What to read about Byzantium. Byzantine literature

Rejecting the paganism of antiquity and adopting Christianity as the ideology of the new society, the peoples of the former Roman Empire began to create their own, different culture, in the west - starting almost from scratch, in the east - preserving the ruins of the former ancient civilization and adapting them to the new world of values.

As we remember, the Ancient Roman Empire was huge, its expanses stretched from Gibraltar in the west to the Caucasus in the east. In 395, it split into two parts - the western one with Rome at the head and the eastern one, the capital of which was once the small village of Byzantium, which turned into the magnificent city of Constantinople. Now it bears the Turkish name Istanbul (in Rus' it was called Constantinople).

The western part of the empire broke up into many small states, which then gathered again into large territorial associations (the Empire of Charlemagne in the last quarter of the 8th - early 9th centuries), then disintegrated.

The eastern part of the empire managed to maintain a single statehood throughout its territory, and it included Egypt, Palestine, Asia Minor and the Black Sea coast of Colchis (present-day Caucasus), the Balkan Peninsula and the islands of the Aegean Sea. Such was originally Byzantium. Its inhabitants called themselves Romans and considered their country the "second Rome" - the guardian former glory Rome.

The history of Byzantium was complex. From all sides her enemies, hungry for her riches, crowded her. The last rise of her fame and her power was during the reign of Emperor Justinian I. He expanded its borders to the maximum, but already in 630 the Arabs tore Egypt from it.

In the end, the territory of Byzantium was reduced to the lands of the Balkan Peninsula and Asia Minor.

Byzantium adopted Christianity when it was still part of the Roman Empire, but after its division into eastern and western parts, church disagreements began, which in 1054 led to a final split. In the western part, Catholicism was established (Greek catholikos ecumenical, universal), in the eastern part - Orthodoxy. Churches have not been reconciled so far. In 1204, Christian crusaders (they will be discussed later) of Western Europe captured Byzantium and founded the Latin Empire on part of its territory. It was liquidated approximately sixty years later by Michael VIII.

Russia adopted Christianity from Byzantium. The Grand Duke of Kiev Vladimir carried out the act of baptism of Rus' in 988. Byzantine icons, Byzantine literacy poured into Russian cities in a broad wave, primarily, of course, to Kyiv and Novgorod.

After the fall of Constantinople, and this happened in 1453 under the blows of Turkish troops, Byzantium ceased to exist as a state, and Moscow called itself the "Third Rome", taking the historical baton of Orthodoxy. “Moscow is the third Rome, and there will never be a fourth!” - Russian clergy proudly declared.

The culture of Byzantium was formed under the ideological influence of the Christian faith. Nowhere did religion influence culture so much as in Byzantium. Everything was permeated by her. At the very beginning, after the official recognition of Christianity as the state religion, the old Greek culture was cursed and condemned. A significant part of the famous Alexandrian Library (4th century) was destroyed. In 529, the philosophical school in Athens was closed. The old cultural centers (Athens, Alexandria) have survived, but have dimmed significantly. The highest education was concentrated in Constantinople. In 425, a Christian high school was opened there. The new religion required propaganda forces, scientific justification. But science began to lose one position after another. In the 6th century, the monk Cosmas Indikoples (“the discoverer of India”) wrote the book “Christian Topography”, in which he completely rejects the imperfect, but still closer to the truth, picture of the cosmos created in antiquity (Ptolemy’s system), and presents the Earth as a flat quadrilateral, surrounded by the ocean, with heaven in heaven.

However, Byzantium did not completely break with antiquity. Its population spoke Greek, although it had already changed significantly compared to the language of antiquity. Interest in ancient authors did not dry out, to ancient history. Historical picture of the world appeared, of course, in a rather fantastic form. Such, for example, is the Chronicle of Georgy Amartol, so popular in Rus' in the 9th century with bright Christian tendentiousness and with extensive use of the writings of theologians and even Greek authors (Plutarch, Plato).

In the 10th century, by order of Emperor Constantine VI Porphyrogenitus, a historical encyclopedia was created, something like a historical reader with fragments from the works of ancient historians and writers (“Biblion”). In the 11th century, the philosopher and philologist Mikhail Psel studied Homer and wrote comments on Menander's comedies.

Byzantine poetry mainly consists of church hymns. The great master of this genre was the Syrian Roman the Melodist (VI century).

Most of Byzantine prose consists of the lives of hermit saints (Pateriki), but novels about love and adventurous novels were also written. The novel about Alexander the Great was very popular with a series of adventures, but not without Christian symbolism.

Byzantine art bears the stamp of a different worldview and a different aesthetic ideal compared to ancient times. The artist abandoned the ideal harmoniously developed person and saw both in the world and in the individual disharmony, disproportion, he turned away from the beauty of the body and imbued with respect for the spiritual principle. IN Byzantine icons we feel this craving of the master for spirituality, for detachment from the world, in the icon we see, first of all, the eyes of the God or saint depicted in it - huge mournful eyes as a mirror of the soul.

In the lives of the saints we find the same desire for spirituality. The writer shows a small man with a weak, puny body, but with an unshakable will. In the struggle between the flesh and the spirit, the spirit wins, and the writer glorifies this victory.

Byzantine culture did not give the world a single significant author, not a single name capable of taking a place next to the famous masters of Western European medieval culture, but it retained something of antiquity, a smoldering ember from a once bright fire. After the fall of Constantinople, she transferred it to Europe (Renaissance).

One more small addition to the topic: we have an icon of the Mother of God of Vladimir. It was created in Constantinople in the first half of the 12th century. Transferred to Russia, it entered the life of the people and is associated with many significant events in Russian history. The icon is wonderful. This is how the specialist describes it: “... a mother with a baby is presented: she is in a mournful doom to sacrifice her son, he is in a serious readiness to embark on a thorny path.

They are alone in the whole world and are drawn to each other in their hopeless loneliness: the mother - bowing her head to her son, the son - fixing unchildishly serious eyes on her. The noble face of the Mother of God seems almost incorporeal, her nose and lips are barely outlined, only her eyes - huge sad eyes - look at the baby, at the viewer, at all of humanity, and the tragedy of the mother becomes a universal tragedy. The colors seem thick and twilight, dark, brownish-green tones dominate, and from them the face of the baby appears bright, contrasting with the face of the mother. Aimed at elevating a person to divine contemplation, such an icon as the Mother of God of Vladimir gave the viewer a sense of the hopeless sorrow of earthly existence ”(Kazhdan A.P.“ Byzantine Culture ”).

However, in the same VI century. a completely different poetry is being formed, equivalent to such organic manifestations of the new aesthetics as the Hagia Sophia temple. Liturgical poetry after all the searches of the 4th-5th centuries. suddenly acquires full maturity in the work of Roman, nicknamed by the descendants of the "Sweet Singer" (born at the end of the 5th century, died after 555).

Already in its origin, Roman is in no way connected with the memories of ancient Greece: it is a native of Syria. Before settling in Constantinople, he served as a deacon in one of the Beirut churches.

In Syria, there was a spiritual tradition of liturgical poetry associated with the initiative of Ephraim (Afrem) the Syrian. Syrian poetic and musical skills, apparently, helped Roman the Melodist to abandon the dogmas of school prosody and switch to tonic, which alone could create a metrical organization of speech intelligible to the Byzantine ear.

He created the form of the so-called kontakion - a liturgical poem consisting of an introduction, which should emotionally prepare the listener, and at least 18 stanzas. Kontakion has much in common with Syriac metrically organized preaching; as in another genre of Syriac literature called sogita, dialogic dramatization is often found in kontakia biblical narrative, exchange of remarks, live "acting in faces".

Altogether Roman, according to legend, wrote about a thousand kontakia. Currently, about 85 of his works are known (the attribution of some is doubtful).

By abandoning retrospective metrical norms, Roman had to sharply increase the constructive role of such factors of verse as alliteration, assonance and rhyme. This whole set technical means has long existed in traditional Greek literature, but has always been the property of rhetorical prose: the Roman transferred it to poetry.

He owns the first verses in the history of Byzantine poetry (and indeed in the history of the European poetic tradition in general) in which rhyme can become an almost obligatory factor in the artistic structure, as, for example, in the kontakion “About Judas the Betrayer”:

How the lands bore away boldness,

How the waters endured the crime

How the sea held back its anger

As the sky did not fall to earth,

How did the structure of the world stand?

(Translated by S. Averintsev)

The next step on the way to regular verse rhyme was the paired lines (the so-called hayretisms) of the Akathist to the Theotokos, whose belonging to the same Roman or at least to his generation is by no means excluded (see below).

In the discovery of rhyme, Byzantine poetry has priority over Western, Latin. Later, however, Byzantine poetry did not know such a consistent use of rhyme until the era of the Fourth Crusade, when the fashion for rhyme came already from the West.

With a renewed wealth of forms, Roman combines warmth, integrity of emotion, naivete and sincerity of moral assessments. Moreover, unexpectedly, but purely religious in its subject matter, the poetry of Romanos speaks much more about the real life of the time than the too academic secular lyrics of the Justinian era.

In the kontakion “On the Dead”, images of the reality that agitated the plebeian listeners of the Sweet Singer naturally arise:

The rich man abuses the poor,

Devours the orphans and the weak;

Farmer's labor is the master's profit,

Sweat to one and luxury to another

And the poor work hard,

So that everything is taken away and dispelled! ..

(Translated by S. Averintsev)

We find in Roman the prototypes not only of many works of later Byzantine hymnography, but also the spirit of the most famous hymns of the Western Middle Ages.

Grassroots Byzantine reader receives in this era and his historiography. The works of Procopius or Agathias, with their intellectual and linguistic refinement, were incomprehensible to him; for him, a specifically medieval form of the monastic chronicle is created.

A very colorful monument of the latter is the "Chronography" by John Malalas (491-578), which sets out in eighteen books the history of all peoples from ancient times to 563 (it may be that the now lost conclusion reached 574).

Malala gets confused in Greek and especially Roman antiquities; it costs nothing for him to call Cicero and Sallust "the most skillful Roman poets", to make Herodotus the successor of Polybius and generously endow the mythical Cyclops instead of one with three eyes.

But a lively, colorful, lively presentation guaranteed success for his chronicle, especially among his descendants, when Byzantium had already moved far enough away from its ancient origins.

World history is transformed in the retelling of John Malala into a fairy tale, primitive and sometimes absurd, but not without amusement; like any storyteller, Malala's fantasy mainly operates with images of kings and queens, naturally not finding material for itself in the world of Greco-Roman antiquity - from the entire history of republican Rome, Malala is attracted only by the invasion of the Gauls.

The "Chronicle" of Malala was followed and imitated not only by the Greek and Syrian chroniclers (John of Ephesus, the anonymous author of the "Easter Chronicle", etc.), but also by Western historians (starting with the compiler of the Latin "Palatine Chronicle", VIII century); finally, from the X century. Slavic translations appear, from the 11th century. - Georgian translation, at about the same time Slavic translations were circulating in Rus'.

The fortunate Byzantine chronicler anticipated general style medieval perception of history as a series of wonderful, entertaining and instructive episodes in which the will of a deity is revealed.

What the "Chronicle" of John Malala was for historiography, that is, the description of the world in time, the "Christian Topography" (first half of the 6th century) was for geography, that is, the description of the world in space. "Christian topography" came under the not entirely reliable name of Kosma Indikoplova ("Indikopleust", that is, "sailor to India").

The author is not a scientist, but an experienced person, a merchant and a traveler, who has seen distant countries (Ethiopia, Arabia, etc.) with his own eyes and, in his old age, writes about what he saw for soul-saving purposes. His cosmology is barbaric: denying conquest ancient science, he describes the Earth as a plane closed by the vault of heaven, above which the upper tier of the universe is found - paradise.

His language is almost common speech. His entertaining stories, naive-wise reasoning and fabulous picture of the world had an exceptional charm for the medieval reader. Therefore, "Christian Topography" was translated into various languages the Christian world; it was also popular in ancient Rus'.

