Michael Psellus On Euripides and George of Pisidia
Michael Psellus On Euripides and George of Pisidia
Michael Psellus On Euripides and George of Pisidia
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Abstract
Although the stature and appeal of the dramatist Euripides has remained
unquestioned and continued to evoke new responses right up to the present day,
George of Pisidia, a panegyrical and religious poet who wrote, like Euripides, in
iambic trimeters, but worked in Constantinople in the first half of the seventh
century AD, is now almost entirely forgotten. And yet just under a thousand years
ago, Michael Psellus (1018-?1078/97), a man who was not altogether unjustified in
regarding himself as the greatest intellect of his day[2], chose to discuss whether
Euripides or George of Pisidia was the better poet, and it is likely that he rated
George higher.[3] A question so startling to modern eyes merits further
examination. What context gave rise to it and what were Psellus' criteria? How
much did he know of his subjects? To what extent does his view reflect the ways in
which contemporaries received the poetry of their classical and late antique
predecessors?
I
I begin with a very brief sketch of Psellus' own career and the wider cultural
background, paying particular attention to the work of the Patriarch Photius, who
lived two centuries before Psellus.
'Much the most versatile man of his generation',[4] Psellus combined in an
energetic life a public career as imperial adviser and civil servant, a period of
disgrace in a monastery, the direction of the new philosophical school in the
imperial university in Constantinople,[5] a reputation as a popular lecturer of
international standing,[6] and an extensive and varied literary output which
includes an anecdotal history (the Chronographia) of his own time, orations, letters,
poetry and a number of literary essays.[7] Our text has survived in only one
damaged copy,[8] and the literate and literary lite represented only a very small
fraction of the Byzantine population.[9] Yet Psellus was an influential teacher and
ideas were disseminated orally: the views of a man who 'dominated the intellectual
and sometimes the political life of Constantinople for nearly fifty years'[10] are
likely to have been influential in his lifetime, at least among the educated.
Psellus lived in a period of high renaissance. The revival of classical learning is
associated with the appearance of a new, easily-written minuscule script, perhaps
about 790,[11] and in the ninth century the recovery and preservation of texts from
the classical past became a major occupation among the small scholarly elite.[12]
The luxury manuscripts of Arethas of Caesarea, which date from the turn of the
ninth and tenth centuries, are only the most spectacular manifestation of this
activity.[13] An encyclopaedic interest in the classical past was also manifest in the
form of handbooks, syntheses and compilations: best known is the tenth-century
Suda lexicon, which is both a biographical reference book and a verbal glossary,
important to us for its extensive quotation from texts now lost. The earliest
Byzantine lexicon, from the second half of the ninth century, listed words useful for
prose writers and other obscure vocabulary.[14] It was compiled by Photius,
Patriarch of Constantinople, a scholar at least the equal of Psellus in stature and
importance.[15]
Photius' major work, the Bibliotheca, although an incomparably more massive
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II
I turn now to the essay on Euripides and George of Pisidia and consider its
motivation, themes and arrangement before examining more closely what Psellus
has to say about each of the two poets.
According to its heading, the essay was composed in response to a question: 'Who
was the better poet, Euripides or Pisides?' This in itself provides important signals
about context and content.
Are we to believe that such a question was in fact posed? It evokes an educational
environment, where teaching was regularly conducted by means of a series of short
questions and answers which served both to aid the teacher in the organisation of
material and to test the pupil on how much he had learned. This system was used
at various levels from the most elementary to advanced discussions, for example of
theological questions.[30] The essay in response to a question may be seen as a
development of this technique, and a number of Psellus' minor works take this
form.[31] This reflects his role as a teacher and lecturer, interacting with or
directing student interest. If the question was not asked, then it ought to have
been, and Psellus would not have tackled it had he not thought it worthwhile.
But the length of these responses also associates them with another educational
context, that of the public performance as a virtuoso display by a distinguished
rhetorician, designed to impress and inspire listeners. The question provides Psellus
with the opportunity to show off both his learning and his performance skills. Its
literary subject-matter is redolent rather of the lecture-theatre than the public
stage, where a less recherch topic might have been chosen, but the display
element is an important factor for understanding the work. It helps to account for
both the high-flown opening section (lines 12-32) and the climax, the concluding
passage on George of Pisidia (lines. 110-32), where Psellus' illustration of the poet's
use of figurative expressions turns into a display of his own rhetorical and linguistic
expertise.[32] Psellus' reception of the two poets is a creative response, in which he
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III
I pass over the difficult prefatory discussion of historical changes in metre (whose
purpose is in part to show off Psellus' own rhetorical virtuosity, even at the expense
of clarity),[42] and turn to his discussion of Euripides.
