Having abandoned the paganism of antiquity and adopted Christianity as the ideology of a new society, the peoples of the former Roman Empire began to create their own, different culture, in the West - starting almost from scratch, in the East - preserving the fragments of the former ancient civilization and adapting them to the new world of values.
As we remember, the Ancient Roman Empire was huge, its spaces stretched from Gibraltar in the west to the Caucasus in the east. In 395, it split into two parts - the western with Rome at its head and the eastern, the capital of which was the once small village of Byzantium, which turned into the magnificent city of Constantinople. Nowadays it bears the Turkish name Istanbul (in Rus' it was called Tsargrad).
The western part of the empire broke up into many small states, which either gathered again into large territorial associations (the Empire of Charlemagne in the last quarter of the 8th - early 9th centuries), or disintegrated.
The eastern part of the empire managed to maintain a unified statehood throughout its territory, and it included Egypt, Palestine, Asia Minor and the Black Sea coast of Colchis (the present-day Caucasus), the Balkan Peninsula and the islands of the Aegean Sea. This was originally Byzantium. Its inhabitants called themselves Romans and considered their country the “second Rome” - the custodian of the former glory of Rome.
The history of Byzantium was complicated. She was pressed on all sides by her enemies, hungry for her riches. The last rise of its glory and its power was the reign of Emperor Justinian I. He expanded its borders to the maximum, but already in 630 the Arabs tore Egypt away from it.
In the end, the territory of Byzantium was reduced to the lands of the Balkan Peninsula and Asia Minor.
Byzantium adopted Christianity when it was still part of the Roman Empire, but after it was divided into eastern and western parts, church disagreements began, which in 1054 led to the final schism. In the western part, Catholicism (Greek Catholicos ecumenical, universal) was established, in the eastern part - Orthodoxy. The churches have not yet been reconciled. In 1204, Christian crusaders (we will talk about them later) of Western Europe captured Byzantium and founded the Latin Empire on part of its territory. It was liquidated about sixty years later by Michael VIII.
Russia adopted Christianity from Byzantium. The Grand Duke of Kiev Vladimir carried out the act of baptism of Rus' in 988. Byzantine icons and Byzantine literature poured into Russian cities in a wide wave, primarily, of course, Kyiv and Novgorod.
After the fall of Constantinople, which happened in 1453 under the attacks of Turkish troops, Byzantium as a state ceased to exist, and Moscow called itself the “third Rome”, taking up the historical baton of Orthodoxy. “Moscow is the third Rome, but there will never be a fourth!” - Russian clergy proudly declared.
The culture of Byzantium took shape under the ideological influence of Christian doctrine. Nowhere did religion influence culture as much as in Byzantium. Everything was permeated with it. At the very beginning, after the official recognition of Christianity as the state religion, the old Greek culture was subject to curses and condemnation. A significant part of the famous Library of Alexandria(IV century). In 529 the philosophical school in Athens was closed. The old cultural centers (Athens, Alexandria) have survived, but have faded significantly. Higher education was concentrated in Constantinople. In 425, a Christian higher school opened there. The new religion required propaganda forces and scientific justification. But science began to lose one position after another. In the 6th century, the monk Cosmas Indicopleus (“discoverer of India”) writes the book “Christian Topography,” in which he completely rejects the imperfect, but still closer to the truth, picture of the cosmos created in antiquity (the Ptolemaic system), and presents the Earth as a flat quadrangle, surrounded by the ocean, with paradise in the sky.
However, Byzantium did not completely break with antiquity. Its population spoke Greek, although it had already changed significantly compared to the language of antiquity. Interest in ancient authors never ceased, ancient history. The historical picture of the world appeared, of course, in a rather fantastic form. Such, for example, is the Chronicle of George Amartol, so popular in Rus' (9th century) with a strong Christian bias and extensive use of the works of theologians and even Greek authors (Plutarch, Plato).
In the 10th century, by order of Emperor Constantine VI Porphyrogenitus, a historical encyclopedia was created, something like a historical anthology with fragments from the works of ancient historians and writers (“Biblion”). In the 11th century, the philosopher and philologist Mikhail Psel studied Homer and wrote commentaries on the comedies of Menander.
Byzantine poetry mainly consists of church hymns. A great master of this genre was the Syrian Roman Sladkopevets (VI century).
Most of the Byzantine prose consists of the lives of hermit saints (Pateriki), but novels about love and adventure novels were also written. The novel about Alexander the Great with a series of adventures, but not without Christian symbolism, was very popular.
Byzantine art bears the stamp of a different worldview and a different aesthetic ideal compared to ancient times. The artist abandoned the ideal of a harmoniously developed person and saw disharmony and disproportion both in the world and in the individual; he turned away from physical beauty and was imbued with respect for the spiritual principle. In Byzantine icons we feel this master’s craving for spirituality, for detachment from the world; in the icon we see, first of all, the eyes of the God or saint depicted in it - huge mournful eyes like a mirror of the soul.
In the lives of the saints we find the same desire for spirituality. The writer shows little man with a weak, frail body, but with an indestructible will. In the struggle between flesh and spirit, the spirit wins, and the writer glorifies this victory.
Byzantine culture did not give the world a single significant author, not a single name capable of taking a place next to the famous masters of Western European medieval culture, but she retained something of antiquity, a smoldering ember from a once bright fire. After the fall of Constantinople, she moved it to Europe (Renaissance).
One more small addition to the topic: we have an icon of the Vladimir Mother of God. It was created in Constantinople in the first half of the 12th century. Transferred to Russia, it entered the life of the people and is associated with many significant events in Russian history. The icon is beautiful. Here is how a specialist describes her: “...a mother and baby are presented: she is in mournful doom to sacrifice her son, he is in serious readiness to embark on a thorny path.
They are alone in the whole world and are drawn to each other in their hopeless loneliness: the mother - bowing her head to her son, the son - fixing his childishly serious eyes on her. The noble face of the Mother of God seems almost ethereal, the nose and lips are barely outlined, only the eyes - huge sad eyes - look at the baby, at the viewer, at all of humanity, and the tragedy of the mother becomes a universal tragedy. The colors seem thick and twilight, dark, brownish-green tones dominate, and from them the baby’s face appears light, contrasting with the mother’s face. Aimed at elevating a person to divine contemplation, such an icon as the Vladimir Mother of God gave the viewer a feeling of the hopeless sorrow of earthly existence” (Kazhdan A.P. “Byzantine Culture”).
Byzantine literature of the 4th-7th centuries is characterized by breadth and undifferentiation: it includes works of a historical nature, theology, philosophy, natural philosophy and much more. This literature is distinguished by its ethnolinguistic heterogeneity, multilingualism and multinationality. Its main line is Greek-speaking, since for the vast majority of the population the Greek language was common, which became from the end of the 6th century. official in the empire. However, along with Greek-language monuments and in interaction with them, there were works written in Latin, Syriac, Coptic and other languages.
Antique traditions continued to live in Byzantine literature for a long time, which was facilitated by the preservation of the Greek language, as well as the specifics of the training and education system. The organization of teaching in primary and higher schools played a big role in the spread of ancient literary monuments and in the formation of tastes. At the same time, Christianity had a huge impact on literature (as well as on the entire culture as a whole). Theological works made up a significant part of it.
In the literature of the IV-VII centuries. There are two schools of thought: one represented by pagan writers and poets, and the other by Christian authors. Such ancient genres as rhetoric, epistolography, epic, and epigram continue to develop. Next to them are new ones: chronography, hagiography and hymnography.
Early Christianity could not provide fiction in the true sense of the word. In his literary production, the balance between form and content is still too sharply disrupted in favor of content; a rigid focus on didactic “educationalness” excludes conscious concern for external design; decorative stylistic elements are rejected as unnecessary. Apocryphal narrative literature allows itself more freedom, sometimes using the techniques of the ancient novel. Christianity begins its mastery of the arsenal of pagan culture with philosophy; already by the beginning of the 3rd century. it puts forward a thinker like Origen, but does not yet produce a single author who could compete with the pillars of the “second sophistry” also in the formal mastery of words.
Only on the eve of the reign of Constantine did the growth of Christian culture and the rapprochement of the church with pagan society go so far that objective conditions were created for the combination of Christian preaching with the most refined and developed forms of rhetoric. This is how the foundations of Byzantine literature are laid.
The primacy in it belongs to prose. Back in the middle of the 3rd century. Gregory of Neocaesarea (c. 213 - c. 273) works, dedicating a “Gratitude to Origen” (or “Panegyric”) to his teacher. The topic of the speech is Origen’s years of study in church school and the path of his own spiritual formation. Her character is determined by a combination of traditional stylistic forms and autobiographical intimacy that is new in spirit; the pomp of the panegyric and the sincerity of the confession, representative and confidential intonations contrast each other. An even more conscious and clear play on the contrasts of the old form and new content is carried out in the dialogue “The Feast, or on Chastity” by Methodius of Olympus in Lycia (died in 311). The title itself alludes to Plato’s famous dialogue “The Symposium, or on Love,” the structure of which is reproduced by Methodius with great accuracy; the work is replete with Platonic reminiscences - in language, style, situations and ideas. But the place of Hellenic Eros in Methodius was taken by Christian virginity, and the content of the dialogue is the glorification of asceticism. An unexpected effect is created by the breakthrough in the finale of the prosaic fabric of presentation and the entrance to hymn poetry: the participants in the dialogue sing a solemn doxology in honor of the mystical marriage of Christ and the Church. This hymn is also new in its metrical form: for the first time in Greek poetry, tonic tendencies are explored.
Apparently, Methodius’ experience was close to the liturgical practice of Christian communities, but in “ great literature“It remains without consequences for a long time. Half a century later, the student of the pagan rhetorician Epiphanius, Apollinaris of Laodicea, tries to re-found Christian poetry on different, completely traditionalist foundations. From his numerous works (a hexametric arrangement of both testaments, Christian hymns in the manner of Pindar, tragedies and comedies imitating the style of Euripides and Menander) came only an arrangement of the psalms in the meter and language of Homer - as masterly as it was far from the living trends of literary development. The risky combination of two disparate traditions - Homeric and biblical - is carried out with great tact: the epic vocabulary is very carefully seasoned with a small number of sayings specific to the Septuagint (Greek translation of the Old Testament), which creates an unexpected, but quite integral linguistic flavor.
Early Christianity lived not in the past, but in the future, not in history, but in eschatology and apocalypticism. By the end of the 3rd century. the situation is changing: Christians cease to feel like rootless “aliens on earth” and acquire a taste for tradition. The Church, internally ripe for spiritual domination, feels the need for an impressive perpetuation of its past.
Eusebius undertook to satisfy this need. His “Ecclesiastical History” belongs to scientific prose, while “The Life of the Blessed King Constantine” belongs to rhetorical prose. In its attitudes and style, this is a typical “encomium” (a word of praise), a product of the old ancient tradition, dating back to Isocrates (IV century BC). The Christian trend is new. The ideal monarch should not only be “fair” and “invincible,” but also “God-loving.” If the old rhetoricians compared the glorified monarchs with the heroes of Greco-Roman mythology or history, then Eusebius takes the objects of comparison from the Bible: Constantine is the “new Moses.” But the structure of the comparison itself remains the same.
It was precisely at the moment when the church achieved full legality and political influence that it faced the need to reconsider its ideological foundations. This gave rise to the Arian controversy. She stood at the center of everything public life IV century and could not help but influence the course of the literary process.
Arius brought a worldly spirit into religious literature. A brilliant preacher, he knew his listeners well - citizens of Alexandria, accustomed to the life of a big city. The ancient Christian ascetic severity of style could not count on success here; however, the traditions of pagan classics were too academic and outdated for the masses. Therefore, Arius, writing the poem “Falin” for widespread propaganda of his theological views, turned to other traditions, less respected and more vital. We know little about the poem of the famous heretic - it itself is lost (it is even possible that it was not a poem, but a mixed poetic and prose text such as the so-called Menippean satire). But the testimony of contemporaries adds up to quite a bright picture. According to one account, Arius imitated the style and meter of Sotades, one of the representatives of the light poetry of Alexandrian Hellenism; in another way, his poems were designed to be sung at work and on the road. Even if these reports tend to exaggerate the incriminating associations evoked by the work of Arius (Sotad's poetry was pornographic), they contain some truth. Alexandria has long been the center of the poetry of mimodias, mimiambas, etc. Arius tried to select some (of course, only purely formal) features of these genres for the emerging Christian poetry. His path was more shocking, but also more promising than the path of the Christianized classicism of Apollinaris of Laodicea.
Egyptian monks, who treated the culture of big cities with hatred, accepted such experiments with sharp hostility and went so far as to deny the very principle of liturgical poetry. From the 5th century I heard a conversation between Elder Pamva and a novice, in which the stern ascetic said: “The monks did not retire into this desert to think idle, to fold frets, to sing chants, to shake their hands, and to move their legs...” However, the process of development of church poetry that was folk in spirit and innovative in form could not be stopped. The strictest zealots of orthodoxy had to start composing chants in order to oust the hymns of heretics from everyday life. One of the exponents of the trends of the time was the Syrian Ephraim (d. 373), a successful rival of the representatives of heretical hymnography, who wrote in Syriac, but also influenced Greek-language literature; one of his texts is well known from Pushkin’s adaptation in the poem “The Desert Fathers and the Immaculate Wives...”.
The people wanted to receive intelligible and easy-to-remember poetic texts that they could, having memorized in church, sing at work and at leisure, “Travelers in a cart and on a ship, artisans engaged in sedentary work, in short, men and women, healthy and sick , they are downright revered as punishment if anything prevents them from repeating these sublime lessons,” states at the end of the 4th century. Gregory of Nyssa. The teaching of Arius was supposed to perish, his name became odious, but literary development largely followed the path indicated by his “Thalias”.
The main antagonist of Arius was the Alexandrian patriarch Athanasius. The pagan spirit of ancient traditions was deeply alien to Athanasius, but in his desire for an impressive severity of style, he adhered to school rhetorical norms. Of greatest historical and literary interest is the biography of the Egyptian ascetic Anthony, the founder of monasticism (by the way, the motif of the “temptation of St. Anthony”, popular in European art and literature right up to Flaubert’s story, goes back to it). This work was almost immediately translated into Latin and Syriac and marked the beginning of the most popular genre of monastic “life” in the Middle Ages.
