Byzantion Nea Hellás

Actividades del Centro de Estudios Griegos, Bizantinos y Neohelénicos 2022

2023-12-27T21:11:58+00:00

ΤΟ ΕΠΟΣ ΤΟΥ ΣΙΝΤ Εισαγωγή Πρωτότυπο κείμενο, μετάφραση, σχόλια [El Poema del Cid Texto original, traducción, comentarios] Ioanis Kioridis, Steryios Dertsas Alberto Montaner. Tesalónica: Ediciones Romi. 394 pp., 17 x 24,5 cm, 2 imágenes.

2023-12-27T20:54:50+00:00

Los profesores Ioanis Kioridis, Steryios Dertsas y Alberto Montaner, en un trabajo filológico excelente, presentan por primera vez en griego nuestro Poema del Cid.

Elina Miranda Cancela (2019) Dioniso en las Antillas. La Habana: UH Dirección de Publicaciones Académicas Universidad de La Habana 224 pp. 15 x 22cm.

2023-12-27T21:01:39+00:00

Salónica, la eterna ciudad del norte

2023-12-25T01:13:37+00:00

La traducción de estos textos fue realizada por Luisa Marisol Fuentes Bustamante.

Four “Hidden” Poems by Kavafis

2023-12-24T20:34:44+00:00

Two problems are briefly presented here, around the reading of four “repudiated” poems by Kavafis: the one shown by the texts written in the archaic language and the fact that the poet left very valuable poems forgotten or hidden. “Translated” into the dimotiki language, they could be appreciated by Greek readers who no longer know the katharévusa. The problem does not arise for those who know ancient Greek and the call katharevusa.

Classical and Byzantine Traces in Solomós’ Hymn to Freedom. History and Contemporaneity

2023-12-24T20:53:37+00:00

This article makes a revision of the more of six hundred verses that compose the so called Hymn to Liberty (1823) of the “national poet” Dionysius Solomos (17898-1857), in order to ascertain elements of the classical culture that the poet rescues for his work; and some elements of the modern history that illustrate the hymn’s subject; and, in addition, the linguistic process of some words whose path originates in the Byzantine world. The conclusion is that the Ύμνος εις ελευθερίαν gathers varied components that follow diverse moments of the Greek history and facts that are similar to this emancipator feat, in order to contribute to the construction of a national identity built into the cultural development of “the Hellenic”, in accordance with other harmonious cultures. The second part of this work is a Spanish version of the Hymn, with notes.

1821 - 2021: A Feminist Revolution

2023-12-24T23:10:45+00:00

This article examines the reception of the 200th anniversary of the Greek War of Independence in contemporary women’s writing. It offers an analysis of a wide range of female writers, which demonstrates a major literary tendance concerning the manifestation of a feminist or gendered consciousness, which the critic and historian of Modern Greek literature can no longer ignore. In the contemporary context, the event of the Greek Revolution is received through a more private prism, which in the works of female writers relates to the female experience, visibility, and identity. These works denounce in particular the exclusion of the female experience of the Revolution from dominant national narratives or defy the male authority of the literary canon with respect to the poetry of Dionysios Solomos, whom the writers in question however respect and creatively rework. All in all, this study demonstrates the necessity for a contemporary feminist criticism with solid methodological foundations.

Methodological Issues on the Subject of Editing the Correspondence Between George Seferis and his Sister Ioanna Seferiadi (1919-1924)

2023-01-11T17:08:05+00:00

Editing the correspondence between George Seferis and Ioanna Seferiadi (1919-1924), published in 2021, gave rise to some considerations about the editing process for this type of personal documents in particular. With the aim of providing a real picture of the reality of the manuscript, in these pages we will explain the options proposed, why in the end orthographic update was chosen, to what extent this has been applied and finally which elements have been altered, which remain unaltered, and why. In addition, we try to justify our decisions based on the different positions and arguments used by experts on this subject.

