#Lycophron

[gwydpolls]

Time Travel Question 17: The Library of Alexandria (Miscellaneous Edition)

I welcome your suggestions for both Library of Alexandria and other lost works of World Literature and History, as there will be future polls.

[bayouette]

Calling yourself an ancient Greek mythology lover without actually reading ancient texts only works if you are younger than like thirteen. If you are getting all of your myth second-hand from Rick Riordan, Madeline Miller, and Lore Olympus... read some fragments!

[olympianbutch]

Gods can be portrayed as darker skinned but they can't be portrayed as a different race without a single trace of Greek or Italian. bro there are people who draw them as black or islanders.

It's been a while since I've physically rolled my eyes at an ask, so thanks ig.

The ancient Greeks depicted their gods as being anthropomorphic, but it was never stipulated that they had to be Mediterranean-looking.

Zeus Aithiops (literally "the Black") was worshipped on the island of Chios during late antiquity (Lycophron, Cass. 537), and an instantiation of Artemis that was surnamed "Aithiopa" was worshipped elsewhere. Already, there is no reason why the gods can't be portrayed as Black. And need I remind you that Afro-Hellenes exist lmao??

IIRC, the Greek gods were also occasionally surnamed Aigyptios/Aigyptia, denoting them as being Egyptian. I know for certain that Dionysos and Artemis were viewed and portrayed as "foreign gods"; Jennifer Larson talks about their "foreignness" (both literal and metaphorical) at length in her book "Ancient Greek Cults: A Guide."

You're demonstrating a severe lack of faith in the agency of the gods, and making yourself out to be historically illiterate.

They are universal gods. The ancient Greeks were eager syncretists, often equating their gods with the divinities of other foreign populations to demonstrate their universality. If you have a problem with the gods being portrayed as not Greek, take it up with the ancient Greeks. There's also the fact that the gods aren't Greek in origin. Scholars maintain that the gods we know are Hellenic instantiations of preexisting gods that were imported from elsewhere. Herodotos even expresses a similar view in his Histories.

My brain is melting having to explain this to you.

[my-name-is-apollo]

'Ello :D

I saw a few days ago that you mentioned something about complicated Cassandra & Apollo? I was wondering if you could expand on it 👀 Complicated CassandraApollo sounds interesting

I would like to direct you to this post because it summarises a lot of my feelings on them!

Besides that, I'd like to talk about the way one of my favorite scenes, Cassandra ripping apart her prophetic insignia during her final moments, is written in two different plays:

Farewell, ye garlands of that god most dear to me! farewell, ye mystic symbols! I here resign your feasts, my joy in days gone by. Go, I tear ye from my body, that, while yet mine honour is intact, I may give them to the rushing winds to waft to thee, my prince of prophecy

- Euripides', Trojan Women (trans. Edward Philip Coleridge)

and

Why then do I bear these mockeries of myself, this wand, these prophetic chaplets on my neck?

(Breaking her wand, she throws it and the other insignia of her prophetic office upon the ground, and tramples them underfoot)

You at least I will destroy before I die myself. To destruction with you! And fallen there, thus do I repay you. Enrich with doom some other in my place. Look, Apollo himself is stripping me of my prophetic garb — he that saw me mocked to bitter scorn, even in this bravery, by friends turned foes, with one accord, in vain — but, like some vagrant mountebank, called "beggar," "wretch," "starveling," I bore it all. And now the prophet, having undone me, his prophetess, has brought me to this lethal pass.

- Aeschylus, Agamemnon (trans. by Herbert Weir Smyth)

You can see the difference in how Cassandra feels towards Apollo. In the Trojan woman, there's still some fondness she directs towards her god. She calls him the god who is the dearest to her. She wants to take off the symbols of Apollo she dons on her body and give it back to Apollo while her honor is yet intact. It's a way for her to not let her god get dishonored in that helpless situation.