The first monks of the Nile Valley shunned literary studies: Anthony is a new hero of literature, but he himself could not yet pick up a pen. After a few decades, the monks became involved in writing. Evagrius of Pontus (c. 346-399) founded a form typical of Byzantium - a manual of monastic ethics based on introspection and constructed from aphorisms. It is unlikely that Evagrius and his successors knew anything about the philosophical diary of Marcus Aurelius “Alone with Oneself,” but the similarities are obvious here.
Ideological life of the 4th century. deeply contradictory. While the most specific products of Byzantine Christianity - dogmatic theology, liturgical hymnography, monastic mysticism - are already acquiring clear contours, paganism does not want to leave the scene. His authority in the closed sphere of humanities education remains very high. It is characteristic that Christian authors working in traditional rhetorical and poetic genres often avoid any memories of their faith and operate exclusively with pagan images and concepts in their works. Julian the Apostate, in a tone of complete confidence, declares to Christians that no one in their own ranks will dare deny the advantages of the old pagan school.
It is the need to defend oneself in a life-and-death struggle against the onslaught of a new ideology that gives pagan culture new strength.
It experienced a special flourishing in the 4th century. rhetoric: its adherents are characterized by a deep conviction in the exceptional social significance of their work, which from time immemorial was an indispensable feature of the Greek “sophist”, but in the conditions of the struggle against Christianity received a new, in-depth meaning. In this regard, the pillar of eloquence of the 4th century is characteristic. Antiochian Libanius.
Livanius was born in Antioch, into a rich and noble family. Even in childhood, he showed an interest in knowledge. The desire for education draws him to Athens, where Livanius attends high school. After graduating, he opens his own school of oratory, first in Constantinople, then in Nicomedia. From 354 he returned to his homeland, where he spent the rest of his life.
In his autobiography “Life, or about one’s destiny,” written in the form of a speech, Livanius writes: “I should try to convince those who have formed the wrong opinion about my fate: some consider me the happiest of all people in view of the wide fame that my speeches, others to the most unfortunate of all living beings, due to my incessant illnesses and disasters, meanwhile both of them are far from the truth: therefore I will tell about the previous and current circumstances of my life and then everyone will see that the gods have mixed the lot of fate for me ...".
Livanius's numerous letters (more than one and a half thousand have survived) convey his philosophical, historical, political and religious thoughts. The letters were intended for publication and therefore were interesting not only in content, but also in brilliant form.
In the eyes of Livan, the art of speech is the key to the integrity of the threatened polis structure; rhetorical aesthetics and polis ethics are interdependent. The duality of traditional eloquence and traditional citizenship is sanctified by the authority of Greek paganism - and therefore Livanius, alien to mystical quests in the spirit of the Neoplatonists, ardently sympathizes with the old religion and mourns its decline. Christianity, like all phenomena of spiritual life of the 4th century, which did not fit within the framework classical tradition, for him it is not so much hateful as incomprehensible.
And yet, the trends of the era emerged in his work; this champion of classicist norms writes a huge autobiography, oversaturated with intimate details and akin to his understanding of the human personality to such monuments as the lyrics of Gregory of Nazianzus or Augustine’s Confessions.
WITH creative way Livania is closely related to the literary activity of his contemporary and friend Themistius (320-390). From Livaniya's letters we learn about his respect for the merits of his opponent - a “brilliant orator.” Themistius' talent was highly valued by Julian; Gregory of Nazianzus called him βασιλευς λογων.
Unlike Julian and Livanius, Themistius refrained from harsh polemics with adherents of Christianity. He was characterized by toleration; It is not without reason that under all the emperors, regardless of their religion, he occupied prominent government positions. In his speech “To Valens on Confessions,” Themistius, praising the emperor, writes: “You have wisely decreed that everyone should join the religion that seems convincing to him, and in it he would seek peace for his soul...” and further: “Which It’s madness to try to ensure that all people, against their will, adhere to the same convictions!” According to Themistius, the emperor is wise to provide freedom of choice of beliefs, “so that people are not held accountable for the name and form of their religion.”
It is significant that despite his commitment to ancient philosophy, in his works there are ideas alien to the paganism of the classical period, for example, about earthly life as a prison and about the afterlife as a “happy field.” In his speeches, he talks everywhere about his love for philosophy, often turning to Plato and Socrates.
Themistius's speeches are devoid of poetic pathos, he lacks living characteristics. However, he was an excellent stylist, which greatly contributed to his fame.
The speeches of Imerius (315-386) differ in content, form and style from the speeches of Themistius. Imerius stood aloof from social and political life, was far from the court and lived in the interests of his school. Speeches related to the life of the school in Athens, where the sophist’s activities unfolded, and speeches concerning issues of rhetorical art occupy a large place in his work. In the fight against Christianity, Imerius preferred epidictic (solemn) speeches dedicated to the heroic past or glorifying the traditions of the Greek religion. These speeches are written in a lush, Asian style.
Imerius gives his speeches euphony, using images, words and expressions of ancient Greek lyricists. He himself often called his speeches “hymns.” An idea of the manner of Imeria is given by a speech at the wedding of a relative of the North, where the bride and groom are described in enthusiastic tones: “They are even more similar to each other in character and blooming age: they are like young roses in the same meadow, they were born at the same time, at the same time open their petals; Their spiritual affinity is amazing - both are bashful and pure in disposition and differ from each other only in the activities inherent in the nature of each. She excelled in weaving wool, the glorious work of Athena, he finds joy in the labors of Hermes.”
The idol of Neoplatonist philosophers and pagan rhetoricians was the Emperor Flavius Claudius Julian, nicknamed the “Apostate” by Christians. In his person, paganism put forward a worthy opponent to such leaders of militant Christianity as Athanasius; a man of fanatical conviction and extraordinary energy, Julian fought for the revival of paganism by all possible means, and only his death in a campaign against the Persians once and for all put an end to all the hopes of supporters of the old faith. The needs of the struggle dictated the transformation of polytheism along the lines of Christianity (Julian elevated the Neoplatonic doctrine to the rank of dogmatic theology) and the utmost consolidation of the spiritual forces of pagan culture. Julian tried to carry out this consolidation by his personal example, combining in himself a monarch, a high priest, a philosopher and a rhetorician; within philosophy and rhetoric, he in turn strives for the broadest synthesis. This makes the picture of Julian’s literary work very varied in genre, style and even language: the entire past of Greek culture, from Homer and the first philosophers to the first Neoplatonists, is equally dear to him, and he strives to resurrect it in its entirety in his own works. We find in him mystical hymns in prose, overloaded with philosophical subtleties, and at the same time captivating with the intimacy of their intonations (“To the Sun King”, “To the Mother of the Gods”), and satirical works in the manner of Lucian - the dialogue “Caesars”, where the Christian Emperor Constantine, and the diatribe “The Hater of the Beard, or the Antiochian,” where Julian’s self-portrait is presented through the perception of the inhabitants of Antioch hostile to him; finally, Julian paid tribute to epidictic eloquence and even epigrammatic poetry. Only fragments have survived from his polemical treatise “Against the Christians,” from which it is clear how passionately he criticized the religion hostile to him: “... The insidious teaching of the Galileans is an evil human fiction. Although there is nothing divine in this teaching, it managed to influence the unreasonable part of our soul, which childishly loves fairy tales, and inspired it that these fables are the truth.” He also maintained a harsh tone towards Christianity in the satires “Caesars” and “The Beard Hater.”
Despite his restorationist tendencies, Julian as a writer is closer to his turbulent times than to the classical eras for which he yearned: his inherent sense of loneliness and extremely intense personal experience of religious and philosophical problems stimulated autobiographical motives in his work; when he talks about his gods, with unprecedented intimacy, he seems to declare his love for them.
Byzantine literature recognized Julian as one of its own: considering the hatred that surrounded his name for religious reasons, the very fact of rewriting his works already in the Christian era proves that, no matter what, they found readers.
Julian’s cause was lost: according to a well-known legend, the emperor on his deathbed turned to Christ with the words: “You have won, Galilean!” But Christianity, having won politically, could fight the authority of paganism in the field of philosophy and classic literature with only one means - by assimilating as fully as possible the norms and achievements of pagan culture. In solving this problem, a huge role belongs to the so-called Cappadocian circle, which became in the second half of the 4th century. recognized center of church politics and church education in the Greek east of the empire. The core of the circle consisted of Basil from Caesarea, his brother Gregory, bishop of Nysa, and his closest friend Gregory of Nazianza.
The members of the circle stood at the pinnacle of contemporary education. They transferred the filigree methods of Neoplatonic dialectics to current theological polemics. An excellent knowledge of ancient fiction was also a taken-for-granted norm in the circle.
The leader of the circle was Basil of Caesarea. Like all members of the circle, Vasily wrote a lot and skillfully; his literary activity is entirely subordinated to practical goals. His sermons formally stand at the level of the extremely developed rhetoric of this time - and at the same time, in their very essence they differ from the aesthetic eloquence of pagan sophists like Livanius. With Basil, as with the orators of the Greek classics in the times of Pericles and Demosthenes, the word again becomes an instrument of effective propaganda, persuasion, and influence on minds. It is characteristic that Vasily demanded that the listeners, not catching the meaning of his words, interrupt him at all costs and demand clarification: to be effective, the sermon must be intelligible. Of the pagan writers of late antiquity, Basil was greatly influenced by Plutarch with his practical psychologism; in particular, Plutarch's writings served as a model for Basil's treatise "On how young people can benefit from pagan books." This work has long served as an authoritative rehabilitation of the pagan classics; Even in the Renaissance, humanists referred to it in disputes with obscurantists.
Among Vasily’s “interpretations” of biblical texts, “Six Days” stands out - a cycle of sermons on the theme of the story of the creation of the world from the Book of Genesis. The combination of serious cosmological thoughts, entertaining material from late antique scholarship, and a very lively and heartfelt presentation made The Six Days a popular read in the Middle Ages. It gave rise to many translations, adaptations and imitations (including in ancient Russian literature).
Gregory of Nazianzus was for a long time the closest friend and collaborator of Basil of Caesarea, but it is difficult to imagine a person who would be less like this powerful politician than the refined, impressionable, nervous, self-absorbed Gregory. The same line divides their approach to literature: for Vasily, writing is a means of influencing others, for Gregory it is to express oneself.
Gregory's extensive legacy includes treatises on dogma (hence his nickname "Theologian"), rhetorical prose similar to the decorative style of Imeria, and letters. But its main significance lies in his poetic creativity. The stylistic range of Gregory's poetry is very wide. Closest to ancient examples are his numerous epigrams, distinguished by the intimacy of tone, softness, liveliness and transparency of intonation. Some of them do not allow one to guess that their author is one of the “church fathers.” Here, for example, is an epigram on the grave of a certain Martinian:
Muses' pet, vita, judge, excellent in everything
The glorious Martinian hid in my bosom.
He showed valor in sea battles, and courage in land battles,
Then he went to his grave without having tasted the sorrows.
His religious hymns have a completely different appearance, marked by stately impersonality and rhetorical sophistication: numerous anaphors and syntactic parallelisms skillfully highlight their metrical structure and create a verse image reminiscent of the symmetrical arrangement of figures on Byzantine mosaics:
To her, the king, the imperishable king,
Through you our tunes,
Through you the heavenly choirs,
Time flows through you,
Through you the sun shines,
Through you the beauty of the constellations;
Through you the mortal is exalted
With a wondrous gift of understanding,
This makes him different from all creatures.
Along with this, Gregory’s poetry has at its disposal deeply personal motives of loneliness, disappointment, bewilderment at the cruelty and meaninglessness of life:
O bitter bondage! So I entered the world:
Who needs my torment for?
I say a frank word from my heart:
If I weren't yours, I would be indignant.
Let's be born; we come into the world; we spend our days;
We eat and drink, we wander, we sleep, we stay awake,
We laugh, we cry, pain torments the flesh,
The sun walks above us: this is how life goes,
And there you will rot in your grave. So is the dark beast
He lives in equal ignominy, but more innocent.
Gregory's generation could not yet accept a reassuring dogma from others - it had to first suffer through it. Therefore, Gregory’s world is full of difficult, vague, unresolved questions:
Who am I? Where did you come from? Where am I going? Don't know.
And I can't find anyone to guide me.
Gregory's lyrics capture with arresting immediacy the spiritual struggle that paid for the creation of church ideology:
Oh, what happened to me, true God,
Oh, what happened to me? Emptiness in the soul
All the sweetness of beneficent thoughts is gone,
And the heart, deadened in unconsciousness,
Ready to become the haven of the Prince of Abomination.
Three of Gregory’s poems are purely autobiographical in nature: “About my life”, “About my destiny” and “About the suffering of my soul”. It is possible that these poems, with their intimate psychologism and enormous culture of introspection, influenced the emergence of Augustine's Confessions.
The vast majority of Gregory's poems are subject to the laws of traditional musical versification, which Gregory mastered perfectly. It is all the more remarkable that we find in him two cases where the experience of tonic reform of prosody was completely consciously and consistently carried out (“Evening Hymn” and “Admonition to the Virgin”). This experiment is internally justified by the popular nature of both poems.
The third member of the circle, Gregory of Nyssa, is a master of philosophical prose. Gregory's worldview stands under the sign of a centuries-old tradition, going from the Pythagoreans through Plato to the Neoplatonists. Gregory's style, compared with the style of his companions, is somewhat ponderous, but it is precisely in the texts of the most speculative content that it reaches such sensitivity and expressiveness that even the most abstract thoughts are presented with plastic clarity. Gregory of Nyssa had a huge influence on medieval literature not only of Byzantium, but also of the Latin West with his allegorism.
The flourishing of rhetorical prose, passing through the entire 4th century, captured both pagan and Christian literature equally. But it reaches its culmination in the work of the church orator - the Antioch preacher John, nicknamed Chrysostom for his eloquence.