The ascetic edifying literature, which flourished in these centuries, also has a grassroots character. Perhaps its most important monument is the "Ladder" of the Sinai monk John (c. 525 - c. 600), nicknamed "The Ladder" ("Klimak") after his main work.

The "ladder", i.e. the ladder, is a symbol of a difficult spiritual ascent that runs through the entire book. Above all, John values ​​precisely the intense effort of struggle with himself; much less does he trust speculation and refined contemplation.

The harsh prescriptions of ascetic morality are set forth in The Ladder in a very simple and unconstrained language; they are interspersed with confidential accounts of personal experiences or what happened to John's brothers in monastic life.

A large role is played by maxims, proverbs and sayings of a folklore nature. The translation of The Ladder has been known in Rus' since the 11th century. and enjoyed great popularity.

History of world literature: in 9 volumes / Edited by I.S. Braginsky and others - M., 1983-1984

TO The picture of Byzantine life would be incomplete if, having considered the main problems facing the government of the empire, we did not determine the essence of Byzantine culture, the influence of which Byzantium sought to establish throughout the world. We have already shown the material side of this culture - the prosperity of Byzantine industry, the activity of its trade, the brilliance of Constantinople and the deep impression that this capital made on all who visited it. It remains to show what this culture was in the realm of ideas and art, and what its historical significance is.

I. Spiritual life of Byzantium

This is not the place to detail the history of Byzantine literature. Nevertheless, it is very important to show its origins and the character it has acquired.

The preservation of a close connection with Greek antiquity is a feature of Byzantine literature, in which it differs from all other literature of the Middle Ages. Greek was the national language of the Byzantine Empire. Therefore, the works of the great writers of Greece were accessible and understandable to everyone and aroused universal admiration. They were kept in large libraries of the capital in numerous lists; we (148) can get an idea of ​​the richness of these collections from the information that has come down to us about some private libraries. Thus, Patriarch Photius in his Myriobiblion analyzed 280 manuscripts of classical authors, which is only part of his library. In the library of Cardinal Vissarion, out of 500 manuscripts, there were at least 300 Greek ones. Monastic libraries, such as in the monastery of Patmos or in the Greek-Italian monastery of St. Nicholas in Casole, along with religious works, they also had works of classical Greece. To what extent all these writers were familiar to the Byzantines can be judged by the data that have come down to us about their popularity in Byzantine society. Svyda in the 10th century, Psellos in the 11th century, Tsetses in the 12th century, Theodore Metochites in the 14th century. they read all Greek literature, orators and poets, historians and philosophers, Homer and Pindar, tragedians and Aristophanes, Demosthenes and Isocrates, Thucydides and Polybius, Aristotle and Plato, Plutarch and Lucian, Apollonius of Rhodes and Lycophron. The women were no less educated. Anna Komnenos read all the great classical writers of Greece, she knew the history of Greece and mythology and was proud that she had penetrated "the very depths of Hellenism." Immediately upon arrival in Byzantium, the first concern of the wife of Manuel Komnenos, who came from Germany, was to ask Tzetzes to comment on the Iliad and the Odyssey for her; she earned the praise of that great grammarian, who called her "the woman in love with Homer." In Byzantine schools, along with the writings of the Church Fathers, the works of classical writers of Greece were placed as the basis of the education system. Homer was a reference book, a favorite reading of all students. It is enough to look at what Psellos read for twenty years to get an idea of ​​the spiritual interests of that (149) era. Finally, the University of Constantinople, founded by Theodosius II and restored in the 9th century. Caesar Varda, carefully guarded by Constantine Porphyrogenitus and flourishing even in the era of the Palaiologos, was a wonderful hotbed of ancient culture. The professors of this university, the "consuls of philosophers" and "heads of rhetoricians", as they were called, taught philosophy, especially Platonic, grammar, by which they understood everything that we now call philology, that is, not only grammar, metrics, lexicography, but also commentary, and often criticism of ancient texts. Some of these teachers left behind a glorious and lasting memory. In the XI century. Psellos, who bowed boundlessly to Athens, again raised the study of Plato's philosophy to a height and expounded the classical authors with great enthusiasm. In the XII century. Eustathius of Thessaloniki commented on Homer and Pindar, and teachers of the XIV and XV centuries. , great scholars, educated critics, great connoisseurs of Greek literature, were the true forerunners of the humanists of the Renaissance.

Therefore, naturally, Byzantine literature had to experience the powerful influence of antiquity. Byzantine writers often took classical authors as a model and sought to imitate them: Procopius imitated Herodotus and Thucydides, Agathius, who was more prone to rhetoric, imitated poets. The refined Theophylact is looking for his models in Alexandrian literature. Later, for Nicephorus Bryennius, Xenophon serves as a model, Anna Komnenos competes with Thucydides and Polybius. Back in the 15th century. in the writings of Chalkokondylos and Kritovulus, an affinity with Herodotus and Thucydides is manifested. In contact with the classics, they create a learned language, somewhat artificial, sometimes pretentious, very different from the everyday speech of that time; they were proud of the consciousness that they reproduced the strict grace of Atticism. Just as in their style they imitate the ancient form, so in their thinking they imitate classical ideas. They are influenced by Greek history and mythology; mentioning the barbarian peoples - Bulgarians, Russians, Hungarians - they call them ancient names. This almost superstitious devotion to the Greek classical tradition led to very important consequences for the development of literature.

On the other hand, Christianity has left a strong imprint on literature. It is known what great place occupied religion in Byzantium, how solemn were church ceremonies, what influence the church had on the minds of the Byzantines. It is known what interest theological discussions aroused, what passion aroused dogmatic disputes, what respect the monks were surrounded by, how generously gifts were poured in favor of churches and monasteries. The writings of the Church Fathers - Basil the Great, Gregory of Nazianzus, Gregory of Nyssa, John Chrysostom (Chrysostom) aroused universal admiration. They were studied in Byzantine schools, and writers willingly took them as a model. Theology makes up half of everything that Byzantine literature produced, and there are few writers in Byzantium, even those of the Soviet Union, who in one way or another did not come into contact with theology. This respect for the Christian tradition and the authority of the Church Fathers were also important for literature.

Under this dual influence, Byzantine literature developed, which gave it the character of diversity. The Byzantines have always been very fond of history, and from the 6th to the 15th centuries, from Procopius, Agathius and Menander to Franzi, Duka and Kritovul, the literature of Byzantium is rich in the names of prominent historians. In their mental development and often in their talent, they significantly surpassed their contemporary Western authors; some of them could take pride of place in any literature. For example, Psellos can be put on a par with the greatest historians in terms of his talent, observation, picturesque accuracy of the pictures of life he depicts, subtle psychology of portraits, wit and humor, and he is far from the only one who deserves such an assessment.

This taste for history also manifests itself in the historical chronicles of monastic or folk origin, which are less significant in their level, with the exception of such authors as, for example, Skylitsa or Zonara. These chronicles are often characterized by an insufficiently critical attitude to the material, but they also had a great influence on contemporaries. The love for the historical story in Byzantium was so great that many willingly compiled written narratives about the major events that they witnessed. So, Kameniat wrote about the capture of Thessalonica by the Arabs in 904, Eustathius - about the capture of the same city by the Normans in 1185. There is nothing more lively and attractive than the episodes with which Kekavmen filled his small colorful book of memoirs.

Along with history, the science that deeply interested Byzantine thought was theology. It is remarkable that until the XII century. Byzantine theological literature was far superior to anything produced in this area by the West. From Leonty the Byzantine, Maximus the Confessor, John of Damascus and Theodore the Studite between the 6th and 8th centuries. to Palamas in the 14th century, George Scholaria and Vissarion in the ΧV century. the Orthodox religion and love for religious disputes inspired many authors. These (152) include extensive commentaries on sacred scripture, mystical literature created in monasteries, especially on Mount Athos, works of religious eloquence, hagiographic literature, the best examples of which were described in the 10th century. Simeon Metaphrastus in his extensive work.

But apart from history and theology, the development of Byzantine ideology was remarkable for its amazing diversity. Philosophy, especially Platonic, put forward to a place of honor by Psellos and his followers, occupies a significant place in Byzantine literature. The most diverse forms of oratory also play an important role, such as: laudatory and funeral speeches, solemn speeches delivered on holidays in the imperial palace and in the patriarchate, small passages devoted to the description of the landscape or works of art. Among the orators inspired by the ancient tradition, some, such as Photius, Eustathius, Michael Acominatus, occupy an important place in literature. There are also poets in Byzantium. We find here small works: "Philopatris" in the 10th century, "Timarion" in the 12th century, "Mazaris" in the 14th century, the last two being imitations of Lucian, the talented studies of Theodore Metochites and Manuel Palaiologos. But in Byzantine literature, two phenomena of an original, creative nature stand out especially. This is, above all, religious poetry, in which at the dawn of the VI century. Roman Sladkopevets, "the king of melodies", became famous. Religious hymns, with their passionate inspiration, sincere feeling, deep dramatic power, represent one of the most outstanding phenomena of Byzantine literature. Further, this is a Byzantine epic, reminiscent in many respects of French heroic poems (chansons de geste) and created in the 11th century. a great poem about the national (153) hero Digenis Akritas. In this epic, as in religious poetry, there are no traces of ancient influence. As rightly noted, they feel the flesh and blood of Christian Byzantium; this is precisely that part of Byzantine literature in which the depths of the national spirit found their expression.

But let us turn to other types of literature. In theology, after a period of creative activity, very early, already from the ninth century, all original creativity begins to disappear, and it lives only on the tradition and authority of the Church Fathers. Discussions are usually based on quotations, the positions put forward are based on well-known texts, and already John of Damascus wrote: "I will not say anything that would come from myself." Thus theology loses all originality; the same phenomenon, in a somewhat milder form, is observed in secular literature. The Byzantines have a boundless interest in the past. They jealously guard the legends and traditions of antiquity. The 10th century is the century of historical, military, agricultural, medical, hagiographic encyclopedias compiled by order of Constantine Porphyrogenitus. These encyclopedias collect everything from the past that could serve the purposes of teaching or practical tasks. The Byzantines are educated compilers and scholars; a typical example is Konstantin Porphyrogenitus; his Book of Ceremonies and his treatise On the Governance of an Empire are built on rich documentation and bear the stamp of indefatigable curiosity. Following the emperor, many writers compose treatises on a wide variety of subjects - on tactics, state law, diplomacy, agriculture, and education. In these treatises, the writers seek, by careful study of the old authors, to resolve many difficult questions. The practical, utilitarian character of many works that have come down to us is a characteristic (154) feature of Byzantine literature. Of course, in Byzantium there are also truly original thinkers, such as Photius, Psellus, and we have already seen that in its two sections, in religious and epic poetry, Byzantine literature is truly original and creative. But it must be said that, in general, Byzantine literature, no matter how interesting it may be for the study and understanding of Byzantine social thought, no matter how prominent writers she put forward, often lacked originality, novelty and freshness.

This literature also has other shortcomings. These include pretentiousness and mannerisms, love for a sonorous, empty phrase, the search for an intricate form that replaces the original thought and eliminates the need to think. But especially significant difficulties were created for literature by the language used by most Byzantine writers. This is a learned, artificial, conditional language, which many understood with difficulty, and therefore the works written in it were not read, so this literature was intended for a select circle of people big culture. Along with this language, there was a colloquial, folk language, which was spoken but not written. Starting from the VI century. attempts were made, of course, to apply it in literature, but works in this language appear only in the 11th and 12th centuries. These are the poems of Glyka and Theodore Prodrom, of which the latter is distinguished by a somewhat vulgar, albeit amusing, wit, historical works, for example, the chronicle of the Morea and novels, especially the epic of Digenis Akrita, which has come down to us only in this language. Hence, in Byzantine literature, a harmful dualism arises, a gap between purely literary works and works written in in native language which did not become the language of literature. The latter, however, are of great interest; they show (155) that the spiritual life of Byzantium was not alien to inspiration, freshness of thought and feeling.