Where as in the Agamemnon, Cassandra sounds more bitter, there's no hint of fondness here. She tears away her prophetic symbols and tramples them because she wants to destroy them. She also blames her act of destroying them on Apollo. Apollo is the ultimate destroyer for her and his symbols are bringers of doom, as she says elsewhere in the play:

CASSANDRA: Apollo, Apollo! God of the Ways, my destroyer! For you have destroyed me — and utterly — this second time.

- Aeschylus, Agamemnon (trans. by Herbert Weir Smyth)

While the two plays portray Cassandra with feelings that are to some extent contrasting (but both founded on desperation), when I think about Cassandra I think like she can feel all those emotions - fondness, bitterness, scorn - almost simultaneously. Because this is her god whom she worships and has dedicated her life for. She has felt his wrath and she has also felt his divine inspiration. She scorned his advances in the past but she still gives him her body to possess his spirit. She couldn't save Troy, she couldn't save herself. But the very last vision Apollo shows her is that of her death being avenged, and that seemed like a miniscule relief for her in the last moments of her life.

Apollo also seems to takes it upon himself to orchestrate that revenge. He could have had other reasons to do that - but to avenge Cassandra's death could also very well have been one of them. We don't really get to see what Apollo thinks of Cassandra. In versions where Cassandra breaks her promise (Aeschylus' Agamemnon and Scholiast on Lycophron's Alexandra) we can definitely assume that he is betrayed by her and is angry with her, understandably so. The scholiast on Lycophron's Alexandra says that Apollo first tried to take back the gift, but when he couldn't he placed a curse to make his gift useless. So it does show that he intended to go easy on her, but it simply wasn't an option. Things are relatively simple here. But there are versions where Cassandra gets her prophetic powers without any direct deal with Apollo, yet the outcome is the same. She rejects him and gets cursed.

Now here the question arises - if satisfying his lust was truly his only objective, why did Apollo curse her instead of just, you know, having his way with her - which wouldn't be unusual for a god? It could be that he simply didn't want (which we see in the case of Sibyl of Cumae). But sometimes I like to think it's more than just that:

Maybe he did it because he knew it would be dangerous to let Cassandra have this power. He was worried that he had blessed her too much, that she had learnt so much that she could intervene with the destiny in her attempts to save Troy. And look at how that turned out for another seer Laocoon - not cursed by Apollo but killed by Athena for warning the Trojans about the Trojan horse. Maybe Apollo didn't want any other god to punish Cassandra like that. She is his beloved priestess, and if at all she has to be punished and damned, he wants to do it himself.

Or maybe (and this is my favourite thought to entertain about them) this was a way for Apollo to deal with his own helplessness about Troy. Because when you think about it, Apollo is not very different than Cassandra in the sense that he is also able to foresee the destruction of Troy, his beloved city with his beloved people, but he won't be able to save them. He is not cursed, he doesn't let out frenzied cries like Cassandra, but he is obliged to abide by the Fates, and has learnt to suffer with his emotions silently. Maybe he desired for someone to join him in this madness. It would torment them but at least he wouldn't feel alone. And he chose Cassandra because she was probably the most beloved to him, and familiar with her virtue, he probably knew she would give him a reason to curse her by rejecting him. He also probably knew that in spite of how unfair he would be towards her, she would still love him and stay devoted to him.

I know my thoughts are probably very unpopular, but I like to think that the bond between them was unbreakable, but definitely very strained. I don't know if co-dependent would be the right word to use for a deity and his doomed priestess (probably not), but I hope you get the idea.

[deathlessathanasia]

And because I'm all for the strange, unusual, alternative, less common or local variants of myths, here are most of the accounts I know of that deviate more or less strongly from the traditional version of Hesiod where all the children of Kronos except Zeus are devoured at birth and then emerge from Kronos ready to assist their brother in the war:

Diodoros of Sicily, Library of History: The island which is called Rhodes was first inhabited by the people who were known as Telchines . . . and the myth relates that they, together with Kapheira, the daughter of Okeanos, nurtured Poseidon, whom Rhea had committed as a babe to their care.

