Database of Byzantine Book Epigrams

Type 31392

	Ὑποστροφὴν γίνωσκε τὸ σχῆμα τόδε.
	Τὸ δ’ αὖ σκοτεινὸν καὶ παράξυλον λόγου
	ἄλλοις παρεὶς ῥήτορσιν αἰνεῖν ἀσκόπως,
	τίς ἱστορούντων ἀκριβὴς κανών, μάθε·
	σαφὴς μετ’ ὄγκου καὶ ταχύς, πειθοῦς γέμων.
	Τοῦτον χρεὼν δ’ ἦν τῆς Δρυοῦς καὶ τοῦ Ξύλου
	υἱὸν καλεῖσθαι, τὸν ξυλουργοῦντα λόγους,
	οὐ τὸν μελιχρὸν Ἡρόδοτον ἐν τοῖς λόγοις.

Text source	M. Luzzatto, 1999, Tzetzes lettore di Tucidide: note autografe sul Codice Heidelberg Palatino Greco 252, Bari: 31-32
Text status	Text completely known
Editorial status	Not a critical text
Genre(s)	Author-related epigram Reader-related epigram Text-related epigram
Person(s)	Poet John Tzetzes (12th c.) - PBW: Ioannes/459/
Metre(s)	Dodecasyllable
Subject(s)	Herodotus of Halikarnassos < Caria < Asia Minor < Turkey (485 BC - 425 BC) Thucydides (5th c. BC)
Tag(s)	Address to the reader Criticism of the author Polemic Reference to content of the book Scholium
Translation(s)	Know that this formation is called an hypostrophe [turning back]. But you, setting aside the fact that his obscure and hard wooden style is pointlessly praised by other teachers of rhetoric, learn now the precise rule for all historians: to be clear in a grand way, swift, and persuasive to the full. It is this one [Thuc.] who should rather be called a Son of the Oak and the Wood, since he writes history like a carpenter, and not Herodotos, who is sweet in his narratives. Language English Source(s) A. Kaldellis, 2015, Byzantine Readings of Ancient Historians, Abingdon and New York: 75 Sappi che questa figura si chiama hypostrophe. Ma tu, lasciando che altri, i retori, lodino senza motivo l'obscuritas e la durezza quasi legnosa del parlare tucidideo, impara quale sia il vero canone degli storici: chiarezza con gravitas e velocità ricca di forza persuasiva. Questo qui, invero, avrebbe dovuto esser chiamato «figlio di Dryo e di Xyles», dato che lavora le storie come un falegname, e non Erodoto che nelle sue narrazioni è dolce come il miele. Language Italian Source(s) M. Luzzatto, 1999, Tzetzes lettore di Tucidide: note autografe sul Codice Heidelberg Palatino Greco 252, Bari: 32
Comment	Text of Luzzatto (1999: 31-32) modified by DBBE.
Bibliography	Primary J. Bértola 2021, Using Poetry to Read the Past. Unedited Byzantine Verse Scholia on Historians in the Margins of Medieval Manuscripts, Gent: 19 J. Bértola 2022, Tzetzes' verse scholia on Thucydides and Herodotus: A survey with new evidence from Laur. Plut. 70,3, in E. Prodi (ed.), ΤΖΕΤΖΙΚΑΙ ΕΡΕΥΝΑΙ, Bologna, 335-357: 346 K. Hude, 1973, Scholia in Thucydidem ad optimos codices collata, New York: 297 Secondary A. Kaldellis, 2015, Byzantine Readings of Ancient Historians, Abingdon and New York: 75
Number of verses	8
Occurrence(s)	[31395] ὑποστροφ(ὴν) γίνωσκε τὸ σχῆμα τόδε [1146-1155] HEIDELBERG - Universitätsbibliothek - Palat. gr. 252 [851-950] (f. 184v) (8 verses)
Acknowledgements	Creator(s) Anne-Sophie Rouckhout The credits system has been implemented in 2019. Credits from before the new system was in use might be incomplete.
Identification	Vassis ICB 2005, 831: "Ioann. Tzetzes, Scholium in Thucydidem (5.17.2)"
Permalink	https://www.dbbe.ugent.be/types/31392

Last modified: 2024-11-08.

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