In his works, which vividly depict the social and religious life of the era, John Chrysostom angrily criticized the shortcomings of his contemporary society. Oratory skill and the brilliance of the Attic language were directed against the luxury of the imperial court and the corruption of the higher clergy. All this could not but cause discontent in the capital, as a result of which the bishop of Constantinople was deposed and sent into exile. Examples of Chrysostom's oratory are statements about spectacles that attracted people so much that the church was sometimes empty. “People are invited to spectacles every day, and no one is lazy, no one refuses, no one refers to the multitude of activities... everyone runs: neither the old man is ashamed of his gray hair, nor the young man is afraid of the flame of his natural lust, nor the rich man is afraid of humiliating his dignity". All this outrages the preacher, and he exclaims: “Am I really laboring in vain? Am I sowing on a rock or among thorns? If you go to the hippodrome, then “...they don’t pay attention to the cold, or the rain, or the distance of the journey. Nothing will keep them at home. But going to church - rain and mud become an obstacle for us!”
Meanwhile, nothing good comes from visiting the theater, for “... there you can see fornication and adultery, you can hear blasphemous speeches, so that the disease penetrates both through the eyes and through the ears...” And it is natural that “if you went to a spectacle and listened to prodigal songs, then you will certainly spew out the same words in front of your neighbor...”
The preaching of Christian morality was carried out from certain class positions. “People harmful to society,” wrote Chrysostom, “appear from among those who attend spectacles. From them comes indignation and rebellion. They most of all outrage the people and give rise to riots in the cities.”
The work of John Chrysostom, like some other authors of this turbulent era (for example, Julian the Apostate), is characterized by a feverish pace. Only those works of John that were included in the famous “Patrology” of Minh occupy 10 volumes; such productivity is especially surprising given the filigree rhetorical decoration. John's eloquence has a passionate, nervous, exciting character. This is how he addresses those who do not behave decently enough in church: “...You are a pitiful and unhappy person! You should have proclaimed the angelic praises with fear and trembling, but you bring here the customs of mimes and dancers! How are you not afraid, how are you not trembling when you begin to speak like this? Don’t you understand that the Lord himself is invisibly present here, measuring your movements, examining your conscience?...” John’s sermons are replete with topical allusions; when the empress threatened him with reprisals, he began his next sermon on the feast of John the Baptist with these words: “Again Herodias is raging, again going berserk, again dancing, demanding the head of John on a platter...” - and the listeners, of course, understood everything.
It is remarkable, however, that the focus on popularity did not stop John from following the canons of Atticism. The verbal fabric of his sermons is replete with reminiscences from Demosthenes, with whom, however, he was brought together not only by formal imitation, but also by internal congeniality: for all eight centuries, Demosthenes did not have more worthy heirs. Nevertheless, the virtuoso playing with classical turns, one must think, prevented John’s listeners from fully understanding him.
John Chrysostom was an unattainable ideal for every Byzantine preacher. The reader's perception of his works is well expressed by the inscription in the margins of one Greek manuscript kept in Moscow:
How wondrous is the brilliance of virtue,
Great John, from your soul,
All the power of God glorifying, poured out!
For this and golden eloquence
It's given to you. So have mercy on the sinner!
Az, poor Gordius, on the terrible day of judgment
May I be preserved by your prayer!
The Cappadocians and John Chrysostom brought Christian literature to a high degree of sophistication. But at the same time, other authors very productively developed other forms, more plebeian, alien to the academic style and language. Among them, it should be noted Palladius of Elenopolis (c. 364 - c. 430), the author of “Lavsaik”, or “Lavsian History” (named after a certain Lavs, to whom the book is dedicated). “Lavsaik” is a cycle of stories about Egyptian ascetics, among whom Palladius himself lived for a long time.
The main advantages of the book are: acute sensation everyday coloring and folklore in spirit spontaneity of presentation. Classical reminiscences are unthinkable here; Even the kind of academicism that was still in the “Life of Anthony the Great,” compiled by Athanasius, left no trace here. The syntax is extremely primitive; as one can judge from the introductory parts of the book, written in a different texture, this primitiveness is to a large extent conscious. The conversational tone is very vividly imitated. Here is an example of the style of “Lavsaik”: “...When fifteen years had passed, a demon possessed the cripple and began to incite him against Eulogius; and the cripple began to blaspheme Evlogius with these words: “Oh, you, a selfish, prude, you hid extra money, but you want to save your soul on me? Drag me to the square! I want meat!” - Eulogius brought meat. And he again did his thing: “Not enough! I want people! I want to go to the square! Uh, rapist!” Palladius knew his heroes well, and for him they had not yet turned into impersonal personifications of monastic virtues. Of course, he reveres and loves them very much, seeing in their strange, often grotesque way of life the highest expression of holiness and spiritual strength; at the same time, he is far from devoid of a sense of restrained humor towards them. This combination of reverence and comedy, pious legend and businesslike reality makes Palladius’s monastic short stories a unique, attractive monument. They have their own personality.
Created by Palladius (undoubtedly, relying on predecessors unknown to us), the type of novelistic stories from the life of ascetics became extremely widespread in Byzantine literature. It also spread to other literature of the Christian Middle Ages: in Rus' such collections were called “patericons”; in Western Europe, for example, the famous “Fioretti” (“Flowers” by Francis of Assisi, 13th century) goes back to this genre form.
Sinesius of Cyrene occupies a special place in the literary process of his era. First of all, it cannot be classified as either pagan or Christian literature. Sinesius was a highly educated descendant of a native Greek family, who traced themselves to Hercules; In him, his inner affinity with the ancient tradition reached such a degree of organicity as in none of his contemporary authors. More or less sincerely accepting the authority of Christianity, he sought to smooth out any contradiction between it and Hellenism: in his own words, the black cloak of a monk is equivalent to the white cloak of a sage. The need for social activity coming from antiquity forced him against his will to accept the rank of bishop, but he was never able to abandon his pagan sympathies and sentiments. Sinesius's literary activity is quite diverse. His letters, lively in tone and refined in style, served as an indisputable model for Byzantine epistolography: back in the 10th century. the author of “Svida” calls them “an object of general admiration,” and on the verge of the 13th and 14th centuries. Thomas Magister composes a detailed commentary on them. The speech “On Royal Power” - a kind of political program deployed by Sinesius before the Emperor Arcadius - is associated with topical issues, but spiritually and stylistically closer to the political moralization of the “second sophistry” than to the living trends of his time. In addition, from Synesius came: a kind of mythological “novel” with current political content - “Egyptian stories, or about providence”, an autobiographically colored treatise “Dono, or about life following his example” (about the author of the 1st-2nd centuries Dion Chrysostomos) , the rhetorical exercise “A Eulogy to a Bald Head,” several more speeches and religious hymns, marked by a colorful mixture of pagan and Christian images and thoughts. The metric of the hymns imitates the dimensions of ancient Greek lyrics, and the archaic nature of their vocabulary is complicated by the restoration of the ancient Doric dialect.
IV century was primarily an age of prose; he gave only one great poet - Gregory of Nazianzus. In the 5th century there is a revival of poetry. Already on the threshold of this century stands Sinesius with his hymns, but the most important event in the literary life of the era was the activity of the Egyptian school of epic poets.
Almost nothing is known about the life of the founder of this school, Nonna from the Egyptian city of Panopolis. He was born around 400 and towards the end of his life became a bishop. There are two more from his works: huge in volume (48 books - like the Iliad and Odyssey combined) the poem “The Acts of Dionysus” and “Arrangement of St. Gospel of John." Both the poem and the transcription are written in hexameters. In terms of material, they sharply contrast with each other: the poem is dominated by pagan mythology, arranged as Christian mysticism. But stylistically they are quite homogeneous. Nonnus is equally inaccessible to the plastic simplicity of Homer and the artless simplicity of the Gospel: his artistic vision of the world is characterized by eccentricity and an excess of tension. His forte is rich imagination and exciting pathos; his weakness is the lack of measure and integrity. Often, Nonnus’s images completely fall out of their context and take on an autonomous life, frightening with their mystery and dark significance. This is how he describes the death of Christ:
Someone with a fierce spirit
A sponge that grew in the abyss of the sea, in the incomprehensible abyss,
He took it and abundantly saturated it with painful moisture, and then
He strengthened it on the tip of the reed and raised it high;
So he brought deadly bitterness to the lips of Jesus,
Right in front of his face, he swayed on a long pole,
There is a sponge high in the air and pouring moisture into the mouth...
...Then the larynx and lips felt the bitterest moisture;
All dying, he said the last word: “It is finished!” —
And, bowing his head, he surrendered to his voluntary death...
Nonnus carried out an important reform of the hexameter, which boils down to the following: the exclusion of verse movements that made it difficult to perceive size in the state of the living Greek language that existed by the 5th century; taking into account, along with musical stress, also tonic stress; a tendency towards the unification of caesura and pedantic smoothness of verse, justified by the fact that the hexameter has finally hardened in its academic and museum quality (starting from the 6th century, traditionalist epic gradually abandoned the hexameter and switched to iambics). Nonna's hexameter is an attempt to find a compromise between traditional school prosody and live speech in ways of complicating versification.
A number of poets who developed the mythological epic and mastered the new metrical technique experienced the influence of Nonna. Many among them are Egyptians, like Nonnus himself (Kollufus, Trifiodorus, Cyrus of Panopolis, Christodorus of Koptos); the origin of Musaeus is unknown, from whom came the epillium “Hero and Leander”, marked by the ancient clarity and transparency of the figurative system. Cyrus owns, by the way, an epigram on Daniel the Stylite, where Homeric sayings are curiously applied to the description of the Christian ascetic:
Behold, between earth and sky a man stands motionless,
Substituting your flesh to all the demons of the winds.
His name is Daniel. Competing with Simeon in labor,
He accomplished the feat of the pillar, his foot rooted to the stone.
He feeds on ambrosial hunger and imperishable thirst,
Trying to glorify the Most Pure Virgin Child.
Christodore is already on the verge of the 5th and 6th centuries. composed a poetic description (the genre of ekphrasis, fashionable in this era) of ancient statues from one of the capital’s gymnasiums. Here is a description of the statue of Demosthenes:
The appearance was not calm: the brow betrayed concern,
In the heart of the wise, deep thoughts turned in succession
It was as if he were gathering in his mind a thunderstorm against the heads of the Emathians.
Soon, soon, angry speeches will come from the lips,
And the lifeless brass will sound!.. But no, it is indestructible
Art closed its mute lips with a strict seal.
But the most talented poet of the turn of the 5th and 6th centuries. stands outside the school of Nonna: this is the Alexandrian Pallas, who worked in the genre of epigram. The dominant tone of Pallas's lyrics is courageous but hopeless irony: his hero is a mendicant scientist, defending himself against the hardships of poverty and family life sarcasm (complaints about financial difficulties and an evil wife become a popular commonplace in Byzantine lyrics).
The poet's sympathies are on the side of vanishing antiquity. With sadness he realizes the inevitability of the death of the old world close to him. He mourns the fallen statue of Hercules:
I saw the bronze son of Zeus in the dust of the crossroads;
Before they prayed to him, but now they have cast him into dust.
And the shocked one said: “O Three-Mooned One, guardian of evil,
Hitherto invincible, by whom are you defeated, tell me?”
At night, appearing before me, God said to me, smiling:
“I am God,” and yet I have learned the power of time over myself.”
Christianity is alien to Pallas, and undisguised sad irony is heard in his poem “To Marina’s House”:
The gods of Olympus have now become Christians in the house
They live carelessly in this, because the flames are not dangerous for them here,
The flame feeding the crucible where the copper is melted into a coin.
Justinian's restoration policy to some extent contributed to the strengthening of the classicist trend in literary life. The situation was contradictory to the point of paradox: Justinian cruelly persecuted deviations from Christian ideology, but in literature he encouraged the formal language that was borrowed from the pagan classics. Therefore, in the middle of the 6th century. two genres flourish: historiography, living by the pathos of Roman statehood, and the epigram, living by the pathos of culture inherited from antiquity.
The most significant historian of this era is Procopius, whose successor was Agathius of Myrinea. Agathius also worked in another leading genre of that time - the epigram genre.
An epigram is a form of lyrical miniature that requires a particularly high level of external decoration. This is precisely why it attracts the poets of the Justinian era, who seek to demonstrate the refinement of their taste and their familiarity with classical examples. Epigrams are written by many: along with the great masters - Agathius, Paul the Silentiary, Julian of Egypt, Macedonia, Eratosthenes Scholasticus - there is a legion of imitators: Leontius Scholasticus, Arabia Scholasticus, Leo, Damocharides of Kos, John Barvukal and others. social status these are either courtiers (Paul is the “guardian of silence” at the court of Justinian, Julian is the prefect of Egypt, consular of Macedonia), or brilliant metropolitan lawyers (Agathias, Eratosthenes, Leontius). Here is one of Julian’s epigrams - a compliment expressed in verse to the Empress’s relative John:
A. Glorious, mighty John! B. But mortal. A. Royal wife
In-laws! B. Mortal, add. A. Royal family escape!
B. The kings themselves are mortal. A. Fair! B. Only this is immortal
In it: one virtue is stronger than death and fate.
In the epigrammatics of Justinian's era, conventional classical motifs predominate; only sometimes a touch of sentimentality or erotic poignancy betrays the advent of a new era. The court poets of the emperor, who diligently uprooted the remnants of paganism, refined their talent on stereotypical themes: “Offering to Aphrodite,” “Offering to Dionysus,” etc.; when they take on a Christian topic, they turn it into a mind game. Paul the Silentiary had to sing, by order of the emperor, to the newly built St. Sophia: he begins the most winning part of his graceful ekphrasis - the description of the night illumination of the dome - with the mythological image of Phaeton (the son of Helios, who tried to drive his solar chariot):
Everything here breathes beauty, you will marvel at everything
Your eye. But tell me, with what radiant radiance
The temple is illuminated at night, and the word is powerless. You say:
A certain night Phaeton poured this brilliance onto the shrine!..
An anonymous epigram glorifying another great creation of the Justinian era - the codification of legislation carried out under the leadership of Tribonian - also operates with mythological images:
Justinian the ruler conceived this work;
Tribonian worked on it, pleasing the ruler,
As if creating a valuable shield for the power of Hercules,
Wonderfully decorated with the cunning embossing of wise laws.
Everywhere - in Asia, in Libya, in vast Europe
The nations listen to the king that he has laid down the rules for the universe.
Anacreontic poetry is also adjacent to epigrammatics, characterized by the same features - an imitation of pagan hedonism,
standardization of subject matter and refinement of technology. Here are verses for the pagan holiday of the rose, belonging to John the Grammar (first half of the 6th century):
Here Zephyr blew with warmth,
And he opened up, I note,
And the color of Harita laughs,
And the meadows are colorful.