Pausanias, Description of Greece: The following story is told by the Arkadians. When Rhea had given birth to Poseidon, she laid him in a flock for him to live there with the lambs, and the spring too received its name just because the lambs pastured around it. Rhea, it is said, declared to Kronos that she had given birth to a horse, and gave him a foal to swallow instead of the child, just as later she gave him in place of Zeus a stone wrapped in swaddling clothes.

Tzetzes, Commentary on Lycophron's Alexandra 644: Arne was the nurse of the young Poseidon, who denied knowing where he was when Cronus came searching for him.

Pausanias, Description of Greece: Euboia is the name they give to the hill here, saying that Asterion the river had three daughters, Euboia, Prosymna, and Akraia, and that they were nurses of Hera.

Pausanias, Description of Greece: The story has it that in the old Stymphalos dwelt Temenos, the son of Pelasgos, and that Hera was reared by this Temenos. (also consider the traditions according to which she was raised on Samos or on Euboia, the Seasons being called her nurses in one source, or Tethys and Okeanos raising her))

Scholion on Iliad 1.609: To Kronos and Rhea were born three male children: Zeus, Poseidon and Hades, and three daughters: Hestia, Demeter and Hera. They say that in the reign of Kronos Zeus and Hera were in love for three hundred years, as Kallimachos mentions in his second Aetia, "Zeus loved [Hera] for three hundred years". In secret, they came together without their parents' knowledge and they brought forth a son, Hephaistos, both of his feet deformed, as the poet says, calling him lame. The fact that they met secretly from their parents is also attested by the Poet, saying: 'they went to bed without their dear parents’ knowledge.'.

Scholion on Iliad 14.295: Hera, while she was being nurtured by her parents, was raped by one of the Gigantes, Eurymedon, and she became pregnant and bore Prometheus.

Pseudo-Hyginus, Fabulae: When Opis gave birth to Jupiter by Saturn, Juno asked that he be given to her. Saturn had already cast Orcus beneath Tartarus and Neptune beneath the seas because he knew that if a son was born to him, he would be dethroned by him.

Lactantius, Divine Institutes: Here are Ennius' words: "Then Saturn took Ops to wife. Titan, the elder brother, demanded that kingship for himself. Vesta their mother, with their sisters Ceres and Ops, persuaded Saturn not to give way to his brother in the matter. Titan was less good-looking than Saturn; for that reason, and also because he could see his mother and sisters working to have it so, he conceded the kingship to Saturn and came to terms with him: if Saturn had a male child born to him, it would not be reared. This was done to secure reversion of the kingship to Titan's children. They then killed the first son that was born to Saturn. Next came twin children, Jupiter and Juno. Juno was given to Saturn to see while Jupiter was secretly removed and given to Vesta to be brought up without Saturn's knowledge. In the same way without Saturn knowing, Ops bore Neptune and hid him away. In her third labour Ops bore another set of twins, Pluto and Glauce. Saturn was shown his daughter Glauce but his son Pluto was hidden and removed. Glauce then died young. That is the pedigree, as written, of Jupiter and his brothers; that is how it  has been passed down to us in holy scripture.

pseudo-Clement, Recognitions: But of these six males, the one who is called Saturn received in marriage Rhea, and having been warned by a certain oracle that he who should be born of her should be more powerful than himself, and should drive him from his kingdom, he determined to devour all the sons that should be born to him. First, then, there is born to him a son called Aides, who amongst us is called Orcus; and him, for the reason we have just stated, he took and devoured. After him he begot a second son, called Neptune; and him he devoured in like manner. Last of all, he begot him whom they call Jupiter; but him his mother Rhea pitying, by stratagem withdrew from his father when he was about to devour him.

Sibylline Oracles Book 3: And they judged Cronos should reign king of all, For he was oldest and of noblest form. But Titan laid on Cronos mighty oaths To rear no male posterity, that he Himself might reign when age and fate should come To Cronos. And whenever Rhea bore Beside her sat the Titans, and all males In pieces tore, but let the females live To be reared by the mother. But When now At the third birth the august Rhea bore, She brought forth Hera first; and when they saw A female offspring, the fierce Titan men Betook them to their homes. And thereupon Rhea a male child bore, and having bound Three men of Crete by oath she quickly sent Him into Phrygia to be reared apart In secret; therefore did they name him Zeus, For he was sent away. And thus she sent Poseidon also secretly away. And Pluto, third, did Rhea yet again, Noblest of women, at Dodona bear, Whence flows Europus' river's liquid course, And with Peneus mixed pours in the sea Its water, and men call it Stygian.