What interests Psellus about Euripides and why? How much does he know of him?
The discussion centres on Euripides' metrical and musical versatility, his ability to
imitate every subject and his skilful variation of metre according to character. But
incorporation of inherited material from the literary-critical tradition is a prominent
feature of this section, although even here personal taste will have influenced the
selection.
A number of 'facts' typical of handbooks are adduced: Psellus mentions the name of
Euripides' deme (Phlyeia),[43] and attributes to him 'eighty or more' plays.[44] The
source of a reference to Euripides' ability to reduce the Athenians to tears (lines 667) is more difficult to trace, but it fits with Aristotle's judgement of the third
tragedian as 'the most tragic' (tragikotatos).[45] Interestingly it can also be linked
with Psellus' description in his History of his own role in the coup which overthrew
the Emperor Michael V, where the sight of the refugee emperor and his uncle by the
altar caused him to be overwhelmed by the mutability of human fortune and
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IV
George of Pisidia is much closer than Euripides to Psellus, not only in time, but also
in ethos. He lived in the early decades of the seventh century and, like Psellus, is
associated with a cultural renaissance, in George's case that fostered by the
Emperor Heraclius and the Pariarch Sergius in the 620s, a decade of reviving
Byzantine political fortunes. In this period the classicising historian Theophylact
Simocatta promoted Herclius' rgime by narrating the events of the reign of
Maurice, the emperor in whose name Heraclius had ousted his predecessor Phocas,
while at a lower literary level the Paschal Chronicle made a new record of world
history which culminated with Heraclius' restoration of the True Cross to Jerusalem
in spring 630, an event interpreted as a prelude to the Golden Age.[61] George's
contribution to this movement was the composition of panegyrical poems (some
officially commissioned) in celebration of Heraclius' victorious campaigns against the
Persians, together with works on Christian themes which included both propaganda
for Heraclius' moves to secure church unity (Against Severus), Christian celebration
(the Hexaemeron) and personal introspection (On the Vanity of Life).[62] He
himself belonged to ecclesiastical circles, working as an administrator for the
Patriarch Sergius who was also his patron.[63]
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A good deal of George's poetry is likely to have been available to Psellus. The oldest
testimony to a substantial proportion of his extensive surviving oeuvre is an
eleventh-century manuscript. It has been suggested that this may reflect renewed
interest in George's panegyrical poems in the reign of Basil II (d. 1025), who had
ambitions in the east of a similar order to those of Heraclius which might have
prompted in him hopes of a panegyrist like George[64] . In addition, extensive
quotations from George's poetry are preserved in the ninth-century Chronicle of
Theophanes,[65] and in the tenth-century Suda lexicon, the latter at least
suggestive of renewed interest in George's work at this period. Psellus' chief focus
of interest is in George's religious poetry, notably the Hexaemeron,[66] rather than
the panegyric, whose topicality perhaps rendered it less accessible and hence less
interesting, just as dramatic aspects of Euripides were ignored.
Psellus' discussion parallels that of Euripides without the digressions occasioned by
his dependence on the earlier literary critical tradition. He is our sole source for the
fact that George's home town was 'lesser' Antioch in Pisidia (line 101; not the more
famous city on the Orontes). After this snippet of biographical information
(analogous to the mention of Euripides' deme), he considers in turn metre, diction
and style, introducing specific examples only in the last and longest section
In metre, George is commended as a proponent of 'the ancient and uniform type'
(line 102), which recalls the very beginning of the essay where George is said to
have handled the iambic metre 'with greater precision than many of his successors'
(lines 4-6). In contrast to Euripides' metrical versatility,[67] George's fine rhythm,
euphony[68] and taste for three-word trimeters are singled out.[69] Brief remarks
on diction touch on his naturalistic quality, 'as if he read off whatever came into his
head',[70] his exclusive use of Greek vocabulary, euphony and grandeur.[71]
Psellus praises similar features at greater length in Gregory of Nazianzus, whom he
regarded as a model of stylistic virtue.[72] These qualities may arouse Psellus'
admiration for George not so much because the latter was a poet, but almost in
spite of it.