Architecture of Abandonment

2023-12-24T23:36:48+00:00

This article introduces the translation of five works by interwar poet Napoleon Lapathiotis (1888-1944), four in prose and one in verse. The image that connects these five works is the house. It appears as an abandoned house or castle which experienced better times altogether its inhabitants; the garden where dead friends’ souls flourish; the house that closed its doors to the dreamer; and the charmless house after the mother’s death. The work aims to find the links between the imagined house of the poems with the actual house where the poet lived, whose abandonment is presented from his earliest works.

The Mediating Eros: María Zambrano

2023-12-25T01:00:20+00:00

The paper refers to the relationship between the meaning of the figures of Diotima in the Platonic Banquet and Zambrano’s essay “Diótima de Mantinea”. Through the figure of the inspired woman who teaches the philosopher, emphasis is placed on the notion of Eros, dáimon of mediation between the human and the divine. The analysis seeks to connect what is properly rational in philosophical discourse with its pre-rational source; by Zambrano’s position, about the classical and especially archaic sources of the Greek world, the axes of each text are described, highlighting Zambrano’s interest in constituting the bases of his original method recognized as “poetic reason”. In the process, it is intended to highlight the author’s proposal to integrate and not the division of knowledge and her denunciation of scientific rationality.

Creating a Christian emperor: policies of imperial legitimation in Vita Constantini

2022-03-01T02:05:36+00:00

Constantine I ruled (306-337 A.D.) during a period in which the status of Christians changed from a persecuted minority into a respected and supported imperial religion. In this article we address in which ways Eusebius of Caesarea created the image of a Christian emperor in Vita Constantini. In this sense, we assert that Eusebius represented Constantine’s Christian imperial legitimacy emphasizing two fundamental conditions: an ideal model of a virtuous Christian emperor and a codependent relationship with bishops.

Orpheus and the Greek mysteries

2023-12-24T18:02:57+00:00

The central theme of this research is Orpheus and the Greek Mysteries. The author analyzes the doctrinal Orpheus, then goes on to imaginatively dramatize the interior of a Mystery.

The Efficacy of the Void in Ancient Atomism

2023-12-24T18:18:00+00:00

The philosophical position of the atomists is a strategy adjusted to the aleatory points of the compound that is each thing, be it a world, an animal, a dream, a State, etc. From this point of view, in this writing we will maintain that the void (kenón) is not the foundation of the movement of the atoms, but the “free field” that makes possible the conjunction or meeting of the elements, that is, the contingent beginning of a transformation with no anticipated or foreseeable end.

«They Mutilated Themselves Unduly, by this Very Deed Make a Declaration of the Own Licentiousness». Basil Of Ancyra. The Phenomenon of Castration Through the Texts of the Fathers and Church Writers in the Byzantine Empire

2023-12-24T18:38:23+00:00

Originally, the word “eunuch” meant “the keeper of the bed.” Over time, the term “eunuch” had the meaning of one who could not have intercourse or procreate, because either his genitals or his gonads have been removed. In the Church, the phenomenon of castration is evident in monastic circles. Of course, there is no shortage of reactions and restrictions on when a eunuch can or cannot join the clergy. The words of Jesus in Matthew’s Gospel 19,12 caused a lot to be written and said by the Fathers of the Church regarding castration. The condemnation of voluntary castration is first found in the canons of the Holy Apostles. Subsequently, many Fathers and Ecumenical Councils referred to the phenomenon of castration in relation to the clergy and monasticism. In this paper, we will examine the phenomenon of castration in the Christian teaching on the clergy and monasticism.

