesitatingly steals his flowers of speech and gallant turns from everywhere, from