The remainder, and by far the bulk of Psellus' discussion (lines 110-32), is
concerned with George's style, centring on his use of figurative language, which is
indeed a striking feature of his poetry. Psellus commends George's apt use of
figures, which do not detract from the point of comparison (lines 112-14), a view
not necessarily shared by modern students for whom George's highly metaphorical
style presents considerable problems of interpretation.
Psellus illustrates his point with five examples which praise the vividness of
George's descriptions respectively of disease, a rope suspended from heaven, the
dance of the Seasons, description of the Seasons as a four-horse
carriage,[73] and battle-scenes. Although the allusions are less precise than in the
case of the Euripidean examples, all but the last have been connected with specific
passages in George's surviving religious poems, three to the Hexaemeron and one
to Against Severus[74] . The allusion to battle-descriptions is more problematical,
but indicates that Psellus was at least aware of George's military panegyrics.[75]
The reference to George's vivid descriptions of disease is corroborated by the
modern recognition that George appears to have specialist knowledge of medical
vocabulary, a field in which Psellus too had a particular interest.[76] In fact Psellus'
examples are perhaps most informative about his own interests. The rope
suspended from heaven refers to the opening lines of George's poem Against
Severus, where this image is used to describe how the emperor's mind is linked to
that of God. But Psellus' description also alludes to a famous passage of the Iliad
(8. 18-22) in which Zeus asserts his power by declaring that even if a golden rope
were suspended from heaven, all the deities together could not drag him down.
Psellus had himself elsewhere attempted to explain the Homeric passage in
Neoplatonist and Christian allegorical terms,[77] and what he says here has more
to do with Homer, and with a desire to demonstrate his own rhetorical skills, than it
does with comment on George. Display of his personal virtuosity is central to
Psellus' other examples.[78] On the dance of the Seasons, the relevant passage in
George runs as follows: 'and they do this in alternating course / like maidens
joining together in dance / and combining together their own fingers, / so that they
might weave a dance of well-ordered life.' (Hex. 289-92). Psellus' response may
seem overblown: 'If he gathers the Seasons together and urges them on as if in a
dance, - good Lord! - the twining of hands, the circle, the whirling, the rotary
motion, the strophe, the antistrophe, the epode, the movement!' (lines 118-20, tr.
Dyck). This show passage forms the climax of the piece, immediately before the
brief verdict.[79] Psellus here uses George as an excuse for display of his own
writing, in a typically Byzantine manner.[80]
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V
A final consideration must be George of Pisidia's own reception of Euripides. If
Psellus put the two poets side by side, it seems worth investigating whether
George's poetry does have a particular affinity with that of Euripides. What did
George know of Euripides, and what would he have found interesting in him? But
these questions cannot easily be answered, since there is very little evidence to go
on. Although he does invoke figures such as Demosthenes, Galen and Proclus,[81]
George does not, as far as I know, allude explicitly to Euripides. Hence judgement
must be based on his use of the plays.
Textual citation is the most obvious starting-point, but also the least satisfactory in
view of the availability from at least the sixth century of lexica, handbooks and
anthologies. Just as Psellus incorporated material from the literary critical tradition
in his essays, so George certainly used easy guides to the classics where possible,
and first-hand knowledge is difficult to prove.[82] The extremely limited evidence
available does, however, suggest that George favoured Euripides above the other
two tragedians in this respect.[83] But this is in part because more of Euripides
survived and he was more commonly cited in anthologies. Indeed the fact that two
of the allusions noted come from the 'alphabetical' plays of Euripides rather than
from the ten selected for school use may be an indication that George used a
handbook such as the anthology of Stobaeus.[84] Much more work remains to be
done in this area, but it is unlikely that George could be shown to have direct
knowledge of Euripides' plays.
Other stylistic features suggest the limitation of links between George and
Euripides. George's use of the three-word trimeter is remote from Euripidean
practice,[85] while the most systematic analysis of his diction so far undertaken
identifies the inclusion of vocabulary hitherto confined to prose, particularly
specialised medical vocabulary, as George's main innovation in this area.[86] This
move towards prose usage is perhaps further reflected in the use of rhyming lineends, in a manner analogous to that employed in some types of rhetorical prose.
