Section 2. L'épopée, problèmes de définition I - Traits et caractéristiques

Will Zion Fall Again ? The Deuteronomistic Epic in Twelfth Century Byzantium

Maximilian Lau

Résumé

Bien que ce soit un truisme de longue date que d’affirmer que la culture byzantine est le produit à la fois des traditions classiques et chrétiennes, le rôle joué par la Bible dans la production de la culture byzantine n’est devenu que récemment un objet d’étude critique soutenue parmi les byzantinistes. Seule une fraction de ces études se concentre sur l’Ancien Testament. Cet article se concentrera sur un poème de l’écrivain du XII^e siècle Théodore Prodrome comme exemple de l’influence de la tradition épique deutéronomistique sur la littérature byzantine. En nous concentrant sur ce poème, nous pouvons voir comment les livres du Deutéronome sont utilisés pour faire de la dynastie des empereurs comnéniens la dernière itération des héros de l’Ancien Testament. Ce faisant, Prodrome a dépeint les actes de ces empereurs du XII^e siècle comme l’accomplissement des prophéties de l’Ancien Testament, bien qu’il ait réécrit et réinterprété les Écritures afin de s’adapter à la situation politique contemporaine. De plus, nous pouvons voir comment les objectifs militaires et diplomatiques de l’empereur Jean II Comnène ont été particulièrement façonnés par cette tradition épique, alors qu’il cherchait à réifier les traditions épiques de l’Ancien Testament au XII^e siècle.

Abstract

Though it is a longstanding truism that Byzantine culture was the product of both Classical and Christian traditions, the role played by the Bible in the production of Byzantine culture has only recently become an object of sustained critical study among Byzantinists. Only a fraction of that study focuses on the Old Testament. This paper will focus on one poem by the twelfth century writer Theodore Prodromos as an exemplar of the influence of the Deuteronomistic epic tradition on Byzantine literature. By focusing on this poem, we can see how the Deuteronomistic books of the Old Testament are used to cast the Komnenian dynasty of emperors as the latest iteration of Old Testament heroes. By doing so, Prodromos portrayed the deeds of these twelfth century emperors as the fulfilment of Old Testament prophecies, though he rewrote and reinterpreted scripture in order to fit the contemporary political situation. Further, we can see how the Emperor John II Komnenos’ military and diplomatic goals were especially shaped by this epic tradition, as he sought to reify the epic traditions of the Old Testaments in his twelfth century present.

Texte intégral

The study of epic literature in Byzantium has received a new lease of life in recent years¹. It has become increasingly recognised that epic literature permeated Byzantine literary culture far more than suggested by the sole surviving complete epic poem, Digenis Akritas, and the other so-called Akritic ballads of the eleventh century.² The oft quoted lines of the twelfth century Archbishop Eustathios of Thessalonike from his commentary on the Iliad epitomises this when he opines that : “From Homer comes if not all at any rate much of the material of later writers… All have stopped at Homer’s hostelry”.³ The 2020 three volume study on the structures of epic poetry neatly outlines this surviving tradition in an excellent piece by Kristoffel Demoen and Berinice Verhelst.⁴ This study goes further, however, in another piece by Verhelst analysing how 5^th century texts such as Nonnus of Panapolis’ Paraphrases and the Empress and later Saint Eudocia’s Homerocentones actively used features and direct quotations of Homeric epic to retell or elaborate on Christian themes.⁵ For example using Homerically phrased and ordered divine counsel scenes to describe why Jesus should go to earth, followed by an equally Homeric messenger scene for the Annunciation, and then ekphraseis for miracles such as the wedding of Cana.

I would like to further these advances in scholarship by refocusing on the other great influence upon Byzantine literature : the Old Testament. In this paper, I will first introduce the relationships between Old Testament and Byzantine literature, before focusing on the highlights of one particular text, and from this I will suggest some preliminary interpretations about both that text, and the influence of the Old Testament upon the epic tradition in Byzantium.

