Byzantine Greek Research Articles

The King’s Mellifluous Tongue Study, Social Bonding, and the Making of Middle Armenian as a Language of the Elite in Medieval Cilicia

This article on social history examines the study of Middle Armenian manuscripts at the Cilician court, placing the language’s development within a Mediterranean context that includes Outremer French and Byzantine Greek. In particular, it argues that King Het‘um I (d. 1270) bolstered his status as educated king through the commission of two works from theologian Vardan Arewelc‘i (d. 1271): an encyclopedic compendium and commentary on grammar, which aided vernacular study in different ways. By balancing the microhistory of these manuscripts against the macro-history of Cilician Middle Armenian’s configuration in writing, this article shows how vernacular Armenian became an object of elite study, seemingly capable of representing all the knowledge in the world.

Learning Middle Armenian at the Court of Meḥmed II

Shortly after the conquest of Constantinople, the Ottoman court of Meḥmed II (r. 1444–46, 1451–81) began to produce language-learning primers that would teach significant languages of statecraft and knowledge production from around the Mediterranean world. This article sheds light on the court’s pedagogical and ideological engagement with multilingualism through one primer in particular, which bears the shelf mark Ahmet III 2698 in the Topkapı Palace Museum Library. We name this primer Meḥmed II’s Hexaglot Grammar, as it was produced for his court and contains an array of languages within it: Persian, Ottoman Turkish, Ancient Greek, Byzantine Greek, Latin, and, finally, the vernacular tongue of Middle Armenian. The presence of many of these languages may seem more readily apparent, but what was Middle Armenian doing at the Ottoman court? As we show, Middle Armenian had a presence at court in more ways than one. Alongside the Hexaglot Grammar, the court also produced an extensive primer for learning the Armenian alphabet (MS Ayasofya 4767, Süleymaniye Library). So, too, did producers of knowledge in Middle Armenian find a home at court, such as Amirdovlat‘ Amasiac‘i, a physician whose extensive corpus of pharmacopeia in Middle Armenian likely made use of the palace library. By exploring the circulation of diverse manuscripts, translators, and intellectuals in Constantinople alongside primers such as the Hexaglot Grammar, this article offers a portrait of the Ottoman court never before seen: a place where the premodern Armenian vernacular not only survived, but, for a time, even thrived.

The Lord’s Prayer in Matthew 6:9–13: Reconstructing based on Byzantine text

Prayer holds a profound significance in a believer’s life, with Lord Jesus teaching specific teachings to his disciples on the subject. It serves as a communication tool bridging the connection between God and humanity, constituting a dialogue rather than solely a platform for pleas or requests. This research delved into the specific text of prayer, focusing on Matthew 6:9–13, commonly known as ‘The Lord’s Prayer’. While many Christians interpret it as a ‘prayer of supplication’, the study questioned whether it truly falls into that category and explored potential contradictions.Utilising a qualitative approach with a pure exegesis study, the author employed hermeneutics based on John D. Grassmick’s steps of exegesis analysis. The examination was centred on the Byzantine Greek Bible text in the Gospel of Matthew 6:14–15. The aim was to grasp the essence of the message within the studied texts, emphasising Lord Jesus’ teachings. Results highlighted the significance of understanding the Lord’s Prayer as taught by Jesus in Matthew 6:9–13. The author emphasised the importance for Christians in Indonesia to comprehend the meaning of this prayer.Contribution: This reconstruction of Matthew’s understanding of the Lord’s Prayer using the Byzantine text anticipated contributions to HTS Theological Studies. The Our Father’s Prayer, a blessing to churches and Christians for over 2000 years, was explored for its proper grammatical translation and the profound contents taught by Jesus. This study aimed to assist Christians in understanding and applying the prayer in their lives, aligning with the true faith and fostering spiritual growth as intended by Lord Jesus.