[87] On the other hand, in one case at least, George apparently expresses a
preference for a Euripidean usage,[88] and more extensive research might add to
this haul. Even here, however, the proviso about lexical handbooks must apply,
quite apart from our own limited knowledge of ancient authors.[89]
In fact in many ways it is preferable to follow Psellus' example and take metre as a
starting-point. In making the innovative decision to compose his panegyrics in
trimeters rather than the traditional hexameters, George is most likely to have
looked to Euripides as a metrical model.[90] Furthermore, metrical characteristics
can be analysed and measured.[91]
Modern studies[92] of George's metrical practice uphold Psellus' verdict (lines 4-6)
that George handled the iambic metre with greater precision than his successors.
He had a good understanding of the metrical rules for the classical quantitative
trimeter, even though his verses also reflect care in the placing of accents, to assist
the understanding of a post-classical audience whose ear was unattuned to
differences in quantitative length between syllables.[93] His trimeters are also more
varied than those of his successors, who reduced the rhythm to a monotonous 12syllable line with predictable accentuation: although the majority of George's lines
are dodecasyllabic, he also writes 13- and 14-syllable lines, occasionally 15
syllables.[94] The increase in the number is achieved by the use of resolved
(divided) syllables, a practice most common in the classical comic poets and,
among the tragedians, in Euripides. Analysis of specific types of resolution has
suggested that George is closer to Euripides than he is to the other two classical
tragedians.[95] It may be added that, like Euripides, George changed his metrical
habits over the course of his career. While Euripides' dramatic increase in resolution
in his later plays is well-known[96] George's later panegyrical poems show
increased care in the placing of accent at line-end.[97] Although he is unlikely to
have been aware of this phenomenon in Euripides, George's own innovative
instincts will have attracted him to a poet of Euripides' richness and variety.
Thus George is more closely allied with Euripides than with the other tragedians,
especially in his experimentation and refinement of metrical practice: as Euripides
responded to new trends in contemporary music,[98] so George was increasingly
attuned to the limited sensitivity of his contemporaries to quantitative classical
metres and adapted his technique accordingly. Both poets share a readiness to
innovate, to experiment with and revitalise a well-tried genre, and thus single
themselves out for comment.[99]
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But such analogies are too limited to be very instructive. In the present state of
knowledge, the verdict on George's reception of Euripides must remain open. It
seems that, like Psellus, he found Euripides the most accessible of the tragedians,
but there is no evidence that he was directly acquainted with Euripides' plays, as
opposed to extracts available in compendia. Technical metrical similarities, although
telling, may well be unconscious. But like Psellus, George has no interest in
Euripides' plays as drama.
VI
It may be added that Psellus himself was not seriously interested in comparing
George's style with that of Euripides. Had he wished to do so, he would have
concentrated on Euripides' iambics, rather than the lyrical parts of his plays.
Nevertheless his response to the two poets is illuminating, combining as it does the
interests of a scholar and a creative writer. His erudition enables him to recall at will
learned literary discussions of the classical dramatists, perhaps a passage from the
Hecuba which he had found offensive to propriety, to relate an allusion in George of
Pisidia to contemporary allegorical interpretation of Homer, as well as to make
judgements on technical metrical questions. These latter technical aspects were of
interest for his own poetic aspirations. The composition of quantitative iambic
trimeters in the eleventh century was likely to have been an exercise analogous to
the composition of classical Greek verse today - to be contemplated only by the
most able, and with the assistance of all available handbooks. But Psellus is also
interested in the effect of poetry on its audience: he admires Euripides' mastery of
tragic pathos (and seeks to emulate it in his own historical writing), while George's
skilful handling of figurative language appeals to his taste: this he seeks to match
and outdo in his own rhetorical prose criticism of the poet. Classical verse
composition may have been almost beyond reach, but Psellus saw that classical
poetry had lessons also for those who strove to write effective prose.
This one very limited example of reception perhaps encapsulates the best and worst
of Byzantium: its degenerative tendency to incorporate, distil and often distort
earlier scholarship, but also its sense of direct and confident inheritance of a rich
literary tradition to which innovative additions could still be made.
