John Tzetzes (; , Constantinople – 1180, Constantinople) was a Byzantine poet and grammarian who lived at Constantinople in the 12th century. He is known for making significant contributions in preserving much valuable information from ancient Greek literature and scholarship. Of his numerous works, the most important one is the Book of Histories, also known as ('Thousands'). The work is a long poem containing knowledge that is unavailable elsewhere and serves as commentary on Tzetzes's own letters. Two of his other important works are the on the Iliad and the Odyssey, which are long didactic poems containing interpretations of Homeric theology.
Biography
Tzetzes described himself as pure Greek on his father's side and part Iberian (Georgian) on his mother's side. In his works, Tzetzes states that his grandmother was a relative of the Georgian Bagratid princess Maria of Alania who came to Constantinople with her and later became the second wife of the sebastos Constantine Keroularios, megas droungarios and nephew of the patriarch Michael Keroularios.
He worked as a secretary to a provincial governor for a time and later began to earn a living by teaching and writing.
This collection of literary, historical, theological, and antiquarian miscellanies provides an important snapshot of the intellectual world of Constantinople in the mid-12th century, and also preserves fragments of more than 200 ancient authors, including many whose works have been lost. The author subsequently brought out a revised edition with marginal notes in prose and verse (ed. T. Kiessling, 1826; on the sources see C. Harder, De J. T. historiarum fontibus quaestiones selectae, diss., Kiel, 1886).
Tzetzes supplemented Homer's Iliad by a work that begins with the birth of Paris and continues the tale to the Achaeans' return home.
The Homeric Allegories, in "political" verse and dedicated initially to the German-born empress Irene and then to Constantine Cotertzes, are two didactic poems, the first based on the Iliad and the second based on the Odyssey, in which Homer and the Homeric theology are set forth and then explained by means of three kinds of allegory: euhemeristic (), anagogic () and physic (). These works were translated into English in 2015 and 2019 by Adam J. Goldwyn and Dimitra Kokkini.
In the Antehomerica, Tzetzes recalls the events taking place before Homer's Iliad. This work was followed by the Homerica, covering the events of the Iliad, and the Posthomerica, reporting the events taking place between the Iliad and the Odyssey. All three are currently available in English translations.
Tzetzes also wrote commentaries on a number of Greek authors, the most important of which is that elucidating the obscure Cassandra or Alexandra of the Hellenistic poet Lycophron, usually called "On Lycophron" (edited by K.O. Müller, 1811), in the production of which his brother Isaac is generally associated with him. Mention may also be made of a dramatic sketch in iambic verse, in which the caprices of fortune and the wretched lot of the learned are described; and of an iambic poem on the death of the emperor Manuel I Komnenos, noticeable for introducing at the beginning of each line the last word of the line preceding it (both in Pietro Matranga, Anecdota Graeca 1850).
For the other works of Tzetzes see J. A. Fabricius, Bibliotheca graeca (ed. Harles), xi.228, and Karl Krumbacher, Geschichte der byz. Litt. (2nd edition, 1897); monograph by G. Hart, "De Tzetzarum nomine, vitis, scriptis," in Jahn's Jahrbucher für classische Philologie. Supplementband xii (Leipzig, 1881).
Notes
References
Sources
- Gautier, Paul (1970), La curieuse ascendance de Jean Tzetzes. Revue des Études Byzantines, 28: 207–20.
- Goldwyn, Adam, Kokkini, Dimitra (2015), Allegories of the Iliad. Harvard University Press.
External links
- Tzetzes Allegoriae Iliadis 1851 edition at Internet Archive
- Scolia eis Lycophroon, 1811 edition at Google Books
- Tzetzes, Letters 1851 edition at Internet Archive
- Ioannis Tzetzae Antehomerica, Homerica et posthomerica 1793 edition at Google Books
- English translations of Tzetzes's Antehomerica, Homerica and Posthomerica
- English translation of Tzetzes's Chiliades
- Chiliades 1826 edition at Google Books
- Tzetzes, Miscellanea, in Estense Digital Library