The terms ‘Israelite’ or ‘Hebrew’ epic have themselves been challenged terms since the idea of the Hebrew Bible as Epic was first mused in the 19^th century. Indeed, Fr Sauvage’s paper in this volume takes on this very question using the example of Exodus 14, and he uses an innovative metalinguistic reading to establish that it is indeed an epic, though one operating on a very different plane and with a very different purpose to that of the ancient Greek epic.⁶ Without wishing to retread his excellent scholarship on this question, for my paper I especially point my readers towards Susan Niditch’s chapter on “The Challenge of Israelite Epic” in the 2005 Companion to the Ancient Epic.⁷ After outlining the debate, her paper concludes by drawing on the typology established in Felix Oinas’ 1978 anthology of epics from around the world.⁸ Niditch notes that these Hebrew texts certainly included elements of perilous adventure, daring and manhood that could be sung, chanted, recited, acted out or danced, but that as with other cultures, the role of oral composition remains an open question.⁹ Further, that the relationship of these works to history varies, as the historic hero is embellished with legend, and the hero of fiction assumes a realistic dimension, so they tend to converge in epics. She finishes with a set of questions, asking whether the Israelites themselves considered the heroic tales from Judges to 2 Samuel, or of God as Yhwh the divine warrior, to be epic ? This she answers by saying this literature was certainly comparable with other epics from around the world, and that “they appealed within ancient Israel and elsewhere”, where “they were employed in culturally specific ways as a deeply expressive means of asserting and declaring national and ethnic identity”.¹⁰

This brings us back to Byzantium, as one of those ‘elsewheres’. Though it is a longstanding truism that Byzantine culture was the product of both classical and Christian traditions, the role played by the Bible in the production of Byzantine culture has only recently become an object of sustained critical study among Byzantinists, and only a fraction of that study focuses on the Old Testament. Magdalino and Nelson opened the introduction of their, thus far unique, volume of collected essays on The Old Testament in Byzantium by noting that no major study on the Bible in Byzantium has yet been produced. This is despite the fact that references to Scripture are omnipresent in “every conceivable milieu, in word and in image”.¹¹ To take history writing as an example, scripture served as the foundational normative historiographical narrative into which other histories and legends could be folded.¹² I previously published a paper on history writing in twelfth-century Byzantium under the Komnenos dynasty, where I argued that history was depicted as a continuum.¹³ Events in the biblical, mythological, classical, and more recent past are juxtaposed in these texts as part of the same divinely inspired order of the world, and the Komnenoi were the latest iteration of rulers that would restore and maintain the divinely ordained world order.

As such, the Komnenoi are presented as the heroes of a great variety of court texts that Byzantinists often refer to as ‘rhetorical’, covering a broad variety of poems, speeches, letters, short novels and songs that are in various registers of Greek, but whose intended audiences were both the court and the people of Constantinople as part of either a public or more private ceremonial reading.¹⁴ Some are in simpler Greek and would likely have been sung out by choirs before races in the Hippodrome or at important church or civic events, whilst others would be intended for Theatra, essentially literary salons that could be a high level one run by an aristocrat, or a lower level one for a teacher and his students.¹⁵ They are packed with allusions to classical history and mythology, in addition to more recent historical events – but, far from being mere window dressing, these allusions articulate the policies and ideology of Komnenian Byzantium in ways that fit these texts into Oinas’ classification of epic, used by Niditch for Israelite epics. It is noteworthy that Komnenian Byzantium in particular draws heavily on the Deuteronomistic books of the Bible, which are the same books that Niditch focuses on as those that should be seen as an especial part of an Israelite epic tradition.

It is here that two points must be clarified : those being, the medium through which the Old Testament was received in Byzantium, and some further explanation of these so-called Deuteronomistic books, and why they might have especially appealed to twelfth century Byzantium.

To add some additional context, when I first composed this paper, I used the provisional title of the ‘Israelite’ epic. I did this because the Old Testament was experienced by the overwhelming majority of audiences in Byzantium entirely through Greek language, and therefore using the term ‘Hebrew’ epic was a misnomer, whilst they were certainly associated with the ancient kingdoms of Israel and Judah, which I will return to below. The vast majority of these audiences would have encountered the Old Testament through the Prophetologion—a lectionary of Biblical excerpts to be read during the specified parts of the liturgical year, which was produced between the ninth and sixteenth centuries.¹⁶ Educated clergy and laymen would also have been familiar with the Psalter, which was used for both public and private prayer.¹⁷ The Old Testament as a corpus was also not the one familiar to most modern audiences, as it was the Greek translation of the original Hebrew that after St. Augustine has been called the Septuagint.¹⁸ So-named due its storied origin as a translation made by seventy Jewish scholars for Ptolemy II Philadelphus in the 3^rd century BC for the Hellenistic Jews of the Eastern Mediterranean, the text contains expanded and revised versions of the texts preserved in the Hebrew tradition, from which most modern Protestant Christians derive their Bible. It also contains several sections not in the Catholic tradition either, such as the Prayer of Manasseh and Psalm 151.