Etymologicum Magnum: When he noticed that Rhea was pregnant, Kronos was getting ready to swallow the child, but, by accident the mother first bore Hera, while Zeus remained in the safety of the womb. Kronos then gave Rhea permission to raise this daughter, whom the Cretans named 'Hera', because they pronounced the word ('raise') as." ("Ἥρα·.

[littlesparklight]

Aside from the Lake Tritonis in Libya, there were actually several rivers called Triton - and one, specifically, was near Alalkomenae, which aside from being one of Athena's epithets, was one of the places she was said to have been born.

It's rather most likely that "Pallas, daughter of Triton" was a daughter of this river god, not Triton the son of Poseidon.

Theoi does list her as a daughter of the Triton that is son of Poseidon. But aside from the citing being somewhat weird for referencing the Bibliotheke (it doesn't at all match any text in that location), the actual location that mentions Pallas (3.12.3, as it's told in connection to the Palladium) has a footnote which says this:

217. Apparently the god of the river Triton, which was commonly supposed to be in Libya, though some people identified it with a small stream in Boeotia. See Hdt. 4.180; Paus. 9.33.7; Tzetzes, Scholiast on Lycophron 519; compare Scholiast on Ap. Rhod., Argon. i.109.

[artbyanca]

I am once again faced with the problem that my sketchbook is too small for epic scenes but when I read that Rhea got her throne in a wrestling match I have to do something with that info.

Here's the quote from Lycophron, Alexandra 1191 ff (trans. Mair) (Greek poet C3rd B.C.) : "[Zeus] who is lord of Ophion's [an early king of heaven deposed by Kronos (Cronus)] throne. But he [Zeus] shall bring thee to the plain of his nativity [Arkadia (Arcadia) and Elis], that land celebrated above others by the Greeks, where his mother [Rhea], skilled in wrestling, having cast into Tartaros the former queen [Eurynome wife of Ophion]."

[nambnb]

Who the fuck is this?

A thing that keeps getting me headaches is the design of Patroclus’ cloak pin in Hades Game:

Who is the person depicted supposed to be? I’ve seen some fanart that assumes it’s Achilles, but the hairstyle seems too feminine and the person isn’t wearing a helmet but seems to wear a necklace. (Also, Achilles’ symbol seems to have been the triscle due to him beeing “fleet of foot”, which is completely different in design.)

Possible contenders include:

“female Achilles” (Pyrrha), potentially during his time on Skyros and might then be an inside joke between him and Patroclus

Patroclus’ mother (no clue which, there are up to 5 contenders: Sthenele, Philomela, Polymele, Damocrateia, Periopis)

A goddess, and since Patroclus was a Locrian, she might be Pyrrha of Thessaly, since her and Deucalion were the founders of the Greek race and the great-grandparents of Locrus who the Locrians claimed descendancy from. Is pretty far-fetched, though.

Another goddess, but which is hard to say. Athena, who might be the most plausible according to the Illiad, is depicted with a helmet, so another no.

just a random female because it looked good on the cloak pin, design-wise

(I’ll exclude the work “Alexandra” by Lycophron with the sacrifices to Athena, since that seems to be a few hundred years too late to matter to Patroclus. Also, the maidens would likely be depicted with short hair.)

Has anyone else any ideas regarding this?

[infirmux]

hold on forget everything else i mean to read what on earth is going on with lycophrons alexandra

[persephoneflowerpetals]

I just found out this new tidbit about Rhea on wikipedia "Lycophron (1191) relates that Zeus' mother, Rhea, is skilled in wrestling, having cast the former queen Eurynome into Tartarus". Seriously, Rhea also being a wrestler along with a party going, wine drinking grandma just makes her awesome. Can we just say Rhea is just so badass and I want her to be a real Disney character whose this awesome grandma to Disney Herc and this awesome matriarch int he family?

