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Anthologia Palatina

Συγγραφή : Banev Guentcho (28/11/2003)
Μετάφραση : Kukuvelos Pia Christine

Για παραπομπή: Banev Guentcho, "Anthologia Palatina",
Εγκυκλοπαίδεια Μείζονος Ελληνισμού, Μ. Ασία
URL: <http://www.ehw.gr/l.aspx?id=12664>
Παλατινή Ανθολογία (15/12/2009 v.1) Anthologia Palatina (16/9/2010 v.1) 
 

1. General Introduction

The title Anthologia Palatina has been given to a collection that consists of 15 books and includes about 3,700 epigrams with over 23,000 verses, which were written from the 6th century to the 10th century A.D. This collection was the result of work of unknown scholars during the Macedonian Renaissance and constitutes the larger and more important work of its kind. It is preserved in a manuscript with two parts (codices). The main part, which includes the first 13 books, is kept today in the Palatina Library of Heidelberg (Palatinus Vaticanus gr. 23) and entirely for this, the collection was named the Anthologia Palatina.1T he other part, which preserves the remaining 2 books, is found in Paris (Parisinus suppl. gr. 384). According to the commonly accepted point of view, the manuscript dates to the 10th century, probably around 980, though some scholars date it to the 11th century.2

The Anthologia Palatina appears to be a typical work of the 10th century, a period characterized by a spirit of encyclopedism. In the same period, the Souda Lexicon and Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus's Excerpta historica Constantiniana were compiled, and in general emphasis was given to the compilation of former and contemporary knowledge.3 The work constitutes a very important source for the history of literature and the development of the Greek language.

2. The Original Structure of the Work—Constantine Kephalas

The original body of the Anthologia Palatina is based on one collection of epigrams (anthology) which Constantine Kephalas had published at the end of the 9th century. Constantine Kephalas, a Byzantine scholar and clergyman who came from a prominent family, lived and was active in the reign of Emperor Leon VI the Wise (886-912) and a bit later. His name has been documented by some columnists and it is reported that in 917 he served as head priest (dean) of the imperial court.4

Kephalas' collection, which is not preserved today though its original form can be reconstructed by the Anthologia Palatina, consisted of books 3-7, 9-12 and perhaps 13-14.5 At the end of the 9th century, he therefore wrote, possibly per order of Leon VI, a collection (anthology) of ancient and Byzantine epigrams, as well as funerary epigrams. He used old anthologies, such as Agathias' Cycle6and perhaps the collection of compiler Meleagros of Gadarenos7(100 B.C.). In his collection Kephalas also included a plethora of funerary epigrams, which originated from mainland Greece and Asia Minor, which magistros Gregory of Kampsa of Macedonia had collected on his behalf. Kephalas' collection was also used widely by the Souda Lexicon (quotations from 430 epigrams).8

3. The Later Additions – The Anthologia Palatina

Around 980 an unknown composer widened Kephalas' anthology and added the present books of the Anthologia Palatina: the 1st (epigrams of Christian poets and numerous inscriptions from churches of the of the 4th to the 10th centuries), the 2nd (Christodoros of Koptos's poem,9 “Έκφρασις των αγαλμάτων των εις το δημόσιον γυμνάσιον του επικαλουμένου Ζευξίππου”), the 8th (funerary epigrams of Gregory of Nazianzos), evidently the 13th and 14th (epigrams of present and older poets, which generally present many problems), and the 15th. The categorization of poetry in thematic groups is also attributed to this, a fact that often causes confusion regarding the attribution of epigrams to the poet in question, which resulted in enough of the poetry to be characterized as anonymous (masterless).10

4. The Meaning

Previously it was considered that the Anthologia Palatina is comprised of epigrams of Ancient Greek literature. This point of view relied mainly upon the style of the collection. The epigrams can be characterized as demonstrative, satirical, erotic, children's, admonitory, sympotic, arithmetic, enigmatic and others, while entirely missing synaxaria, troparia and other chief ecclesiastical works. It is noteworthy that the words that were used for the making of the anthology did not distinguish between ancient and Christian epigrams, nor did they wound the intended chronological line.

Ancient lyrical poets whose epigrams are in the Anthologia Palatina include, for example, Archilochus, Anacreon, Sappho and Simonides.11 The weight of the collection however, fell upon the epigrams and the poems of eminent poets of the Byzantine era. The Byzantine epigrams do not follow the rules of the traditional ancient type with alternating digital hexametres and pentametres or combined in iambic trimetre. Epigrams of Byzantine poets are included mainly in the 1st, the 8th as well as the 15th book.12 The last one consists of epigrams of Arethas of Caesarea, Ignatios the Deacon and Kometas13 and from inscriptions from the Hippodrome. The great value of the Anthologia Palatina lies in the fact that it preserved works of poets and epigram composers, such as Agathias Scholasticus, Damocharis, the Macedonian, Metrodorus, Leo the Philosopher and Palladas, which would have otherwise been lost.

