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Author:

Tzetzes, John, active 12th century, author.

Title:

Allegories of the Iliad / John Tzetzes ; translated by Adam J. Goldwyn and Dimitra Kokkini.

Publisher:

Harvard University Press,

Copyright Date:

2015

Description:

xxiv, 577 pages ; 21 cm.

Subject:

Homer.--Iliad.
Homer--Criticism and interpretation.
Tzetzes, John,--active 12th century.
Tzetzes, John,--active 12th century.--Carmina Iliaca.
Allegories.
Epic poetry, Greek--History and criticism.
Homer.
Iliad (Homer)
Allegories.
Epic poetry, Greek.
Criticism, interpretation, etc.

Other Authors:

Goldwyn, Adam J., translator.
Kokkini, Dimitra, translator.
Tzetzes, John, active 12th century. Carmina Iliaca. Greek. (Goldwyn and Kokkini)
Tzetzes, John, active 12th century. Carmina Iliaca. English. (Goldwyn and Kokkini)

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Summary:

In the early 1140s, the Bavarian princess Bertha von Sulzbach arrived in Constantinople to marry the Byzantine emperor Manuel Komnenos. Wanting to learn more about her new homeland, the future empress Eirene commissioned the grammarian Ioannes Tzetzes to compose a version of the Iliad as an introduction to Greek literature and culture. He drafted a lengthy dodecasyllable poem in twenty-four books, reflecting the divisions of the Iliad, that combined summaries of the events of the siege of Troy with allegorical interpretations. To make the Iliad relevant to his Christian audience, Tzetzes reinterpreted the pagan gods from various allegorical perspectives. As historical allegory (or euhemerism), the gods are simply ancient kings erroneously deified by the pagan poet; as astrological allegory, they become planets whose position and movement affect human life; as moral allegory Athena represents wisdom, Aphrodite desire. As a didactic explanation of pagan ancient Greek culture to Orthodox Christians, the work is deeply rooted in the mid-twelfth-century circumstances of the cosmopolitan Comnenian court. As a critical reworking of the Iliad, it must also be seen as part of the millennia-long and increasingly global tradition of Homeric adaptation. --Provided by publisher.

Series:

Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library; DOML 37

ISBN:

0674967852
9780674967854

OCLC:

(OCoLC)891369497

LCCN:

2014032672

Locations:

USUX851 -- Iowa State University - Parks Library (Ames)

OVUX522 -- University of Iowa Libraries (Iowa City)