Database of Byzantine Book Epigrams

• Reader-related epigram
• Scribe-related epigram
• Text-related epigram

Poet

John Tzetzes (12th c.) - PBW: Ioannes/459/

• Grammar
• Herodotus of Halikarnassos < Caria < Asia Minor < Turkey (485 BC - 425 BC)
• Homer (8th c. BC)
• John Tzetzes (12th c.) - PBW: Ioannes/459/
• Thucydides (5th c. BC)

• Address to the reader
• Complaint
• Correction
• Polemic
• Reference to content of the book
• Scholium
• Self-presentation

• Someone has corrected it here to an epsilon, as you see,
  making it necessary to change the θαρσοῦντες also
  to say θαρσοῦντας, as Tzetzes, laughing, says.
  But in no way, my friend, in no way at all should you alter it.
  For that is the Attic manner of speaking,
  namely to write θαρσοῦντες ἰέναι instead of ἴτε.
  To edit, according to technical criteria, the works
  of this puppy [Thuc.] and of the ancient and modern writers
  is the gift of Tzetzes alone, that “most ignorant one.”
  But the gang of “wise” men with their vulgar, mixed up way of life,
  out-and-out slanders him [Tzetzes], though he is backed
  into a corner at the Stoa and the Dome [schools],
  because he does not at all run along with them;
  he claims that it is necessary to edit in a technical way
  both the works of prose and those in verse,
  and never to compromise any of the rules of our art.
  For the arts are our sources for a better sort of life.
  Whoever wants to cancel out the precepts of the arts
  introduces a whole heap of dung into our life,
  and such a man comes from a pig sty, from primitive barbarians.
  There is a swarm of such people who correct books,
  like the one who corrected the book by Herodotos
  written about the ancestry of Homer,
  converting everything in it that was Ionic
  into whatever he thought best, he who was born so wise!
  For if anywhere it wrote ἐπ᾽ ἠμισείας,
  and later on ἀπικνεῖται, and the like,
  he would wisely change it to a φ to correct the book.
  He would erase many other such things, in his ignorance,
  here and there making everything all correct and proper.

  Language

  English

  Source(s)

  A. Kaldellis, 2015, Byzantine Readings of Ancient Historians, Abingdon and New York: 72

• Translation of vv. 7-25:
  To judge the historical works of this puppy and those of the former and present historians in a professional way is only the task of the dull Tzetzes, whom the filth and the raffle of life, the custody of the wise criticize constantly when he hides himself in a corner of the Stoa and below the Rotunda, because he never runs with them and because he emphasizes that one should write both prose and verse with competence and one should never let anything contaminate the professional principles, because the source of a true life is competence. And whoever wants to abolish the rules of the profession, he throws his own life onto to a dunghill as one who originates from beastly and dull barbarians. Such flock corrects the books which had even corrected Herodotus’ work on Homer’s origin, transforming all the characteristics of the Ionic prose as it pleased him, the true-born wise.

  Language

  English

  Source(s)

  T. Mészáros 2013, Byzantine Metrical Scholia on Thucydides, in P. Fodor, G. Mayer, M. Monostori, K. Szovák, L. Takács (eds.), More modoque: die Wurzeln der europäischen Kultur und deren Rezeption im Orient und Okzident; Festschrift für Miklós Maróth zum siebzigsten Geburtstag, Budapest, 67-76: 75

• Qualcuno ha corretto con un epsilon, lo vedi proprio qui: bisognava allora anche dire θαρσοῦντας, invece di questo θαρσοῦντες qui, come dice Tzetzes ridendo di gusto. Perciò, o lettore, in nessun caso assolutamente non correggere il testo (lett.: non cancellare, scil. l' αι di προφέρεται): così suole infatti scrivere chi parla alla maniera attica, θαρσοῦντες ἰέναι invece di ἴτε. Giudicare secondo le norme della techne gli scritti di questo cucciolo qui (i.e. Tucidide) e degli antichi e dei moderni, è dote esclusiva di Tzetzes, il superignorante. Nonostante se ne stia rincantucciato in un angolo nel Portico o sotto la Cupola, la banda dei sapienti, questa sordida feccia della vita, lo trafigge e lo trascina nel ridicolo, perché egli non corre in nessun caso all unisono con loro, e perchè sostiene che bisogna scrivere secondo le norme della techne sia nelle opere in prosa che in quelle in versi, e che non bisogna mai, in nessun caso, inquinare i principi della techne: le technai sono infatti fonti di benessere per la vita e chi delle technai vuol demolire i dettami, costui introduce nella vita un letamaio, rivelandosi per quel che è, figlio di incolti barbari che puzzano di porcile. È una risma di tal fatta che si mette a correggere i libri, come quel tale che ha preteso di correggere anche il libro di Erodoto, quello dedicato alla Vita di Omero, sovvertendo tutto quello che vi era di peculiare di uno scritto ionico, secondo quanto pareva giusto a lui, il sapiente nato! Se infatti c’era scritto ἐπ' ἠμι[[σ]]σείας e, poco dopo, ἀπικνεῖται ed altre cose dello stesso genere, sapientemente le tramutava in phi per correggere’ il libro, cancellando anche molte altre particolarità senza capirci nulla, «ed anche lì (κἀνθαῦτα) «ed anche là» (κἀνταῦθα) raddrizzando la via.

  Language

  Italian

  Source(s)

  M. Luzzatto, 1999, Tzetzes lettore di Tucidide: note autografe sul Codice Heidelberg Palatino Greco 252, Bari: 48-53

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