A Byzantine audience would therefore have been very familiar with the annual readings of the Prophetologion and the Psalms, but any deeper knowledge would have come through a textual corpus distinct from that familiar to most modern Jews and Christians. The term ‘Hebrew’ epic would therefore be misleading, but to be even more precise than ‘Israelite’, the term ‘Deuteronomistic’ should also be clarified.

This term derives from Martin Noth’s classic work of Biblical scholarship where he proposed that the biblical books of Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and 1 and 2 Kings were largely the work of a single author, writing during the Babylonian exile. Noth argued that this historian’s narrative goal was to explain the fall of the kingdoms of Israel and Judah on account of their failure to enact the will of God/YHWH, but he also held out hope for a restoration of Judah.¹⁹ More recently, Römer has argued that the books were written in three stages.²⁰ He identifies the first stage as being under Josiah, 16^th king of Judah, the second as during the Babylonian exile, and the third in this Persian period after the rebuilding of the temple ; all this material was composed between the fall of the northern kingdom of Israel to Assyria in 721 BC and the return from the Babylonian exile in 539 BC.

According to the biblical account, the United Monarchy of Israel had split after the northern tribes under Jeroboam refused to accept Solomon’s son Rehoboam as their king sometime around 1000–900 BC. A major theme is the faithfulness of the southern kingdom of Judah, based in Jerusalem, to God, illustrated when the northern kingdom of Israel fell to the Neo-Assyrians. In this period, one of the main tropes that developed was that God had chosen a righteous remnant to remain, while God’s enemies defeated his wayward children, and that remnant would eventually be restored to their full inheritance.²¹ Scholars since Noth and Römer have found further positions based on these themes, with some key ideas being a renewed focus on how King Josiah was the true successor to David through redeeming his people of “the sin of Jeroboam”, or on how these books hold out hope to the people of Judah, or how God’s promises are always kept.²²

From this context, it becomes increasingly clear why these Deuteronomistic books would have resonated strongly in twelfth-century Byzantium. Literati had claimed for many centuries that the Christian Empire of New Rome/Byzantium was in succession to the kingdom of Israel.²³ But their successors in the twelfth century lived in an empire that had lost much of its territory during the crises that followed the battle of Manzikert in 1071, the civil wars that followed, and the passage of the First Crusade.²⁴ The Emperor Alexios I Komnenos (1081-1118) had brought the empire back from the brink of extinction, and now his heirs had the task of restoring the old empire, as you can see they had some success with in the 100 years following. With this political project at the heart of the Constantinopolitan court, it is no surprise that in these contemporary court texts we see this Israelite epic tradition come through strongest, as they saw written in these Deuteronomistic books a comparable theo-geopolitical situation.

The text chosen as an exemplar in this paper is one by Theodore Prodromos, whom recent scholarship has named as the twelfth century Constantinopolitan ‘poet laureate’ : a master of his craft who wrote more than 17,000 verses across multiple genres, from hagiography to classical romance, Aristotelian philosophy to satire.²⁵ Though Prodromos’ work has often been viewed through the lens of the classical tradition, it is this poem in particular that demands that we view it through the lens of Deuteronomistic tradition as well.

The poem, entitled : “A Dekastiche for Autokrator Lord John Komnenos taking the field again against the Persians : prayers taken from all of the prophets”, is 410 lines long, with a few lacunae in the surviving manuscripts that would have added a few more lines ; even as it is, this text is double the length of Prodromos’ similar works for the emperor, making it at least a mini epic in this regard.²⁶ It is also entitled and structured as a dekastichoi : often translated into the German ‘Dekastische’, this refers to the structure of the poem being that of ten-line verses that use various metres, but crucially means that this poem would be sung at a public occasion, such as the ceremonial departure or return of the emperor on a campaign.²⁷ Therefore, though written by Prodromos, this text was intended for public performance, and so earns its epic genre credentials in that regard as well. Its title refers explicitly to the fact that the poem will use “prayers taken from all the prophets” for the Emperor John II Komnenos 1118-43.²⁸ The content of the text, however, goes further than simply using prayers in support of the emperor’s campaign, but makes an epic of the emperor’s deeds that had been long foretold by these biblical prophets.