Despite the above shortcomings, Byzantine literature had a great influence on the literature of other peoples. While Byzantium, together with religion, brought the principles of a new social organization to the peoples of Eastern Europe, its literature brought them elements of a new spiritual culture. Many works, especially historical chronicles and the works of the church fathers, were translated into Bulgarian, Serbian, Russian, Georgian, Armenian: the chronicles of Malala, Georgy Amartol, Konstantin Manassia, Zonara. The fame of these chroniclers was so great that Theophanes was translated into Latin. In Bulgaria, Tsar Simeon, creating a court on the model of the imperial, ordered to translate into Bulgarian language the chronicle of Malala and the works of the church fathers - Basil, Athanasius, John of Damascus. He himself set an example by compiling a collection of extracts from John Chrysostom (Chrysostom), and court flatterers compared him to "an industrious bee that collects honey from flowers." In Russia, in the schools of Kyiv, a similar work was done; thus, throughout Eastern Europe, national literatures arose under the influence of Byzantium.

Byzantine literature in the second half of the 14th century. and throughout the fifteenth century. left its mark on the West. Gemist Plethon and Bessarion cultivated there a taste for Greek antiquity and resurrected the glory of Plato's philosophy. Following the example of the University of Constantinople, ancient literature was taught in Venice and Florence, and Renaissance humanists got acquainted with the famous writers of Greece. Thus, Byzantine literature contributed to the spread of Byzantine influence throughout the world. (156)

Byzantine literature of the 4th-7th centuries is characterized by breadth and non-differentiation: it includes works historical character, theology, philosophy, natural philosophy and much more. This literature is distinguished by ethnolinguistic heterogeneity, multilingualism and multinationality. Its main line is Greek-speaking, since for the vast majority of the population the Greek language was common, which became from the end of the 6th century. official in the empire. However, along with the Greek-language monuments and in interaction with them, there were works written in Latin, Syriac, Coptic and other languages.

In Byzantine literature, ancient traditions continued to live for a long time, which was facilitated by the preservation of the Greek language, as well as the specifics of the system of education and enlightenment. The organization of teaching in primary and higher schools played a major role in the dissemination of ancient literary monuments and in the formation of tastes. At the same time, Christianity had a huge impact on literature (as well as on the whole culture as a whole). Theological writings made up a significant part of it.

In the literature of the IV-VII centuries. there are two directions: one represented by pagan writers and poets, and the other by Christian authors. Such ancient genres as rhetoric, epistolography, epic, epigram continue to develop. New ones coexist with them: chronography, hagiography and hymnography.
Early Christianity could not provide fiction in the true sense of the word. In his literary production, the balance between form and content is still too sharply disturbed in favor of content; a rigid attitude towards didactic “learning” excludes conscious concern for external design; decorative elements of style are rejected as unnecessary. Apocryphal narrative literature allows itself more freedom, sometimes using the techniques of the ancient novel. Mastering the arsenal of pagan culture, Christianity begins with philosophy; already by the beginning of the 3rd century. it brings forward a thinker like Origen, but does not yet produce a single author who could compete with the pillars of the "second sophistry" also in the formal possession of the word.

Only on the eve of the reign of Constantine did the growth of Christian culture and the rapprochement of the church with pagan society go so far that objective conditions were created for combining Christian preaching with the most refined and developed forms of rhetoric. This is how the foundations of Byzantine literature are laid.

The primacy in it belongs to prose. Even in the middle of the III century. works Gregory of Neocaesarea (c. 213 - c. 273), who dedicated his teacher Origen " Thanksgiving word(or "Panegy"). The theme of the speech is the years of Origen's teaching in the church school and the path of his own spiritual development. Its character is defined by a combination of traditional stylistic forms and a new spirit of autobiographical intimacy; the splendor of the panegyric and the sincerity of the confession, representative and trusting intonations contrast each other. An even more conscious and distinct play on the contrasts of the old form and the new content is carried out in the dialogue of Methodius from Olympus in Lycia (died in 311) “Feast, or about chastity”. The title itself alludes to Plato's famous dialogue "Feast, or about Love", the structure of which is reproduced by Methodius with great accuracy; the work is replete with Platonic reminiscences - in language, style, situations and ideas. But the place of the Hellenic Eros in Methodius was taken by Christian virginity, and the content of the dialogue is the glorification of asceticism. An unexpected effect is created by the breakthrough of the prosaic fabric of presentation in the finale and the entrance to hymn poetry: the participants in the dialogue sing a solemn doxology in honor of the mystical marriage of Christ and the Church. This hymn is also new in its metrical form: for the first time in Greek poetry, tonic tendencies are tested in it.

Apparently, the experience of Methodius was close to the liturgical practice of Christian communities, but in the "big literature" he remains without consequences for a long time. Half a century later, the disciple of the pagan rhetorician Epiphanius, Apollinaris of Laodicea, is trying to re-found Christian poetry on other, completely traditionalist foundations. From his numerous works (a hexametric transcription of both testaments, Christian hymns in the manner of Pindar, tragedies and comedies imitating the style of Euripides and Menander), only the transcription of the psalms by the meter and language of Homer has survived - as virtuoso as far from the living tendencies of literary development. The risky combination of two heterogeneous traditions - Homeric and Biblical - was carried out with great tact: the epic vocabulary is very carefully seasoned with a small number of sayings specific to the Septuagint (Greek translation of the Old Testament), which creates an unexpected, but quite integral language flavor.

Early Christianity lived not in the past but in the future, not in history but in eschatology and apocalypticism. By the end of the III century. the situation is changing: Christians cease to feel like rootless "aliens on earth" and acquire a taste for tradition. The Church, internally ripe for spiritual domination, feels the need for an impressive perpetuation of its past.

Eusebius undertook to satisfy this need. His " church history" belongs to scientific prose, "Biography of the Blessed Tsar Constantine" - rhetorical. In its settings and style, it is a typical "encomium" (praise word), a product of an old ancient tradition dating back to Isocrates (4th century BC). New is the Christian trend. The ideal monarch must be not only "just" and "invincible", but also "God-loving". If the old rhetoricians compared the glorified monarchs with the heroes of Greco-Roman mythology or history, then Eusebius takes the objects of comparison from the Bible: Constantine is the “new Moses”. But the structure of the comparison itself remains the same.

It was at the very moment when the church achieved full legality and political influence that it faced the need to reconsider its worldview foundations. This gave rise to the Arian controversy. She stood at the center of all public life in the 4th century. and could not but influence the course of the literary process.

Arius introduced the worldly spirit into religious literature. A brilliant preacher, he knew his listeners well - the citizens of Alexandria, accustomed to the life of a big city. The ancient Christian ascetic severity of style here could not count on success; however, the traditions of the pagan classics were too academic and outdated for the masses. Therefore, Arius, writing the poem "Falin" for the wide promotion of his theological views, turned to other traditions, less respected and more vital. We know little about the poem of the famous heretic - it itself has been lost (it is even possible that it was not a poem, but a mixed verse-prose text of the type of the so-called Menippe satire). But the testimony of contemporaries add up to a fairly vivid picture. According to one account, Arius imitated the style and meter of Sotada, one of the representatives of the light poetry of Alexandrian Hellenism; in another way, his poems were designed to be sung at work and on the road. Even if these reports tendentiously exaggerate the compromising associations evoked by Arius' work (Sotada's poetry was pornographic), they contain a grain of truth. Alexandria has long been the center of the poetry of mimodies, mimiambs, etc. Some (certainly, only purely formal) features of these genres and tried to select for the emerging Christian poetry Arius. His path was more shocking, but also more promising than the path of the Christianized classicism of Apollinaris of Laodicea.

The Egyptian monks, who hated the culture of big cities, took such experiments with sharp hostility and went so far as to deny the very principle of liturgical poetry. From the 5th century the conversation of the elder Pamva with the novice came, in which the stern ascetic says: “It was not for this that the monks retired to this desert to idle-think, and lay down frets, and sing hymns, shake their hands, and rearrange their legs ...”. However, the process of development of church poetry, folk in spirit and innovative in form, could not be stopped. The most strict zealots of orthodoxy had to take up the composition of hymns in order to oust the hymns of heretics from everyday life. One of the spokesmen for the trends of the time was the Syrian Ephraim (d. 373), a successful rival of the representatives of heretical hymnography, who wrote in Syriac, but also influenced Greek-language literature; one of his texts is well known from Pushkin's arrangement in the poem "The Hermit Fathers and the Immaculate Wives...".

The people wanted to get intelligible and easy to remember poetic texts that could be sung at work and at leisure, having memorized in church, “Travelers in a wagon and on a ship, artisans engaged in sedentary work, in short, men and women, healthy and infirm , downright revered as a punishment if something prevents them from repeating these sublime lessons, ”states at the end of the 4th century. Gregory Nyssky. The teachings of Arius had to perish, his name became odious, but literary development largely followed the path indicated by his "Falias".

The main antagonist of Arius was the Alexandrian Patriarch Athanasius. The pagan spirit of ancient traditions was deeply alien to Athanasius, however, in striving for an imposing rigor of style, he adhered to school rhetorical norms. Of greatest historical and literary interest is the biography of the Egyptian ascetic Anthony, the founder of monasticism (by the way, the motif of "the temptation of St. Anthony" goes back to it, running in European art and literature right up to Flaubert's story). This work was almost immediately translated into Latin and Syriac and laid the foundation for the most popular genre of monastic "life" in the Middle Ages.

The first monks of the Nile Valley shunned literary pursuits: Anthony is the new hero of literature, but he himself could not yet pick up a pen. After a few decades, the monks become involved in writing. Evagrius of Pontus (c. 346-399) founded a form typical of Byzantium, a manual of monastic ethics based on self-observation and built on aphorisms. It is unlikely that Evagrius and his successors knew anything about the philosophical diary of Marcus Aurelius "Alone with myself", but the similarity is obvious here.

Ideological life of the IV century. deeply contradictory. While the most specific creations of Byzantine Christianity—dogmatic theology, liturgical hymnography, monastic mysticism—are already taking on clear contours, paganism does not want to leave the scene. His authority in the closed sphere of liberal arts education remains very high. It is characteristic that Christian authors working in traditional rhetorical and poetic genres often avoid any reminiscences of their faith and operate in their works exclusively with pagan images and concepts. Julian the Apostate declares to the Christians in a tone of complete assurance that no one in their own ranks will dare to deny the advantages of the old pagan school.

It is the need to defend oneself in a life-and-death struggle against the onset of a new ideology that gives pagan culture new strength.

It flourished in the 4th century. rhetoric: its adherents are characterized by a deep conviction in the exceptional social significance of their work, which from time immemorial was an indispensable feature of the Greek "sophist", but in the conditions of the struggle against Christianity received a new, in-depth meaning. In this regard, the pillar of eloquence of the 4th century is characteristic. Livanius of Antioch.

Livanius was born in Antioch into a wealthy and distinguished family. Even in childhood, he showed an interest in knowledge. The desire for education draws him to Athens, where Livanius attends high school. Upon graduation, he opens his own school of oratory, first in Constantinople, then in Nicomedia. From 354 he returns to his homeland, where he spends the rest of his life.

In his autobiography “Life, or about his fate,” written in the form of a speech, Livanius writes: “I should try to convince those who have formed a wrong opinion about my fate: some consider me the happiest of all people because of the wide popularity that my speeches, others to the most unfortunate of all living beings, because of my incessant illnesses and disasters, meanwhile both are far from the truth: therefore I will tell about the past and present circumstances of my life and then everyone will see that the gods have confused the fate of fate for me ...".

Numerous letters of Livanius (there are more than one and a half thousand of them preserved) convey his philosophical, historical, political and religious reflections. The letters were intended for publication and are therefore interesting not only for their content, but also for their brilliant form.

In the eyes of Livania, the art of the word is a guarantee of the integrity of the threatened polis way of life; rhetorical aesthetics and polis ethics are interdependent. The dual unity of traditional eloquence and traditional citizenship is sanctified by the authority of Greek paganism - and therefore Livanius, alien to the mystical searches in the spirit of the Neoplatonists, passionately sympathizes with the old religion and laments its decline. Christianity, like all the phenomena of the spiritual life of the 4th century, which did not fit within the framework of the classical tradition, for him was not so much hated as incomprehensible.