And Eros with a skillful arrow
A sweet desire awakens
To the greedy mouth of oblivion
Didn't devour the human race.
The sweetness of the lyre, the beauty of the song
Summon Dionysus
Announcing the spring holiday
And they breathe the wise Muse...
Give me the Cythera flower,
Bees, wise songbirds,
I will praise the rose with a song:
Smile at me, Cypris!
This artificial poetry, playing with outdated mythology, superficial cheerfulness and bookish eroticism, does not cease to exist in subsequent centuries of Byzantine literature (especially after the 11th century), paradoxically adjacent to the motives of monastic mysticism and asceticism.
However, in the same VI century. A completely different poetry arises, corresponding to such organic manifestations of the new aesthetics as the Church of St. Sofia. Liturgical poetry, folk in spirit, after all the experiments and searches of the 4th-5th centuries. suddenly acquires the fullness of maturity in the work of Roman, nicknamed by his descendants the Sweet Singer (born at the end of the 5th century, died after 555). The naturalness and confidence with which Roman worked seemed like a miracle to his contemporaries; According to legend, the Mother of God herself opened his mouth in a night dream, and the next morning he ascended to the pulpit and sang his first hymn.
Already by its origin, Roman has nothing to do with the memories of ancient Greece: he is a native of Syria, perhaps a baptized Jew. Before settling in Constantinople, he served as a deacon in one of the churches of Beirut. Syrian verse and musical skills helped him renounce the dogmas of school prosody and switch to tonics, which alone could create a metrical organization of speech intelligible to the Byzantine ear. The novel created the form of the so-called kontakion - a liturgical poem consisting of an introduction, which should emotionally prepare the listener, and no less than 24 stanzas. That looseness, which for the first time in the history of Greek liturgical lyricism appears in Roman, allowed him to achieve enormous productivity; According to sources, he wrote about a thousand kontakia. Currently, about 85 Roman kontakia are known (the attribution of some is questionable).
Having abandoned retrospective metrical norms, the Roman had to sharply increase the role of such verse factors as alliteration, assonance and rhyme. This entire set of technical means existed in traditional Greek literature, but was always the property of rhetorical prose; The novel transferred it to poetry, creating in some of its kontakia a type of verse that will evoke in the Russian reader clear associations with folk “spiritual poems” (and sometimes with the so-called raeshnik). Here are two examples (from the kontakions “On the Betrayal by Judas” and “On the Dead”):
God, who washes our feet with waters
To the organizer of your destruction,
Filling your mouth with bread
To the desecrator of your blessing,
To the traitor of your kiss, -
You have elevated the poor with wisdom,
He caressed the poor man with wisdom,
Gifted and blessed
A demonic game!..
The unmarried man repents in sadness,
The married man strains himself in the bustle;
The endless one is tormented by sorrows,
We have many children and are consumed by worries;
Those in marriage are consumed by labor,
Those in celibacy are tormented by despair...
With this richness of the language of forms, the novel combines the people's integrity of emotions, naivety and sincerity of moral assessments. The kontakion about Judas ends with this stunning appeal to the traitor:
Oh, slow down, you unfortunate one, come to your senses,
Think, madman, of retribution!
Conscience will bind and destroy the sinner,
And in horror, in agony, having come to his senses,
You will give yourself up to a vile death.
The tree will stand over you as a destroyer,
He will reward you in full and without pity.
And what, money-lover, were you flattered by?
You will throw away terrible gold,
You will destroy your vile soul,
And you can’t help yourself with silver,
Selling an incorruptible treasure!..
As unexpected as it may seem, Roman’s poetry, purely religious in its themes, speaks much more about real life his
time than the too academic secular poetry of the era of Justinian. In the kontakion “On the Dead,” with great internal regularity, images of the reality that worried Roman’s plebeian listeners appear:
The rich man abuses the poor man,
Devours the orphan and the weak;
The farmer's labor is the master's profit,
Sweat for some, luxury for others,
And the poor man strains himself in his labors,
So that everything will be taken away and dispelled!..
Roman’s work contains motifs and images that most adequately expressed the emotional world of medieval man. Therefore, we find in him the prototypes of not only many works of later Byzantine hymnography (for example, the “Great Canon” of Andrew of Crete), but also two of the most famous hymns of the Western Middle Ages - Dies irae and Stabat mater.
Roman Sladkopevets far exceeded his contemporaries in the scale of his artistic talent, but he was not alone. From the era of Justinian and his successors, many poetic and prosaic works have come down that, in an artless and unpretentious manner, but with great organicity, expressed the Byzantine style of life and worldview.
The plebeian figurative system is for the most part distinguished by the vast literature of prose or versified monastic teachings. John the Faster, Patriarch of Constantinople, hardly considered himself a poet, but his “Instructions for a Monk” in iambic trimetres are arresting with their rough vitality:
Don’t you dare disdain food alone,
Others you choose at your whim;
And whoever is squeamish, we will also be squeamish...
...Chat and gossip run away like a scourge:
They plunge the heart into mortal defilement.
Don't you dare spit in the middle of the meal,
And if the need has fallen so much that there is no urine,
Hold back, quickly go out and clear your throat.
O man, do you want to eat and drink?
There is no sin in that. But beware of satiety!
There is a dish in front of you, eat from it,
Don’t you dare reach across the table, don’t be greedy!..
These verses are characterized, by the way, by their iambic form: of the traditional classical meters, the iambic trimeter is adopted by Byzantine poetry with the greatest organicity. At the same time, its musical prosody is increasingly ignored, and it is reinterpreted as a pure syllabic; the minimum level of structure is maintained in these equal lines by the fact that the last tonic stress in the verse certainly falls on the penultimate syllable (thus, when we call these verses iambics and translate them accordingly, this is a pure convention - but the Byzantines themselves adhered to this convention). Gradually, the epic moves from the academic forms of elegiac distich to iambics.
Official propaganda, in order to influence the people, was itself forced to adopt plebeian, semi-folklore forms, without which it could no more do than without the impressive verses of court poets. Even in the Hellenistic monarchies and the Roman Empire, the custom of choral recitation or recitative chanting of rhythmically designed loyal greetings to the sovereign was widespread. This custom received particular development and complication in the cumbersome ritual of Byzantine court festivities, in which crowds of people were also involved in the role of extras. Here is the text for choral performance at the spring festival - here the folklore basis is revealed especially clearly:
Once again a beautiful spring comes to our joy,
Bringing joy, health, life, fun and good luck.
Carrying strength from God as a gift to the Roman ruler
And victory over enemies by the will of God!
Similar texts were sung at the holidays of accessions, coronations, weddings of emperors, at Easter celebrations, etc. But formally close to them, popular reproaches and ridicule were also in great use, with which the Byzantine crowd showered those in power during unrest and uprisings.
The wide readership of Byzantium received its own historiography in this era. The works of Procopius or Agathias, with their intellectual and linguistic sophistication, were incomprehensible to the average reader; for him a purely medieval form of folk-monastic chronicle is created.
We have already spoken above about the folk character of ascetic edifying literature. The folkloric tone is especially characteristic of the famous “Ladder” of the Sinai monk John (c. 525 - c. 600), nicknamed “The Ladder” after his main work. “The Ladder”, in a simple and relaxed language, sets out the prescriptions of harsh ascetic morality, interspersed with confidential stories about personal experiences and equipped with colorful proverbs and sayings. John approaches the duty of an ascetic with popular frankness and ingenuity; he is alien to pretentious monastic mysticism. The translation of “The Ladder” has been known in Rus' since the 11th century. and enjoyed enormous popularity. Another type of ascetic literature, characterized by greater sophistication of psychological introspection and the cult of contemplation, was represented in the same era by Isaac the Syrian: his “Words of Instruction” (compiled in Syriac and soon translated into Greek) speak of “tenderness”, of “amazement at one’s own beauty.” souls." In Rus', Isaac has been read since the 14th century; there is reason to think that his “Words of Instruction” were known to Andrei Rublev and influenced his work.
Hagiographic literature also belongs to this circle of monuments. An outstanding hagiographer of the 6th century, one of the creators of the hagiographic canon, was Cyril of Scythopolis. The exact years of his life are unknown: his year of birth is approximately 524. Thanks to his father, who was a lawyer, Kirill received a good education, although he did not learn rhetoric, which he himself regrets. In 543, being a monk, he entered the monastery of St. Euthymius, then moved to the monastery of St. Savva.
A keen interest in the illustrious founders of the monasteries of Palestine prompted him to collect more accurate information about their lives. At the same time, he created images of other Palestinian monks, which was of considerable importance for the history of the church and monasteries of Palestine.
Kirill was not a professional writer, but the lives he wrote served as a guide for his followers. His works were distinguished by chronological accuracy and simple presentation. They contained valuable historical facts, such as information about Arab tribes. A significant role was also played by the fact that Kirill was a contemporary of his heroes, which made it possible to present them against a real cultural and historical background.
Social and political cataclysms of the 7th century. contributed to the vulgarization of literature that had already begun in previous centuries.
Classical traditions become meaningless; the experience of the continuity of power and culture, dating back to ancient times, ceases to be relevant. Refined imitation of ancient samples is finding fewer and fewer readers. Moreover, within the framework of the specific spiritual situation of the early Middle Ages, the vulgarization of literature inevitably had to result in its sacralization; specific gravity genres related to the life and needs of the church and monastery are greatly increasing. Folk monastic forms, pushed aside in the 6th century. to the periphery of the literary process find themselves in the center.
The last echo of the “high” secular poetry of the 6th century. there was the work of George Pisis (a nickname from the name of the Asia Minor region of Pisidia, where George was from), Chartophylak under Heraclius. It is far from accidental that George worked precisely during the era of Heraclius: this reign was the last light before the difficult decades of the Arab onslaught, and it might have seemed to his contemporaries that the times of Justinian were returning. It was to the military operations of his royal patron that George dedicated his large epic poems: “On the campaign of King Heraclius against the Persians”, “On the Avar invasion with an account of the battle under the walls of Constantinople between the Avars and the townspeople” and “Heracliade, or on the final death of Khosrov, the king of Persia” . In addition, George wrote less significant poems of moralistic and religious content; Among them, “The Sixth Day, or the Creation of the World” stands out, testifying to the outstanding erudition of Pisis in ancient literature. Translations of “Shestodnev” were in circulation in Armenia, Serbia and Rus'. George Pisida also wrote iambic epigrams.
Pisis's historical works are particularly interesting. The central image of the heroic epic is the emperor surrounded by a halo military glory and valor. The poet acts as a singer of the glory of Heraclius. Despite the tendentiousness, rhetorical style and mannerisms of expression, these works reflect the difficulty of the external situation of the empire in the first half of the 7th century. and important factual data.
Pisida's work attracts attention because of its retrospective nature and the school-like correctness of its metrics. Most of his works are performed in iambics, which, unlike his contemporaries, correspond to the norms of musical prosody. He achieves such virtuosity in his use of the iambic trimeter that he prompted the subtle connoisseur Michael Psellus (11th century) to seriously discuss the problem in a special treatise: “Who constructs verse better - Euripides or Pisis?” Sometimes he resorts to hexameter; in these cases he scrupulously observes the prosodic restrictions of the Nonna school. Image system Pisida is distinguished by great clarity and a sense of proportion, which also reminds one of classical examples.
And yet Pisis went much further from antiquity than the court poets of Justinian. We find in him an image of Fate, designed in the spirit of the purest medieval allegorism and forcing us to recall dozens of parallels from Vagant poetry or book miniatures of the Middle Ages:
Imagine in your mind an obscene dancer,
Which is acting with noise and antics.
Depicting the vicissitudes of existence
The deceptive flash of fussy hands.
The disgraceful woman is melting, spinning, simpering,
Winking languidly and seductively
To the one whom she decided to fool,
But immediately on another and a third
He still turns his gaze with the same prodigal caress.
He promises everything, he tries to fake everything
And nothing creates reliable,
Like a slut with a cold soul
Approaches everyone with feigned fervor...
The medieval allegory is necessarily followed by a characteristic edification:
To fools - thrones, kingdoms, glory, honors,
Inseparable with malice and care;
But for those who have managed to comprehend the truth,
The throne is prayer, glory is quiet speech...
Yet the poetry of Pisis, with its secular orientation, linguistic purism and metrical correctness, stands out sharply against the background of the literary production of its era. A few generations later it would already be an anachronism.
More promising was the line of liturgical poetry that Roman Sladkopevets discovered. A contemporary and friend of George Pisis was Patriarch Sergius (610-638); under his name came the most famous work of Greek hymnography - the “Great Akathist” to the Virgin Mary. This attribution is doubtful: the poem was attributed to Romanus, Patriarch Herman and even Pisis. One thing is obvious: at least the introductory part of the akathist was created immediately after the invasion of the Avars in 626. The form of the akathist involves an endless escalation of appeals and epithets, beginning with the same greeting (in the traditional Russian translation, “Rejoice”). The lines are connected in pairs by strict metric and syntactic parallelism, supported by the widest use of assonance and rhyme:
Rejoice, receptacle of God's wisdom,
Rejoice, storehouse of the Lord's mercy,
Rejoice, flower of continence,
Rejoice, wreath of chastity,
Rejoice, thou who overcomest the wiles of hell,
Rejoice, thou who openest the doors of heaven...
Translation can only give an extremely impoverished idea of this poetic structure, based on the most difficult game thoughts, words and sounds; This game cannot be played within another language. The flexibility and virtuosity of verbal ornamentation is achieved in the “Great Akathist” of the highest degree. But the movement, the dramatic gradation of tension that can still be found in Roman’s kontakia, is not here. This does not mean that the poem is monotonous or monotonous. On the contrary, she plays with the greatest variety of shades of vocabulary and euphony, but this variety is akin to the variegation of arabesques: there is no dynamics behind it. In general, the poem is static to an extent that would be unbearable for any reader and listener except the Byzantine (this is by no means a common feature of liturgical poetry - in all works of Western medieval hymnography, which in their artistic level can withstand comparison with the “Great Akathist”, there is always internal development).