A Biblical Study of “Forgiveness” in Matthew 6:14-15 and its Implications for Christians

Sin which is a violation of God's law, makes humans stray away from God and causes damage to the relationship between them and God. Humans can't get back in touch with God unless they have received forgiveness from God. The purpose of this paper is to ascertain the meaning of forgiveness as it is expressed in the Gospel of Matthew 6:14-15, through a biblical study based on the Byzantine Greek text of the Bible. The approaches taken were an exegesis and a descriptive literature methodology approach. The result obtained in this limited study is that the meaning of forgiveness in the Gospel of Matthew 6:14-15 is that there is a connection between the first clause and the second clause used which is a conditional sentence along with its negation. Based on the grammatical and lexical structure of Matthew 6:14 the second clause is an apodosis of the first clause, where the second clause is the answer to the first clause which is the prosthesis. So the sentence apodosis will apply if the prosthesis is fulfilled, as well as in the next paragraph which is the sentence negation. When the prosthesis in Matthew 6:15 is not performed, then the apodosis in Matthew 6:14 becomes invalid. Also, Matthew 6:14-15 cannot be separated from Matthew 6:12, where the translation of this verse grammatically states that God has forgiven humans first, and this is the basis for Matthew 6:14-15. This was emphasized by the Lord Jesus in Matthew 18:35. Christians in Indonesia should understand the meaning of forgiveness that the Lord Jesus taught, so that after a person has repented and become a Christian, he or she remains in Christ and keeps their life holy and forgive others, as a form of response to God, for the forgiveness that the Lord Jesus has given to them. Thus there must be repentance including a change of heart about one's actions or one's whole life. Atonement is needed as well which is making reparation after one has committed an offense.

НЕУСТАЛЕНІСТЬ ЛЕКСИКО-ГРАМАТИЧНОЇ СИСТЕМИ РАННЬОВІЗАНТІЙСЬКОЇ ГРЕЦЬКОЇ МОВИ: ПРОЦЕСИ ТА ПРИЧИНИ

Вackground. The article examines the peculiarities of the early Byzantine Greek language at the main levels of the language structure: phonetic, grammatical and lexical. Methods. Descriptive, comparative, lexico-grammatical and linguistic-historical analysis. Results. The phenomena of simplification, unification, mixing of generic features and interpenetration of paradigms in the name system are analyzed. In the verb system, the process of mixing perfect and aorist forms in the lexical-semantic and grammatical-morphological plan, the irregularity of the future tense system, significant fluctuations in the use of periphrastic constructions with future and perfect meaning, the spread of analytical form formation, the formation of lexical-grammatical verbalization of the species category can be traced. In the participle system, there is a mixing of gender and case forms, a loss of relative-temporal functional distinction; active participles acquire the functions of the gerund. In the system of syntax, the prepositional use of cases is narrowed, and as a result of morphological changes affecting the subjunctive and optative paradigms, the usual rules of hypotaxis change. It is noted that during this period, two directions of the development of the Greek language developed and were clearly defined: the literary one, with the preservation of Atticistic tendencies, and the non-literary one, which sought to further develop the vernacular language. Linguistic, social, historical and cultural causes of language phenomena of the early Byzantine era are noted. The lexicon of the first centuries of Byzantium was influenced by word-formation models of the Latin language, and later New European and Eastern ones, and consistently used ancient Greek composites, however, often violating the usual models of composite word formation of the classical period. Conclusions. The processes of the development of the Greek language of the early Byzantine era are described, a tendency to significant morphonological, lexicо-grammatical and functional-semantic changes in the noun and verb system, which are characterized by considerable instability, is observed.

Dynamic Divinity in Flux: Tracing Nikos Kazantzakis's Convergence of Greek Theology and Evolutionary Philosophy