To give you a highlights tour of this poem, it opens with : Ὁρῶν παραταττόμενον κατὰ Περσῶν σε πάλιν | καὶ κατὰ τῶν ἐξ Ἰσμαὴλ ἐκτείνοντα τὸ δόρυ (‘Seeing you ready for battle against the Persians again and stretching your spears against the get of Ishmael’)²⁹ The ‘get of Ishmael’ and the ‘Persians’ are enemies of the Israelites from opposite ends of the Old Testament, and thus the Emperor drawing up in battle against them ‘again’ is not only a reference to his latest campaign, but a call to arms for God’s anointed to once more face God’s enemies, and this is literally referenced in the fourth verse in a paraphrase of Psalm 88 (LXX). 21–22.³⁰ Indeed, in a twelfth-century context, using the idea of the children of Ishmael confronting the children of Isaac is particularly apt, as it reflects the religious and political closeness of Christianity and Islam, and the Basileus and the Caliph, and their competing claims to universal authority.

That John is the Lord’s favoured is made clear with judicious paraphrasing of Psalm 90 in the next verse, and though much of it merely emphasizes how John is favoured by God, there is a deft reworking of the psalm towards the end :

Χώρει, γεννάδα βασιλεῦ, θαρρῶν κατὰ τοῦ Πέρσου,ὁ γὰρ θεός σε ῥύσεται, καθ᾽ἃ Δαυὶδ προλέγει,
ἀπὸ παγίδος θηρευτῶν καὶ λόγου ταραχώδους,
σκιάσει δέ σε θαυμαστῶς τοῖς τούτου μεταφρένοις
καὶ τοῖς ἀγγέλοις ἑαυτοῦ δεσποτικῶς κελεύσει
διαφυλάσσειν σε καλῶς ἐν πάσαις ταῖς ὁδοῖς σου.
ἐπὶ χειρῶν ἀροῦσι σε, μήποτε καὶ προσκόψης.
ἑῴου βασιλίσκου δὲ καὶ δυτικῆς ἀσπίδος
καὶ λέοντος μεσημβρινοῦ καὶ δράκοντος ἀρκτῴου
τὸ κράτος ἄκρῳ τῷ ταρσῷ βασιλικῶς πατήσεις.

Go, noble Emperor, be courageous against the Persians,for God shall protect you, as David foretells,
from the snare of the fowler and from the noisome pestilence ;
with his feathers he shall cover you marvellously
and like a master he shall order his angels
to guard you well in all your ways.
They will lift you up in their hands, so that you won’t stumble.
Cobra of the east and serpent of the west
and lion of the south and dragon of the north
you shall royally trample on power with the ends of your feet.³¹

Compare that with the original text of Psalm 90 in n.31 and we can see that the emperor is here described as fulfilling the prophecy of Psalm 90 in spreading his empire out over its enemies.

Thus far, the poem has articulated a general programme of expansion, rather than specifics, but then it turns to the obscure prophet Habakkuk :

Καλῶ καὶ σὲ τὸν Ἀββακοὺμ τὸν βλέποντα τὸν μέγανσυνάρασθαί μοι τῆς εὐχῆς τῆς εἰς τὸν βασιλέα
καὶ προφοιβάσαι τρόπαια καὶ προχρηστηριάσαι
καὶ προειπεῖν τὸν ὄλεθρον τοῖς ἀλαζόσι Πέρσαις.
ἰδοὺ κινήσω καθ᾽ὑμῶν τοὺς μαχητὰς Ῥωμαίους,
τοῖς ἵπποις τούτων ἁλτικὰς ἐνθήσομαι δυνάμεις
ὑπὲρ ὁρμὴν παρδάλεων καὶ λύκων Ἀρραβίας,
καὶ γαῦρον ἐξιππάσονται καὶ δράμονται μακρόθεν
καὶ πετασθῶσι κατὰ γῆς τῆς σοβαρᾶς Περσίδος
ὡς ἀετὸς ὀξύρροπος καὶ πρόθυμος εἰς βρῶσιν.