And yet, the trends of the era were revealed in his work; this champion of classicistic norms writes a huge autobiography, oversaturated with intimate details and akin in its understanding of the human person to such monuments as the lyrics of Gregory of Nazianzus or the "Confession" of Augustine.

WITH in a creative way Livanius is closely connected with the literary activity of his contemporary and friend Themistius (320-390). From Livanius' letters we learn of his respect for the virtues of his rival, the "brilliant orator." Themistus' talent was highly valued by Julian, Gregory of Nazianzus called him βασιλευς λογων.

Unlike Julian and Livanius, Themistius refrained from sharp polemics with adherents of Christianity. He was characterized by religious tolerance; not without reason, under all emperors, regardless of their religion, he held prominent public positions. In a speech to Valens on the Confessions, Themistius, praising the emperor, writes: “It was wisely decreed by you that everyone joins the religion that seems convincing to him, and in it he would seek solace for his soul ...” and further: “What what a folly to try to keep all men, against their will, holding the same convictions!” According to Themistius, the emperor is wise in allowing freedom of choice of beliefs, "so that people are not held accountable for the name and form of their religion."

It is significant that despite the commitment to ancient philosophy, in his works there are alien to paganism classical period ideas, for example, about earthly life as a dungeon and about the afterlife as a “happy field”. In his speeches, he speaks everywhere of a love of philosophy, often referring to Plato and Socrates.

Themistius' speeches are devoid of poetic pathos, he lacks lively characteristics. However, he was an excellent stylist, which contributed a lot to his fame.

The speeches of Imerius (315-386) differ in content, form and style from the speeches of Themistius. Imeriy stood apart from public and political life, was far from the court and lived by the interests of his school. Speeches related to the life of the school in Athens, where the activity of the sophist unfolded, and speeches relating to issues of rhetorical art, occupy a large place in his work. In the fight against Christianity, Imerius preferred epidictic (solemn) speeches dedicated to the heroic past or the glorification of the traditions of the Greek religion. These speeches are written in a pompous, Asian manner.

Imerius gives harmony to his speeches, using images, words and expressions of ancient Greek lyricists. He often referred to his speeches as "hymns". An idea of ​​the style of Imeria is given by a speech at the wedding of a relative of the North, where the bride and groom are described in enthusiastic tones: open their petals; their spiritual affinity is amazing - both are bashful and pure in disposition and differ from each other only in the occupations inherent in the nature of each. She excelled in the weaving of wool, good cause Athens, he finds joy in the labors of Hermes.

The idol of Neoplatonic philosophers and pagan rhetoricians was Emperor Flavius ​​Claudius Julian, nicknamed by Christians "The Apostate". In his person, paganism put forward a worthy opponent of such leaders of militant Christianity as Athanasius; a man of fanatical conviction and extraordinary energy, Julian fought for the revival of paganism by all possible means, and only his death on a campaign against the Persians once and for all put an end to all the hopes of the supporters of the old faith. The needs of the struggle dictated the transformation of polytheism along the lines of Christianity (Julian raised Neoplatonic doctrine to the rank of dogmatic theology) and the ultimate consolidation of the spiritual forces of pagan culture. Julian tried to carry out this consolidation by his personal example, combining in himself the monarch, the high priest, the philosopher and the rhetorician; within philosophy and rhetoric, he in turn strives for the broadest synthesis. It makes a picture literary creativity Juliana is very colorful in terms of genre, style and even language: all the past Greek culture, from Homer and the first philosophers to the first Neoplatonists, is equally dear to him, and he strives to resurrect it in its entirety in his own works. We meet with him both mystical hymns in prose, overloaded with philosophical subtleties, and at the same time captivating by the intimacy of their intonations (“To the King of the Sun”, “To the Mother of the Gods”), and satirical works in the manner of Lucian - the dialogue “Caesars”, where the Christian the emperor Constantine, and the diatribe “Beard-hater, or Antiochian”, where the self-portrait of Julian himself is presented through the perception of the inhabitants of Antioch hostile to him; finally, Julian paid tribute to epidictic eloquence and even epigrammatic poetry. From his polemical treatise Against the Christians, only fragments have been preserved, from which it is clear how passionately he criticizes a religion hostile to him: “... The insidious teaching of the Galileans is an evil human fiction. Although there is nothing divine in this teaching, it managed to influence the unreasonable part of our soul, which is childishly fond of fairy tales, and inspired it that these fables are the truth. He also maintained a harsh tone in relation to Christianity in the satires "Caesars" and "The hater of the beard."

Despite his restoration tendencies, Julian as a writer is closer to his troubled times than to those classical eras he longed for: his inherent sense of loneliness and extremely intense personal experience of religious and philosophical problems stimulated autobiographical motifs in his work; when he speaks of his gods, he declares his love for them with unprecedented intimacy.

Byzantine literature recognized Julian as one of its own: given the hatred that surrounded his name for religious reasons, the very fact of copying his writings already in the Christian era proves that they, no matter what, found readers for themselves.

The case of Julian perished: according to a well-known legend, the emperor on his deathbed turned to Christ with the words: “You won, Galilean!” But Christianity, having won politically, could fight against the authority of paganism in the field of philosophy and classic literature by only one means - by assimilating the norms and achievements of pagan culture as fully as possible. In solving this problem, a huge role belongs to the so-called Cappadocian circle, which becomes in the second half of the 4th century. recognized center church politics and church education in the Greek east of the empire. The core of the circle was Basil of Caesarea, his brother Gregory, Bishop of Nisa, and his closest friend Gregory of Nazianzus.

The members of the circle stood at the pinnacle of their contemporary education. They transferred the filigree methods of Neoplatonic dialectics into the actual theological controversy. An excellent knowledge of ancient literature was also a self-evident norm in the circle.

The leader of the circle was Basil of Caesarea. Like all members of the circle, Vasily wrote a lot and skillfully; his literary activity is wholly subordinated to practical purposes. His sermons formally stand on the level of the highly developed rhetoric of the time, and at the same time they differ in their very essence from the aesthetic eloquence of pagan sophists like Livanius. Vasily, like speakers Greek classics in the time of Pericles and Demosthenes, the word again becomes an instrument of effective propaganda, persuasion, and influence on minds. It is characteristic that Basil demanded that the listeners, not grasping the meaning of his words, interrupt him at all costs and demand an explanation: in order to be effective, the sermon must be intelligible. Of the pagan writers of late antiquity, Basil was greatly influenced by Plutarch with his practical psychologism; in particular, the writings of Plutarch served as a model for Basil's treatise "On how young people can benefit from pagan books." This work has long served as an authoritative rehabilitation of the pagan classics; even in the Renaissance, humanists referred to it in disputes with obscurants.

Among the "interpretations" of Basil on biblical texts, "Shestodnev" stands out - a series of sermons on the theme of the story of the creation of the world from the Book of Genesis. The combination of serious cosmological thoughts, entertaining material from late antique learning, and a very lively and heartfelt exposition made the Six Days the most popular reading in the Middle Ages. He gave rise to many translations, revisions and imitations (including in ancient Russian literature).

Gregory of Nazianzus was for a long time the closest friend and collaborator of Basil of Caesarea, but it is difficult to imagine a person who would be less like this powerful politician than the refined, impressionable, nervous, introspective Gregory. The same line divides their approach to literature: for Vasily, writing is a means to influence others, for Gregory it is to express oneself.

Gregory's extensive legacy includes treatises on dogmatics (hence his nickname "The Theologian"), rhetorical prose, close to the decorative manner of Imeriy, and letters. But its main significance is in its poetic work. The stylistic range of Gregory's poetry is very wide. Closest of all to the ancient samples are his numerous epigrams, distinguished by the intimacy of tone, softness, liveliness and transparency of intonations. Some of them do not allow anyone to guess that their author is one of the "fathers of the church." Here, for example, is an epigram on the grave of a certain Martinian:

Muses pet, vitiya, judge, excellent in everything
The glorious Martinian hid in my bosom.
He showed valor in sea battles, courage in land battles,
After that he went down to the grave, having not tasted the sorrowful misfortunes.

His religious hymns have a completely different appearance, marked by majestic impersonality and rhetorical refinement: numerous anaphoras and syntactic parallelisms skillfully set off their metrical structure and create a poetic image reminiscent of the symmetrical arrangement of figures on Byzantine mosaics:

To her, the king, the imperishable king,
Through you our songs
Through you heavenly choirs,
Time flows through you
Through you the radiance of the sun
Through you the beauty of the constellations;
Through you a mortal is exalted
The wondrous gift of understanding
That is different from all creatures.

Along with this, Gregory's poetry has at its disposal deeply personal motifs of loneliness, disappointment, bewilderment before the cruelty and meaninglessness of life:

O bitter misfortune! Here I entered the world:
Who, why need my torment?
From the heart I say a frank word:
If I were not yours, I would be indignant.
Let's be born; we come into the world; we pass the days;
We eat and drink, we wander, we doze, we are awake,
We laugh, cry, pains torment the flesh,
The sun walks above us: this is how life goes,
And there you will rot in the grave. So is the dark beast
He lives - in infamy equal, but more innocent.

Gregory's generation could not yet accept a reassuring dogma from others—it had to suffer it first. Therefore, the world of Gregory is full of difficult, vague, unresolved questions:

Who am I? Where did you come from? Where am I heading? Don't know.
And I can't find anyone to guide me.

Gregory's lyrics with breathtaking immediacy capture the spiritual struggle that paid for the creation of church ideology:

Oh, what has become of me, my God,
Oh what happened to me? Emptiness in the soul
Gone is all the sweetness of beneficent thoughts,
And the heart, dead in unconsciousness,
Ready to become the home of the Prince of Abomination.

Three poems by Gregory have a purely autobiographical character: “About my life”, “About my fate” and “About the suffering of my soul”. It is possible that these poems, with their intimate psychologism and vast culture of introspection, influenced the emergence of Augustine's Confessions.

The vast majority of Gregory's poems are subject to the laws of traditional musical versification, which Gregory mastered to perfection. It is all the more remarkable that we meet with him two cases when, quite consciously and consistently, the experiment of the tonic reform of prosody was carried out (“Evening Hymn” and “Exhortation to the Virgin”). This experiment is intrinsically justified by the popular nature of both poems.

The third member of the circle, Gregory of Nyssa, is a master of philosophical prose. Gregory's worldview stands under the sign of a centuries-old tradition going from the Pythagoreans through Plato to the Neoplatonists. Gregory's style, compared with the manner of his associates, is somewhat ponderous, but it is precisely in the texts of the most speculative content that it reaches such feeling and expressiveness that even the most abstract thoughts are presented with plastic clarity. Gregory of Nyssa had a great influence on medieval literature not only in Byzantium, but also in the Latin West with his allegorism.

The heyday of rhetorical prose, passing through the entire fourth century, captures equally both pagan and Christian literature. But it reaches its climax in the work of a church orator, the Antiochian preacher John, nicknamed Chrysostom for his eloquence.

In his works, vividly depicting the social and religious life era, John Chrysostom angrily criticized the shortcomings of contemporary society. Oratory and brilliance of the Attic language were directed against luxury imperial court, the depravity of the higher clergy. All this could not but cause discontent in the capital, as a result of which the Bishop of Constantinople was deposed and sent into exile. An example of Chrysostom's oratory is statements about spectacles that attracted people so much that the church was sometimes empty. “Every day they are invited to spectacles, and no one is lazy, no one refuses, no one refers to a lot of activities ... everyone runs: neither the old man is ashamed of his gray hair, nor the young man is afraid of the flame of his natural lust, nor the rich is not afraid to humiliate his dignity". All this angers the preacher, and he exclaims: “Am I laboring in vain? Am I sowing on a rock or among thorns?” If you go to the hippodrome, then “... they do not pay attention either to the cold, or to the rain, or to the distance. Nothing will keep them at home. And to go to church - rain and mud becomes an obstacle for us!