This study embarks on an analytical journey through the theological perspectives of Nikos Kazantzakis, underpinned by the concept of God's mutability and its roots in ancient and Byzantine Greek theology. Focusing on Kazantzakis's pivotal works such as "The Last Temptation of Christ" and "Report to Greco," the research employs a literary and historical approach to unravel the synthesis of Christian Orthodoxy, neo-Platonic philosophy, and modern evolutionary thought. The influence of Alfred North Whitehead's process theology and Henri Bergson's evolutionary vitalism on Kazantzakis's conception of a dynamic, evolving God is explored, challenging traditional doctrines of divine immutability. The study also delves into Platonic thought's impact on Kazantzakis, examining the dialectic of being and becoming, and the reinterpretation of classical concepts like stasis and kinesis in a Christian theological context. Additionally, it scrutinizes the compatibility of Kazantzakis’s views with Orthodox Christian theology, particularly in the light of contributions from figures such as Origen and the Cappadocian Fathers. The findings reveal a complex interplay between Greek philosophical heritage and Christian theology in Kazantzakis's work, offering a unique perspective on the nature of God and the compatibility of faith with evolving scientific understanding. This research contributes to the ongoing dialogue between religion and philosophy, highlighting the relevance of ancient wisdom in contemporary theological discourse and underscoring the transformative potential of theological thought in the modern era.

Borrowings from the Old Slavic Digenis Akritis in the Muscovite Buovo d’Antona (Bova Korolevich)

Abstract The Byzantine Greek “romantic epic” Digenis Akritis and the Venetian romance Buovo d’Antona, translated into different Slavic languages under different circumstances and traversing Slavic space by different routes, reached Muscovy in the sixteenth century – each undergoing significant editing there and ultimately becoming textually entangled. It has not been noticed before that the editor of a Muscovite redaction of Buovo borrowed a number of passages from an early redaction of the “formulaically styled” Slavic Digenis. The encounter of Buovo with Digenis may help explain the former work’s subsequent popularity in Russia, as it transformed the courtly hero Buovo d’Antona into the Russian folk hero Bova Korolevich. It also helps sketch a context for the direct ancestor of the most important extant manuscript of the Slavic Digenis.

Акцентуация византийских греческих надписей на металлических предметах из разных коллекций

Introduction. Analysis of sphragistic material in comparison with inscriptions from Italy made on metal showed that in inscriptions of this kind, in addition to the previously known Byzantine, Alexandrian and logical accentuation systems, systems with accent shifts to the right or left were actively used. Methodology. Inscriptions on metal objects were examined on the basis of photographs presented in different editions of the same monument. Material. The article presents the result of an analysis of the use of accentuation marks in 22 Byzantine Greek inscriptions on metal objects of the 9th – 14th centuries, most of which were written in dodecasyllables. Analysis. Inscriptions on metal reliquaries, icon frames, crosses, as well as inscriptions on enamels and encolpions made using various metalworking techniques were analyzed. The elements of Greek accentuation systems presented in them and the directions of stress shifts are described. Results. All presented inscriptions can be divided into two groups: 1) the Byzantine accentuation system with shifts of stress to the right or left with the latter falling between a vowel and a consonant, which can be considered a paleographic feature, as well as the use of trema in cases not determined by phonetic aspects; 2) elements of the Alexandrian system: stress on the unstressed syllable, stress on the first part of the diphthong. In both groups, logical stress could also be placed, including on abbreviations.

On the Name of an Obscure Musical Instrument: What was the Kabithakanthion?

Abstract There is uncertainty about the form and meaning of the word καβιθακάνθιον, the name of a type of aulos instrument mentioned in a Byzantine Greek alchemical treatise. The problem can be resolved if the word is interpreted as a hybrid bilingual compound of Late Latin cauitas (‘hollow’) and Greek ἀκάνθιον (‘little thorn’), meaning ‘hollow little thorn’. Aulos instruments were thought to be ‘hollow’ owing to the internal cavity through which the performer blows in order to produce sound; and ‘little thorn’ may refer to the shape and size of the instrument, being a small slender pipe.

An Ongoing Supplement to Traditional Dictionaries: WiP – Words in Progress and the Contribution of Greek Documentary Papyrology

Abstract Greek lexicography is in a state of constant evolution thanks to progress in philological studies and, in a special way, to the contribution offered by papyri, which frequently provides us with new words or new meanings of already known words. In this regard, the online, freely consultable database WiP – Words in Progress. Supplementary Lexicon of Ancient Greek aims to collect new or rare words and detail corrections and additions in order to record recent progress in the updating and expansion of Ancient and Byzantine Greek. This contribution aims to describe how the database works, and what advantages it offers compared to traditional dictionaries, with a particular focus on the contribution that Greek documentary papyri offer to Greek lexicography.