I also summon you, Abbakum the great seer,to join me in praying for the Emperor
and predict the defeat [of the enemies], give oracles
and foretell the ruin of the arrogant Persians.
Now I arouse the Roman warriors against you :
I shall imbue the jumping powers of their horses,
[which are] swifter than the leopards and wolves of Arabia
and they shall ride forth [in exultation] and run far off
and fly over the violent Persian land,
like an eagle quickly turning and swooping for meat.³²

The prophet Habakkuk/Abbakkum is only twice mentioned by name in the Bible, and that is only in the Hebrew bible that passed into the Greek Old Testament known as the Septuagint (Habakkuk 1. 1 and 3. 1). The book attributed to him consists of five oracles concerned with the rise of Chaldean Babylon, though he is also mentioned in the Greek additions to the Book of Daniel.³³ In these oracles, Habakkuk compares the coming Chaldean horsemen to various animals, so that the parallelism with the Turks becomes obvious in Prodromos’s passage reflecting Habakkuk 1. 5–11, as shown above.

Though the parallel is mixed by Prodromos adding in the terms Persians and Arabs, ahistorical to Habakkuk, his updating of the verse to fit John’s contemporary situation is made clear in the next stanza : ‘Μάνθανε, γῆ Χαλδαϊκὴ καὶ γῆ Βαβυλωνία | καὶ χῶρος Αἰθιοπικὸς καὶ γῆ Μαδιηναία’ (‘Learn your fate, land of Chaldea and land of Babylonia | and the country of Ethiopia and the land of Madiina’).³⁴ This references the borders of the biblical world, with the often interchangeable Chaldea and Babylon meaning the north and east, while the Islamic heartland of Medina is added to Ethiopia for the south. This phrase may therefore be equivocating the conquest of Babylon by Chaldean horsemen with the conquest of Baghdad as the new Babylon by Seljuk Turkish horsemen, with Baghdad’s location c. 50 miles north of ancient Babylon (outside modern Hillah) making the parallelism apposite. Though one might assume that the reference to Ethiopia was merely one and the same with the Ethiopia mentioned by the classical Greek geographers, Ethiopia is also the usual Septuagint translation of the Hebrew Kush.³⁵ Kush is prominent in the Prophets and 2 Kings as a generic term for countries south of Israel, and it is also used more specifically in some sections to refer to southern Egypt. This may have been due to Egypt being ruled in the eighth and seventh centuries BC by the twenty-fifth dynasty, who were of Kushite/Nubian origin – and it is mentioned that King Hezekiah fought the king of Ethiopia/Kush in 2 Kings 19 :9. By the twelfth century, this region was predominantly under Islamic rule and so the parallelism continues, with the new enemies of the new chosen people equated together, and so this reference should be understood as one whose Biblical meaning comes through as strongly, if not more strongly than its classical Greek one in this context.³⁶ Mixed in this section on Habbakuk, we also have the mention that God opens up the eyes of the great, which may actually be a semi-quotation from Elisha, but this is itself combined with God preparing his equipment – the saviour of the people is marching out carrying his shining weapons and missiles, in what could be seen as the epic arming scene of the poem.³⁷

The daughter of Zion, younger Rome, is then called upon to arise and restore all the land and sea to the Lord in lines 121-130, paraphrasing the prophecies of restoration from the prophet Micah (Micah 4 :8-13 and 7 :11-12). This is likely a deliberate misreading of what the Old Testament says, as the daughter of Mt Zion is used in the Old Testament to describe Jerusalem itself, whereas it is now New Rome, Constantinople, who is the daughter of Zion.³⁸ Though the many foot soldiers marching out are mentioned briefly, the focus is on the Despotes, the emperor, described as the purple bloom of the Komnenian branch in reference to John’s birth in the Porphyra chamber of the imperial palace.³⁹ He is the child who is “your saviour and avenger” : the hero who will restore all the land and sea to the lord, in a clear reference to the Deuteronomistic promise of the eventual restoration of the united monarchy of God’s chosen people.

The next paraphrase is from the Book of Amos, another minor prophet who was from the southern kingdom of Judah but preached in the northern kingdom of Israel, a contemporary of Isaiah and Hosea in the eighth century BC. As a side note, Amos following Habakkuk and Micah is not the chronological order of the Septuagint, suggesting, perhaps, that political allusions had a primacy over biblical precedent.