I’m not surprised at all by that lol!!! Rhea sounds like a badass deity lmao!!!

But yeah with her being a party girl AND being good a wresting I can totally see her having like a whole freaking wresting ring at her parties and her taking bets on the winner (I feel like Hades probably loves to take bets at events too and he gets that from his mom lol) as well as participating in some drunken wrestling 😂

Rhea totally should’ve been in the series! Once again, Disney robbed us of a great potential Hercules character lol!

[coloricioso]

❤ A time line of Agamemnon's and Cassandra's portrayals ❤

Although in these sources Agamemnon and Cassandra are not shown interacting with each other (like talking and having a dialogue), we still can learn some things about their relationship. Later sources (future infographic) include Lycophron's Alexandra, Ovid's Metamorphosis and Remedia Amores, and Seneca's Agamemnon. 💕 There is also archaeological evidence of their hero cult and the religious worship they received, either as a couple of consorts or on their own. 💕 If the picture quality is not good enough try opening the image in a new tab, or let me know so I figure out what to do. 💕 And if you like Classics, be my friend on Discord: coloricioso#5368 🥺💕

[delightingintragedy]

"It has been suggested that the crossroads was sacred to Hekate due to her having been abandoned at a crossroads as a baby by her mother Pheraea, and then rescued and brought up by shepherds. This Thessalian tale comes from a scholiast to Lycophron's third century BCE play Alexandria (verse 1180), and was a later invention."

-Hekate Liminal Rites by Sorita d'Este & David Rankine

[kaiser-loki]

I made the bio card for Sir Aloysius Kraichgau, the surfacer disguise of Lycophron, a failed Agarthan rebel and incidental ally of Byleth, from my Fire Emblem Three Houses fic Time Is Not A River.

No portrait, because I can't draw to save my life ;(

[deathlessathanasia]

“Alcman places the Nereid Thetis at the beginning of the world. She is associated on the one hand with Poros and Tekmor  and on the other with Skotos." How can we explain this at first sight paradoxical role given to the mother of Achilles in the genesis of the cosmos and her association with Poros, Tekmor and Skotos? With regard to the main lines of the system expounded by Alcman, we accept the conclusions of M.L. West in his latest article which summarised them as four main points: in the beginning there was a state where form was lacking and in which nothing could yet be distinguished; then came Thetis whose activity appears to have had a craftsmanlike character; next, together with Skotos, there appeared Poros and Tekmor, the latter at least operating as a principle of differentiation within the darkness; thanks to Poros and Tekmor light-the daylight and the light of the stars at night-succeeded black Night and total darkness.

We are leaving to one side one important problem which we cannot deal with within the framework of this study. The commentator lets it be understood that Thetis operates like a worker in metal. It should be remembered, in this respect, that for Alcman as for Homer the sky was, in effect, made of bronze. According to Alkman, Ouranos was the son of Akmon, the anvil. Furthermore when Hephaestus is hurled from the heights of the sky (like the bronze akmon, in Hesiod, which falls upon the earth) it is Thetis, the marine goddess in the depths of the sea who secretly takes him in and it is at her side that he begins to work with metals, learning how to make daidala. Finally, there are affinities between the daemons of the sea and metallurgy which are most clearly revealed in figures such as the Telchines. Thetis herself has another name which may be significant: Purrhaie, she who has reddened in the fire." However, in his latest study, M.L. West has produced forceful arguments to support the thesis that the commentator rather than Alcman himself is responsible for the idea of a Thetis who is a metal worker, forging the sky as she would a chalkeus.