Negotiating Foreign Influence in Fascist Italy: Nicola Festa on Greek Learning in Renaissance Humanism

ABSTRACT This article explores how the classical scholar Nicola Festa (1866–1940) outlined a fascisticized account of Renaissance humanism in a series of lectures later published as his Umanesimo (1935). It specifically examines Festa’s treatment of the role of Byzantine Greek scholars in Italian humanism. Fascism’s preoccupation with romanità and italianità implied a cultural anxiety over indebtedness to cultures regarded as foreign, un-Roman, and un-Italian. Greek language and culture posed a specific challenge as they had traditionally been regarded as both foreign and familiar to Italy’s national culture. This paper analyzes Festa’s response to this friction in his discussion of the Greek presence in Italian humanism, demonstrating how he dissociated the ‘Romans’ of Byzantium from the ‘true’ Italian representatives of humanism. The case study sheds some light on the understudied ways in which non-Italian influences could be negotiated in fascisticized accounts of Italian culture.

Le rôle des Hongrois dans la Chronique de Morée •

AbstractThe study examines the role and perception of Hungarians in the Chronicle of Morea (Τὸ Χρονικὸν τοῦ Μορέως). It presents the passages in which the Chronicle mentions the Hungarian people or the Kingdom of Hungary, and compares them with passages in other contemporary literary and historical works in Old French and Byzantine Greek that also mention Hungarians. It seeks to answer the question why the Chronicle, which tells the history of the hostile crusader states, speaks of the Hungarians, who were generally close to Byzantium and helped the successor states of the Byzantine Empire, in a more laudatory tone and in more praiseworthy terms than other contemporary sources closer to the Hungarians. The study also examines the role of the descendants of Béla III, the Saint-Omer brothers, and the literary role of Sir Nicolas II de Saint-Omer. Finally, it analyses the Chronicle's excerpt of the succession dispute of Akova, which is closely linked to the descendants of Béla III.

Bemerkungen über mittelbulgarische Inschriften in griechischen Handschriften: Die Inschrift von Dobryna im Codex Vat.gr. 353 (Lektionar der Evangelien)

The present paper offers a fresh insight into the decipherment, the meaning, and the linguistic features of a Middle Bulgarian inscription, which has todate mostly eluded the attention of scholars. It is to be found on folio 37v of the Greek Manuscript Vat. gr. 353, a Lectionary of the Gospels in liturgical majuscule script that can be dated on paleographic grounds to the mid 10th century. The author rejects Dujčev’s 1966 interpretation by offering a completely different reading of some crucial parts of the text and a new commented edition. Far from being a contract between a widow in financial difficulties and an anonymous priest, to whom she would have allegedly given her son in exchange for a field as well as for material goods (fabrics and food), the inscription would instead be a transfer deed (barter agreement) between a father, Dobryna, and his son, the priest Aspion. The study furthermore offers a series of grammatical and lexical remarks on the text, focusing in particular on the use of loanwords from Greek, that are shown to be the consequence of language contact between Byzantine Greek and Middle Bulgarian in the Balkans. The linguistic and paleographic features of the inscription, as well as its comparison with a number of Middle Bulgarian documents (“gramoti”), enable us to date it to a period no later than the first half of the 13th century and to consider it to be of West Bulgarian origin.

О некоторых процессах при формировании лексического фонда первого литературного языка славян: несколькословные номинации, фразеологические кальки, фразеологизмы

Old Church Slavonic language emerged in a narrow elite circle of bookmen. It is a literary language of the medieval type, and this fact in many respects determines the peculiarities of its lexical inventory. The lexical fund of the language consists not only of words but also of multi-word names, which are lexical units-designations. The method of nomination by multi-word names was not alien to the Slavic folk speech of the time, however, most of the Old Church Slavonic multi-word names were created by Slavic bookmen themselves in the translation process (mainly from Byzantine Greek). The appearance of quite a large number of phraseological calques with multi-word names in the Old Church Slavonic lexicon is due to the need of nominating concepts related to the adoption of Christianity and “medieval encyclopedism”. The repeated use by bookmen of phraseological calque in different translated works led to the phraseologization of this phraseological calque. The author assumes that the main and defining property of phraseologisms is the possibility of extracting them entirely by a native speaker from his memory (in the case of the Old Church Slavonic language, mainly by a bookman). Thus, Old Church Slavonic phraseologisms are the results of processes that could take place in the language both over the centuries and in the period of the first Slavic translations but from a synchronous point of view, these results are already built into the lexical system, ready for use by a bookman. This is the fundamental difference between “phraseological calque” and “phraseologism”.