Meanwhile, we see that the author was able to convey the movement of human emotion quite convincingly: in the inserted parts framing the stanzas, he depicts Mary’s embarrassment in front of her fate, Joseph’s bewilderment, etc. But it is characteristic that these sketches and sketches lie on the periphery of the artistic whole. Byzantine aesthetics required the hymnographer to be static. In the words of John Climacus. one who has achieved moral perfection “is likened to a motionless column in the depths of his heart”; It is impossible to imagine a greater contrast to the Gothic understanding of spirituality as dynamic tension. In its static nature, “The Great Akathist” is an exact correlate of works of Byzantine painting. It ideally suits the rhythm of the liturgical “action” of the Greek liturgy, the intonations of Byzantine music (which are also static), and the outlines of the church interior, filled with the flickering of candles and the glitter of mosaics. The same seamless unity has been achieved here poetic text and architectural space, as once in the Attic theater of the era of Sophocles.
Continuers of the hagiographic traditions of the 6th century. there were John Moschus, Sophronius of Jerusalem, Leontius of Naples. They all belonged to the same circle, which was characterized, on the one hand, by the desire to bring literature closer to the people, and on the other, by a break from antiquity.
The Palestinian monk John Moschus (died in 619), who made numerous trips to Egypt, Asia Minor, Syria, Sinai and Cyprus, compiled, as a result of his travels, together with his friend Sophronius of Jerusalem, a collection of stories about monks “The Spiritual Meadow ", or "Limonar". This work is distinguished by its simplicity of plot, realism, and vivid characterization. Limonar was a considerable success and was repeatedly reworked and expanded.
John Moschus and Sophronius jointly wrote a biography of John the Merciful, intended for an educated circle. In such lives, intended for representatives of the upper class of Byzantine society, the authors sought to show their erudition: familiarity with ancient literature, knowledge of rhetoric; however, they often lost their originality.
The most prominent figure of democratic hagiography of the 7th century. there was Leontius from Naples on the island of Cyprus (late 6th - mid 7th century). His compositions are distinguished by a rare liveliness of tone; at the same time, he is brought closer to his genre predecessor Palladius by the fact that he does not avoid humorous assessments in his lives. This is what he says about the holy fool. Simeone: “...On one street the girls were dancing in circles with choruses, and the saint decided to walk along this street. And so they saw him and began to tease the holy father with their refrains. The righteous man made a prayer in order to bring them to their senses, and through his prayer they all immediately became dumb... Then they began to chase him with tears and shout: “Take back the word, blessed one, take back the word,” because they believed that he had let go there is a squint on them like a fortune-telling. And so they caught up with him, stopped him by force and begged him to unleash his spell. And he said to them with a grin: “Whichever of you wants to be healed, I will kiss that squinted eye, and it will be healed.” And then everyone who was the will of God to be healed was allowed to kiss their eye; and the rest, who did not succeed, remained dumbfounded and crying...” The episode ends with the holy fool’s maxim: “If the Lord had not sent squint to them, they would have turned out to be the greatest disgraces in all of Syria, but because of the illness of their eyes, they were saved from many evils." The life of the Alexandrian Archbishop John the Merciful, with whom Leontius had a personal friendship, is distinguished by a more serious, but equally vital character. Leonty portrays his hero as an active lover of humanity, whose heightened conscience does not allow him to enjoy the luxury appropriate to his rank: “...Can one say that John is covered with a cover of thirty-six gold coins, while his brothers in Christ are numb and cold? How many at this very moment are chattering their teeth from the cold, how many have only a straw at their disposal; They lay half of it down, cover themselves with half and can’t stretch their legs - they’re just shaking, curled up in a ball! How many go to bed in the mountains, without food, without a candle, and suffer doubly from hunger and cold!..”
Literature of Byzantium IV-VII centuries. reflects the formation and establishment of Christian culture, accompanied by the struggle against the echoes of pagan antiquity. In this complex and contradictory struggle between two ideologies, new genres and styles were born, which were developed in the subsequent era.
Byzantine literature
Byzantine literature
BYZANTINE LITERATURE - literature of the Byzantine Empire, Central Greek in language. She had a great influence on European literature, including Slavic literature, with her monuments, mainly until the 13th century. Byzantine literature penetrated into Russia in most cases through South Slavic translations in the pre-Mongol period and was rarely translated directly by Russians. The presence of Byzantine books is determined as follows. arr. not only by Greek manuscripts, but also by Slavic translations, which sometimes preserved works now unknown in the original. Beginning of V. l. refers to the VI-VII centuries, when the Greek language. becomes dominant in Byzantium. History of V. l. represents one of the least developed areas in world literature. The reason for this has to be sought. arr. is that the very complex socio-economic factors that characterize the history of Byzantium, formed from the eastern provinces and regions of the Roman Empire, after the western part of the latter was during the 4th-5th centuries, still remain unexplored. captured by Germanic tribes. Monuments of folk art from Byzantium have not reached us at all. Ch. preserved arr. literature created by the church, which played a very large economic and political role in the state life of Byzantium (church councils limited the power of the emperor, and by the 8th century one third of all lands were concentrated in monasteries). Modern researchers have to take into account that Western scientists - enemies of the Eastern Church - approached V. l. with great passion. They did not recognize its original character, considered it an “archive of Hellenism” (Voigt) or identified its history with the period of decline of ancient literature. In the V-IX centuries. Byzantium was a powerful centralized monarchy, based on large secular and church landownership and, to a certain extent, on loan, trade and partly industrial capital. She created her own unique culture and literature. And if we have to talk about Hellenism in Byzantium, then only as a literary influence, which must be placed next to the influences of Arabic, Syrian and other literatures, with which Byzantium was in close contact. The Hellenic influence was, however, one of the strongest.
Among the church literature that has come down to us, church poetry of hymns stands out. Its largest representatives are: Roman the Sweet Singer (VI century), a Syrian who wrote about a thousand hymns, Emperor Justinian (527-565), Sergius, Patriarch of Constantinople, to whom belongs the akathist to the Mother of God on the occasion of the victory over the Avars in 626, Sophronius, Patriarch of Jerusalem, and others. Roman's hymns are distinguished by their ascetic character, naive sincerity and depth of feeling. They are written in a free form, intermediate between metrical and prosaic speech, and are closest to the psalms. Both in form and in content, these hymns are related to the Semitic elements of the Old Testament, the motives of which are aligned by the Roman to the New Testament (comparison of events and characters). Of the thousand hymns of the Roman, only 80 have survived. They usually represent a narrative with the introduction of freely composed dialogues. Often in these hymns dogmatic and theological scholarship is manifested, which threatens to strangle the ardent feeling, edification interferes with poetry and artistry. Byzantium inherited a lot from Hellenistic prose. This should include, for example, the Egyptian story about Alexander the Great, full of fabulous episodes, which Byzantium Christianized and processed in different editions. The style of Hellenism is repeated by many other works: love stories of the adventures of Heliodorus (“Ethiopics” about Theogenes and Chariclea) of the 4th century, Achilles Tatius (about Clitophon and Leucippus) of the 5th century, Chariton (about Chaereas and Calliroe), Longus (about Daphnis and Chloe) and others. From prosaic types in the first period of V. l. History especially flourishes, the authors of which imitated the manner of Herodotus, Thucydides, Polybius and their epigones, for example in the 6th century - Procopius, Peter Patrick, Agathia (historian and poet), Menander Protictor, Theophylact Samocatt; John Malala, a monk from Syrian Antioch, dates back to the same time and compiled a world chronicle, vulgar in content and language, close to living speech. Early creativity Byzantium was especially evident in church eloquence and dogma.
The best church writers, educated in pagan schools in antiquity, in the 4th century. are: Athanasius, Patriarch of Alexandria (wrote against paganism and Arianism, compiled the life of Anthony of Egypt), Basil, Bishop of Caesarea, nicknamed “The Great” (defender of forms of “secular,” i.e., pagan, literature, imitator of Plutarch, wrote against the monks, about asceticism, compiled the liturgy), Gregory of Nazianzus, bishop, nicknamed “Theologian” (church speaker and poet, filling the forms of ancient lyric poetry with Christian content), John, Patriarch of Constantinople, nicknamed “Chrysostom” (church speaker, compiled the liturgy).
The colonial, predominantly eastern, element found vivid expression in numerous collections of stories of the 5th-6th centuries. about the hermit-ascetics of the Byzantine outskirts (the so-called “patericon”).
This type of monasticism developed first in Egypt, then in Palestine and Syria, from where it spread throughout the interior regions. Corresponding to the pre-Christian culture of one or another outskirts, their beliefs were reflected in the confession of these monks, and, consequently, in the stories of the patericons. The enchantments and mysteries of Egypt were reflected in the demonology of the Egyptian patericon “Lavsaik” by Palladius, Bishop of Elenopolis; the ancient Israeli cult - in “The God-loving History” about the ascetics of the Euphrates country of Theodoret of Cyprus; Arabic and Jewish elements - in the Palestinian patericon “The Spiritual Meadow” (Limonar) by John Moschus; finally, the beliefs of the Goths - in the Italian “Dialogues” of Gregory Dvoeslov (VI-VII centuries), translated in the VIII century. from Latin to Greek, etc. From the very beginning of V. l. known in it are books that were not recognized by the official church with legendary plots and motifs attached to persons and events of the Old and New Testaments and the Christian cult in general. These books are partly falsely attributed famous authors and are usually called apocrypha (see).
In the 7th and 8th centuries. Byzantium experienced severe military failures (Avars, Slavs, Arabs), socio-political and religious movements (iconoclasm); hagiographic literature flourishes (the lives of the saints were collected in huge twelve-month collections - Menaions (chetes)). From writers of the 7th-8th centuries. we note: Anastasia Sinaita, disputant with the Jews and Monophysites in Syria and Egypt; Cosmas, Bishop of Mayum, hymnographer; Andrew, Bishop of Crete, preacher and poet, who wrote the “great canon”; John of Damascus, polemicist with iconoclasm and Islam, preacher and author of 55 canons, theologian who based his “Dialectics” on Aristotle.
With the cessation of iconoclasm, i.e. from the 9th century, short guides to world history, “chronicles” with a clerical tendency, based partly on both the Alexandrians and church historians, on previous Byzantine historiography in general (George Sinkelya, Theophanes the Confessor, Patriarch Nikifor, Georgy Amartol). For Russian antiquity, the most interesting is the chronicle of the author of the second half of the 9th century, George Amartol, which covers the history of the “world” from Adam to 842 (and if we count its continuation, then until the half of the 10th century). This monastic chronicle is distinguished by fanatical intolerance towards iconoclasts and passion for theology. Here is a review of interesting facts for a monk: secular history before Alexander the Great, biblical history before the Roman era, Roman history from Caesar to Constantine the Great, and Byzantine history. The main sources of Amartol were the chronicles of Theophanes the Confessor and John Malala. Amartol also has extracts from Plato, Plutarch, Josephus (1st century), Athanasius of Alexandria, Gregory the Theologian, John Chrysostom, Theodore the Studite, from lives, patericons, etc. The language of monastic chronicles of the 9th century. close to language the Greek Bible and is not alien to the elements of living speech. In this century, about 500 canons were written in honor of saints (Theophanes and Joseph the hymnals), i.e., almost half of all Byzantine canons. Along with the restoration of icon veneration, monasticism energetically began to compile the lives of the defenders of Orthodoxy. Even a special school was created in Constantinople, where hagiographic techniques and templates were taught, based on the examples of classical biographers. The historical element in these lives is very meager, distorted and hidden by the introduction of the obligatory themes of humility and emotion. All lives are compiled according to one glorification program. Second half of the 9th century V. l. called the century of learned encyclopedias; in his collections and revisions precious material of antiquity, borrowed from writers now lost, has been preserved. In the first row of figures of the 9th-10th centuries. should be named Patriarch Photius of Constantinople and Emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus. Coming from a patrician family, Photius was distinguished by exceptional education in a form typical of Byzantium. A brilliant philologist, not without pedantry, an expert in the Greek language. and literature of all periods, an admirer of Aristotle, a philosopher with the theological overtones common to Byzantium, and a passionate teacher, Photius gathered around him a mass of students, turning his house into a kind of academy, a learned salon, where books were read and discussed, ranging from classical antiquity to latest news. He forced his students to compile a huge Lexicon based on both previous dictionaries and outstanding works of antiquity and V. l. The most outstanding work of Photius is his “Library” or “Polybook” (Myriobiblon), consisting of 280 chapters. It contains information about Greek grammarians, orators (especially Attic), historians, philosophers, naturalists and doctors, novels, hagiographic works, etc. From Photius’s “Library” it is clear how many outstanding works have not reached us; only from here do they become famous.
The grandson of Basil I, Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus, emperor nominally from 912, in reality from 945 to 959, ordered the compilation at his own expense of extensive collections, encyclopedias of works of old literature that had become rare; Using simple Byzantine speech, he wrote himself and in collaboration. From the works of Constantine we know: the history of the reign of his grandfather Vasily; an essay on government, written for his son, Roman (mainly about relations with the neighbors of Byzantium, whose life is depicted); about the military and administrative division of the empire (detailed geography, as in the previous work, with fantastic stories about the origin of cities and caustic epigrams on their inhabitants); about the ceremonies of the Byzantine court (among the descriptions of court etiquette that amazed the barbarians, poetic clicks, odes and troparions in honor of the emperor are interesting from a literary point of view, especially the spring song in folk style and the hymn of the Gothic Christmas game). By order of Constantine, a historical encyclopedia was compiled. This included, in extracts, almost all the historical literature of the Greeks of all periods; There are also extracts from literary works (for example, novels). Among the scientists surrounding Constantine, one should name the historian of Byzantium of the 9th century. Genesius, a lover of folk legends and an admirer of classical literature, which he, however, used tastelessly. Later, the Byzantine history of the third quarter of the 10th century was described by Leo the Asiatic, also nicknamed the Deacon, a poor stylist who used high-flown rhetoric and a dictionary of church works. The World Chronicle was compiled at this time by Simeon Magister, or Metaphrastus, so called because he rhetorically reworked a lot of previous lives of saints, weakening the fantastic element in them. Also by the 10th century. or somewhat later there are voluminous collections of sayings (for example, “Melissa”, i.e. “Bee”, “Antonia”). In the middle of the 11th century. The higher school in Constantinople expanded, splitting into two - philosophical (i.e. general education) and legal. People from the West began to come here to study. Europe and from the Baghdad and Egyptian caliphates. The most talented and influential leader of the school was Michael Psellus, a philosopher (Platonist) and rhetorician, teacher of several emperors who themselves became writers, and later the first minister. His literary activity was very extensive. He left many works on philosophy, theology and natural sciences, philology, history, and was a poet and speaker. Strongly influenced by Hellenism, he wrote medical treatises and Christian hymns in poetry; He also studied the style of Homer, retold the Iliad, commented on the comedies of Menander, etc.