Whatever the solution one adopts on this point, a prior problem nevertheless remains. Despite the fact that in Alcman's Sparta this Nereid had her own temple and secret xoanon which noone except the priestess was permitted to see, Thetis is, all-in-all, a relatively minor figure. How then are we to explain why she is presented as a great primordial deity? Following Bowra and Lloyd-Jones it has been generally accepted that the reason for Thetis' position in Alcman's cosmogony is not that she is a sea goddess, the wife of Peleus who won her by binding her in the vice of his arms despite her metamorphoses, but rather that her name lent itself to a kind of play of words on the theme of tithemi. According to this view, Thetis used as a noun meant she who founds, disposes, establishes. This meaning can be justified on the basis of the scholium to Lycophron, Alexandra,, where Thetis is called aitia euthesias, the cause for the good arrangement of the cosmos, and also the scholium T to Book I of the Iliad (399): 'It is said that Thetis is thesin kai phusin tou pantos, the arrangement and nature of all things'. But these two scholia suggest even more than what is claimed for them. Thetis is called not only thesis but also phusis tou pantos; and the scholium to Lycophron is even more explicit: it defines Thetis as the sea, Thetis he thidassa and states clearly that if Thetis is the cause of euthesia this is because at the beginning of the world the liquid element first became redistributed and condensed and then the solid earth appeared, ephime he xera, and this was the good order (eukosmia) of the universe. Thus there is plenty of evidence for the play on the word Thetis. It occurs within the framework of a cosmogony in which the sea, personified by the Nereid, constitutes the primordial element.

For the rest, it is quite strange that such surprise has been felt at the role given to the daughter of Nereus. There are sufficiently close links between Tethys, the wife of Okeanos, who is presented by Homer as the genesis pantesi, the origin of all things, and Thetis, the wife of Peleus, for the grandmother and granddaughter sometimes to appear as doubles. In the Mythographi Vaticani we read: 'Ophion, et secundum philosophus Okeanos, qui et Nereus, de maiore Thetide genuit caelum'. In Homer, Thetis is associated with another Nereid who, like herself, stands out from the anonymous group of sea-goddesses: this is Eurynome. In the most profound depths of the abyss of the sea, in a kind of Beyond, far from the gods as well as from men, Thetis and Eurynome together welcome in Hephaestus when he has been hurled from the heights of the heavens. Now, in the cosmogonies associated with that of Pherecydes of Syros, this Eurynome played the same role of primordial deity as Thetis. Together with Ophioneus or Ophion, an Old Man of the Sea resembling Proteus, Nereus or Triton, she reigned over the world with her husband until Kronos and Rhea dethroned this ancient couple of the sea by making them fall, in the course of a struggle, from the height of the sky to the depths of the Ocean. This Eurynome, the primordial goddess of the sea, had her temple at Phigalia and it was closed and secret as was that of Thetis in Sparta. It was thrown open only once a year and on that day the ancient xoanon depicting the goddess, half-woman and half-fish and chained in bonds of gold could be seen." So Eurynome was a deity of bonds, both a binder and herself bound, again just like Thetis who, although she was bound in the embrace of Peleus, was also a mistress of bonds since, in the Iliad, when all the gods in revolt against Zeus wish to chain him up, it is she who 'liberates him from the bonds' by bringing Briareus up from the depths of the Ocean.”

 - Cunning Intelligence in Greek Culture and Society by Marcel Detienne and Jean-Pierre Vernant

[rausule]