Old Church Slavonic Multi-Word Nominations versus Compounds

The article is devoted to the study of the lexical inventory of the Old Church Slavonic language. The author proceeds from the idea of the lexical fund of the language as consisting not only of words but also phrases. The lexical inventory of the Old Church Slavonic language was created by the elite circle of literati in the process of translation (mainly from Byzantine Greek). Although the Old Church Slavonic language was based on the folk Slavic speech of the time, most of the Old Church Slavonic compounds and multi-word names were created by Slavic bookmen themselves. Many of these names appeared in the Old Church Slavonic lexicon due to the need to nominate concepts related to Christianity and “medieval encyclopedism”. The basis for the formation of these new names was the morphemic and phraseological calquing of Greek counterparts, which interacted with the mechanisms of nomination in the Slavic folk speech. The article demonstrates that the Old Church Slavonic nominations with multi-word names and compounds reveal “spheres of intersection”. As the author believes, these “spheres of intersection” were caused by the main and most difficult task that Slavic bookmen solved in translating both Greek compounds (or derivatives from compounds) and Greek multi-word names – the transfer of semantics of significant roots. Even within the epoch of the existence of the Old Church Slavonic language proper (i. e. 9th–11th centuries), there are variants of the translation of the same Greek compounds by both Old Church Slavonic multi-word names and Old Church Slavonic compounds. The occasionalisms that arose in the process of word-creation of bookmen in the form of compounds and multi-word names could subsequently be fixed in the usus of the language, but they could also remain hapax both within a certain text and within the entire corpus of Old Church Slavonic texts, which is not completely closed and has been studied extremely insufficiently.

Old Church Slavonic Phraseological Calques in the Aspect of their Further Phraseologization

The article is devoted to the study of phraseological calquing in the Old Church Slavonic language. Phraseological calques of nominal phrases, which were formed by Slavic bookmen in the process of translations (mainly from Byzantine Greek), are considered part of the Old Church Slavonic lexical inventory in the aspect of their further phraseologization.The author proceeds from the idea of the lexical fund of the language as consisting not only of words but also ofmulti-wordnames, which are lexical units-designations. A large number of multi-word names-phraseological calques joined the Old Church Slavonic lexicon due to the need to transfer concepts related to Christianity, although there are also phraseological calques related to thestratumof ordinary vocabulary. Part of the phraseological calques could “take root” in the lexicon and become phraseological units.The author considers the possibility of extracting phrases entirely from memory by a native speaker (in the case of the Old Church Slavonic language, mainly by a bookman) as the main and defining property of phraseological units. Phraseologisation of phraseological calques occurred not only over time in the Church Slavonic receptions, but already in theperiodof the formation of the Old Church Slavonic language proper in the second half of the 9th – 10th centuries. The author demonstrates examples of variation of phraseological calques in this period. The further use of phraseological calque without the support of the Greek construction testifies to its phraseologization.

New Books across the Disciplines

New Books across the Disciplines

Love is Blind! in Byzantium The Blind Cupid Figure in Byzantine Art Through The Middle Ages

