“Lemnos deeds” in the Byzantine literature: Two examples

Abstract

Herodotus speaks about an event from the ancient history that took place on Lemnos in the 7th century B.C. (VI, 137-138). It is when the Pelasgians killed the Athenian women, whom they had kidnapped beforehand and brought to the island, together with their children. The father of the history inaugurated the term ?Lemnos deeds? which was later also used by the tragedy playwright Aeschylus. This term, with its extremely negative connotation, continued to be used in the Byzantine period. The work makes reference to two examples from the late Byzantine literature. The first relates to the famous historian Nikephoros Gregoras and his voluminous ?Roman History? written in mid 14th century, and the second one to Mazaris, author of the satirical text about the voyage to the underworld, written at the beginning of the 15th century. Both Byzantine authors used this phrase in the most appropriate manner, which had also found its place with every reason in the collections of ancient Greek proverbs.