Tzetzes: Histories VII 149: An approach to its sources

2023-12-24T18:53:34+00:00

Within the eastern tradition of the Bellerophon myth, which starts from the Homeric Iliad (VI 152-206), the XIIth Byzantine scholar John Tzetzes addresses it in several of his works, flaunting his mastery of ancient and contemporary texts. Among them, due to its uniqueness and being the most substantial in this sense, in the present work we focus on the one that bears number 149 of book VII of its Histories or Chiliades, from which we make a study of the sources possibly used, with the aim of a subsequent analysis that we will offer in the following work, which allows us to delve into the reasons and objectives of his choice and how the author uses them.

The Eternal Children: Efforts Towards the “Abbasidization” of the Macedonian Dynasty and the Imperial Response (912-1025)

2022-09-06T19:28:08+00:00

This article is a comparative study on the political developments in the Byzantine Empire between 912 and 1025. In this period, the members of the Macedonian dynasty (867-1056) were politically neutralized because power was seized and shared either by eunuch-ministers or military officers, acclaimed co- emperors under the pretext of protecting the interest of the dynastic emperors. Although regencies for minor emperors were a recurrent power-sharing arrangement in Byzantine history, the regencies of this period differed, for they maintained the dynastic emperor in an everlasting status of minor until late adulthood. Therefore, this article analyses the so far exceptional degree of dynastic legitimacy achieved by the Macedonian emperors, which ended up creating the ideal conditions for their political neutralization. It also emphasizes the unusual position of emperor-protector. In addition, the discursive strategies that tried to legitimate the political neutralization of the dynastic emperors and the movements made by the political actors of the time to enforce it were analysed, along with how Basil II (976-1025) finally put an end to it by emancipating himself from the extended minority forced upon him, reinforcing his right as emperor to rule by himself. Finally, a comparison with the political developments simultaneously taking place in Baghdad, the centre of the Abbasid Caliphate, which share several similarities with what was happening in the Byzantine Empire, will be made as to understand why the political neutralization of the caliph was finally achieved while that of the Byzantine emperor failed.

Jewish Messianism at the Beginning of Iconoclasm, C. 720-723

2023-02-24T11:26:18+00:00

In the years before the adoption of Iconoclasm as the orthodox interpretation of Christianity, a resurgence of Jewish messianism is observed. From the analysis of the various traditions contained in the sources, we can see the influence that Jewish eschatology may have had on the decision to opt for a Christianity free of Greco-Roman reminiscences, which was more in line with a Judeo-Christian interpretation.

The Homer’s Iliad in Byzantium: An Analysis of the Constatine Hermoniakos’ Singular Metaphrasis

2023-02-14T12:09:26+00:00

The Byzantine metaphraseis of Homer’s Iliad are instruments elaborated with a common objectives and characteristics, usually works composed in prose, in Atticist or Koine language and employed in the education. However, not all these rewritings seem share those characteristics. Throughout this article we will analyse the metaphrasis composed by Constantine Hermoniakos, a poet of the Epirot court from the 14^th century, and we will determine which characteristics have made of this a singular work and completely different from the other rewritings. The result of this analysis will allow, first, to know who this poet was and why he composed his rewriting and, second, to stablish and analyse the four distinguishing characteristics of the Byzantine work, that are: meter, structure and content, level of language and Christianisation of the work.

Two unnoticed allusions to Xenophon (An. 1, 1, 1 and HG 1, 1, 20) in the Biblioteca of Photius (cods. 57, 72)

2023-01-20T15:09:31+00:00

In the study of Xenophon’s reception in Byzantium, that has begun some years ago, there are still aspects to discover, even from the most worked and recognized authors. Among them is Photius of Constantinople, author of the Bibliotheca that contains an important amount of information about Antiquity that has not arrived or has been preserved in a fragmentary way. Due to its monumentality and large number of direct references to the reviewed texts, attention to allusions has been scarce, even to those from the classical period. Thus, this paper seeks to demonstrate the existence of two allusions to Xenophon in the Bibliotheca (cods. 57, 15b; 72, 37a), so far not located, by comparing their linguistic and thematic elements. With this is expected to shed new light on the presence of the Athenian in such a significant work.