[return to contents]
Notes
[1] I am most grateful to Judith Mossman for help on responses to Euripides. In
revising this paper for publication, I have benefited greatly from comments
generously made by Pat Easterling and by Lorna Hardwick and two anonymous
referees. This paper was written with the support of a Leverhulme Special Research
Fellowship. [return to text]
[2] Cf. R. Browning, 'Enlightenment and Repression in Byzantium in the eleventh
and twelfth centuries', Past and Present 69 (1975), 3-23 at 11 (=Studies on
Byzantine History, Literature and Education, Variorum 1977, no. XV): 'sometimes
childishly vain about his immense and superficial learning'. [return to text]
[3] On the problem of Psellus' verdict, see further below, section II. [return to text]
[4] L. D. Reynolds and N. G. Wilson, Scribes and Scholars (2nd ed., Oxford 1974)
60. [return to text]
[5] Founded, along with a school of law, by Constantine IX Monomachus in 1045.
Psellus claims (Chronographia 6. 37) to have revived philosophy single-handed from
decline; cf. C. Mango, Byzantium: the Empire of New Rome (London 1980) 143. For
his contribution to the development of philosophical studies in Byzantium, see C.
Niarchos, 'The philosophical background of the eleventh-century revival of learning
in Byzantium', in (edd.) M. Mullett and R. Scott, Byzantium and the Classical
Tradition (Birmingham 1981) 127-35. [return to text]
[6] He boasted of attracting pupils not merely from every region of the Byzantine
empire, but from Egypt and India too: Browning, 'Enlightenment' (n. 2) 20. [return
to text]
[7] Convenient survey in N. G. Wilson, Scholars of Byzantium (London 1983) 15666. [return to text]
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[40] The damage probably goes back to the seventeenth century, since Leo Allatius
did not include the conclusion in his extracts from the text: Dyck (n. 8) 25. [return
to text]
[41] Other arguments are adduced by Dyck (n. 8) 34-6. [return to text]
[42] Cf . Wilson, Scholars (n. 7) 178 'Psellos apparently lapses into florid verbiage,
which will not be redeemed even if one day a less damaged text is
recovered.'[return to text]
[43] Also paraded in the essay on John Chrysostom, see Dyck (n. 8) on 3-4 and
135. The information may have come from the Suda. [return to text]
[44] Line 64. The biographical tradition gives a total of 92, of which 78, 77 or 68
were said to have been preserved: see Dyck ad loc. [return to text]
[45] Poetics 1453a29f. Plutarch describes how the tyrant Alexander of Pherae was
moved to tears by one of Euripides' Trojan tragedies, see J. Mossman, Wild Justice
(Oxford 1995) 218f. But he was not, of course, an Athenian. Xenophon (Symposium
3. 11) mentions the ability of the 5th/4th-century actor Kallippides to evoke
audience tears, but evidence for audience response is very limited, see A. PickardCambridge The Dramatic Festivals of Athens (2nd ed., rev. J. Gould and D. M.
Lewis, Oxford 1968) 274-8. [return to text]
[46] Chron. 5. 40. See Dyck (n. 27) 281-7. [return to text]
[47] For tragic patterning in prose biography, see Judith Mossman, 'Tragedy and
epic in Plutarch's Alexander', Journal of Hellenic Studies 108 (1988) 83-93,
qualifying the arguments of P. De Lacy, 'Biography and tragedy in Plutarch',
American Journal of Philology 73 (1952) 159-71. De Lacy noted the censorious tone
of Plutarch's allusions to tragedy, which is criticised, among other things, for its
false material, a view associated with Platonic ideas. Psellus, on the other hand,
despite his own Platonic leanings, commends Euripides' veracity: '[the Athenians]
fancied they beheld the spoken word as living action', lines 67f., tr. Dyck. (I am
grateful to Pat Easterling for drawing my attention to these articles.) [return to text]
[48] The anonymous treatise on tragedy (n. 23) also deals with the parts of tragedy
(secs. 1, 4). The ultimate source is probably Aritstole's Poetics: Dyck (n. 8) 58. This
passage degenerates into banality, and it might be charitable to suspect the
intrusion of a scholiast's note. [return to text]
[49] The comparison is already implicit in the suggestion (line 34) that one might
prefer Sophocles to Euripides. [return to text]
[50] Lines 54-7. 'Dignity' is already associated with Aeschylean style at Frogs 1004,
1061. [return to text]
[51] Articulated by M. Griffith in The Authenticity of Prometheus Bound (Cambridge
1977), and in his commentary on the play (Cambridge 1983). [return to text]
[52] 'Without being, as it were, an initiate, one would not understand his mysteries'
(lines 63-4). Persae is specifically singled out. [return to text]
[53] Wilson, Scholars (n. 7) 112. [return to text]
[54] But at line 37 two apparently contrasting qualities are both associated with
Euripides, who is described as 'sometimes taking the lead in other forms of grace
and dignity'. [return to text]
[55] On Literary Composition 11; see Dyck (n. 8) 62f. [return to text]
[56] For comparison with the letter, see Dyck (n. 8) on 88-89. Tragedy treatise (n.