5. The Greek Anthology

The conventionally named Greek Anthology consists of the Anthologia Palatina and the Planudea, which classifies as the 16th book. The subsequent anthology by Maximos Planoudes (cir. 1260-1310), known as Planudea (codexMarc. gr. 481), added 388 new epigrams.14 The poems of the Planudea usually originate from lost manuscripts of Constantine Kephalas or they are repeated from the Anthologia Palatina.

1. The discovery of the codex is due to French Hellenist Claude Saumaise. See Aubreton, R., “La tratition manuscrite des épigrammes de l'Anthologie Palatine”, Révue des Études Anciennes 70 (1968), p. 43.

2. The manuscript presents difficulties for the dating. Different characters of writing have been discerned, a fact that attests to the point of view that underwent renovations and supplementations / completions.  A. Cameron suggests the date of the manuscript to the 10th century, see Cameron, A., “Michael Psellus and the Date of the Palatine Anthology”, Greek Roman Byzantine Studies 11 (1970), pp. 339-350, while R. Auberton believes the more correct date is the 11th century, see Aubreton, R., “La tradition manuscrite des épigrammes de l'Anthologie Palatine”, Révue des Études Anciennes 70 (1968), pp. 45-47, and Aubreton, R., “Michel Psellos et l'Anthologie Palatine”, Antiquité Classique 38 (1969), pp. 459-462.

3. For this 10th-c. encyclopedic florilegium, the initiative and inspiration of Constantine VII, see Lemerle, P., Ο πρώτος βυζαντινός ουμανισμός. Σημειώσεις και παρατηρήσεις για την εκπαίδευση και την παιδεία στο Βυζάντιο από τις αρχές ως τον 10ο αιώνα, Μ. Νυσταζοπούλου-Πελεκίδου (μτφρ.), (Αθήνα 1985), pp. 248-269. For the encyclopediaism of the 10th century, see as shown, pp. 241-276.

4. Kazhdan, A. (ed.), The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium 2 (New York – Oxford 1991), p. 1.122, see article “Kephalas, Constantine” (A. Kazhdan).

5. Aubreton R., “La tradition manuscrite des épigrammes de l'Anthologie Palatine”, Révue des Études Anciennes 70 (1968), p. 66.

6. This work by Agathias is reported in the Souda Lexicon with the title Κύκλος νέων επιγραμμάτων and is dated to 567.  See Cameron, A. - Cameron, A., “The Cycle of Agathias”, Journal of Hellenic Studies 86 (1966), pp. 6-25.

7. Philosopher and poet of epigrams (cir. 135-65 B.C). Compiler of the first anthology of epigrams. 

8. Hunger, H., Βυζαντινή Λογοτεχνία 2: Η λόγια κοσμική γραμματεία των Βυζαντινών (Αθήνα 1992), p. 439

9. Writer from Thebes of Egypt.  He lived and was active during the reign of Anastasios I (491-518). He delivered 416 digital hexameters. Τωμαδάκης, Ν., Η βυζαντινή Υμνογραφία και Ποίησις. Εισαγωγή εις την βυζαντινήν Φιλολογίαν 2 (Αθήνα 1965) p. 32

10. See Hunger, H., Βυζαντινή Λογοτεχνία 2: Η λόγια κοσμική γραμματεία των Βυζαντινών (Αθήνα 1992), pp. 439-440; Kazhdan, A. (ed.), The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium 2 (New York – Oxford 1991), pp. 872-873, see article “Greek Anthology” (E.M. Jeffreys).

11. Epigram writer and choral poet (356-468).

12. Cameron, A., “Michael Psellus and the Date of the Palatine Anthology”, Greek Roman Byzantine Studies 11 (1970), p. 349.

13. Grammarian, professor at the School of Magnaura (9th century), specifically on Homer, as it appears from his surviving epigrams of the Anthologia Palatina. Perhaps he took care of publishing Homer in miniscule script.

14. See Hunger, H., Βυζαντινή Λογοτεχνία 2: Η λόγια κοσμική γραμματεία των Βυζαντινών (Αθήνα 1992), pp. 457-458; Kazhdan, A. (ed.),  The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium 2 (New York – Oxford 1991), pp. 872-873, see article “Greek Anthology” (E.M. Jeffreys); Aubreton, R., “La tradition manuscrite des épigrammes de l'Anthologie Palatine”, Révue des Études Anciennes 70 (1968), pp. 32-82.  For the Christian poetry of the Greek Anthology, see Bauer, J., “Zu den christlichen Gedichten der Anthologia Graeca”, Jahrbuch der Österreichischen Byzantinistik 10 (1961), pp. 31-37.
     
 
 
 
 
 

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