[Authors and titles are listed at the end of the review]
The twenty-two essays in this volume (eight in French, eight in English, five in Italian, and one in German) were presented as papers in a conference at the Sorbonne in 2022, aimed at reflecting “de l’insertion des productions poétiques dans leur contexte historique et socio-culturel et de leur articulation avec les enjeux identitaires et artistiques contemporains” (p. XII), with a focus on texts written in Greek from the first to the seventh c. AD, or from Philon of Tarsus to George of Pisidia. Μάρτυρι μύθῳ (‘with witnessing word’) is an end of line formula created by Nonnus of Panopolis, who deployed it mainly in the Paraphrase of the Gospel of John to describe utterances that witnessed the ultimate (Christian) truths. The editors Morgane Cariou and Nicola Zito describe poems as quiet witnesses of the imperial and late antique societies in which they were produced, after a second Nonnian formula, μάρτυρι σιγῇ.
The topic of the volume can be read in two directions at once. Firstly, poems effectively become richer compositions when read in context. As Gianfranco Agosti explains in the first contribution of the book, poets did not live in ivory towers and their trade was socially valued, as proven by their presence in power centres and how inscriptions and papyri (cf. Jean-Luc Fournet) showcase their prestige in smaller and remoter areas. We can therefore expect their poetic production to respond to broad social concerns and particular environmental elements, such as who was present at the performance of the poem. There are several instances of this type of analysis in the book.
Emily Kneebone discusses how the late antique culture of enhanced geographical mobility shapes Colluthus’ Rape of Helen. Nicola Zito relates the surprising prevalence of miscarriages and terminations in Maximus’ On initiatives to the rumours picked up in contemporary historiography about the involvement of empress Eusebia in the miscarriages and death of Helena, emperor Julian’s wife, effectively suggesting that the poet was trying at least to stir conflict and consciences at the court. Tim Whitmarsh discusses the consistent negative evaluation of the black skin of the genos of the Indians in Nonnus’ Dionysiaca. The ideology of ‘racial’ hierarchy in which skin colour and moral deficiency are products of the same biological processes is not the product of Nonnus’ literary imagination, and can be related to passages of the collection of Medical Puzzles and Natural Problems and the Physiognomics of Polemo. Delphine Lauritzen suggests that John of Gaza’s Ekphrasis of the cosmic painting and Procopius of Gaza’s Encomium on Emperor Anastasius were presented in the same occasion, upon the arrival at Gaza of a painting sent by the emperor. This explains the division of the encomiastic work between the two pieces, complementary responses to the same situation. Alice Cosme-Thomas explores how George of Pisidia’s In Bonum Patricium adapts his encomium to the particular situation at the performance, where Bonus was present and emperor Heraclius was not: George makes sure that through Bonus he praises Heraclius. Dimitar Iliev makes sense of the Alexandrian context of AP 9.378, an epigram by Palladas, in which the god Sarapis appears in a dream to a murderer to warn him of a falling wall, thus saving his life, only to make sure he is properly punished by death on the cross.
Collectively these papers act as a reminder of the need to go beyond TLG searches of individual words when we analyse imperial and late antique poetry, so as to make sure we do not lock poets up in the ivory towers where they did not belong.
Two additional papers discuss a literary version of this argument: Orestis Karavas’ on how, in his Rape of Helen, Colluthus requires that readers are familiar with certain texts so as to perceive where he deviates from standard versions and Helmut Seng’s on the ascent and descent of the soul in Synesius’ Hymn 9 and the influence of forms and motifs from Anacreontic poetry. We can only fully understand these two poems (and any others) if their broad literary background is considered.
As for the second direction of in which the topic of the volume is interpreted, as Tim Whitmarsh put it some time ago,[1]”poetry gives us a very different point of entry into the world of the Greeks under the Empire”. In other words, discussions of the long imperial era that fail to incorporate poems as evidence miss a fundamental piece of the puzzle. This volume makes a particularly strong case about poetry as illustration of the socio-cultural uses of encomia and science.
The codified panegyric to the emperor was “an integral part of how Roman government functioned”.[2] De facto, every encomium was a means of mass communication in which the writer acted as a publicist for the laudandus (or, less frequently, the laudanda) and mediator between him and the attending audience (and secondarily the readers). Several papers explore the underlining codes of a number of poetic texts.
The role of social mediation and communication is particularly visible in Cristiano Minuto’s analysis of the encomia of emperor Justinian (AP 1.91, 98; APl 62-63; AP 7.592, Julian the Egyptian; AP 4.3b.31-51, Agathias): Justinian is a numinous being in military dress who kills Persian and Scythian enemies (hence he is the pacifier of the world), shows mercy to his subjects, and is God’s representative on earth. These encomia built a consensus on what an emperor was supposed to be like and why Justinian fit the bill. Riccardo Biagiucci and Morgane Cariou find similar themes displayed in the construction of Justinian in Paul the Silentiary’s Descriptio Sanctae Sophiae and Oppian’s Halieutica, the former emphasising the Pindaric underpinnings of the narrative and the latter the didactic ones. If encomia were central to the creation of the institutional image of the emperor and the space where the emperor sold his wares to his subdits and the communities presented their priorities to him, poetic encomia cannot be left out of the discussion.
Also on the Christian side, Óscar Prieto Domínguez analyses Gregory of Nazianzus’ epigrams on his mother Nonna (AP 8.24-74) as a poetic hagiography with the same narrative progression and functional objectives as prose hagiographies, as a representation of ascesis, for possible use as a liturgical litany (similar to those for well-established saints). As an innovative encomiastic form, this series reveals the formal plasticity of the encomium to serve as a means of communication, in this case between Gregory and (the memory of) his mother, but also between those who could come to see her as a saint and Nonna herself.
