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A cognitive analysis of metrical irregularities in the ‘Ὥσπερ ξένοι’ book epigrams
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 13 March 2018
Abstract
This article considers the variation in the metres of the ‘ὥσπερ ξένοι’ epigrams, collected in the Database of Byzantine Book Epigrams (DBBE). In its canonical form, these epigrams follow a dodecasyllabic metrical pattern. The seemingly unmetrical decasyllabic and decatetrasyllabic variants are explained from a cognitive-linguistic perspective as the pairing of different cola – 5+5 and 7+7 instead of the usual 7+5 or 5+7. From this perspective, cola can be equated with the cognitive ‘idea’ or ‘intonation units’ (IUs) used in ordinary speech.
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- Copyright © Centre for Byzantine, Ottoman and Modern Greek Studies, University of Birmingham, 2018
References
1 The DBBE is hosted by Ghent University at www.dbbe.ugent.be. Research for this paper was supported by grants from Ghent University's Special Research Fund (BOF/15/GOA/034) and the Fund for Scientific Research-Flanders (FWO 3F02016000401). Earlier versions of the paper were presented at the 7th U4 Winter School on Antiquity (Istanbul, March 2016), the 23rd International Congress of Byzantine Studies (Belgrade, August 2016) and Varieties of Post-Classical and Byzantine Greek (Ghent, December 2016). We take the opportunity to thank the following colleagues for their useful remarks and suggestions: Klaas Bentein, Sien De Groot, Ilse De Vos, Kristoffel Demoen, Marc Lauxtermann, Peter Mackridge, Renaat Meesters, Racchele Ricceri and Maria Tomadaki.
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13 The ‘ὥσπερ ξένοι’ epigrams in the DBBE all date from the period 900-1500.
14 DBBE 22, 275, 799, 800, 1137, 1159, 1362, 1513, 1696, 1758, 1765, 1814, 1871, 2129, 2906, 3004, 3285, 3495, 3687, 3907, 4505, 4915, 4919, 5633. It should be noted that the exact number of occurrences may change in the future, as the DBBE is continually expanding. In April 2017, the total number of ‘ὥσπερ ξένοι’ epigrams in the DBBE was set at 159.
15 Text source by DBBE.
16 All cited epigrams in this article are what the DBBE calls ‘occurrences’ (as opposed to ‘types’), i.e. the faithful transcription of the text as it was found in the manuscript. No normalizations have been applied to these texts and all orthographic mistakes/variances are retained.
17 DBBE 1116, 1275, 1369, 1393, 1561, 1640, 1733, 1898, 1900, 1921, 1985, 2173, 5920, 5956, 5970, 6072, 7910, 7979, 8833.
18 Text source by Evangelatou-Notara, F., Συλλογὴ χρονολογημένων σημειωμάτων ἑλληνικῶν κωδίκων, 13ος αἰ. (Athens 1984) 150 Google Scholar.
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27 The Byzantines continued calling the dodecasyllable ‘iambic trimiter’, as if it was still the very same metre of ancient authors. More educated scribes even preserved the archaic prosody in their dodecasyllabic poems, in order to maintain the illusion of an archaic metre, cf. P. Maas, Der byzantinische Zwölfsilber; M. D. Lauxtermann, ‘The velocity of pure iambs’; The Spring of Rhythm; A. Rhoby, ‘Vom jambischen Trimeter’.
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30 Treu, ‘Der Schreiber am Ziel’, 47.
31 DBBE 22 (Florence, Bibl. Medicea Laurenziana, Plut. 60, Cod. 15, f. 205r).
32 DBBE 22, 170, 801, 876 (εὑρεῖν), 957, 972 (εὑρεῖν), 1146, 1499, 1700, 1941, 1988, 2284, 2305, 2955, 3472, 3673, 4055, 4156, 4223, 4572, 4590, 5403, 5514, 5618, 5799, 6049, 6052, 6782, 6907, 7647, 7846.
33 Text source by F. Evangelatou-Notara, Παλαιολόγειοι χρόνοι, 174.
34 Text source by DBBE.
35 DBBE 972 (last two lines), 1808 (first line), 1811 (first line), 1956 (second line), 3185 (second line), 4689 (first line), 5614 (last two lines), 5996 (first line).
36 Text source by Schartau, B., Codices graeci Haunienses (Copenhagen 1994) 435.Google Scholar
37 M. D. Lauxtermann, The Spring of Rhythm, 51. On the previous page, he mentions four other hymns in the same manuscript: three of them also in heptasyllables, the other one in octosyllables.
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44 Mackridge, ‘Metrical structure of the oral decapentasyllable’; Lauxtermann, The Spring of Rhythm.
45 Lauxtermann, The Spring of Rhythm, 51.
46 Op. cit., 50.
47 Op. cit., 85.
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49 Lauxtermann, The Spring of Rhythm, 77.
50 Text source by DBBE.
51 Text source by Efstratiades, S., ‘Ἁγιορειτικῶν κωδίκων σημειώματα’, Γρηγόριος ὁ Παλαμᾶς 3 (1919) 150.Google Scholar
52 DBBE 60, 1499, 2305, 3472, 3673, 4055, 5514, 6782.
53 DBBE 1499, 2045, 3472, 3673, 4055, 6907, 7647.
54 The same phenomenon occurs in DBBE 4156 (Athos, Monè Megistes Lavras Θ 147, f. 137r), which displays a very similar text but with some minor differences: χαίροντες instead of χαίρουσιν in the first line, εὑρεῖν instead of ἰδεῖν in the second line, the fourth line is omitted, and βιβλίου instead of βιβλίον in the last line.
55 There is no clear chronological evolution in the metrical irregularities of the ‘ὥσπερ ξένοι’ epigrams: mistakes occur at random from the ninth to the fifteenth century. Combinations with decapentasyllabic lines only emerge from the tenth century onwards (i.e. the genesis of the decapentasyllabic metre) and become considerably more popular during the fifteenth century.
56 For more on εὐρυθμία and its use in both poetry and prose, see M. D. Lauxtermann, ‘The velocity of pure iambs’, 19-20.