Options
Political Verse vs Homeric Hexameter in John Tzetzes’ Allegories of the Iliad
Paschalis, Michael
2024
Loading...
e-ISSN
2464-8760
Abstract
Modern readers are misled by the sneers Tzetzes heaps upon the ‘unmetrical’ political verse to believe that he considered it entirely unworthy of competing with the Homeric hexameter. These characterizations are, however, absent from the Allegories of the Iliad, the Allegories of the Odyssey, and the Theogony. In the Allegories of the Iliad it is the virtues of didactic discourse and consequently of political verse that dominate. These are: clarity, comprehensibility, conciseness, accuracy, and sharpness of detail. By exploiting these virtues Tzetzes offers remarkably concise, comprehensible, and accurate adaptations of Homeric scenes and passages, and he also successfully employs classical stylistic features, which ennoble the status of political verse. His aim is to show that political verse is not only a match for the Homeric hexameter, a worthy rival, but capable of surpassing it.
I lettori moderni si fanno trarre in inganno dalle parole di scherno che Tzetzes rivolge contro il verso politico ‘non metrico’, tanto da credere che egli lo considerasse del tutto indegno di competere con l’esametro omerico. Tuttavia, questa caratterizzazione è assente dalle Allegorie dell’Iliade, dalle Allegorie dell’Odissea e dalla Teogonia. Nelle Allegorie dell’Iliade dominano le virtù del discorso didattico e, di conseguenza, del verso politico: chiarezza, intelligibilità, concisione, accuratezza e precisione dei dettagli. Sfruttando queste virtù, Tzetzes offre adattamenti straordinariamente concisi, comprensibili e accurati di scene e passi omerici, e fa ricorso con esiti felici anche alle caratteristiche stilistiche classiche che nobilitano lo status del verso politico. Il suo obiettivo è dimostrare che il verso politico non solo è un degno rivale dell’esametro omerico in grado di competere con esso, ma che è anche in grado di superarlo.
Modern readers are misled by the sneers Tzetzes heaps upon the ‘unmetrical’ political verse to believe that he considered it entirely unworthy of competing with the Homeric hexameter. These characterizations are, however, absent from the Allegories of the Iliad, the Allegories of the Odyssey, and the Theogony. In the Allegories of the Iliad it is the virtues of didactic discourse and consequently of political verse that dominate. These are: clarity, comprehensibility, conciseness, accuracy, and sharpness of detail. By exploiting these virtues Tzetzes offers remarkably concise, comprehensible, and accurate adaptations of Homeric scenes and passages, and he also successfully employs classical stylistic features, which ennoble the status of political verse. His aim is to show that political verse is not only a match for the Homeric hexameter, a worthy rival, but capable of surpassing it.
Source
Michael Paschalis, "Political Verse vs Homeric Hexameter in John Tzetzes’ Allegories of the Iliad" in: "23. Incontri di filologia classica (2023-2024)", EUT Edizioni Università di Trieste, Trieste, 2024, pp. 273-305
Languages
en
Rights
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
File(s)