23) sec. 5: Euripides uses the chromatic and was the first to use polychords, both
marks of the new style in music; in general he shows the greatest metrical variety.
See Winnington-Ingram's commentary 74-8. [return to text]
[57] Dyck (n. 8) on 90. Euripides does not, however, attempt to reproduce the
Phrygian dialect in the Orestes. [return to text]
[58] 'Propriety' (to prepon) is a standard ancient literary-critical tool: Dionysius of
Halicarnassus On Literary Composition is particularly concerned with the topic, e.g.
20 'Propriety is a necessary concomitant to all the rest. Any work which is lacking
herein lacks, if not its whole effect, at least the most important part of it.'; propriety
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herein lacks, if not its whole effect, at least the most important part of it.'; propriety
is later defined as 'what suits the persons or actions to be handled'. Tr. D. A. Russell
in D. A. Russell and M. Winterbottom, Ancient Literay Criticism (Oxford 1972) 334f.
[return to text]
[59] Wilson (Scholars, n. 7, 179) suggests that Psellus was genuinely moved by the
scene. Judith Mossman has kindly drawn my attention to Theon, Progymnasmata ii.
60. 29-30 (Spengel), 'we censure Euripides because his Hecuba philosophises out of
turn' (discussing prosopopoeia): this may allude to much earlier criticism of this
scene. [return to text]
[60] Cf. Easterling (n. 28) 160 on rejection of material tied to a particular context in
favour of the universally applicable as a criterion for selection from a text
(discussing Menandrean maxims). [return to text]
[61] See Michael Whitby and Mary Whitby, Chronicon Paschale 284-628 AD
(Translated Texts for Historians vol. 7, Liverpool 1989) ix-xiv. [return to text]
[62] The panegyrical poems are edited by Pertusi (n. 35). Other major poems are
to be found in Patrologia Graeca vol. 92. [return to text]
[63] Evidence relating to George's career and writing is collected by Pertusi (n. 35)
11-16. [return to text]
[64] So Pertusi (n. 35) 14f., 49-67. Cf. id. 'Dei poemi perduti di Giorgio di Pisidia',
Aevum 30 (1956) 395-427. The 11th-century cod. Paris. suppl. gr. 690 contains
George's Hexaemeron, but not the poem Against Severus, to which Psellus alludes:
see further below. [return to text]
[65] On the material in Theophanes, see J. Howard-Johnston, 'The official history of
Heraclius' Persian campaigns', in (ed.) E. Dabrowa, The Roman and Byzantine Army
in the East (Krakow 1994) 57-85, who argues that George himself composed a
hybrid prose/verse history of Heraclius' campaigns. [return to text]
[66] This poem has a much more extensive manuscript tradition than George's
other works, partly because it was for a time mistakenly attributed to Cyril of
Alexandria, but also because its Creation theme gave it a much wider appeal, see
Pertusi, 'Poemi perduti' (n. 64) 402-5, 408f. [return to text]
[67] An explicit contrast with the variety required in drama appears to be made in a
damaged sentence (lines 103-4), but Psellus is not, it seems, critical of George (a
further reason for thinking that he ultimately judged George more highly). Ninety
hexameters On the Mortal Life are also attributed to George, but are unknown to or
ignored by Psellus, see Dyck (n. 8) on 101-2. [return to text]
[68] George's euphony (of diction) is again commended at line 110, whereas
Aeschylus and Sophocles were criticised for lack of euphony at 56f. (The Greek
word used is slightly different in each case.) [return to text]
[69] For this phenomenon in George's panegyrical poems, see M. Marcovich, Threeword Trimeter in Greek Tragedy (Beitrge zur klassischen Philologie, Heft 158,
Knigstein/Ts. 1984) 199. His ratios of 1/90.5 (panegyrics) and 1/118
(Hexaemeron) are much higher than those for Euripides (1/279.4), and closer to
Psellus himself (1/44): see Marcovich 160-5. [return to text]
[70] Cf. J. D. C. Frendo, 'The significance of technical terms in the poems of George
of Pisidia', Orpheus 21 (1974) 45-55 at 54f.: the most striking single feature about
George's poetry is his use of words previously confined to prose. A similar 'artless'
style was admired in Menander by the rhetorician Hermogenes, see Easterling (n.