Meanwhile, visiting the theater does not give anything good, for “... there you can see both fornication and adultery, you can hear blasphemous speeches, so that the disease penetrates both through the eyes and through the ear ...” And it is natural that “if you went to the spectacle and listened to prodigal songs, then you will certainly spew the same words in front of your neighbor ... "

Christian morality was preached from certain class positions. “People harmful to society,” wrote Chrysostom, “appear from among those who attend spectacles. From them comes revolt and rebellion. They most of all revolt the people and give rise to riots in the cities.

For the work of John Chrysostom, as well as some other authors of this turbulent era (for example, Julian the Apostate), a feverish pace is characteristic. Only those writings of John, which are included in the well-known "Patrology" of Ming, occupy 10 folios in it; such productivity is especially surprising if one bears in mind the filigree rhetorical finishing. John's eloquence has a passionate, nervous, exciting character. This is how he addresses those who do not behave decently enough in church: “... You are a miserable and unfortunate person! With fear and trembling you should proclaim the angelic praise, and you bring here the customs of mimes and dancers! How can you not be afraid, how can you not tremble when you start such utterances? Don't you understand that the Lord himself is invisibly present here, measuring your movements, examining your conscience?...” John's sermons are replete with topical allusions; when the empress threatened him with reprisals, he began another sermon at the feast of St. John the Baptist with these words: “Again Herodias rages, rages again, dances again, demanding John’s head on a platter ...”, and the listeners, of course, understood everything.

It is remarkable, however, that the focus on popularity did not stop John from following the canons of Atticism. The verbal fabric of his sermons is replete with reminiscences from Demosthenes, with whom, however, he was brought together not only by formal imitation, but also by internal congeniality: for all eight centuries, Demosthenes had no more worthy heirs. Nevertheless, virtuoso playing with classical turns, one must think, prevented John's listeners from fully understanding him.

John Chrysostom was an unattainable ideal for every Byzantine preacher. The reader's perception of his works is well expressed by the inscription on the margins of a Greek manuscript stored in Moscow:

How wondrous virtue shine,
Great John, from your soul,
With all the power of God glorifying, poured out!
For this and golden eloquence
You are given. So have mercy on the sinner!
Az, the unfortunate Gordian, on the terrible day of judgment
May I be preserved by your prayer!

The Cappadocians and John Chrysostom brought Christian literature to a high degree of refinement. But at the same time, other authors very productively developed other forms, more plebeian, alien to the academic style and language. Among them should be noted Palladius of Helenopolis (c. 364 - c. 430), the author of "Lavsaik", or "Lavsian history" (after the name of a certain Lavs, to whom the book is dedicated). "Lavsaik" is a cycle of stories about Egyptian ascetics, among whom Palladius himself lived for a long time.

The main strengths of the book are thrill everyday coloring and folklore in spirit immediacy of presentation. Classical reminiscences are unthinkable here; even of the kind of academicism that was still in the "Life of Anthony the Great", compiled by Athanasius, there is not a trace left here. The syntax is extremely primitive; as can be judged from the introductory parts of the book, executed in a different texture, this primitiveness is largely conscious. The conversational tone is very vividly imitated. Here is an example of the Lavsaik style: “... When fifteen years had passed, a demon possessed the cripple and began to incite him against Eulogy; and the cripple began to blaspheme Eulogius with these words: "Oh, you bastard, a hypocrite, you hid extra money, but you want to save your soul on me? Drag me to the square! I want meat!" - Brought meat Evlogii. And he again for his own: "Not enough! I want the people! I want to go to the square! Oh, rapist!" Palladius knew his heroes well, and they had not yet turned for him into impersonal personifications of monastic virtues. Of course, he respects and loves them very much, seeing in their strange, often grotesque way of life, the highest expression of holiness and spiritual strength; at the same time, he is far from devoid of a sense of restrained humor towards them. It is this combination of reverence and comedy, pious legend and practical reality that makes the monastic novels of Palladius an original, attractive monument. They have their own face.

Created by Palladius (undoubtedly based on predecessors unknown to us), the type of short stories from the life of ascetics was widely used in Byzantine literature. It also passed into other literatures of the Christian Middle Ages: in Rus' such collections were called “pateriks”, in Western Europe, for example, the famous “Fioretti” (“Flowers” ​​of Francis of Assisi, XIII century) go back to this genre form.

A special place in the literary process of his era is occupied by Sinesias from Cyrene. First of all, it cannot be attributed to either pagan or Christian literature. Synesius was a highly educated descendant of a native Greek family, who raised himself to Hercules; his inner affinity with the ancient tradition reached such a degree of organicity in him as in none of his contemporary authors. More or less sincerely accepting the authority of Christianity, he sought to smooth out any contradiction between him and Hellenism: according to him own words, the black cloak of a monk is equivalent to the white cloak of a sage. Coming from antiquity, the need for social activity forced him to accept the rank of bishop against his will, but he could never give up his pagan sympathies and moods. Sinesia's literary activity is quite diverse. His lively in tone and refined in style letters served as an indisputable model for Byzantine epistolography: as early as the 10th century. the author of "Svyda" calls them "an object of general admiration", and on the verge of the XIII and XIV centuries. Thomas the Magister writes a detailed commentary on them. The speech “On the Royal Power” - a kind of political program launched by Sinesius before the emperor Arcadius - is connected with topical issues, but spiritually and stylistically closer to the political moralization of the “second sophistry” than to the living trends of his time. In addition, from Sinesius came: a kind of mythological "romance" with the actual political content- “Egyptian stories, or about providence”, an autobiographical treatise “Dnon, or about life following his example” (about the author of the 1st-2nd centuries Dion Chrysostom), the rhetorical exercise “A laudatory word for a bald head”, several more speeches and religious hymns, marked by a colorful mixture of pagan and Christian images and thoughts. The metrics of the hymns imitate the sizes of the ancient Greek lyrics, and the archaism of their vocabulary is complicated by the restoration of the old Doric dialect.

4th century was predominantly an age of prose; he gave only one great poet - Gregory of Nazianzus. In the 5th century poetry is revived. Already on the threshold of this century stands Sinesias with his hymns, but the most important event in the literary life of the era was the activity of the Egyptian school of epic poets.

Almost nothing is known about the life of the founder of this school, Nonna, from the Egyptian city of Panopol. He was born around 400 and became a bishop towards the end of his life. Two of his works were DONE: a huge in volume (48 books - like the Iliad and the Odyssey combined) the poem "The Acts of Dionysus" and "The Arrangement of St. gospel of John. Both the poem and the arrangement are made in hexameters. In terms of material, they contrast sharply with each other: pagan mythology dominates in the poem, and Christian mysticism dominates in the arrangement. But stylistically they are quite similar. Nonn is equally inaccessible to the plastic simplicity of Homer and the artless simplicity of the gospel: his artistic vision of the world is characterized by eccentricity and an excess of tension. His forte is rich fantasy and captivating pathos; its weakness is the lack of measure and integrity. Often, the images of Nonn completely fall out of their context and take on an autonomous life, frightening with their mystery and dark significance. This is how he describes the death of Christ:

Someone with a violent spirit
A sponge that has grown in the abyss of the sea, in an incomprehensible abyss,
He took it and richly sated it with painful moisture, and after
On the edge of the reed he strengthened and lifted high;
So he brought deadly bitterness to the lips of Jesus,
Right in front of his face on a pole of long-range hesitation,
In the air, a sponge high and pouring moisture into the mouth ...
...Here they felt the bitterest moisture in the larynx and mouth;
Faining all over, he said the last word: "It's done!" —
And, bowing his head, indulged in a voluntary death ...

Nonnus carried out an important reform of the hexameter, which boiled down to the following: the exclusion of verse moves that made it difficult to perceive the size in the state of the living Greek language that existed by the 5th century; taking into account, along with the musical, also the tonic stress; a tendency towards the unification of caesura and the pedantic smoothness of verse, justified by the fact that the hexameter has finally hardened in its academic and museum character (starting from the 6th century, the traditionalist epic gradually leaves the hexameter and switches to iambs). Nonna's hexameter is an attempt to find a compromise between traditional school prosody and lively speech in ways of complicating versification.

The influence of Nonn was experienced by a number of poets who developed the mythological epic and mastered the new metrical technique. Many among them are Egyptians, like Nonnus himself (Kolluf, Trifiodorus, Cyrus from Panopol, Christodorus from Coptos); the origin of Musaeus is unknown, from which came the epillium "Hero and Leander", marked by ancient clarity and transparency of the figurative system. By the way, Cyrus owns an epigram on Daniel the Stylite, where Homeric sayings are applied in a curious way to the description of a Christian ascetic:

Behold, a man stands motionless between earth and heaven,
Substituting your flesh for all the demons of the winds.
His name is Daniel. Simeon in the works of competing,
He accepted a pillared feat, rooted to the stone with his foot.
Well, he feeds on Ambrose smoothness and imperishable thirst,
Struggling to glorify the Virgin, the most pure Child.

Christodorus is already on the verge of the 5th and 6th centuries. compiled a poetic description (the genre of ekphrasis, fashionable in this era) of antique statues from one metropolitan gymnasium. Here is a description of the statue of Demosthenes:

The face was not calm: the brow betrayed care,
In a wise heart, deep thoughts turned in succession
As if in his mind he was collecting a thunderstorm on the heads of the Emathians.
Soon, soon angry speeches will rush from the lips,
And breathless copper will sound! .. But no, - indestructibly
With a strict seal, silent lips were closed by art.

But the most talented poet of the turn of the 5th and 6th centuries. stands outside the school of Nonna: this is the Alexandrian Pallas, who worked in the epigram genre. The dominant tone of Pallas's lyrics is courageous but hopeless irony: his hero is a mendicant scholar who defends himself against the hardships of poverty and family life with sarcasm (complaints about financial difficulties and an evil wife become a popular common place in Byzantine lyrics).

The poet's sympathies are on the side of the outgoing antiquity. With sadness, he realizes the inevitability of the death of the old, close to him world. He mourns the fallen statue of Hercules:

I saw the bronze son of Zeus in the dust of the crossroads;
Before they prayed to him - now they are cast into dust.
And the shocked one said: “O Three-moon, guardian from evils,
Invincible hitherto, by whom are you defeated, tell me?
At night, appearing before me, God said to me, smiling:
“I am God, and yet I have known the power of time over myself.”

Christianity is alien to Pallas, and undisguised sad irony sounds in his poem “To Marina’s House”:

The gods of Olympus have now become Christians in the house
They live carelessly, because the flame is not dangerous for them here,
The flame that feeds the crucible where copper is melted into a coin.

The restoration policy of Justinian to some extent contributed to the strengthening of the classicist trend in literary life. The situation was contradictory to the point of paradox: Justinian severely persecuted deviations from Christian ideology, but in literature he encouraged the formal language that was borrowed from the pagan classics. Therefore, in the middle of the VI century. two genres flourish: historiography, living on the pathos of Roman statehood, and the epigram, living on the pathos of culture inherited from antiquity.

The most significant historian of this era is Procopius, whose successor was Agathius of Myrine. Agathius also worked in another leading genre of that time - in the epigram genre.

An epigram is a form of lyrical miniature, suggesting a particularly high level of external decoration. This is what attracts the poets of the Justinian era, who seek to demonstrate the refinement of their taste and their familiarity with classical models. Epigrams are written by many: along with the great masters - Agathias, Paul Silenciarius, Julian of Egypt, Macedonia, Eratosthenes Scholasticus - there is a legion of imitators: Leontius Scholasticus, Arabian Scholasticus, Leo, Damocharid Kossky, John Varvukal and others. social status these are either courtiers (Paul is the “guardian of silence” at the court of Justinian, Julian is the prefect of Egypt, Macedonia is the consular), or brilliant metropolitan lawyers (Agathius, Eratosthenes, Leontius). Here is one of Julian's epigrams - a compliment in verse to the relative of the Empress John:

A. Glorious, mighty John! B. But mortal. A. Royal wife
Owner! B. Smerten, add. A. The royal family escape!
B. Mortal are the kings themselves. A. Fair! B. Only this is immortal
In it: virtue is one of death and fate is stronger.

