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John Tzetzes | |
|---|---|
| Ιωάννης Τζέτζης | |
 | |
| Born | c. 1100 |
| Died | 1180 |
| Citizenship | Byzantine Empire |
| Occupations | poet,scholar |
John Tzetzes (Greek:Ἰωάννης Τζέτζης,romanized: Iōánnēs Tzétzēs;[a]c. 1110,Constantinople – 1180, Constantinople) was aByzantinepoet andgrammarian who lived atConstantinople in the 12th century. He is known for making significant contributions in preserving much valuable information fromancient Greek literature and scholarship. Of his numerous works, the most important one is theBook of Histories, also known asChiliades ('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 theAllegoriai on theIliad and theOdyssey, which are longdidactic poems containing interpretations ofHomeric theology.[1]
Tzetzes described himself as pureGreek on his father's side and partIberian (Georgian) on his mother's side.[2] In his works, Tzetzes states that his grandmother was a relative of the GeorgianBagratid princessMaria of Alania who came to Constantinople with her and later became the second wife of thesebastosConstantine Keroularios,megas droungarios and nephew ofthe patriarchMichael Keroularios.[3]
He worked as a secretary to a provincial governor for a time and later began to earn a living by teaching and writing.[1] He was described as vain, seems to have resented any attempt at rivalry, and violently attacked his fellow grammarians. Owing to a lack of written material, he was obliged to trust to his memory; therefore caution has to be exercised in reading his work.[citation needed] However, he was learned, and made a great contribution to the furtherance of the study ofancient Greek literature.
Tzetzes published a collection of 107 of hisLetters addressed partly to fictitious/unidentified personages, and partly to influential men and women of the writer's time. They contain a considerable amount of social and biographical information, and are full of learned allusions to history, rhetoric, and mythology.
These letters became the springboard for what became during the Renaissance perhaps the most influential of his many works, theBook of Histories, usually calledChiliades ("thousands") from the arbitrary division by its first editor (N. Gerbel, 1546) into books each containing 1,000 lines. The work consists of 12,674 lines ofpolitical verse, divided into 660 topics, each of which is a gloss on a literary, historical, or other learned reference in one of his published letters. The first 141 histories serve as poetic footnotes to a verse letter Tzetzes addressed to John Lachanas, an official in Constantinople.[4]
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.[5] 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).[6]
Tzetzes supplementedHomer'sIliad by a work that begins with the birth ofParis and continues the tale to the Achaeans' return home.
TheHomeric Allegories, in "political" verse and dedicated initially to the German-bornempress Irene and then to Constantine Cotertzes,[6] are two didactic poems, the first based on theIliad and the second based on theOdyssey, in which Homer and the Homeric theology are set forth and then explained by means of three kinds ofallegory:euhemeristic (πρακτική),anagogic (ψυχική) andphysic (στοιχειακή). These works were translated into English in 2015 and 2019 by Adam J. Goldwyn and Dimitra Kokkini.[7][8]
In theAntehomerica, Tzetzes recalls the events taking place before Homer'sIliad. This work was followed by theHomerica, covering the events of theIliad, and thePosthomerica, reporting the events taking place between theIliad and theOdyssey. 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 obscureCassandra orAlexandra of the Hellenistic poetLycophron, usually called "On Lycophron" (edited byK.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 iniambic 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 emperorManuel 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 seeJ. A. Fabricius,Bibliotheca graeca (ed.Harles), xi.228, andKarl Krumbacher,Geschichte der byz. Litt. (2nd edition, 1897); monograph by G. Hart, "De Tzetzarum nomine, vitis, scriptis," inJahn'sJahrbucher für classische Philologie. Supplementband xii (Leipzig, 1881).[6]
In the twelfth century, John Tzetzes writes to a member of the imperial family: "I descend from the most noble of Iberians in my mother's family; from my father I am a pure Greek."
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Tzetzes, John".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 27 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 552.