28) 154, and cf. Dyck (n.8) on 108-9. [return to text]
[71] Contrast the comments on Euripides' use of barbarian speech. In the sixth
century, the orator Choricius praised his contemporary Procopius of Gaza in similar
terms (Or. 7. 8, 112. 10-15 Foerster-Richtsteig): in his lectures to the young, 'he
never let pass a word that was not Attic... nor a syllable that spoilt the rhythm, nor
a sentence whose construction failed to please the ear.'[return to text]
[72] See Wilson, Scholars (n. 7) 169-71. [return to text]
[73] It is in fact the Elements, not the Seasons, who are likened to a four-horse
carriage, cf. n. 33. [return to text]
[74] See Dyck ad locc. [return to text]
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[75] Dyck suggests (on 127-30) that Psellus may here be indulging in rhetorical
amplification with the aid of a lexicon, since Pertusi (n. 35, 30f.) found that,
although George does on more than one occasion describe battle-scenes, the terms
chosen by Psellus do not occur in the surviving panegyrics, while several are
characteristic of classical or Hellenistic battle-descriptions. In view of Psellus'
deviation from the original in the other examples, it is likely that he was amplifying
half-remembered material, but it is also possible that he had read panegyrical
poems of George which are now lost. [return to text]
[76] J. D. C. Frendo, 'Special aspects of the use of medical vocabulary in the poems
of George of Pisidia', Orpheus 22 (1975) 49-56; A. Littlewood, 'The midwifery of
Michael Psellos', in Mullett and Scott (n. 5) 136-42. [return to text]
[77] Dyck (n. 8) ad loc., Wilson, Scholars (n. 7) 161f. [return to text]
[78] See Dyck ad locc. [return to text]
[79] And incidentally corroborates the belief that George was to be acclaimed the
victor. [return to text]
[80] Cf. Littlewood (n. 76) 136: 'A distinctive feature of the Byzantines' imitation of
classical literature is the tension between the desire to exhibit a fluent familiarity
with ancient models and the compulsion to demonstrate an ability to create new
variations of these same models,...'. Wilson 'Books' (n. 20) 11 comments on
Symeon Metaphrastes' verbose elaboration of saints' lives; cf. id. Scholars (n. 7)
167 on Psellus' essay on Symeon. [return to text]
[81] Demosthenes: Exp. Pers. ii. 1, Heraclias i. 93. Galen: Heraclias ii. 41. Proclus:
Hex. 60, 75, 78. [return to text]
[82] Pertusi ('Poemi perduti', n. 64, 396) suspected that allusions to the tragedians
were derived from gnomological collections. Wilson ('Books', n. 20, 5) is not
confident that the sixth-century historian Agathias had read much Euripides. On the
limits of Agathias' knowledge even of Herodotus and Thucydides, see Averil
Cameron, 'Herodotus and Thucydides in Agathias', Byzantinische Zeitschrift 57
(1964) 33-52=ead. Continuity and change in sixth-century Byzantium (London
1981) II. (I am grateful to a referee for drawing my attention to this article.)
[return to text]
[83] Pertusi (n. 35, 38 n.1) noted at least seven allusions to Euripides in the
panegyrical poems, as opposed to two to Aeschylus and one to Sophocles. The
figure for Euripidean allusion is higher even than that for Homer (5 instances), but
in all cases the count is very low. [return to text]
[84] One allusion to Suppl. 508 (Exp. Pers. iii. 52f) and one to Hel. 514 (Exp. Pers.