The epigrammatics of the Justinian era is dominated by conditional classical motifs; only sometimes a touch of sentimentality or erotic witticism betrays the onset of a new era. The court poets of the emperor, who diligently uprooted the remnants of paganism, refined their talent on stereotypical themes: "Offering to Aphrodite", "Offering to Dionysus", etc.; when they take up a Christian theme, they turn it into a game of the mind. By order of the emperor, Paul Silentiarius had to sing the newly built St. Sophia: he begins the most winning part of his elegant ekphrasis - a description of the night illumination of the dome - with the mythological image of Phaethon (the son of Helios, who tried to rule his solar chariot):

Everything here breathes beauty, everything will be marveled at a lot
Your eye. But tell me with what luminous radiance
The temple is illuminated at night, and the word is powerless. You say:
A certain nocturnal Phaeton poured out this brilliance on the shrine!..

An anonymous epigram also operates with mythological images, glorifying another great creation of the Justinian era - the codification of legislation carried out under the leadership of Tribonian:

Justinian the ruler conceived this work;
Tribonian worked on it, pleasing the lord,
As if creating a valuable shield for the power of Hercules,
Wonderfully decorated with cunning chasing of wise laws.
Everywhere - in Asia, in the Libyan land, in vast Europe
The peoples will heed the king that the charter has drawn for the universe.

Epigrammatics adjoins Anacreon poetry, characterized by the same features - imitation of pagan hedonism,

the standard of subject matter and the refinement of technique. Here are the verses for the pagan holiday of the rose, belonging to John the Grammar (first half of the 6th century):

Here Zephyr breathed warmth,
And opened up, I note
And the color of Harita laughs,
And the meadows are bright.

And Eros with a skillful arrow
A sweet desire awakens
To the greedy pharynx of oblivion
Did not devour the human race.

The sweetness of the lyre, the beauty of the song
Calling on Dionysus
Announce the feast of the spring
And wisely breathe the Muse ...

Give me a Cythera flower
Bees, wise singers,
I will praise the rose with a song:
Smile at me, Cyprida!

This artificial poetry, playing with obsolete mythology, superficial cheerfulness and book eroticism, does not cease to exist in the subsequent centuries of Byzantine literature (especially after the 11th century), paradoxically side by side with motifs of monastic mysticism and asceticism.

However, in the same VI century. a completely different poetry arises, corresponding to such organic manifestations of the new aesthetics as the church of St. Sofia. Liturgical poetry, folk in spirit, after all the experiments and searches of the 4th-5th centuries. suddenly acquires full maturity in the work of Roman, nicknamed by the descendants of the Sweet Singer (born at the end of the 5th century, died after 555). The naturalness and confidence with which Roman worked seemed a miracle to his contemporaries; According to legend, the Mother of God herself opened his mouth in a night dream, and the next morning he went up to the pulpit and sang his first hymn.

By its origin, Roman is in no way connected with the memories of ancient Greece: he is a native of Syria, perhaps a baptized Jew. Before settling in Constantinople, he served as a deacon in one of the churches in Beirut. Syrian poetic and musical skills helped him to abandon the dogmas of school prosody and switch to the tonic, which alone could create a metrical organization of speech intelligible to the Byzantine ear. The novel created the form of the so-called kontakion - a liturgical poem consisting of an introduction, which should emotionally prepare the listener, and no less than 24 stanzas. That looseness, which for the first time in the history of Greek liturgical lyrics appears in Romanos, allowed him to achieve enormous productivity; according to sources, he wrote about a thousand kontakia. About 85 Roman kontakia are currently known (the attribution of some is doubtful).

By abandoning retrospective metrical norms, Roman had to sharply increase the role of such factors of verse as alliteration, assonance and rhyme. This entire set of technical means existed in traditional Greek literature, but has always been the property of rhetorical prose; The novel transferred it to poetry, creating in some of his kontakia a type of verse that would evoke clear associations in the Russian reader with folk “spiritual verses” (and sometimes with the so-called raeshnik). Here are two examples (from the kontakia "On the Betrayal of Judas" and "On the Dead"):

God, washing the feet with water
Organizer of your destruction,
Filling the mouth with bread
Defiler of your blessing
To the betrayer of your kiss, -
You have lifted up the poor with wisdom,
Caressed the wretched with wisdom,
Gifted and blessed
Devilish game!

The unmarried man gnaws in anguish,
Married in the hustle and bustle toil;
We are tormented by sorrows,
Many children are consumed by worries;
Those in marriage are consumed by labor,
Those in celibacy are tormented by childlessness ...

With this richness of the language of forms, Roman combines the integrity of the people's emotions, naivety and sincerity of moral assessments. The kontakion about Judas ends with such a stunning appeal to the traitor:

Oh, slow down, ill-fated, change your mind,
Think, fool, of retribution!
Conscience will bind and destroy the sinner,
And in horror, in agony, thinking better,
You will give yourself over to an abominable death.
The tree will rise above you as a destroyer,
He will reward you in full and without pity.
And what, lover of money, are you flattered by?
You will throw terrible gold,
Destroy your vile soul
And you can't help yourself with pieces of silver,
Selling the incorruptible treasure!

Surprising as it may seem, but purely religious in its subject matter, the poetry of Roman speaks much more about the real life of his

time than the too academic secular lyrics of the Justinian era. In the kontakion “On the Dead”, images of the reality that worried Roman’s plebeian listeners arise with great internal regularity:

The rich man abuses the poor,
Devours the orphans and the weak;
The farmer's labor is the master's profit,
Sweat to one and luxury to another
And the poor work hard,
So that everything is taken away and dispelled! ..

Roman's work contains motifs and images that most adequately expressed emotional world medieval person. Therefore, we find in him the prototypes not only of many works of later Byzantine hymnography (for example, the "Great Canon" of Andrew of Crete), but also of two of the most famous hymns of the Western Middle Ages - Dies irae and Stabat mater.

Roman Sladkopevets far exceeded his contemporaries in the scale of his artistic talent, but he was not alone. From the era of Justinian and his successors, many poetic and prose works have come down, which artlessly and unpretentiously, but with great organicity, expressed the Byzantine style of life and worldview.

The plebeian figurative system, for the most part, distinguishes the vast literature of prose or versified monastic teachings. John the Faster, Patriarch of Constantinople, hardly considered himself a poet, but his Precepts for a Monk in iambic trimeters attract attention with their rough vitality:

Do not dare to disdain some dishes,
Others choose at their whim;
And who is squeamish, so we will be squeamish ...
... Talkativeness and gossip run like a scourge:
They plunge the heart into the filth of death.
Don't you dare spit in the middle of a meal
And if the need has fallen so that there is no urine,
Hold on, get out and clear your throat.
O man, are you hungry and thirsty?
There is no sin in that. But beware of satiation!
There is a dish in front of you, and eat from it,
Do not dare to reach across the table, do not be greedy! ..

In these verses, by the way, their iambic form is characteristic: of the traditional classical meters, the iambic trimeter is assimilated by Byzantine poetry with the greatest organicity. In doing so, his musical prosody is increasingly ignored and he is reimagined as a pure syllabic; the minimum level of structure is maintained in these equally syllable lines by the fact that the last tonic stress in the verse falls on the penultimate syllable (thus, when we call these verses iambs and translate them accordingly, this is pure convention - but the Byzantines themselves adhered to this convention). Gradually, the epic also moves from the academic forms of the elegiac distich to iambs.

Official propaganda, in order to influence the people, was itself forced to adopt plebeian, semi-folklore forms, without which it could not do without the imposing verses of court poets. Even in the Hellenistic monarchies and in the Roman Empire, the custom of choral recitation or recitative singing of rhythmically designed loyal greetings to the sovereign was widespread. This custom was especially developed and complicated in the cumbersome ritual of Byzantine court festivities, in which crowds of people were also involved as extras. Here is the text for the choral performance at the Spring Festival - here the folklore basis is revealed especially clearly:

Again, beautiful spring comes to our joy,
Bringing joy, health, life, fun and good luck.
Bringing power from God as a gift to the Roman ruler
And overcoming the enemies of the Lord's pleasure!

Similar texts were sung at the holidays of accessions, coronations, marriages of emperors, at Easter celebrations, etc. But there were also popular reproach and ridicule formally close to them, with which the Byzantine crowd showered those in power during unrest and uprisings.

The broad readership of Byzantium also received its own historiography in this era. The works of Procopius or Agathias, with their intellectual and linguistic refinement, were incomprehensible to the average reader; for him, a purely medieval form of folk-monastic chronicle is created.

We have already spoken about the folk character of ascetic edifying literature. The folkloric tone is especially characteristic of the famous "Ladder" of the Sinai monk John (c. 525 - c. 600), nicknamed "The Ladder" after his main work. "Ladder" in a simple and unconstrained language sets out the prescriptions of severe ascetic morality, interspersed with confidential stories about personal experiences and equipped with colorful proverbs and sayings. John relates to the duty of an ascetic with the frankness and ingenuousness of the people; it is alien to the pretentious monastic mysticism. The translation of The Ladder has been known in Rus' since the 11th century. and enjoyed great popularity. Another type of ascetic literature, characterized by a greater refinement of psychological self-observation and a cult of contemplation, was represented in the same era by Isaac the Syrian: his “Words of Instruction” (compiled in Syriac and soon translated into Greek) speak of “tenderness”, of “amazement at the beauty of one’s own souls." In Rus', Isaac has been read since the 14th century; there is reason to think that his "Words for Mentoring" were known to Andrei Rublev and influenced his work.

Hagiographic literature also belongs to this circle of monuments. An outstanding hagiographer of the 6th century, one of the creators of the hagiographic canon, was Cyril from Scythopolis. The years of his life are not exactly known: the year of birth is approximately 524. Thanks to his father, who was a lawyer, Cyril received a good education, although he did not study rhetoric, which he himself regrets. In 543, being a monk, he entered the monastery of St. Euphemia, then moved to the monastery of St. Savva.

A keen interest in the famous founders of the monasteries of Palestine prompted him to collect more accurate information about their lives. In parallel, he created images of other Palestinian monks, which was of considerable importance for the history of the church and monasteries of Palestine.

Cyril was not a professional writer, but the lives he wrote served as a guide for his followers. His writings were notable for their chronological accuracy and ingenuous presentation. They contained valuable historical facts, such as information about Arab tribes. The fact that Kirill was a contemporary of his heroes also played a significant role, which made it possible to present them against a real cultural and historical background.

Social and political cataclysms of the 7th century. contributed to the vulgarization of literature, which had already been outlined in previous centuries.

Classical traditions lose their meaning; the experience of the succession of power and culture, dating back to ancient times, ceases to be relevant. Refined imitation of ancient samples finds fewer and fewer readers. At the same time, within the framework of the specific spiritual situation of the early Middle Ages, the vulgarization of literature inevitably had to result in its sacralization; specific gravity genres related to the life and needs of the church and monastery, is greatly increasing. Folk-monastic forms, pushed aside in the VI century. on the periphery of the literary process, find themselves in the center.

The last echo of the "high" secular poetry of the VI century. was the work of George Pisida (nickname from the name of the Asia Minor region of Pisidia, where George was from), hartofilak under Heraclius. It is far from accidental that George worked precisely in the era of Heraclius: this reign was the last light before the difficult decades of the Arab onslaught, and it might have seemed to his contemporaries that the times of Justinian were returning. George dedicated his great epic poems to the military operations of his royal patron: “On the campaign of King Heraclius against the Persians”, “On the Avar invasion with a description of the battle under the walls of Constantinople between the Avars and the townspeople” and “Herakliad, or on the final death of Khosrov, the king of Persia” . In addition, less significant poems of moralistic and religious content belong to George; among them stands out the Six Days, or the Creation of the World, testifying to the outstanding erudition of Pisis in ancient literature. Translations of "Shestodnev" were in circulation in Armenia, in Serbia and in Rus'. George Pisida also wrote iambic epigrams.
The historical writings of Pisis are especially interesting. The central image of the heroic epic is the emperor, surrounded by a halo of military glory and valor. The poet acts as the singer of the glory of Heraclius. Despite the tendentiousness, rhetorical style and mannerisms of expression, these works reflect the difficulty of the external situation of the empire in the first half of the 7th century. and important factual data.