Ἀμὼς ἀκρέμον προφητῶν, καὶ σὺ συμπάρεσό μοικαὶ « τἀδε λέγει κύριος ὁ παντοκράτωρ » λέγε·
πῦρ ἄσβεστον ἀποστελῶ περὶ τὰ τείχη Γάζης,
καὶ καταφλέζει σύμπαντας αὐτῆς τοὺς θεμελίους,
ἐξολοθρεύσει παντας δὲ κατοίκους τῆς Ἀζώτου·
σὺν τούτοις ἄρδην ἀπολεῖ καὶ τοὺς Ἀσκαλωνίτας·
ἀπάξω δὲ τὴν χεῖρα μου πρὸς τέρματα Περσίδος,
καὶ πάντες οἱ κατάλοιποι βαρβάρων ἀπολοῦνται,

Amos, branch of the prophets, you too shall join meand ‘thus says the Pantokrator’⁴⁰ tell :
I shall send unquenchable fire around the walls of Gaza,
and it shall burn all of her foundations,
and destroy all the inhabitants of Azotus :
and together with them annihilate the Ascalonians :
I will bring my hand upon the boundaries of Persia,
and all the remaining barbarians shall be destroyed⁴¹

This passage contains the same mixing of the biblical and classical past with the twelfth-century present, starting the use of the ethnonym “Persians,” who, to repeat, did not exist when Amos wrote, but most of the rest of the passage is pure quotation from Amos 1–2, though there are also some similarities with Zachariah 9 :1-9, which intriguingly includes Damascus as well. I will return to Damascus momentarily, but I want to highlight that this passage is a perfect example of this continuum between Biblical past and twelfth century present, as Prodromos intentionally blurs the distinction between these different parts of history. Such an effect makes it easy for John to appear as the latest in a series of Biblical heroes. Building upon this, it is significant that among this general exhortation for the emperor to conquer his enemies, Prodromos has chosen to use specific references to the Palestinian littoral. These include references not only to “fire around the walls of Gaza”, but also “Azotus”, which is the Greek Bible’s name for biblical and modern Ashdod, just north of Gaza, and “the Ascalonians” in reference to Ashkelon, which is between Ashdod and Gaza. The likely dating of the poem is especially relevant here, as from this context it appears likely that Prodromos wrote it on the occasion of Emperor John’s great campaign to the east in 1136-39. During this time, John conquered Cilicia and some towns in northern Syria, and he almost incorporated the crusader principality of Antioch into the empire (see maps above).⁴² His aims may also have stretched beyond this.

We know through a letter found in the Genizah archive, which a Jewish doctor of Seleukeia wrote to his relatives in Egypt, that some of John’s generals had been asked to bring this doctor medical textbooks from cities they captured, mentioning Damascus in particular, which is intriguing for the possible intertextuality between Amos and Zachariah in this section.⁴³ Further, John sent his cousin Adrian to visit Jerusalem and the Holy Land while he was in Syria to visit Orthodox Christians there and distribute the emperors largesse, and he is specifically described as the Aaron to John’s Moses, and thus this trip appears as a foretaste of a planned imperial visit.⁴⁴ Though John was recalled back to Constantinople in 1139 before his designs were fulfilled, he returned in 1142 and planned to visit Jerusalem before he died in a hunting accident in Cilicia. A monody from that year, written by Prodromos’s colleague, Michael Italikos, states that John had intended to go on pilgrimage to Jerusalem, and that the holy city and Golgotha itself would have had honours reserved for him had he arrived.⁴⁵ Thus, John’s aims for his eastern expedition appear to have been ambitious, to say the least, as this poem hints that some level of reincorporation of Damascus and the Holy Land itself was part of that agenda, which would have literally had John walking in the footsteps of his Old Testament predecessors. By doing so, he would earn the status of a reified epic hero himself, demonstrating how his military and diplomatic policies were shaped by this epic tradition.

This shall be returned to below, but in the poem the next of these predecessors was Joel, which brings us to some battle scenes in lines 151-170 : the Roman army is described as a tribe, φῦλον, making them of a kind with the tribes of Israel referenced in this way throughout the Greek Old Testament, biting like lions, appearing as many men like the daybreak to cover Persian hills, killing in a furious fire, until all the barbarians become subjects and the hills will drip with sweetness and milk in all Roman lands.⁴⁶ This directly paraphrases the especially warlike section of Joel 3, which opens with “In those days and at that time, when I restore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem”, and ends with the prophecy Prodromos quotes.

Zephaniah is then called on, interestingly to inspire the men of Aries in a clear classical-Biblical hybrid phrase of which there will be further examples. We have his words used to rouse the warriors, go to war and pour out the blood of a list of Biblical enemies in another paraphrase linked with the prophesies of Zephaniah whereby the entire world will be submitted to God’s judgement, though the famous Biblical line about turning ploughs into swords is also quoted in lines 171-180, which is also from Joel 3.