In the 12th century. there is a flourishing literary activity and among churchmen who wrote on theology and philosophy, grammar and rhetoric - and not only in the capital center, but also in the territory of ancient Hellas, where for example. Nicholas, Bishop of Mythos (about half of the 12th century), argued with Neoplatonism, grammaticalized by Metropolitan Gregory of Corinth; One should also name the commentator on Homer, Eustathius, Archbishop of Thessalonica, and his student, Archbishop Athos, Michael Acominatus, who studied Homer, Pindar, Demosthenes, Thucydides, and so on, and wrote in iambic and hexameter. The following figures are characteristic of this era: Tsetsas, Prodromus, Glyka, Constantine Manasseh, Anna Komnena, Nikita Evgenian. John Tsetsas was at one time a teacher, then a needy professional writer, dependent on the favors of nobles and princes to whom he dedicated his works. He was well-read in ancient poets, orators, and historians, although he did not always use them first-hand and allowed their interpretation to be inaccurate. Tsetsas collected and published his letters to actual addressees - nobles and friends, as well as fictitious epistles, full of mythology and literary-historical wisdom, colored by wayward self-praise. He compiled a huge, versioned commentary on these letters. Also known are his commentaries on Homer (for example, “allegories to the Iliad and Odyssey” occupy about 10,000 verses), Hesiod and Aristophanes, treatises on poetry, metrics and grammar, grammatical iambics, where the peasant, the choir and the muses glorify the life of a scientist as happy, and the sage complains about the sad situation of the wise, to whom happiness denies mercy, endowing it with the ignorant. Interesting is Tsetzas's "stepped" poem on the death of Emperor Manuel Komnenos (1180), where the final word of each verse is repeated at the beginning of the next. The same professional poet was Fyodor Prodromus, nicknamed “Poor” (Puokhoprodromus), an ever-complaining self-praiser and flatterer, begging handouts from the nobility with songs of praise, speeches, and epistles; He also wrote satires, epigrams and novels (about Rodanthe and Dochiplay), imitating the style of Lucian in prose. He was more talented and original than Tsetsas, daring to speak with comic poems in the common language. Of the dramatic works of Prodromus, the best is the parody “The War of Cats and Mouse.” Mikhail Glika is a similar writer, but in addition to poverty, he experienced prison and also execution by blinding. On this occasion, he addressed the imp. Manuel with a petitionary poem in folk language. (like Russian “Prayers of Daniil the Zatochnik”). The most important work Glick is considered the “World Chronicle” (before the death of Alexei Komnenos). Before Glick in the 12th century. They also wrote chronicles: Kedrin, Zonara, Skalitsa and Manasseh, which Glicka used. Constantine Manasseh wrote many works - prose and poetry. His chronicle consists of 6,733 verses. Manasseh is actually a historian-novelist; he tries to impart a poetic lift to his chronicle with the colors of eloquence, mythological allusions and metaphors. The style of his story is vaguely reminiscent of some features of “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign.” Anna Komnena, daughter of the Emperor. Alexei, was exceptionally educated - she read Homer, Thucydides and Aristophanes, Plato and Aristotle, and was knowledgeable in church literature. Soon after her father's death (1118), she retired to the "Delighted" monastery, where by 1148 she wrote the history of her father's reign - "Alexiad". The ideal form for Anna is Atticism. In addition to the poetic novel of Prodromus, two more novels of the 12th century are known. The best is the poetic novel by Nikita Evgenian (“8 books about the love of Drosilla and Harikis”), which borrowed a lot from Prodromus. In Evgenian we find pampered eroticism in love letters, sensitivity of outpourings and picturesque descriptions. In places the novel is pornographic. The plot does not bear the features of modernity, being remote into the rather vague past of Hellenic paganism. Eugene borrowed the flowers of his eloquence from bucolic poets, from anthologies and from novels IV-V centuries Another 12th-century novel, “On Ismin and Isminia,” was written by Eumathius in prose; he also imitates pagan antiquity. From the XII to the middle of the XV century. (1453) in Byzantium the era of feudalism begins, the domination of the so-called. “rulers” - secular feudal lords and spiritual lords - an alarming time when, in the fight against the Turks, Byzantium sought support from the Western knighthood, which temporarily even seized power in Byzantium; not having enough internal forces to fight, the empire after a brief period of success in the 12th century. gradually becomes the prey of the Turks and in 1453, with the fall of Constantinople, ceases to exist. This period in the history of the development of V. l. characterized by its complete decline. Bibliography:
I. Uspensky F.I., Essays on the history of Byzantine education, Zhurn. MNP, 1891, No. 1, 4, 9, 10; 1892, Nos. 1, 2 and sec. reprint, St. Petersburg, 1891; Kenoyn Fr. G., The Palaeography of Greek papyri, Oxford. Clarendon Press, 1899; Lietzmann H., Byzantinische Legenden, Jena, 1911; Diehl Gh., Byzance, 1919; Heisenberg A., Aus der Geschichte und Literatur der Palaeologenzeit, Munchen, 1922; Ehrhard A., Beitrage zur Geschichte des christlichen Altertums und der byzantinischen Literatur, Bonn, 1922; Serbisch-byzantinische Urkunden des Meteoronklosters, Berlin, 1923; Istituto per l’Europa Orientale, Studi bizantini, Napoli, 1924; La Piana G., Le rappresentazioni sacre nella letteratura bizantina, 1912.
II. Hertzsch G., De script. rerum. imp. T. Constantini, 1884; Potthast A., Bibliographia historica medii aevi: Wegweiser durch die Geschichtswerke des eurolaischen Mittelalters, 1375-1500, ed. 2nd, 2 vols., Berlin, 1896; Krumbacher C., Geschichte der byzantinischen Literatur, Munchen, 1897; Bibliotheca hagiographica orientalis, Ed. Socie. Bollandiani, Bruxelles, 1910.
Literary encyclopedia. - At 11 t.; M.: Publishing House of the Communist Academy, Soviet encyclopedia, Fiction. Edited by V. M. Fritsche, A. V. Lunacharsky. 1929-1939 .
See what “Byzantine literature” is in other dictionaries:
Byzantine culture Art ... Wikipedia
Byzantine literature- Greek liter byzantine era (4th century 1453, before the conquest of Constantinople by the Turks). In V. l. can be distinguished, based on the authors of the works, stylistic. features of the language and readership, mainly two main. section: scientific literature,... ... Dictionary of Antiquity
Byzantine literature- is divided into three periods. The first, from Constantine V. to the death of Heraclius (323 640), created a whole galaxy of great church writers, St. fathers, teachers and was called the golden age. Theology was developed most of all, then... ... Complete Orthodox Theological Encyclopedic Dictionary
Byzantine literature
BYZANTINE LITERATURE - literature of the Byzantine Empire, Central Greek in language. She had a great influence on European literature, including Slavic literature, with her monuments, mainly until the 13th century. Byzantine literature penetrated into Russia in most cases through South Slavic translations in the pre-Mongol period and was rarely translated directly by Russians. The presence of Byzantine books is determined as follows. arr. not only by Greek manuscripts, but also by Slavic translations, which sometimes preserved works now unknown in the original. Beginning of V. l. refers to the VI-VII centuries, when the Greek language. becomes dominant in Byzantium. History of V. l. represents one of the least developed areas in world literature. The reason for this has to be sought. arr. is that the very complex socio-economic factors that characterize the history of Byzantium, formed from the eastern provinces and regions of the Roman Empire, after the western part of the latter was during the 4th-5th centuries, still remain unexplored. captured by Germanic tribes. Monuments of folk art from Byzantium have not reached us at all. Ch. preserved arr. literature created by the church, which played a very large economic and political role in the state life of Byzantium (church councils limited the power of the emperor, and by the 8th century one third of all lands were concentrated in monasteries). Modern researchers have to take into account that Western scientists - enemies of the Eastern Church - approached V. l. with great passion. They did not recognize its original character, considered it an “archive of Hellenism” (Voigt) or identified its history with the period of decline of ancient literature. In the V-IX centuries. Byzantium was a powerful centralized monarchy, based on large secular and church landownership and, to a certain extent, on loan, trade and partly industrial capital. She created her own unique culture and literature. And if we have to talk about Hellenism in Byzantium, then only as a literary influence, which must be placed next to the influences of Arabic, Syrian and other literatures, with which Byzantium was in close contact. The Hellenic influence was, however, one of the strongest.
Among the church literature that has come down to us, church poetry of hymns stands out. Its largest representatives are: Roman the Sweet Singer (VI century), a Syrian who wrote about a thousand hymns, Emperor Justinian (527-565), Sergius, Patriarch of Constantinople, to whom belongs the akathist to the Mother of God on the occasion of the victory over the Avars in 626, Sophronius, Patriarch of Jerusalem, and others. Roman's hymns are distinguished by their ascetic character, naive sincerity and depth of feeling. They are written in a free form, intermediate between metrical and prosaic speech, and are closest to the psalms. Both in form and in content, these hymns are related to the Semitic elements of the Old Testament, the motives of which are aligned by the Roman to the New Testament (comparison of events and characters). Of the thousand hymns of the Roman, only 80 have survived. They usually represent a narrative with the introduction of freely composed dialogues. Often in these hymns dogmatic and theological scholarship is manifested, which threatens to strangle the ardent feeling, edification interferes with poetry and artistry. Byzantium inherited a lot from Hellenistic prose. This should include, for example, the Egyptian story about Alexander the Great, full of fabulous episodes, which Byzantium Christianized and processed in different editions. The style of Hellenism is repeated by many other works: love stories of the adventures of Heliodorus (“Ethiopics” about Theogenes and Chariclea) of the 4th century, Achilles Tatius (about Clitophon and Leucippus) of the 5th century, Chariton (about Chaereas and Calliroe), Longus (about Daphnis and Chloe) and others. From prosaic types in the first period of V. l. History especially flourishes, the authors of which imitated the manner of Herodotus, Thucydides, Polybius and their epigones, for example in the 6th century - Procopius, Peter Patrick, Agathia (historian and poet), Menander Protictor, Theophylact Samocatt; John Malala, a monk from Syrian Antioch, dates back to the same time and compiled a world chronicle, vulgar in content and language, close to living speech. The early creativity of Byzantium was especially evident in church eloquence and dogma.
The best church writers, educated in pagan schools in antiquity, in the 4th century. are: Athanasius, Patriarch of Alexandria (wrote against paganism and Arianism, compiled the life of Anthony of Egypt), Basil, Bishop of Caesarea, nicknamed “The Great” (defender of forms of “secular,” i.e., pagan, literature, imitator of Plutarch, wrote against the monks, about asceticism, compiled the liturgy), Gregory of Nazianzus, bishop, nicknamed “Theologian” (church speaker and poet, filling the forms of ancient lyric poetry with Christian content), John, Patriarch of Constantinople, nicknamed “Chrysostom” (church speaker, compiled the liturgy).
The colonial, predominantly eastern, element found vivid expression in numerous collections of stories of the 5th-6th centuries. about the hermit-ascetics of the Byzantine outskirts (the so-called “patericon”).
This type of monasticism developed first in Egypt, then in Palestine and Syria, from where it spread throughout the interior regions. Corresponding to the pre-Christian culture of one or another outskirts, their beliefs were reflected in the confession of these monks, and, consequently, in the stories of the patericons. The enchantments and mysteries of Egypt were reflected in the demonology of the Egyptian patericon “Lavsaik” by Palladius, Bishop of Elenopolis; the ancient Israeli cult - in “The God-loving History” about the ascetics of the Euphrates country of Theodoret of Cyprus; Arabic and Jewish elements - in the Palestinian patericon “The Spiritual Meadow” (Limonar) by John Moschus; finally, the beliefs of the Goths - in the Italian “Dialogues” of Gregory Dvoeslov (VI-VII centuries), translated in the VIII century. from Latin to Greek, etc. From the very beginning of V. l. known in it are books that were not recognized by the official church with legendary plots and motifs attached to persons and events of the Old and New Testaments and the Christian cult in general. These books are partly falsely attributed to famous authors and are usually called apocrypha (see).
In the 7th and 8th centuries. Byzantium experienced severe military failures (Avars, Slavs, Arabs), socio-political and religious movements (iconoclasm); hagiographic literature flourishes (the lives of the saints were collected in huge twelve-month collections - Menaions (chetes)). From writers of the 7th-8th centuries. we note: Anastasia Sinaita, disputant with the Jews and Monophysites in Syria and Egypt; Cosmas, Bishop of Mayum, hymnographer; Andrew, Bishop of Crete, preacher and poet, who wrote the “great canon”; John of Damascus, polemicist with iconoclasm and Islam, preacher and author of 55 canons, theologian who based his “Dialectics” on Aristotle.
With the cessation of iconoclasm, i.e. from the 9th century, short guides to world history, “chronicles” with a clerical tendency, based partly on both the Alexandrians and church historians, on previous Byzantine historiography in general (George Sinkelya, Theophanes the Confessor, Patriarch Nikifor, Georgy Amartol). For Russian antiquity, the most interesting is the chronicle of the author of the second half of the 9th century, George Amartol, which covers the history of the “world” from Adam to 842 (and if we count its continuation, then until the half of the 10th century). This monastic chronicle is distinguished by fanatical intolerance towards iconoclasts and passion for theology. Here is a review of interesting facts for a monk: secular history before Alexander the Great, biblical history before the Roman era, Roman history from Caesar to Constantine the Great, and Byzantine history. The main sources of Amartol were the chronicles of Theophanes the Confessor and John Malala. Amartol also has extracts from Plato, Plutarch, Josephus (1st century), Athanasius of Alexandria, Gregory the Theologian, John Chrysostom, Theodore the Studite, from lives, patericons, etc. The language of monastic chronicles of the 9th century. close to language the Greek Bible and is not alien to the elements of living speech. In this century, about 500 canons were written in honor of saints (Theophanes and Joseph the hymnals), i.e., almost half of all Byzantine canons. Along with the restoration of icon veneration, monasticism energetically began to compile the lives of the defenders of Orthodoxy. Even a special school was created in Constantinople, where hagiographic techniques and templates were taught, based on the examples of classical biographers. The historical element in these lives is very meager, distorted and hidden by the introduction of the obligatory themes of humility and emotion. All lives are compiled according to one glorification program. Second half of the 9th century V. l. called the century of learned encyclopedias; in his collections and revisions precious material of antiquity, borrowed from writers now lost, has been preserved. In the first row of figures of the 9th-10th centuries. should be named Patriarch Photius of Constantinople and Emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus. Coming from a patrician family, Photius was distinguished by exceptional education in a form typical of Byzantium. A brilliant philologist, not without pedantry, an expert in the Greek language. and literature of all periods, an admirer of Aristotle, a philosopher with the theological overtones common to Byzantium, and a passionate teacher, Photius gathered around him a mass of students, turning his house into a kind of academy, a learned salon, where books were read and discussed, ranging from classical antiquity to latest news. He forced his students to compile a huge Lexicon based on both previous dictionaries and outstanding works of antiquity and V. l. The most outstanding work of Photius is his “Library” or “Polybook” (Myriobiblon), consisting of 280 chapters. It contains information about Greek grammarians, orators (especially Attic), historians, philosophers, naturalists and doctors, novels, hagiographic works, etc. From Photius’s “Library” it is clear how many outstanding works have not reached us; only from here do they become famous.