The work of Pisida attracts attention with retrospectiveness and school correctness of its metrics. Most of his works are performed in iambs, which, unlike his contemporaries, correspond to the norms of musical prosody. He achieves such virtuosity in mastering the iambic trimeter that he prompted the subtle connoisseur Michael Psellos (XI century) to seriously discuss the problem in a special treatise: “Who builds verse better - Euripides or Pisis?” Sometimes he resorts to the hexameter; in these cases, he scrupulously observes the prosodic restrictions of the Nonna school. The figurative system of Pisis is distinguished by great clarity and a sense of proportion, which also make one recall classical examples.

And yet Pisis went much further from antiquity than the court poets of Justinian. We meet his image of Fate, sustained in the spirit of the purest medieval allegorism and forcing us to recall dozens of parallels from Vagant poetry or book miniatures of the Middle Ages:

Imagine in your mind an indecent dancer,
What is acting with noise and antics.
Depicting the vicissitudes of life
The deceptive flicker of fussy hands.
The scum is thrilled, spinning, coaxing,
Winking languidly and seductively
To the one whom she took it into her mind to fool,
But immediately on the other and on the third
All with the same prodigal caress translates the look.
Promises everything, tries to fake everything
And nothing creates reliable,
Like a slut with a cold soul
He approaches everyone with feigned ardor ...

The mediaeval allegory is necessarily followed by a characteristic admonition:

Fools - thrones, kingdoms, glory, honors,
With malice and care inseparable;
But for the one who managed to comprehend the truth,
Throne - prayer, glory - quiet speeches ...

Yet the poetry of Pisis, with its secular orientation, linguistic purism and metrical correctness, stands out sharply against the background of the literary production of his era. A few generations later, it would already be an anachronism.

More promising was the line of liturgical poetry that Roman the Melodist discovered. Patriarch Sergius (610-638) was a contemporary and friend of George Pisida; under his name came the most famous work of Greek hymnography - "The Great Akathist" to the Mother of God. This attribution is doubtful: the poem was attributed to Roman, Patriarch Herman and even Pisis. One thing is clear: at least the introductory part of the akathist was created immediately after the invasion of the Avars in 626. The form of the akathist suggests an endless escalation of appeals and epithets that begin with the same greeting (in the traditional Russian translation, “rejoice”). The lines are connected in pairs by a rigid metrical and syntactic parallelism, supported by the widest use of assonances and rhymes:

Rejoice, reservoir of God's wisdom,
Rejoice, repository of the mercy of the Lord,
Rejoice, temperance flower,
Rejoice, crown of chastity,
Rejoice, conquering the machinations of hell,
Rejoice, opening the doors of paradise...

Translation can only give an extremely impoverished idea of ​​this poetic structure, based on the most complex play of thought, words and sounds; this game cannot be played within another language. The flexibility and virtuosity of verbal ornamentation reaches the highest degree in the Great Akathist. But the movement, the dramatic gradation of tension that can still be found in Roman's kontakia, is not here. This does not mean that the poem is monotonous or monotonous. On the contrary, it plays with the greatest variety of shades of vocabulary and euphony, but this variety is akin to the variegation of arabesques: there is no dynamics behind it. On the whole, the poem is static to the extent that it would be unbearable for any reader and listener other than the Byzantine one (this is by no means common feature liturgical poetry - in all works of Western medieval hymnography, which in terms of their artistic level can withstand comparison with the "Great Akathist", there is always an internal development).

Meanwhile, we see that the author was able to convey the movement of human emotion quite convincingly: in the inserts framing the stanzas, he depicts Mary's embarrassment at her fate, Joseph's bewilderment, etc. But it is characteristic that these sketches and sketches lie on the periphery of the artistic whole. Byzantine aesthetics demanded static from the hymnographer. According to John of the Ladder. one who has reached moral perfection “becomes like an immovable column in the depths of his heart”; a greater contrast to the Gothic understanding of spirituality as a dynamic tension cannot be imagined. In its static nature, the Great Akathist is an exact correlate of the works of Byzantine painting. It fits perfectly to the rhythm of the liturgical "action" of the Greek liturgy, to the intonations of Byzantine music (which are also static), to the outlines of the church interior, filled with flickering candles and gleaming mosaics. Here, the same integral unity of the poetic text and architectural space has been achieved, as once in the Attic theater of the era of Sophocles.

The successors of the hagiographic traditions of the VI century. were John Moskh, Sophrony of Jerusalem, Leonty of Naples. They all belonged to the same circle, which was characterized, on the one hand, by the desire to bring literature closer to the people, and, on the other, by separation from antiquity.

The Palestinian monk John Moschus (d. 619), who undertook numerous trips to Egypt, Asia Minor, Syria, Sinai and Cyprus, compiled, as a result of his travels, together with his friend, Sophronius of Jerusalem, a collection of stories about the monks “The Spiritual Meadow ", or "Lemonar". This work is distinguished by the simplicity of the plot, realism, liveliness of the characteristics. "Limonar" was a considerable success, it was repeatedly processed and expanded.

John Moskhom and Sophrony jointly wrote a biography of John the Merciful, intended for an educated circle. In such hagiographies, designed for representatives of the upper class of Byzantine society, the authors sought to show their erudition: familiarity with ancient literature, knowledge of rhetoric; however, they often lost their originality.

The most prominent figure in the democratic hagiography of the 7th century. was Leontius from Naples on the island of Cyprus (late 6th - mid 7th century). His compositions are distinguished by a rare liveliness of tone; At the same time, he is brought closer to his genre predecessor Palladius by the fact that he far from avoids humorous assessments in his lives. Here is what he says about the holy fool St. Simeone: “... On one street, the girls danced with choruses, and the saint took it into his head to walk along this street. And so they saw him and began to tease the holy father with their chants. The righteous man made a prayer in order to bring them to reason, and at his prayer they all immediately became numb... Then they began chasing him with tears and shouting: “Take back the word, blessed one, take back the word,” for they believed that he let loose on them strabismus divination. And so they caught up with him, stopped him by force and begged him to untie his spell. And he said to them with a grin: “Which of you wants to be healed, I will kiss the squinted eye, and she will be healed.” And then all those whom it was the will of God to be healed, were allowed to kiss their eye; and the rest, who did not give in, remained stupefied and wept ... "The episode ends with the maxim of the holy fool:" If the Lord had not sent strabismus on them, the greatest shameful shameful women in all of Syria would have come out of them, but because of the illness of their eyes, they were saved from many evils. More serious, but just as vital, is the life of the Alexandrian Archbishop John the Merciful, with whom Leonty had a personal friendship. Leonty portrays his hero as an active philanthropist, whose aggravated conscience does not allow him to enjoy the luxury corresponding to his rank: “... Is it possible to say that John is covered with a cover of thirty-six gold pieces, while his brothers in Christ become stiff and chilly? How many at this very moment are chattering their teeth from the cold, how many have only straw; half of it will be spread, half will be covered and they cannot stretch their legs - they are trembling, curled up in a ball! How many go to bed in the mountains, without food, without a candle, and doubly suffer from hunger and cold! .. "

Literature of Byzantium IV-VII centuries. reflects the formation and establishment of Christian culture, accompanied by a struggle with the echoes of pagan antiquity. In this complex and contradictory struggle between the two ideologies, new genres and styles were born, which were developed in the subsequent era. 

The scientific literature on Byzantium is immense. Twice a year, the most authoritative international Byzantine journal Byzantinische Zeitschrift (literally “Byzantine Journal”) compiles an annotated bibliography of new works on Byzantine studies, and usually a 300-400 page issue includes from 2500 to 3000 items. It is not easy to navigate in such a flurry of publications. Moreover, this is literature different languages: Byzantine studies (as well as, for example, classical philology) never became an English-language discipline, and every Byzantine scholar is required to read at least German, French, Italian, Modern Greek and Latin (Latin for Byzantinists is not only a language of sources, but also a working tool: in according to tradition, prefaces to critical editions are written on it to this day). At the beginning of the 20th century, the Russian language was also included in this mandatory list, and now Turkish is gaining more and more strong positions.

That is why even important books are translated very rarely. Paradoxically, even Karl Krumbacher's programmatic book "Geschichte der byzantinischen Litteratur" ("History of Byzantine Literature"), which laid the foundation for late XIX century of the foundations of scientific Byzantine studies, has not been fully translated into any European language, except for modern Greek. The situation with translations into Russian is even more deplorable - the fundamental works cannot be read in it.

The list below includes one popular monograph designed to explain what Byzantium is to the person who asked this question for the first time, and five "classical" books that had a great influence on the development of Byzantine studies. These are either works by Russian-speaking scientists or monographs by European researchers available in translation (however, the quality of translation is not always high, and it is always better to refer to the original if possible). The list does not include important books dedicated to individual figures of Byzantine culture. For example, Lyubarsky Ya. N. “Mikhail Psell. Personality and creativity. On the history of Byzantine pre-humanism” (M., 1978); Meyendorff I., Protopresv. "The Life and Works of St. Gregory Palamas: An Introduction to the Study" (2nd ed. St. Petersburg, 1997)., or in-depth studies revealing some narrow layer of Byzantine culture Ousterhout R. "Byzantine builders" (M., Kyiv, 2005); Taft R. F. "Byzantine Church Rite" (St. Petersburg, 2000)., since it would be wrong to recommend this kind of private research for the first acquaintance with Byzantium.

Judith Herrin. "Byzantium: The Amazing Life of a Medieval Empire"

Professor Judith Herrin (b. 1942) wrote her popular monograph on Byzantium - if, of course, the preface is to be believed, and not considered literary game- after failing to answer the question of the workers who were doing repairs in her office at King's College London: "What is Byzantium?" (They noticed this mysterious word on the door of her office.) From a book that is unlikely to reveal anything new to a specialist, but will be useful to anyone who asks the same question as the heroes of the preface, one should not expect a consistent presentation of Byzantine history - according to according to the author, this is just “assorted meze” (this was originally a Persian word for snacks throughout the Mediterranean), designed not to satiate, but only to whet the reader’s appetite. The book is built chronologically (from the founding of Constantinople to its fall), but its chapters are deliberately weighted - at first glance, the immense topics “Greek Orthodoxy” or “Byzantine Economy” and the very private “Basil II Bulgar-Slayer” can be on the same level. and Anna Komnena.

Herrin proposes to look at the history of Byzantium not as an endless series of emperors, generals and patriarchs with names unusual for the European ear, but as a history of people who created a civilization that in the 7th century protected Europe from the Arab threat,
and in the XIII-XV centuries it laid the foundations of the European Renaissance - and yet the average modern European is completely unfamiliar and comes down in his mind to stereotypes about deceit, obscurantism, flattery and pretense. Herrin masterfully cracks down on these stereotypes, inherited from Montesquieu and Edward Gibbon, both alienating and bringing Byzantium closer. She describes Byzantium with graceful paradoxes (“The cultural influence of Byzantium grew in inverse proportion to its political power”), but at the same time shows how this seemingly infinitely distant civilization breaks into the world around us, sharing childhood impressions of the mosaics of Ravenna or analyzing speech of Pope Benedict XVI in 2006, in which he referred (however, according to Herrin, not quite correctly) to the anti-Islamic statements of Emperor Manuel II Komnenos.

Herrin J. Byzantium: The Surprising. Life of a Medieval Empire. Princeton, N.J., 2008.
Alternative: Herrin J. Byzantium. The Amazing Life of a Medieval Empire. M., 2015.

Alexander Kazhdan. "History of Byzantine Literature"

The unfinished project of Alexander Kazhdan (1922-1997), to which he went for many years, gradually moving from the socio-economic problems that occupied him in his youth to the history of Byzantine literary aesthetics. Work on the volumes began in 1993, and by the time Kazhdan passed away, none of them were completely ready for publication. The books were published only nine years later, and in Greece, because of which they practically did not get into libraries and book networks.

The published volumes are only a small part of what was to be written. They cover the period of the Dark Ages (mid-VII - mid-VIII centuries), the era of the monastic revival (c. 775 - c. 850) and the time of Byzantine encyclopedism (850-1000). Kazhdan did not have time to write about Mikhail Psellos, nor about Nikita Choniates, so beloved by him (however, here the collection of his articles “Nikita Choniates and His Time” (St. Petersburg, 2005) can serve as some compensation).

The title of Kazhdan's books is unlikely to attract the attention of a reader unfamiliar with the circumstances. Meanwhile, behind the simplicity of the title, there is a controversy with the founder of Byzantinism, Karl Krumbacher, and his vast and meticulous German reference book “History of Byzantine Literature” (in drafts and personal correspondence, Kazhdan even abbreviated his book as GBL, as if he wrote it not in English, but German). The books that replaced the obsolete Krumbacher compendium in the middle of the 20th century (for example, the works of Herbert Hunger on high secular literature or Hans Georg Beck on church writing and vernacular literature) were also more of reference books - detailed, complexly structured, but devoid of any aesthetic assessments lists of texts with comprehensive source characteristics and complete bibliography.

Kazhdan's task was different - to return to the question of "the pleasure received when reading the Greek medieval literary text", to try to evaluate Byzantine literature "by its own standards", to understand the issues of literary style. That is why the form of the book is impressionistic - Kazhdan abandoned the attempt to cover the entire literary heritage of Byzantium and created a cycle of chronologically sequential literary sketches-essays, sometimes almost devoid of reference and bibliographic apparatus. In the center of each of them is the key figure of the writer for a particular era, and lesser authors, acting in the orbit of the protagonist or continuing the vector set by him, are mentioned only in passing.

Kazhdan's "History of Byzantine Literature" finally approved the rights of a literary, rather than source-based, approach to the monuments of Byzantine literature and caused an avalanche-like increase in the number of works on Byzantine literary aesthetics.

Kazdan A. A History of Byzantine Literature (650-850) (in collaboration with L. F. Sherry and Ch. Angelidi). Athens, 1999.Kazdan A. A History of Byzantine Literature (850-1000). Ed. Ch. Angelidi. Athens, 2006 Alexander Kazhdan wrote his last books in English, because since 1979 he lived in the USA and worked in the Byzantine center of Dumbarton Oaks..
Alternative: Kazhdan A.P. History of Byzantine Literature (650-850). SPb., 2002.
Kazhdan A.P. History of Byzantine Literature (850-1000). The era of Byzantine encyclopedism. SPb., 2012.

Igor Medvedev. "Byzantine humanism of the XIV-XV centuries"

The first edition of the book of the current head of the St. Petersburg school of Byzantine studies, Igor Medvedev (b. 1935), took place in 1976; for the second edition in 1997, it was supplemented and revised. Medvedev's monograph raises the question of humanistic tendencies in the culture of Late Byzantium (XIV-XV centuries) and the typological similarity of these tendencies with the features of the Western European Renaissance.

The central figure of the book is the Neoplatonist philosopher Georgy Gemist Plifon, who, at the end of Byzantine history, proposed a program for a radical renewal of the empire based on the revival of pagan Olympic cults. Consigned to oblivion in Byzantium (his most scandalous book, "Laws", was destroyed by the Patriarch of Constantinople Gennadius Scholarius), Plethon, who was an unimaginable combination of Byzantine-intellectual and neo-pagan, invariably intrigued and intrigues researchers (for example, last year The prestigious English publishing house Ashgate published a new four-hundred-page book about Plytho, subtitled "Between Hellenism and Orthodoxy"). Added by Medvedev in the second edition of the book, the chapter "The Apotheosis of Plethon" bears the characteristic subtitle "New historiographical wave".

According to Medvedev, in the 14th-15th centuries, a special environment formed in the Byzantine elite, in which tendencies, somewhat akin to the ideas of Italian humanism, became widespread. Most prominent representatives of this environment (Plithon and the writer Theodore Metochites) were ready to offer Byzantium a "Hellenistic" future based on the ideology of "secular humanism" and open recognition of the unity of Greek culture from Antiquity to the Middle Ages. However, the possibility of this alternative history never became a reality, because "the Byzantine Church," endorsing the teachings of St. Gregory Palamas…resolutely turned her back on the Renaissance According to Medvedev, hesychasm, justified by Grigory Palamas - a monastic and ascetic practice that allows a person to unite with God - was "obscurantism", and his victory left no space for free discussions about faith: a system of "political persecution on the model of the Catholic Inquisition" arose, and now for "the beginnings of a new vision of the world, a new worldview, born of the Renaissance, people had to shed their blood."“(quote from John Meyendorff John Meyendorff(1926-1992) - American church historian, researcher of hesychasm.), and in 1453 the Turkish blade finally interrupted the political existence of Byzantium. Today, when the ecclesiastical component of Byzantine culture overshadows all others in the mass consciousness, such a comparison of the “merits” of the Church of Constantinople and the Turks, as well as the whole anti-Hesychast pathos of the book, sounds especially relevant.

Medvedev I.P. Byzantine humanism XIV-XV centuries. 2nd edition, revised and enlarged. SPb., 1997.

Sergei Averintsev. "The Poetics of Early Byzantine Literature"

The book by Sergei Averintsev (1937-2004) is perhaps the most popular publication with the word "Byzantine" in the title ever published in Russia. It has been repeatedly reprinted and is included in the lists of literature for students not only of specialized Byzantine departments.

The book is both easy and difficult to read at the same time. It is almost devoid of a reference and bibliographic framework and deliberately confuses the reader with riddle headings of sections that are not formally structured in any way: “Being as perfection - beauty as being”, “Consent in disagreement”, “The world as a riddle and riddle”. The book is not a consistent presentation of the stages of the literary process in the Mediterranean region and not a guide to genres, but a collection of culturological essays written in vivid, figurative language, in which the author tries to find the specifics of Byzantine culture through literary texts that formally do not yet belong to the Byzantine period ( As a rule, Byzantine literature is spoken of in relation to monuments no earlier than the 6th or even the 7th century).

Averintsev proposed to abandon the endless dispute about where the border between Antiquity and Byzantium lies, recognizing that the texts he discusses (authored by Nonn of Panopolitansky or Gregory the Theologian) can rightfully be attributed to both ancient and pre- (or early-) Byzantine literature. According to him, we are talking only about focus - about looking forward or backward: “In these texts, too, we were looking primarily not for echoes of the old, but for features of the new; we were occupied not so much with the harmony of inertia worked out over the centuries, but with the fruitful disharmony of the shift... We tried to take the most fundamental literary principles in their mobile, self-contradictory, transitional state.<…>No epoch can be completely "equal to itself" - otherwise the next epoch would not have a chance to ever come.

Another fundamental decision of Averintsev is the inclusion in the circle of sources of texts that, in the new European understanding, are not literature: theological treatises, sermons, liturgical poetry. These texts, familiar to many at least from church services, but thus torn from the Byzantine, and even more so from the ancient context that gave rise to them, are revealed precisely as works of literature and find their place in the history of literary aesthetics.

Averintsev S. Poetics of Early Byzantine Literature. M., 1997.

Dmitry Obolensky. "Byzantine Commonwealth of Nations"

The book by Dmitry Obolensky (1918-2001) proposed the concept of the "Byzantine Commonwealth of Nations" (by analogy with the British Commonwealth - British Commonwealth). Obolensky postulates the possibility of “believing [Byzantium and the countries of Eastern Europe] a single international community”, “a supranational association of Christian states”, between the parts of which there are opposite lines of tension: centrifugal (the struggle of the peoples of Eastern Europe against Byzantium at the political, cultural, ecclesiastical and military level) and centripetal (gradual perception and recognition dominance of the Byzantine cultural tradition in Eastern Europe). The geographical boundaries of the world described on the pages of the book are mobile. The focus of the researcher's attention moves both along the time and geographical scale, since new peoples constantly fell into the orbit of influence of Byzantine culture: the "core" Byzantine world in the Balkans remained unchanged, but over time, some regions departed from Byzantium (Moravia, Croatia, Hungary) and others approached (Rus, Moldavia, Wallachia). The cycle of chronologically organized essays is replaced by arguments about the factors of cultural penetration of Byzantium.

According to Obolensky, the "Commonwealth", fully formed by the beginning of the 11th century, had exceptional stability and existed until the fall of Byzantium. Insisting that it is "not an intellectual abstraction", Obolensky admits that the Byzantines themselves and their neighbors were not always fully aware of the nature of their relationship and were unable to conceptualize it themselves. However, the flexibility of the terminology that described these relations had its advantages, and modern attempts to "describe them in precise legal terms<…>oversimplify and distort their nature. The principal decision of the author was the refusal to see in the relations of Byzantium with the Eastern European countries and regions a simplified scheme of the struggle between Byzantine "imperialism" and "local national movements".

The idea of ​​the "Commonwealth" removed the contradiction between "the political independence of the medieval peoples of Eastern Europe" and "their recognition of the supreme power of the emperor" that seemed insoluble to Obolensky's predecessors. Its bonds were the confession of Eastern Christianity and the recognition of the supremacy of the Church of Constantinople, the norms of Roman-Byzantine law, the supreme political power of the Byzantine emperor over everything Orthodox world, as well as the standards of Byzantine literary and artistic aesthetics.

Obolensky D. The Byzantine Commonwealth: Eastern Europe, 500-1453. London, 1971.
Alternative: Obolensky D. Byzantine Commonwealth of Nations. Six Byzantine portraits. M., 1998.

Paul Lemerle. "The First Byzantine Humanism"

The classic monograph by the French Byzantine scholar Paul Lemerle (1903-1989), which became available in Russian only forty years after its publication, is dedicated to the cultural transformation of Byzantium during the Macedonian Renaissance (IX-X centuries) - the time of the "first" humanism, which made it possible not to only the “second”, much more famous, humanism of the Paleolog era, but also indirectly influenced the humanism of the Western European Renaissance. The baggage of knowledge about the ancient culture of the Byzantines who fled to Italy after 1453 was developed by scientists of the 14th-15th centuries, but they, in turn, relied on the intellectuals of the Macedonian era, who were the first to pull the works of Plato, Aristotle, Aeschylus and Euripides out of oblivion of the dark ages.

The second half of the 9th - 10th centuries is the time of the Byzantines' new acquaintance with ancient culture and the accumulation and codification of knowledge in all spheres of life. Asking about the reasons for this cultural outburst, Lemerle refuses to see in it an external (Carolingian western or Syro-Arabic eastern) influence. In his interpretation, the possibility of such a revival was always inherent in Byzantine culture, which formally declared hatred for the pagan past, but in reality was careful about preserving its cultural heritage. Lemerle describes the relationship between Christianity and pagan antiquity in terms of "gap and continuity". Eastern Christianity condemned paganism, but was, paradoxically, also a connecting element between eras. It turned the ancient tradition of education "into one of the instruments of its victory", but (unlike the Western Church) did not follow the path of complete subordination of school education. According to Lemerle, "the first salvation of Hellenism" occurred already at the dawn of the Byzantine era, when a large-scale copying of ancient papyri began at Constantinople by order of Emperor Constantius II.

In the center of each of the chapters of the main part of the book is some important figure of the era - Leo the Mathematician, Patriarch Photius, Aretha of Caesarea, Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus. Separate sections are devoted to the development of school education and the technical revolution that happened thanks to the invention of the minuscule - that is, writing in lowercase letters, which made it possible to significantly speed up the rewriting, and hence the distribution of texts. Without formally claiming to be anything more than “remarks and notes” (notes et remarques), Lemerle comes to important conclusions about the specifics of Byzantine civilization: “imperial” or “baroque” Hellenism is combined in it with the decision of the church to “assimilate [pagan culture] , and not to destroy it”, which gave rise to the typical Byzantine “duality or, if you like, ambiguity” of the entire Byzantine culture.

Lemerle P. Le premier humanisme byzantin: Notes et remarques sur enseignement et culture à Byzance des origines au X e siècle. Paris, 1971.
Alternative: Lemerle P. The first Byzantine humanism. Notes and notes on education and culture in Byzantium from the beginning to the tenth century. SPb., 2012.