BIZANTYNSE LETTERKUNDE

Binne die filosofiese kring rondom die prinses Anna Comnene is die figure van Eustratios van Nicaca (c. 1050- kort na 1117) en Michael van Efese (11de-12de eeu) prominent. Aan eersgenoemde is ons dank verskuldig vir kommentaar op Boek. I van Aristoteles se Posterior Analytics (nogal in die styl van Johannes Italos) en op Boeke. Land VI van die Nicomachean Etiek (met 'n sterk platoniserende neiging teen Aristoteliese kritiek). Michael, aan die ander kant, toon 'n breër belangstelling in Aristoteliese filosofie. Benewens sy kommentaar op die Organon het hy ook op 'n duidelike en nugter wyse kommentaar gelewer op die Metafisika (Boeke. 6-14), die Nicomachean Etiek (Boeke. 5, 9 en 10), die biologiese en dierkundige geskrifte en, soos die enigste Bisantyn wat dit doen, die Politiek en die verhandeling De coloribus. Sy kommentaar op die Onderwerpe en die Retoriek het egter verlore gegaan. 'n Bietjie later het Gregorius Pardos (c. 1070-1156), Metropolitaan van Korinthe, groot invloed uitgeoefen. Behalwe om kommentaar te lewer op die liturgiese Leerreëls van Cosmas van Jerusalem en Johannes van Damaskus, het hy kommentaar gelewer op die verhandeling Пepi pe- ódov dervórηTog ("Oor die aanleer van vaardigheid in retoriek") van Hermogenes. Onder die produktiewe uitset van Theodorus Prodromos (c. 1100-kort voor 1158) is daar 'n kommentaar van 'n logies-pedagogiese aard op die tweede boek van die Posterior Analytics. Die belangrikste figure van die Comnene-tydperk (1081-1185) is Johannes Tzetzes (d. na 1180) en Eustathius van Thessalonika (d. 1192/4). Eersgenoemde het 'n groot aantal kommentare oor antieke skrywers, veral digters, saamgestel: Hesiod, Pindar, die tragedians, Aristophanes (die sogenaamde Bisantynse triade: Wolke, Paddas, Plutus), Lycophron (ook toegeskryf aan sy broer Isak), die Halieutika van Oppianus en Nicander. Hy het ook vyftienlettergrepige verse opgedra aan die Corpus Hermogeniamum (slegs gedeeltelik gepubliseer) en 1700 twaalflettergrepige parafraseringsgedigte aan die Eisagoge van Porphyrius. Ten slotte het hy 'n allegorese gekomponeer van die Ilias en die Odyssee in 9741 reëls. Eustathius se ensiklopediese kennis word vertoon in sy uitgebreide Homeriese kommentare wat as handtekeninge oorleef het. Hy is ook die skrywer van 'n verklarende parafrase en kommentaar op 'n geografiese didaktiese gedig van Dionysius Periegetes en 'n kommentaar op Pindar, waarvan slegs die proem oorleef het. Tot die Comnene-tydperk behoort ook die twee kanoniste Alexius Aristenos en Theodorus Balsamon, skrywers van 'n gewilde kommentaar op die Nomocanon XIV titulorum,

Na die kulturele en politieke onderbreking van die Latynse oorheersing van 1204-1261, 'n tydperk waarin daar nietemin Michael Senacherim se tot dusver slegs gedeeltelik gepubliseerde kommentaar op Homeros en waarskynlik ook Leon Margentinos se kommentaar op die Organon, die tydperk van die paleoloë, verskyn het. (1259-1453) het 'n verrassende kulturele herlewing aanskou. MSS van klassieke skrywers is weer in merkwaardige hoeveelhede gekopieer. Vier toringfigure behoort tot die eerste fase van hierdie era: 1. Manuel/Maximos Planudes (1255-1305), 'n vertaler van Latynse skrywers in Grieks en filoloog, maar ook 'n

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redakteur en kommentator oor antieke tekste. Sy ryk werk sluit uitgawes van Aesopus en die eerste twee boeke van Diophantus se Arithmetic in, albei met kommentare. Hy het ook skolia oor Hesiod (Erga), Sophokles, Euripides, Aristophanes, Thucydides en Euclides geskryf, en epimerismes oor die eerste boek van Philostratus se Eikones. 2. Met betrekking tot Manuel Moschopulos (c.1265-c.1316) kan ons, alhoewel met 'n bietjie moeite, die skolia van 'n oorwegend parafraserende en grammatikale aard op Hesiod, Pindar (Olimpiese Epinicia), Sophocles en Euripides (in elke geval die Bisantynse) rekonstrueer triade"), Theocritus (die eerste agt gedigte), Aristophanes (Plutus), asook 'Technologies' (grammatiese inleidings) tot die Ilias en tot Philostratus. 3. Thomas Magistros (oorlede kort na 1346), komponis van 'n invloedryke Attisistiese leksikon, was 'n redakteur van en kommentator oor die tragedians, Aristophanes (drie komedies), Pindar (parafraseer van scholia wat oorwegend grammatikaal en stilisties van aard is) en die briewe van Synesius. Demetrius Triklinios (c.1280-c. 1340) was ongetwyfeld die belangrikste filoloog en tekskritikus van sy tyd. Verdien spesiale vermelding van sy produktiewe uitset is die uitgawes en kommentare (met talle uittreksels uit die scholia vetera) oor Hesiod, Pindar (veral scholia op meter), Aeschylus (vyf tragedies), Sofokles (veral die eerste vier tragedies), Euripides (handtekening), Aristophanes (die drieklank, 'n handtekening), Theocritus en Aratus, waarvoor hy ook materiaal van Planudes gebruik het.