iii. 181): both are of a gnomic character, and the latter is not particularly close. See
R. M. Piccione, 'Sulle citazioni euripidee in Stobeo e sulla struttura dell'
Anthologion', Rivista di filologica 122 (1994) 175-218. Piccione notes Stobaeus'
high proportion of citations from the nine alphabetical plays, and even more
(approximately three-quarters) from plays now lost. (I am grateful to Pat Easterling
for drawing my attention to this article.) [return to text]
[85] See n. 69. [return to text]
[86] See nn. 70, 76. Pertusi (n. 35, 39-43) noted in addition George's extensive use
of rare and unique words, which were influential on later writers. [return to text]
[87] On George's use of rhyme, see Pertusi (n. 35) 45-7, who notes that it is a
phenomenon of sixth- seventh-century religious poetry and prose homiletic. The
orator Gorgias was the most famous exponent of rhthymic and rhyming prose; see
further J. D. Denniston, Greek Prose Style (Oxford 1952) 135f. [return to text]
[88] At Hexaemeron 1891 a relatively rare verb (stomo) is used in a sense known
elsewhere only in Euripides ('fence'), see LSJ s.v. IV, and cf. Mary Whitby, 'The Devil
in Disguise: the end of George of Pisidia's Hexaemeron reconsidered', JHS 115
(1995) 125 n. 45. [return to text]
[89] Pertusi (n. 35, 39f.) highlights the hazards of this kind of investigation. [return
to text]
[90] P. E. Bouvy (quoted by Pertusi, n. 35, 43) suggested that George took
Euripides as a metrical model. R. J. H. Jenkins ('The Hellenistic origins of Byzantine
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literature', DOP 17, 1963, 37-52 at 41) stated bluntly that George's iambics are
modelled on the Euripidean rhesis; some clarification is provided by his subsequent
comment (42), 'he might borrow his forms from what he understood of Euripides;
but...'. [return to text]
[91] Cf. D. Feeney, 'Criticism ancient and modern', in (edd.) D. Innes, H. Hine, C.
Pelling, Ethics and Rhetoric (Oxford 1995) 301-12 on the inadequacy of ancient
tools of criticism and the problem of finding an adequate critical approach to ancient
texts. Metrical and stylistic analysis of late antique hexameter poetry was pioneered
by A. Wifstrand, Von Kallimachos zu Nonnos (Publications of the New Society of
Letters 16, Lund 1933). [return to text]
[92] Valuable work was done in the metrical field at the beginning of this century by
the Pole Leo Sternbach (Rozprawy Akademii Umiejetnosci, Wydzial filologiczny Ser.
ii, tom. xv, Krakow 1900, 259-96), who first gave serious scholarly attention to
George of Pisidia, and many of his conclusions still stand. See further Paul Maas,
'Der byzantinische Zwlfsilber', BZ 12 (1903) 278-323, esp. 289f. 321 (revised in
Kleine Schriften, Munich 1973, 242-88); Pertusi (n. 35) 43-5; M. West, Greek Metre
(Oxford 1982) 177-80, 182-5; R. Romano, 'Teoria e prassi della versificazione: il
dodecasillabo nei Panegirici epici di Giorgio di Pisidia', BZ 78 (1985) 1-22. [return to
text]
[93] Accents are regulated at the line-end and before the caesura, see Pertusi (n.
35) 43-5, West (n. 92) 184, Romano (n. 92). Romano gives a figure of 81.9%
paroxytone verse-endings in the panegyrical poems. [return to text]
[94] Pertusi (n. 35) 44 (two instances of 15-syllable lines in the Hexaemeron);
Romano (n. 92). [return to text]
[95] Sternbach (n. 92, 289-91) found George's technique in handling tribrachs and
dactyls comparable only to Euripides, not to Sophocles or Aeschylus: cf. Dyck (n. 8)
on 4-6. [return to text]
[96] Although, of course, our sample for Euripides is much bigger than it is for his
predecessors, Aeschylus and Sophocles generally show less variation: see the
discussion of West (n. 92) 85-8. [return to text]
[97] Romano (n. 92) 10: increased preference for lines accented on the second
syllable from the end (paroxytone). [return to text]
[98] See n. 56. Euripides' new-fangled musical ideas are satirised in Aristophanes'
Frogs. [return to text]
[99] George's adoption of the iambic metre for panegyric, as opposed to the
traditional hexameter, is his most striking innovation. Euripides is central to
Aristophanic and Aristotelian criticism of tragedy, while George became a model for
composers of iambics (Wilson, Scholars, n. 7, 187; Dyck, n. 8, 35) and was singled
out by Psellus. [return to text]
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