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)
Person(s)
Poet
John Tzetzes (12th c.) - PBW: Ioannes/459/
Metre(s) Dodecasyllable
Subject(s)
Tag(s)
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

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
Contributor(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: 2020-09-02.
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