Langs hierdie geleerdes het ander figure prominensie verwerf, soos die historikus Georgius Pachymeres (1242-c. 1310), wat 'n eksegetiese parafrase van byna die hele Aristoteliese korpus (bestaan ​​in twee handtekeninge), die monnik Sophonias (d. voor 1351) saamgestel het. , komponis van ten minste een parafrase van die Aristoteliese geskrifte De anima en Sophistici Elenchi. Ook aktief was die Chartophylax en Megas sakellarios (Direkteur van Argief en Finansiële Administrateur) Johannes Pediasimos (c. 1240-1310/1314), wie se allegoriese parafrase van die Ilias 1-4, scholia oor die Prior Analytics en deel van die Posterior Analytics ( sy hoofbron was Johannes Philoponos), oor Hesiod (Theogonie en Aspis), Theocritus (Sirinx) en Cleomedes het oorleef. Die politikus Theodorus Metochites (1270-1332) het parafraserende kommentare oor 'n groot deel van Aristoteles se geskrifte geskryf (uitgesluit die Organon en die Metafisika). Georgius Lakapenos (13de-14de sent.) het 'n skoolkommentaar oor Epictetus geskryf. Ten slotte moet 'n mens die numerologiese interpretasie noem van 'n Johannes Protospatharios (13de-14de sent.), wat ons nie meer presies kan identifiseer nie, oor die Werke en Dae (Hemerai) van Hesiod, en die allegorieë oor die Teogonie van Diakonos Johannes Galenos, wie se oordraggeskiedenis verbind hom nou met Protospatharios. Tot die 14de eeu. behoort die groot polihistorikus Nicephorus Gregoras (c. 1293-c. 1359/1361), wat onder andere die skrywer was van 'n kommentaar op Synesius se verhandeling Пlegi Evulviov ('Oor drome') en ook (twyfelagtig) toegeskryf het aan hom laerskool-

[graywyvern]

( via via @sixveeceear / via )

"Much as Denzel Washington’s incredibly symmetrical face is read as beautiful, reading symmetrical writing also held an attraction for the eye."

"Naked in Clay

   Like horrible amphibians come up for air, mournful grimaces rise to the lip. Through the Sahara of the Substance walks a gray verse, a dromedary.

   A twisted face of cruel dreams glows phosphorescent. And the blind man who died full of voices of snow. And rise at dawn, poet, nomad, to the raw, merciless day of being a man.

   The Hours go by feverishly, and in the corners they miscarry blond centuries of happiness. Who casts out so much line; who pitilessly descends our nerves, already frayed cords, to the tomb?

   Love! And you, also. Black blows from a stone are engendered in your mask, and smash it. The tomb is yet a woman's sex that attracts man!"

--Cesar Vallejo, The Black Heralds, tr Richard Schaaf & Kathleen Ross (1990)

Ramentic.

"Dolphins, and orcs, wallow'd unwieldily" --Royston's Lycophron

"As a polemicist against the futility and the mediocrity of Sidonius as a versemonger (‘a bad poet’, p. 65 and like his tedious poetry, ‘a failure’, p. 76) he is at least as implacable as Eduard Norden was towards Sidonius as a prose writer."