The prophets Malachi and Nahum are called on next, as the emperor enters Persian lands with the feet of his army raising a great cloud of dust above the clouds, and we get a specific quotation from another classic and much used line of the Israelite epic tradition in line 211. “The Despotes Komnenos, stout lion, arises” is an explicit reference to the Lion of Judah, based on a blessing that Jacob gave to his fourth son Judah in Genesis 49 :9. John therefore comes across as the hero of the righteous remnant in the Deuteronomistic tradition, though it should not be forgotten that the Lion of Judah is also mentioned in Book of Revelations 5 :5 in connection with Jesus, and so it should not be forgotten that the poem portrays John as embodying this New Testament meaning as well.

The prophet Obadiah who is mentioned next does, however, reassert the opposition between the “the house of the bitter Esau, and of your deceitful Persian” and the house of Jacob, “my servant and child” in lines 221-240. The prophet Jonah who was swallowed by the whale is briefly namechecked in lines 241-250 as he is told not to run away to sea this time, before we get to Jeremiah.

In lines 253-254 we come across the title of my paper, as Prodromos asks whether Zion will fall again as it did long ago, surrounded on all sides and destined to be burned by the Babylonians. We hear no, but then frustratingly we have a lacuna in the text and so we don’t hear the details. The text picks up with the lines “but having finished the lament with merriment send forth my Autokrator to fight for us again against the Persians”, and we then have a quote from Jeremiah how the lord will take the field with the emperor, and will deliver him and shelter him, save him and protect him all the days of his life, in a possible paraphrase of Psalm 23, known to many for its opening lines “The Lord is my Shepherd”.⁴⁷

Zachariah follows, and we hear how all the Persian horses and chariots will be destroyed with the bows and missiles of New Zion in lines 271-280 (Cf. Zachariah 9 :9-17). More pertinently, Isaiah is then described as “συμμουσηγετούσης” – that is “prophet and leader of the Muses”, in another blending of Old Testament and classical epic tradition, as the title ‘Musagetes’ is one ascribed to Apollo.⁴⁸ Isaiah 7 :20 is then quoted in lines 291-310, in the context of Assyria being shaved and humbled, which runs straight into a recitation of the first vision of the prophet Ezekiel.

This chapter describes how the land of Chaldea will be overtaken by four marvelous animals pulling the chariot of the Holy Spirit of God.⁴⁹ It is a prophecy that is reflected in Revelations 4 :2 6-8, one which early Christian commentators such as St Jerome and St Augustine believed was allegorically fulfilled by the four evangelists, leading to their usual portrayals in art as a winged man (Matthew), winged lion (Mark), winged bull (Luke) and eagle (John).⁵⁰

However, Prodromos throws out this usual interpretation in his 310^th verse to make his meanings regarding Old Testament prophecy being fulfilled in a new way crystal clear :

Δοκῶ μοι, θεῖε προφητῶν, τὴν ὅρασίν σου ταύτηντὸν Κομνηνὸν αἰνίττεσθαι δεσπότην Ἰωάννην
καὶ τὴν ἐκ τούτου τετρακτὺν τῶν πορφυρογεννήτων.
κινεῖται γὰρ κατὰ Περσῶν ὡς λαίλαψ τεραστία
καὶ πῦρ καὶ φῶς περὶ αὐτόν

It seems to me, divine prophets, this vision of yours speaks in riddles of the Despotes John Komnenos
and the four [creatures] are those porphyrogenites from him [his offspring]
He urges us on against the Persians as a monstrous hurricane
with fire and light around him

His political commentary and linkage could not truly be made clearer than that. From this point we still have another hundred lines, though the key sections come as once again David is namechecked and it is made clear that God destroys his enemies in a likely paraphrase of Psalm 83.

The Edomites, the whelps of Hagar and the Ismaelites, Gebal, the Ammonites and Amelekites, impious Sidon and Tyre, the Midianites under Sisera their general who was killed by Jael with a tent peg : all are cast down, though Prodromos adds that it is the Komnenoi that are doing so in line 367.⁵¹ With that done, ordure is created in line 369, and from that ordure arises a Godly grape vine that will cover the new lands of New Rome, in a clearer paraphrase of Psalm 80. Christ is then mentioned for the only time in the poem, as the one who created, made, crowned and anointed John as emperor, and by doing so we get something that is at once another classical arming scene, though it is unclear whether it is Christ arming the emperor or indeed whether Christ is himself arming himself in order to slay and enslave those who do not perceive him, with phrasing that mirrors Psalm 18.

This psalm also ends with the line that God grants great salvation to his king, and shows steadfast love to his anointed, to David and his offspring forever, in what is again a clear indication that this Psalm is being deployed to refer to the Emperor John as much as to David.⁵²

The emperor is then dispatched like an arrow and stretched like a spear in order to conquer, unless Babylon humbles herself by bending the neck, and Persians are encouraged to serve as guards and servants, and proffer tribute to New Rome.⁵³ This is an interesting way to end, as unlike the fire and death that characterises much of the Old Testament, and the treatment of the Amelekites and others, the Persians in this poem can become fellow servants and even guards of the emperor if they surrender. This matches with the many Turks and other foreigners who served in the imperial armies, including John’s childhood friend and general John Axouch who was of Turkish origin.⁵⁴ The threat of Old Testament extinction is certainly there, but the political reality whereby willing subjects would be preferable intrudes into the poem. Considering John’s conduct on his campaign, whereby any who surrendered were well treated, both Christians and Muslims, this mention is not tokenistic by any means, though it is certainly tacked on as a contemporary intrusion upon Old Testament mores.⁵⁵ Just as with the order of the prophets in this poem, or the reinterpretation of the wondrous animals as John’s sons rather than the evangelists, the contemporary political situation always takes priority. Prodromos is not constrained by his source material, but he uses it liberally – rewriting and reinterpreting scripture if necessary to suit his purpose : that is portraying John as the latest epic hero in this Old Testament tradition.

Having gone through the highlights of the text, I hope it is plain to all that Prodromos is explicitly casting the contemporary Byzantine emperor as the latest hero of a twelfth century Israelite or Biblical epic. Just as the Deuteronomistic books of the Old Testament prophecy that the righteous remnant of Judah would one day reunite the entire the kingdom of Israel, so now will the righteous Roman remnant one day reunite the Roman Empire, and, specifically, it will restore the actual Holy Land of the Levant to the empire in addition to their ‘Persian’ occupied eastern territories they held in the eleventh century. This poem was performed as John left for his great eastern campaign, perhaps literally as the emperor, his sons and their retinue rode through the city on their way to join the army in Anatolia. This poem articulates the identity of these New Romans as the heirs of God’s chosen people in the Old Testament, and indeed that these prophets were literally producing oracles about them, as it is through the Komnenoi that these prophecies were finally being fulfilled. Further, it is notable that Prodromos draw his material not only from the Prophetologion and the Psalter, but from material only in the Septuagint, and so this poem is yet more evidence of the depth and breadth of his scholarship.

This poem represents a Deuteronomistic epic according to Niditch’s model, but I would like to finish this paper by saying that this especially obvious example should be our starting point to read other Byzantine epics, and indeed more middle eastern epics and texts in general with this Old Testament paradigm in mind. Though all Byzantine writers may have stopped at Homer’s hostelry as Eustathios said, so too did they stop at a Deuteronomistic one.

Annexes

Prodromos Poem XVII – Translated by Maximilian Lau and Giulia Paoletti

	Δεκάστιχοι πρὸς τὸν αὐτοκράτορα κῦρ Ἰωάννην	A Dekastische for Autokrator Lord John
	τὸν Κομνηνὸν στρατεύσαντα καὶ πάλιν κατὰ	Komnenos taking the field and again against the
	Περσῶν εὐκτήριοι ληφθέντες ἀπὸ πάντων	Persians: prayers taken from of all the prophets
	τῶν προφητῶν
17.1	Ὁρῶν παραταττόμενον κατὰ Περσῶν σε πάλιν	Seeing you ready for battle against the Persians again
17.2	καὶ κατὰ τῶν ἐξ Ἰσμαὴλ ἐκτείνοντα τὸ δόρυ,	and stretching your spears against the get of Ismail,
17.3	δέσποτα θεοφρούρητε, θαῦμα τῆς οἰκουμένης,	O Despotes guarded by God, marvel of the Greek world,
17.4	Ῥώμης στερρὸν χαράκωμα καὶ πρόβλημα καὶ τεῖχος,	solid palisade, bulwark and barrier of Rome,
17.5	ἤθελον συστρατεