Details

Subject(s)

• Metochites, Theodoros 1270-1332—Criticism and interpretation [Browse]
• Gregory of Nazianzus, Saint—Influence [Browse]
• Christian poetry, Byzantine—History and criticism [Browse]
• Byzantine poetry—History and criticism [Browse]
• Christian saints—Biography—Poetry—Early works to 1800 [Browse]

Translator

• Polemēs, I. [Browse]

Writer of introduction

• Polemēs, I. [Browse]

Series

• Corpus Christianorum in translation ; 26. [More in this series]
• Corpus Christianorum. Series Graeca ; 83. [More in this series]
• Corpus Christianorum in translation ; 26 [More in this series]
• Corpus Christianorum. Series Graeca ; 83 [More in this series]

Summary note

"Theodore Metochites (ca. 1270-1332), an important writer of Late Byzantium, composed twenty long Poems in dactylic verse, which constitute an unicum in Byzantine Literature. Some of them are clearly autobiographic, offering important details about their author's career, while others are devoted to some saints of the Byzantine church (St Athanasius of Alexandria and the three prelates Basil of Caesarea, Gregory the Theologian and John Chrysostom). Some of them are addressed to close friends of Metochites (like the polymath Nikephoros Gregoras, or the church historian Nikephoros Xanthopoulos), asking for their advice or complaining about his own difficulties. Three of them are funerary Poems, extolling the virtues and mourning the death of persons close to the emperor Andronikos II Palaiologos, who was the protector and benefactor of Metochites. The last seven Poems are written in a more reflective mood, discussing the precariousness of human happiness and the inevitability of man's fall due to the adverse circumstances of his life. All those Poems are preserved in MS. Parisinus graecus 1776, which was written in all probability under Metochites' supervision. The translation is accompanied by notes clarifying the sense of difficult passages and giving references to the texts that inspired Metochites directly or to parallel passages in the works of Metochites himself, or other Greek and Byzantine authors."-- Provided by publisher.

Notes

An English prose translation of the Greek edition presented in volume 83 of the series Corpus Christianorum, Series Graeca (2015).

Bibliographic references

Includes bibliographical references (pages 22-44) and indexes.

ISBN

• 9782503570396
• 2503570399
• 9782503570402
• 2503570402

OCLC

962331012

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