IV. La structure des formules Mais d’autres raisons que les limitations imposées à l’analyse de la diction formulaire nous empêchent d’expliquer par le fonctionnement même de cette diction tous les exemples que nous trouvons des deux irrégularités faisant l’objet de notre étude. Dans un certain nombre de cas il est certain que l’irrégularité—s’il y a irrégularité—fait partie intégrale de la diction traditionnelle, puisqu’elle se trouve dans le… Read more
V. Conclusions L’étude que nous venons de faire du rapport entre le caractère formulaire de la diction aédique et la présence des brèves en hiatus et des syllabes finales brèves ἐν θέσει dans Homère, nous a démontré trois faits qui nous empêchent de corriger le texte de l’Iliade et de l’Odyssée, tel que nous le possédons, pour en faire disparaître ces irrégularités de métrique: (1) Les hiatus… Read more
Michael Psellos in monastic garb (left) with his pupil the emperor Michael VII Doukas; Athos, Pantokrator 234m fol. 254 recto (12th-13th century. Image: Wikimedia Commons under Public Domain Mark 1.0). At the instigation of Michael VII Doukas, Psellos composed his “Discourse on the Miracle that Occurred in the Blachernae Monastery” translated here (see 5. 29). … Read more
Foreword To Denis/MP sine quo non Translator’s note Because Psellos valued good literary style and cultivated his own very carefully, I have tried to translate his prose into graceful English that exploits the rich resource of English vocabulary just as he exploited the vast lexicon available to him in Greek. Psellos never hesitates to use the technical terminology proper to whatever… Read more
1. Introducing Michael Psellos, Author of Encomion of His Excellency Symeon the Metaphrast and Discourse on the Miracle That Occurred in the Blachernae Church 1.1. The reader of this slender volume will encounter a figure of immense intellectual stature. Michael Psellos (1018–after 1077) combined the roles of scholar and court dignitary in Byzantium at the time of the Byzantine empire’s greatest territorial extent and political influence in… Read more
2. Introduction to the Encomion of His Excellency Symeon the Metaphrast: The Very Model of Scholarly Sainthood 2.1. “The literary commemoration of the saints is the last chapter of the works that confirm the Gospel message” (3.10:220-222). [1] In these few words, Psellos illuminates the significance of hagiography in Byzantium and suggests the reason for the high regard enjoyed by Symeon the… Read more
3. Encomion of his Excellency Symeon the Metaphrast [1] 3.1. In proposing to praise Symeon, great in his conduct and in his discourse, [2] [and to praise] his reputation and his success, bright and widely proclaimed throughout all the world, I do not know what words to use about him nor what to say of all… Read more
Chapter 4. The Theme Formulas and groups of formulas, both large and small, serve only one purpose. They provide a means for telling a story in song and verse. The tale’s the thing. Anyone who reads through a collection of oral epic from any country is soon aware that the same basic incidents and descriptions are met with time and again. This is true in spite… Read more
Chapter 5. Songs and the Song As long as one thought of the oral poet as a singer who carried in his head a song in more or less the exact form in which he had learned it from another singer, as long as one used for investigation ballads and comparatively short epics, the question of what an oral song is could not arise. It was, we… Read more
Chapter 6. Writing and Oral Tradition The art of narrative song was perfected, and I use the word advisedly, long before the advent of writing. It had no need of stylus or brush to become a complete artistic and literary medium. Even its geniuses were not straining their bonds, longing to be freed from its captivity, eager for the liberation by writing. When writing was introduced, epic… Read more