The grandson of Basil I, Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus, emperor nominally from 912, in reality from 945 to 959, ordered the compilation at his own expense of extensive collections, encyclopedias of works of old literature that had become rare; Using simple Byzantine speech, he wrote himself and in collaboration. From the works of Constantine we know: the history of the reign of his grandfather Vasily; an essay on government, written for his son, Roman (mainly about relations with the neighbors of Byzantium, whose life is depicted); about the military and administrative division of the empire (detailed geography, as in the previous work, with fantastic stories about the origin of cities and caustic epigrams on their inhabitants); about the ceremonies of the Byzantine court (among the descriptions of court etiquette that amazed the barbarians, the poetic cliques, odes and troparia in honor of the emperor are interesting from a literary point of view, especially the spring song in the folk style and the hymn of the Gothic Christmas game). By order of Constantine, a historical encyclopedia was compiled. This included, in extracts, almost all the historical literature of the Greeks of all periods; There are also extracts from literary works (for example, novels). Among the scientists surrounding Constantine, one should name the historian of Byzantium of the 9th century. Genesius, a lover of folk legends and an admirer of classical literature, which he, however, used tastelessly. Later, the Byzantine history of the third quarter of the 10th century was described by Leo the Asiatic, also nicknamed the Deacon, a poor stylist who used high-flown rhetoric and a dictionary of church works. The World Chronicle was compiled at this time by Simeon Magister, or Metaphrastus, so called because he rhetorically reworked a lot of previous lives of saints, weakening the fantastic element in them. Also by the 10th century. or somewhat later there are voluminous collections of sayings (for example, “Melissa”, i.e. “Bee”, “Antonia”). In the middle of the 11th century. The higher school in Constantinople expanded, splitting into two - philosophical (i.e. general education) and legal. People from the West began to come here to study. Europe and from the Baghdad and Egyptian caliphates. The most talented and influential leader of the school was Michael Psellus, a philosopher (Platonist) and rhetorician, teacher of several emperors who themselves became writers, and later the first minister. His literary activity was very extensive. He left many works on philosophy, theology and natural sciences, philology, history, and was a poet and speaker. Strongly influenced by Hellenism, he wrote medical treatises and Christian hymns in poetry; He also studied the style of Homer, retold the Iliad, commented on the comedies of Menander, etc. d.
In the 12th century. There is a flourishing of literary activity among clergymen who wrote on theology and philosophy, grammar and rhetoric - and not only in the capital center, but also in the territory of ancient Hellas, where for example. Nicholas, Bishop of Mythos (about half of the 12th century), argued with Neoplatonism, grammaticalized by Metropolitan Gregory of Corinth; One should also name the commentator on Homer, Eustathius, Archbishop of Thessalonica, and his student, Archbishop Athos, Michael Acominatus, who studied Homer, Pindar, Demosthenes, Thucydides, and so on, and wrote in iambic and hexameter. The following figures are characteristic of this era: Tsetsas, Prodromus, Glyka, Constantine Manasseh, Anna Komnena, Nikita Evgenian. John Tsetsas was at one time a teacher, then a needy professional writer, dependent on the favors of nobles and princes to whom he dedicated his works. He was well-read in ancient poets, orators, and historians, although he did not always use them first-hand and allowed their interpretation to be inaccurate. Tsetsas collected and published his letters to actual addressees - nobles and friends, as well as fictitious epistles, full of mythology and literary-historical wisdom, colored by wayward self-praise. He compiled a huge, versioned commentary on these letters. Also known are his commentaries on Homer (for example, “allegories to the Iliad and Odyssey” occupy about 10,000 verses), Hesiod and Aristophanes, treatises on poetry, metrics and grammar, grammatical iambics, where the peasant, the choir and the muses glorify the life of a scientist as happy, and the sage complains about the sad situation of the wise, to whom happiness denies mercy, endowing it with the ignorant. Interesting is Tsetzas's "stepped" poem on the death of Emperor Manuel Komnenos (1180), where the final word of each verse is repeated at the beginning of the next. The same professional poet was Fyodor Prodromus, nicknamed “Poor” (Puokhoprodromus), an ever-complaining self-praiser and flatterer, begging handouts from the nobility with songs of praise, speeches, and epistles; He also wrote satires, epigrams and novels (about Rodanthe and Dochiplay), imitating the style of Lucian in prose. He was more talented and original than Tsetsas, daring to speak with comic poems in the common language. Of the dramatic works of Prodromus, the best is the parody “The War of Cats and Mouse.” Mikhail Glika is a similar writer, but in addition to poverty, he experienced prison and also execution by blinding. On this occasion, he addressed the imp. Manuel with a petitionary poem in folk language. (like Russian “Prayers of Daniil the Zatochnik”). Glick’s most important work is considered to be the “World Chronicle” (before the death of Alexei Komnenos). Before Glick in the 12th century. They also wrote chronicles: Kedrin, Zonara, Skalitsa and Manasseh, which Glicka used. Constantine Manasseh wrote many works - prose and poetry. His chronicle consists of 6,733 verses. Manasseh is actually a historian-novelist; he tries to impart a poetic lift to his chronicle with the colors of eloquence, mythological allusions and metaphors. The style of his story is vaguely reminiscent of some features of “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign.” Anna Komnena, daughter of the Emperor. Alexei, was exceptionally educated - she read Homer, Thucydides and Aristophanes, Plato and Aristotle, and was knowledgeable in church literature. Soon after her father's death (1118), she retired to the "Delighted" monastery, where by 1148 she wrote the history of her father's reign - "Alexiad". The ideal form for Anna is Atticism. In addition to the poetic novel of Prodromus, two more novels of the 12th century are known. The best is the poetic novel by Nikita Evgenian (“8 books about the love of Drosilla and Harikis”), which borrowed a lot from Prodromus. In Evgenian we find pampered eroticism in love letters, sensitivity of outpourings and picturesque descriptions. In places the novel is pornographic. The plot does not bear the features of modernity, being remote into the rather vague past of Hellenic paganism. Eugene borrowed the flowers of his eloquence from bucolic poets, from anthologies and from novels of the 4th-5th centuries. Another 12th-century novel, “On Ismin and Isminia,” was written by Eumathius in prose; he also imitates pagan antiquity. From the XII to the middle of the XV century. (1453) in Byzantium the era of feudalism begins, the domination of the so-called. “rulers” - secular feudal lords and spiritual lords - an alarming time when, in the fight against the Turks, Byzantium sought support from the Western knighthood, which temporarily even seized power in Byzantium; not having sufficient internal forces to fight, the empire, after a short period of success in the 12th century. gradually becomes the prey of the Turks and in 1453, with the fall of Constantinople, ceases to exist. This period in the history of the development of V. l. characterized by its complete decline. Bibliography:
I. Uspensky F.I., Essays on the history of Byzantine education, Zhurn. MNP, 1891, No. 1, 4, 9, 10; 1892, Nos. 1, 2 and sec. reprint, St. Petersburg, 1891; Kenoyn Fr. G., The Palaeography of Greek papyri, Oxford. Clarendon Press, 1899; Lietzmann H., Byzantinische Legenden, Jena, 1911; Diehl Gh., Byzance, 1919; Heisenberg A., Aus der Geschichte und Literatur der Palaeologenzeit, Munchen, 1922; Ehrhard A., Beitrage zur Geschichte des christlichen Altertums und der byzantinischen Literatur, Bonn, 1922; Serbisch-byzantinische Urkunden des Meteoronklosters, Berlin, 1923; Istituto per l’Europa Orientale, Studi bizantini, Napoli, 1924; La Piana G., Le rappresentazioni sacre nella letteratura bizantina, 1912.
II. Hertzsch G., De script. rerum. imp. T. Constantini, 1884; Potthast A., Bibliographia historica medii aevi: Wegweiser durch die Geschichtswerke des eurolaischen Mittelalters, 1375-1500, ed. 2nd, 2 vols., Berlin, 1896; Krumbacher C., Geschichte der byzantinischen Literatur, Munchen, 1897; Bibliotheca hagiographica orientalis, Ed. Socie. Bollandiani, Bruxelles, 1910.
- - miraculous icon of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Appeared in 732. Before this icon, Peter I brought thanksgiving prayers To the Lord after the Battle of Poltava...
Russian Encyclopedia
- - - received the name. from antique The city of Byzantium, on the site of which its capital Constantinople was founded - mid-century. feud. state East Prov. Roman Empire, incl...
Ancient world. encyclopedic Dictionary
- - , received the name. from the ancient city of Byzantium, on the site of which its capital Constantinople was founded - Middle Ages. feudal state...
Dictionary of Antiquity
- - Greek Catholic music churches based on ancient christ. and the Middle East. traditions, rich in hymns and psalms that have deeper roots than in the Roman Catholic. liturgy...
Dictionary of Antiquity
- - BYZANTINE LITERATURE - literature of the Byzantine Empire, Central Greek in language...
Literary encyclopedia
- - was created in Greek under the conditions of the “Roman” state centered in Constantinople, the identity and forms of which were directly successive in relation to the late Roman Empire...
Encyclopedia of Cultural Studies
- - One of the directions of medieval aesthetics, formed in the Greek-speaking culture of Byzantium...
Encyclopedia of Cultural Studies
- - the first great style of domed architecture in history, which existed in the vast territory under the rule of the Byzantine Empire, as well as in the sphere of its political and cultural influence...
Collier's Encyclopedia
- - the eastern part of the Roman Empire, which survived the fall of Rome and the loss of the western provinces at the beginning of the Middle Ages and existed until the conquest of Constantinople by the Turks in 1453...
Collier's Encyclopedia
- - Byzantine culture...
Soviet historical encyclopedia
- - Historical. conditions and complex motley ethnicity. The composition of the population was determined by the diversity of intonation. system, genres and forms of V. m. The origins of V. m. go back to Persian, Coptic, Hebrew, Armenian. songfulness...
Music Encyclopedia
- - arose in connection with the establishment of the Byzantine Empire and the spread of Christianity in it...
Philosophical Encyclopedia
- - a famous Byzantine family that emerged in the 11th century. One of D. was the first minister of state during the reign of Isaac Komnenos and then himself became emperor under the name of Constantine X...
- - Byzantine empress, daughter of a noble Frank, wife of Emperor Arcadius...
Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Euphron
- - In Byzantine historiography, remarkable for its richness, there were two main types, sharply different from each other in form and content: scientific history and popular world X. Historians writing for...
Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Euphron
- - ...
Spelling dictionary of the Russian language
"Byzantine literature" in books
Byzantine game
From the author's bookByzantine game T. Felgenhauer: - Hello, Alexander Andreevich. Glad you're back. A lot has happened here in your absence. But let’s still talk about more recent events, and then about...A. Prokhanov: - About the more rotten ones.T.
Byzantine mosaic
From the author's bookByzantine mosaic Mosaic in the St. Sophia Cathedral of Constantinople In the southern gallery of the Sophia of Constantinople, a mosaic has been preserved, fragments of which have already been encountered throughout the story. Constantine Monomakh and Zoya with the holy gifts, and between them - Jesus Christ. This mosaic
Byzantine era
From the book History of Ancient Greece in 11 cities by Cartledge PaulByzantine era 324 - foundation (November 8) of Constantinople (second foundation of Byzantium) by Emperor Constantine 330 - consecration (May 11) of Constantinople 395 - Emperor Theodosius I orders to stop the veneration of any non-Christian cults and holding
5. Byzantine issues
From the book “The Crash of Idols,” or Overcoming Temptations author Kantor Vladimir Karlovich5. Byzantine problems But he partly blames Byzantium for Russian ignorance: “Byzantium could not resist the pressure of the wild East and took its hereditary real treasures there, to the West, and gave us only surrogates of its own production,
BYZANTINE PHILOSOPHY
From the book Man: Thinkers of the past and present about his life, death and immortality. The ancient world - the era of Enlightenment. author Gurevich Pavel SemenovichBYZANTINE PHILOSOPHY In the writings of Byzantine thinkers, philosophical and, in particular, anthropological problems were usually immersed in theological ones. The attitude towards Greek philosophy could be very different: and respectful, like Psellus or Pletho,
author Averintsev Sergey Sergeevich From the book Literature of the Byzantine region author Averintsev Sergey SergeevichBYZANTINE LITERATURE VII-IX CENTURIES
From the book Literature of the Byzantine region author Averintsev Sergey SergeevichBYZANTINE LITERATURE 7th-9th centuries The 7th century turns out to be a turning point for Byzantium. The world of Byzantine civilization is experiencing dramatic changes in everything, starting with its geographical area and ethnic substratum. Under the pressure of its eastern neighbors - first the Persians, and from 634
BYZANTINE LITERATURE IX-XII CENTURIES.
From the book Literature of the Byzantine region author Averintsev Sergey SergeevichBYZANTINE LITERATURE IX-XII CENTURIES. From the second half of the 9th century. Byzantine society enters a period of stabilization. The new Macedonian dynasty (from 867) establishes a relatively strong centralized regime. Cities rising from decline replace monasteries in function
Byzantine Armada
From the book The Fall of the Roman Empire by Heather PeterThe Byzantine Armada Although Leo was glad to have the opportunity to remove Anthemius, who was so dangerous to him, from Constantinople, the assistance of the Eastern Roman emperor in Anthemius’s reconquest of Africa captured by the Vandals was almost limitless. This was probably one of the
BYZANTINE POWER AND BYZANTINE CULTURE
From the book World History: in 6 volumes. Volume 2: Medieval civilizations of the West and East author Team of authorsTHE BYZANTINE POWER AND BYZANTINE CULTURE The main result of the early Byzantine period can be considered the formation of a special type of power, significantly different from both the ancient tradition and the states surrounding Byzantium. The Emperor was seen as
Byzantine literature
From the book History of the Middle Ages. Volume 1 [In two volumes. Under the general editorship of S. D. Skazkin] author Skazkin Sergey DanilovichByzantine literature In Byzantine literature, two main directions can also be outlined: one was based on ancient cultural heritage, the second reflected the penetration of the church worldview. There was a fierce struggle between these directions, and although
3. Old Russian literature and Byzantine tradition about Muslim civilization
From the book Russia and Islam. Volume 1 author Batunsky Mark Abramovich3. Old Russian literature and the Byzantine tradition about Muslim civilization The point was not only that the Arabic knowledge of the Greeks and Byzantines never stood high: they were usually limited to information about Islam, most often in a distorted form, and
BYZANTINE LITERATURE of the second half of the 9th–12th centuries.
BYZANTINE LITERATURE of the second half of the 9th–12th centuries. The period of Byzantine history was three and a half centuries from the middle of the 9th to the beginning of the 13th century. historical science defines it as the period of the final formation and flourishing of feudalism. This period has sharply defined
BYZANTINE LITERATURE XIII–XV centuries.
From the book Monuments of Byzantine Literature of the 9th-15th centuries by the authorBYZANTINE LITERATURE XIII–XV centuries.
TO The picture of Byzantine life would be incomplete if we, having examined the main problems facing the government of the empire, did not determine the essence of Byzantine culture, the influence of which Byzantium sought to establish throughout the world. We have already shown the material side of this culture - the prosperity of Byzantine industry, the activity of its trade, the splendor of Constantinople and the deep impression this capital made on all who visited it. It remains to show what this culture was in the field of ideas and art and what its historical significance was.
I. Spiritual life of Byzantium
This is not the place to describe in detail the history of Byzantine literature. Nevertheless, it is very important to show its origins and the character it has acquired.
Maintaining a close connection with Greek antiquity is a feature of Byzantine literature, which distinguishes it from all other literature of the Middle Ages. Greek was the national language of the Byzantine Empire. Therefore, the works of the great writers of Greece were accessible and understandable to everyone and aroused universal admiration. They were kept in large libraries of the capital in numerous lists; we (148) can get an idea of the wealth of these collections from the information that has reached us about some private libraries. Thus, Patriarch Photius in his Myriobiblion analyzed 280 manuscripts of classical authors, which is only part of his library. Of the 500 manuscripts in Cardinal Vissarion's library, there were at least 300 Greek. Monastic libraries, such as in the monastery of Patmos or in the Greco-Italian monastery of St. Nicholas in Casole, along with religious works, also had works of classical Greece. The extent to which all these writers were familiar to the Byzantines can be judged by the data that has reached us about their popularity in Byzantine society. Svida in the 10th century, Psellus in the 11th century, Tsetses in the 12th century, Theodore Metochites in the 14th century. read all Greek literature, orators and poets, historians and philosophers, Homer and Pindar, tragedians and Aristophanes, Demosthenes and Isocrates, Thucydides and Polybius, Aristotle and Plato, Plutarch and Lucian, Apollonius of Rhodes and Lycophron. Women were no less educated. Anna Komnenos read all the great classical writers of Greece, she knew Greek history and mythology, and was proud of having penetrated “to the very depths of Hellenism.” Immediately upon arrival in Byzantium, the first concern of the wife of Manuel Comnenus, who came from Germany, was to ask Tsetzes to comment on the Iliad and Odyssey for her; she earned the praise of this great grammarian, who called her “the woman in love with Homer.” In Byzantine schools, the educational system, along with the writings of the church fathers, was based on the works of classical Greek writers. Homer was a reference book, the favorite reading of all students. It is enough to look at what Psellus read for twenty years to get an idea of the spiritual interests of that (149) era. Finally, the University of Constantinople, founded by Theodosius II and restored in the 9th century. Caesar Varda, carefully guarded by Constantine Porphyrogenitus and flourishing even in the era of the Palaiologans, was a wonderful hotbed of ancient culture. The professors of this university, “consuls of philosophers” and “heads of rhetoricians,” as they were called, taught philosophy, especially Platonic, grammar, which meant everything that we now call philology, that is, not only grammar, metrics, lexicography, but also commenting on, and often criticizing, ancient texts. Some of these teachers left behind glorious and lasting memories. In the 11th century Psellus, who had boundless admiration for Athens, again raised the study of Plato's philosophy to a height and interpreted the classical authors with great enthusiasm. In the 12th century. Eustathius of Thessaloniki commented on Homer and Pindar, and teachers of the 14th and 15th centuries. , great scientists, educated critics, great experts in Greek literature, were the true predecessors of the humanists of the Renaissance.
Therefore, naturally, Byzantine literature had to experience the powerful influence of antiquity. Byzantine writers often took classical authors as models and sought to imitate them: Procopius imitates Herodotus and Thucydides, Agathius, more inclined to rhetoric, imitates poets. The sophisticated Theophylact looks for his models in Alexandrian literature. Later, Xenophon serves as a model for Nikephoros Bryennius; Anna Komnenos competes with Thucydides and Polybius. Back in the 15th century. in the works of Chalcocondylus and Critobulus, an affinity with Herodotus and Thucydides is manifested. In contact with the classics, they create a learned language, somewhat artificial, sometimes fanciful, very different from the everyday speech of that time; they were proud of the knowledge that they were reproducing the strict grace of Atticism. Just as in their style they imitate the ancient form, so in their thinking they imitate classical ideas. They are influenced by Greek history and mythology; mentioning the barbarian peoples - Bulgarians, Russians, Hungarians - they call them by ancient names. This almost superstitious admiration for the Greek classical tradition led to very important consequences for the development of literature.
On the other hand, Christianity left a strong imprint on literature. It is known how important a place religion occupied in Byzantium, how solemn church ceremonies were, and what influence the church had on the minds of the Byzantines. It is known what interest theological discussions aroused, what passion aroused by dogmatic disputes, what respect the monks were surrounded by, how generously donations were poured in favor of churches and monasteries. The writings of the church fathers - Basil the Great, Gregory of Nazianza, Gregory of Nyssa, John Chrysostom (Chrysostom) aroused universal admiration. They were studied in Byzantine schools, and writers willingly took them as a model. Theology makes up half of everything that Byzantine literature produced, and in Byzantium there are few writers, even Soviet ones, who would not in one way or another come into contact with theology. This respect for Christian tradition and the authority of the church fathers were also important for literature.
Under this double influence, Byzantine literature developed, which gave it the character of diversity. The Byzantines have always been very fond of history, and from the 6th to the 15th centuries, starting from Procopius, Agathias and Menander to Franzi, Dukas and Kritovul, the literature of Byzantium is rich in the names of outstanding historians. In their mental development and often in their talent, they were significantly superior to the Western authors of their time; some of them could take pride of place in any literature. For example, Psellus, in terms of his talent, observation, the picturesque accuracy of the pictures of everyday life he depicts, the subtle psychology of portraits, wit and humor, can be put on a par with the greatest historians, and he is not the only one who deserves such an assessment.
This taste for history is also manifested in historical chronicles of monastic or folk origin, less significant in their level, with the exception of such authors as, for example, Skylitzes or Zonara. These chronicles are often characterized by an insufficiently critical attitude to the material, but they also had a great influence on their contemporaries. The love for historical storytelling in Byzantium was so great that many willingly compiled written narratives about major events they witnessed. Thus, Kameniat wrote about the capture of Thessalonica by the Arabs in 904, Eustathius - about the capture of the same city by the Normans in 1185. There is nothing more lively and attractive than the episodes with which Kekavmen filled his little colorful book of memoirs.
Along with history and science, theology was of deep interest to Byzantine thought. It is remarkable that until the 12th century. Byzantine theological literature was far superior to anything that the West produced in this area. From Leontius the Byzantine, Maximus the Confessor, John of Damascus and Theodore the Studite between the 6th and 8th centuries. to Palamas in the 14th century, George Scholarius and Vissarion in the 15th century. The Orthodox religion and love of religious debate inspired many authors. This (152) includes extensive commentaries on the Holy Scriptures, mystical literature created in monasteries, especially on Mount Athos, works of religious eloquence, hagiographic literature, the best examples of which were described in the 10th century. Simeon Metaphrastus in his extensive work.
But besides history and theology, the development of Byzantine ideology was distinguished by amazing diversity. Philosophy, especially Platonic philosophy, put forward to a place of honor by Psellus and his followers, occupies a significant place in Byzantine literature. Big role They also play a wide variety of forms of oratory, such as laudatory and funeral speeches, solemn speeches, spoken on holidays in the imperial palace and in the patriarchate, short passages devoted to the description of the landscape or works of art. Among the speakers inspired by the ancient tradition, some, such as Photius, Eustathius, Michael Acominatus, occupy an important place in literature. There are also poets in Byzantium. We find here small works: “Philopatris” in the 10th century, “Timarion” in the 12th century, “Mazaris” in the 14th century - and the last two are imitations of Lucian - talented sketches of Theodore Metochites and Manuel Palaiologos. But in Byzantine literature two phenomena of an original, creative nature are especially prominent. This is, first of all, religious poetry, in which at the dawn of the 6th century. Roman Sladkopevets, the “king of melodies,” became famous. Religious hymns, with their passionate inspiration, sincere feeling, and deep dramatic power, represent one of the most outstanding phenomena of Byzantine literature. Further, this is a Byzantine epic, reminiscent in many respects of French heroic poems (chansons de geste) and created in the 11th century. a great poem about the national (153) hero Digenis Akritos. In this epic, as in religious poetry, there are no longer traces of ancient influence. As rightly noted, they feel the flesh and blood of Christian Byzantium; this is precisely that part of Byzantine literature in which the depths of the people's spirit found their expression.
But let's turn to other types of literature. In theology, after a period of creative activity, very early, already from the 9th century, all original creativity begins to disappear, and it lives only by tradition and the authority of the church fathers. Discussions are usually based on quotes, the positions put forward are based on well-known texts, and John of Damascus already wrote: “I will not say anything that would come from myself.” Thus theology loses all originality; the same phenomenon, in a somewhat milder form, is observed in secular literature. The Byzantines have a boundless interest in the past. They jealously guard the legends and traditions of antiquity. The 10th century is the century of historical, military, agricultural, medical, hagiographic encyclopedias compiled by order of Constantine Porphyrogenitus. These encyclopedias contain everything from the past that could serve teaching or practical purposes. The Byzantines are educated compilers and scientists; a typical example is Constantine Porphyrogenitus; his “Book of Ceremonies” and his treatise “On the Administration of an Empire” are built on rich documentation and bear the stamp of tireless curiosity. Following the emperor, many writers compiled treatises on a wide variety of subjects - tactics, state law, diplomacy, agriculture, education. In these treatises, writers seek to resolve many difficult issues through careful study of old authors. The practical, utilitarian character of many of the works that have come down to us is a characteristic (154) feature of Byzantine literature. Of course, in Byzantium there are also truly original thinkers, such as Photius, Psellus, and we have already seen that in its two sections, in religious and epic poetry, Byzantine literature is truly original and creative. But it must be said that in general, Byzantine literature, no matter how interesting it was for the study and understanding of Byzantine social thought, no matter what outstanding writers it put forward, often lacked originality, novelty and freshness.
This literature has other shortcomings. These include pretentiousness and mannerism, love for ringing, empty phrases, the search for an intricate form that replaces the original thought and eliminates the need to think. But the language used by the majority of Byzantine writers created especially significant difficulties for literature. This is a learned, artificial, conventional language, which many understood with difficulty, and therefore works written in it were not read, so this literature was intended for a select circle of people great culture. Along with this language, there was a colloquial, folk language, which was spoken but not written. Starting from the 6th century. Of course, attempts were made to use it in literature, but works in this language appeared only in the 11th and 12th centuries. These are the poems of Glyka and Theodore Prodromus, of which the latter is distinguished by a somewhat vulgar, although amusing, wit, historical works, for example, the chronicle of Morea and novels, especially the epic of Digenis Akritos, which has come down to us only in this language. Hence, in Byzantine literature a harmful dualism arose, a gap between purely literary works and works written in the popular language, which did not become the language of literature. The latter, however, are of great interest; they show that the spiritual life of Byzantium was not alien to inspiration, freshness of thought and feeling.
Despite the above shortcomings, Byzantine literature had a great influence on the literature of other peoples. While Byzantium, together with religion, brought the principles of a new social organization to the peoples of Eastern Europe, its literature brought them elements of a new spiritual culture. Many works, especially historical chronicles and works of the church fathers, were translated into Bulgarian, Serbian, Russian, Georgian, Armenian: the chronicles of Malala, George Amartol, Constantine Manasseh, Zonara. The fame of these chroniclers was so great that Theophanes was translated into Latin. In Bulgaria, Tsar Simeon, creating a court modeled on the imperial one, ordered the chronicle of Malala and the works of the church fathers - Basil, Athanasius, and John of Damascus - to be translated into Bulgarian. He himself set an example by compiling a collection of extracts from John Chrysostom (Chrysostom), and court flatterers compared him to “a hardworking bee that collects honey from flowers.” In Russia, in the schools of Kyiv, similar work was carried out; thus throughout eastern Europe national literatures arose under the influence of Byzantium.
Byzantine literature in the second half of the 14th century. and throughout the 15th century. left its mark on the West. Gemist Plithon and Vissarion cultivated a taste for Greek antiquity there and resurrected the glory of Plato's philosophy. Following the example of the University of Constantinople, ancient literature was taught in Venice and Florence, and Renaissance humanists became acquainted with the famous writers of Greece. In this way, Byzantine literature contributed to the spread of Byzantine influence throughout the world. (156)