Antik dönem sanatında çok sevilen Eros, yetişkin rollerini oynayan tombul oğlanlar veya kanatlı/kanatsız putti imgeler şeklinde, circus konulu tasvirlerde, dövüş, her türden av ve kovalamaca sahnelerinde, sarkofaj konteksinde cenaze sanatında, sıkıcı tarımsal faaliyetleri neşeli ve heyecan uyandıran aktivitelere dönüştüren yaramaz çocuklar olarak tasvir edilmişlerdir. Bu uygulamaların Bizans sanatında devam ettiği görülür. Kimi zaman bağ bozumu sahnelerinde, euchariste (ökariste) bağlamında ya da öteki dünya ile ilişkilendirilerek cennete giden yolda görev alarak kristolojik sembolizm dâhilinde kullanılmışlardır. Erken Hristiyanlık dönemi katakomp resimlerinden Ortaçağın sonuna kadarki çeşitli Bizans eserlerinde yer alan Cupid figürünün ikonografisi iki kavramı barındırır: Tanrı aşkı ve dünyevi aşk. Etimolojisi ile bir Hıristiyan adaptasyonu olarak karşımıza çıkar zira sevgi/aşk anlamına gelen eros kelimesinin -dini ya da profan kavramsal bir yer edinmesi küçük aşk tanrısını ikiye bölmemiş zaten geçmişte de aşkın her türlü yüzünü temsil etmesi ile kişilere yabancı bir figür değildir. Hıristiyan metinlere nüfuz eden Θείος Έρως (İlahi Eros) kavramını Tanrı ile insan arasındaki sevgiyi anlatmanın bir yöntemi olarak kullanır; öte yandan manastır pratikleri figüre simgesel yaklaşım göstermiş, zengin dini metin ve figüratif içeriği ile dini sanatta sıradışı uygulamalar ortaya koymuştur; seküler edebiyatta ise başlıca konusu aşk olan destan ve romanslar incelendiğinde ulaşılan belirgin özelliklere sahip bir eros tarifine rastlanmış, bu tarifin ortaya konan sanatsal üretimler ile örtüştüğü görülür. Bizans sanatının farklı dönemlerine tarihlenen metal, fildişi, mozaik, dokuma, elyazma resmi ya da fresko gibi farklı ürün gruplarına ait örneklere yansıyan tasvirler figürün kavramsal boyutlarını yansıtır. Ancak Aşk Tanrısı Cupid -ya da diğer isimleriyle Eros veya Amor- Helenistik ve Roma sanatında hiç kör temsil edilmemesine karşın, Bizans Sanatında sıra dışı bir körlük örneği gösterir. Bu araştırma yazısı, çok-tanrılı geçmişin hatırasını taşıyan bir figürün ağır başlı Bizans kültür ortamında, dinin tüm ağırlığına rağmen anlamını devam ettirmesi sürecinde üstlendiği kavramlar uyarınca ortaya konan sanatsal temsillerinin ikonografisi üzerine bir çalışmadır.

Системы акцентуации византийских моливдовулов XIII–XV вв. из коллекции Dumbarton Oaks

Introduction. Our study of Byzantine accentuated objects (inscriptions, manuscripts, papyri, and seals) revealed that, besides the Byzantine accentuation system, there are also Alexandrian, Doric, “Logical”, two systems with an accent shift to the right or left and various combinations of all these systems. Methods. In addition to the descriptions and transcripts of the seals presented on the Dumbarton Oaks website, we explored in detail the photographs. In some cases, we found in the images the accentuation signs, which were allowed by the editors. Materials. The analysis of the accentuation signs usage in 381 Byzantine Greek seals of the 13th – 15th centuries from the collection of Dumbarton Oaks is presented in this article. Analysis. We described consistently which elements of the various Greek accentuation systems were used in the seals of each allocated time group. Nearly in all described groups, the Alexandrine system elements are observed, such as a shift of the accent signs to the left, and the accent in the first part of the diphthong. Semantic stress, including the accent marks on the abbreviations, and the Byzantine accentuation system were also used. Results. There are only 18 accentuated seals out of 381. Except for the mentioned Alexandrian, Byzantine, and Logic systems, some seals use a separate accentuation system with an accent shift to the right, widely represented in the seals of the 11th – 12th centuries from the Dumbarton Oaks collection. The analysis of the seal owners’ characteristics revealed that the accentuation on the seals is one of the indicators, that its owner had high status. In some cases, the accentuation signs serve to indicate the poetic size.

Varieties of Post-classical and Byzantine Greek ed. by Klaas Bentein and Mark Janse

Varieties of Post-classical and Byzantine Greek ed. by Klaas Bentein and Mark Janse