Finally Lucia Floridi’s paper on early imperial scoptic epigrams (specifically AP 11.129, 274, 418) is a sobering reminder that poetic encomia not only did not exist in a vacuum as psogoi in different poetic forms abounded, but encomia and psogoi made use of similiar resources, such as the deforming lense of hyperbole. Criticism could in fact be hidden everywhere, as noted by Athanassios Vergados who suggests that the recasting of Dionysiac themes in Ps.-Oppian’s Cynegetica (2.612-628; 4.230-319, Pentheus’ opposition to Dionysus and the Bacchants and subsequent demise) could have been a form of veiled criticism of Caracalla, who, like his brother Geta, had Dionysus as his tutelary deity.
As for science, several papers suggest that if we are to understand how imperial and late antique societies made daily use of scientific knowledge we are to look beyond our modern notions. To start with, astrology was “the go-to source for quotidian reality and pressing day-to-day concerns” (p. 248), and is the topic of Jane Lightfoot’s essay demonstrating how Dorotheus was capable of communicating his factual, precise and dense information with the careful artistry required for first-class scientific communication. Three papers discuss the intersections of the medical sciences. Alessia Guardasole reedits and analyses the poetic remedy attributed to Philon of Tharsus by Galen (Comp. Med. (Sec.) Loc. 9.14), effectively proving that the Galenic corpus contemplated the use of poetry. Myriam Diarra reads Lucian’s parodic tragedy Podagra as a dual appeal to the medical (poetic) Muse and Galenic writings on the gout. The Podagra is linked to prose medical writings not only in their shared factual information but also in the trend of spectacularisation of medical discourse. Anaelle Broseta suggests that the ritual of ophiophagy associated to the obsidian in [Orph.] Lith. 699-747 is to be compared to pharmacological notices on the great theriac (an antidote against poisons), bringing together magic and pharmacology to the point that they clarify each other.
To conclude, as Lightfoot (p. 275) puts it: “Poetry is apt for information. That was what the Muses were figures for in the first place”.
Authors and Titles
I. Les sociétés impériale et tardo-antique au miroir des poètes
La paideia du poète et de son auditoire
Morgane Cariou, Nicola Zito, “Préface”
Gianfranco Agosti, “Dalla torre d’avorio alla terra. Poesia e società in età tardoantica”
Lucia Floridi, “L’épigramme scoptique”
Athanassios Vergados, “Tales about Gods and Heroes in Pseudo-Oppian Cynegetica 2,612-628 and 4,230-319″
Orestis Karavas, “Have you done your homework? Required reading for Colluthus’ audience”
Jean-Luc Fournet, “À quoi peut servir la poésie à un villageaois de la fin de l’Antiquité?”
Perceptions poétiques du corps et de l’espace
Tim Whitmarsh, “The anti-black theme in Nonnus’ Dionysiaca”
Emily Kneebone, “The politics of place in Colluthus’ Abduction of Helen”
Le poète et l’empereur
Morgane Cariou, “Le poète et l’empereur dans les Halieutiques d’Oppien de Cilicie”
Cristiano Minuto, “Costruire il consenso nel mondo tardoantico: l’encomio di Giustiniano negli epigrammi dell’Anthologia Graeca”
Riccardo Biagiucci, “Giustiniano come un Eaco cristiano. L’epinicio pindarico rovesicato di Paolo Silenziario”
Delphine Lauritzen, “Une double célébration pour Anastase Ier: L’Ekphrasis de Jean de Gaza et le Panégyrique de Procope de Gaza”
Alice Cosme-Thomas, “L’écriture de célébration de Georges de Pisidie et ses enjeux dans l’In Bonum patricium”
II. Astrologie, médecine et magie
Dans la poésie du Haut-Empire
Jane Lightfoot, “‘A poem in leaden hexameters’: On rehabilitating Dorotheus’ Carmen Astrologicum”
Alessia Guardasole, “Du crocus sur la balance: Le remède de Philon dans les mésaventures de la tradition manuscrite”
Myriam Diarra, “La Podagra de Lucien: Une paratragédie existentielle aux échos galéniques?”
Dans le cercle de l’empereur Julien
Nicola Zito, “Ne fortissimi uiri soboles appareret. Aborti spontanei e procurati nel Περὶ καταρχῶν di Massimo”
Anaelle Broseta, “Une thériaque orphique. Médecine, rite et divination à l’époque de Julien”
III. Poésie, christianisme et hellénisme
Les Pères de l’Église et la poésie
Sébastien Morlet, “L’utilisation doctrinale de la poésie dans l’apologétique chrétienne des premiers siècles”
Óscar Prieto Domínguez, “Greek Late Antique Poetry and the Origins of Hagiography”
La poésie tardive au carrefour des cultures religieuses et philosophiques
Dimitar Iliev, “The Murderer’s dream: AG IX.378 and its cultic context”
Helmut Seng, “Abstieg und Aufstieg in den Hymnen des Synesios”
Emanuele Zimbardi, “Meter, Language, and Rhetoric in the Isosyllabic Logoi of the Greek Ephrem’s Corpus: Analysis and Comparison with Late antique Greek and Syriac Literary Production”
Notes
[1] T. Whitmarsh (2013), Beyond the Second Sophistic: Adventures in Greek Postclassicism, Berkeley, 6, with development in chapters 9 and 10.
[2] M. Marcos (2023), Emperors and rhetoricians: panegyric, communication, and power, Oakland, 5.