Byzantine Literature

The Byzantine literature is the heiress of the Greek tradition. Its richness is also explained by the rather widespread character of the instruction, access road to highest dignities of the Church or the State.

Language

The language employed by the Byzantine well-read men is the κοινή, or koinế , i.e. the “common language”, employee in the times hellenistic and Roman. Solidified grammatically by the teaching of the schools, it is employed until the 15th century for an only literary use. In spite of this will to keep a pure language, and the contempt posted for the popular language, a contamination takes place as of the 6th century in contact with the Armenian , of the Arab or the Latin . At the 11th century, the scholar Michel Psellos lance a reform of the koinè which attests certain evolutions, but also prolongs the use of this language. It is necessary to wait the 14th century to see appearing works in vulgar language, like the Chronique of Morée .

Kinds

Rhetoric

The Byzantines are pressed especially on two speakers of the late period, Hermogène and Aphthonios. They stick in particular to the technical sides of the art of public speaking: stylistic devices, techniques of argumentation, etc the various forms of the eloquence once again are directly taken again ancient Greeks: eloquence of pageantry (Panegyrical S and funeral orations), praises, descriptions, etc

The Byzantine rhéteurs most known are:

History and hagiography

The Histoire is one of the most fertile kinds of the Byzantine literature. There still, the Greeks like Thucydide or Polybe are the models, and the speeches all are recomposed. The majority of the chroniclers are men of action, who can testify directly to what they saw.

The Hagiographie, for its part, finds birth in the Acts of the Apostles . As from the 9th century, it became a literary kind with whole share, with its codes and its required passages.

Novel

The account of imagination takes initially its source in the Évangile S. Their first form is thus the Gospel apocryphal book. One can quote the Protévangile of Jacques , written at the 2nd century then altered at the 5th century to integrate elements of the legend of Zacharie, or the Évangile of Nicodème .

The profane novel takes again for its part the tradition of the Roman Greek: he tells the opposed loves of a young hero and a young heroin, joined together at the end of the account. The bishop Héliodore de Trika thus composes the Amours of Théagène and Chariclée , who is a great success, and is even translated by Jacques Amyot at the 16th century and makes the delights of the young person Jean Racine.

Poetry

Byzantine poetry is especially a poetry of circumstance. In the vogue testifies to the epigram, kind runs very to the mode for the hellenistic period. The Byzantine production is gathered in the palatine Anthologie .

See too

Internal bond

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