Modern Greek literature: Encyclopedia II - Modern Greek literature - The emergence of modern Greek literature 11th - 15th century

Modern Greek literature - The emergence of modern Greek literature 11th - 15th century

The main forms and themes of this period include scholarly and popular epic songs celebrating the new champions of Hellenism; long compositions; verse romance, which bore the stamp of influence from western courtly tradition, but a genre nevertheless rooted in the Hellenistic and Roman imperial ages; ancient stories reviving mythical and historical figures such as Achilles and Theseus and Alexander the Great; and didactic, sardonic texts, concerned with philosophy and the allegory of daily life, with birds and animals taking the leading roles. But these will prove to be also the mainstay of modern Greek literature, modified, of course, by the various aesthetic and other values specific to each era.

The cultural context within which the first known works of vernacular literature were created was undoubtedly Byzantine. The earliest group of such works dates mainly to the twelfth century: satirical poems known as the Ptochoprodromika, the moralizing poem Spaneas, the autobiographical and didactic verses written in prison by Michael Glykas, a verse oration on Princess Agnes of France, and a few examples of heroic poetry such as the Song of Armouris and the epic Digenis Acritas. The overwhelming majority of literary works in the vernacular has survived anonymously. Furthermore, it has proved difficult to assign a precise date to many of them, a problem exacerbated by the fact that the form in which the works have survived is often somewhat protean. Many have survived in a number of manuscripts, each of which preserves substantial variants or a different version. This phenomenon was also met in the western europe and is largely due to the methods by which texts were copied and disseminated in the age of the manuscript.

Verse romances are among the finest achievements of Byzantine literature, continuing as they do the long tradition of the love story whose roots go back to the Hellenistic and Late Antiquity periods. The Byzantine romance began its revival in the 12th century with Ysmine and Ysminias by Eustathios Makrembolites, Rodanthe and Dosikles by Theodoros Prodromos, Drosilla and Charikles by Niketas Eugenianos and Aristandros and Kallithea by Konstantinos Manasses. The differences (and similarities) in the case of the romances of the 13th and 14th centuries are clear. The plot has been reduced considerably; only Livistros and Rodamne maintains a sub-plot. The element of adventure becomes less prominent as the description of the action is reduced. The number of characters taking part in the action also becomes smaller. The social origins of the protagonists changes: no longer simply well-to-do, they derive for the most part from royalty. Furthermore, fairy tale elements like dragons, winged horses and magical objects are incorporated into the story while the erotic aspect of the romance is given particular emphasis, like the sensuality of the bathing scene in Kallimachos and Chrysorrhoe, the passionately entwined Velthandros and Chrysantza whose cries of pleasure echo around the garden, and the obvious erotic symbolism of Achilles’ entry with his lance into the maiden’s garden in the Achilleid. The heroes are either of Byzantine or Roman lineage, though the co-stars are sometimes of eastern origin. The action no longer evolves within a Mediterranean, classical setting; the scenery is contemporary, but with obvious utopian elements and a liking for the scenery of the folktale.

A number of scholars have termed the Greek romances as chivalric, yet they appear neither to imitate nor to have assimilated anything of the western chivalric ideal. The similarities of the central hero to the knight of the western courtly romance are limited to the external characteristics of the noble knight, in his capacity both as a warrior and as a hunter, and to his exceptional valour and beauty. The codification of the system of values of feudal society as expressed in the ideal of western chivalry is absent from Byzantine and post-Byzantine works. The social and ideological base of the Greek romances is quite different. Furthermore, the ideal of love that is portrayed is substantially different to the standards of courtly love in the western tradition, while there is considerable difference with regard to the subject of adultery, which appears only very rarely and was quite foreign to the Byzantine notion of love. Apart from the story of Helen and Paris, which in any case was handed down from antiquity, as related in the Tale of Troy (the Byzantine Iliad), the notion of love is encountered only in Livistros and Rodamne, where the sub-plot concerns an adulterous relationship.

Translations and adaptations of western European romances into the vernacular Greek of the day date to the 14th and 15th century: the Theseid is a translation of Boccaccio’s "Teseida", while Imberios, Margarona, Florios and Platziaflora were both based on the Italian versions of the Old French romances "Pierre de Provence et la Belle Maguelonne" and "Floire et Blanchefleur". To this group of works can also be added The War of Troy, a translation of Benoît de Sainte-Maure's "The Romance of Troy".

An outstanding example of the adaptation of the figure of Alexander the Great to the literary needs of the age is provided by the 14th century Alexander Romance, consisting of 6120 lines of political verse. The vernacular literary production of the fourteenth century also includes three long verse accounts of the Trojan War, each presenting a different treatment of the subject. The most popular of these, judging by the seven manuscripts preserving the text, was the War of Troy, an anonymous work that in essence comprises a loose translation, or paraphrase, in 14,400 lines of fifteen-syllable political verse, of the "Roman de Troie" by Benoît de St. Maure. The second of these works, the Tale of Troy (the so-called "Byzantine Iliad") by an anonymous author, also observes the conventions of the romance. The third work, a vernacular paraphrase of the Iliad made by Constantine Hermoniakos at the court of the despotate of Epirus in about 1330, seems to follow the Homeric text fairly closely. However, in the twenty-four books of 8800 non-rhyming eight-syllable lines of Hermoniakos’ paraphrase, the narrative also relates the events that preceded the action described by Homer as well as the sequel to the sack of Ilium, all in an affected idiom comprised of both vernacular and learned linguistic features.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "The emergence of modern Greek literature 11th - 15th century", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki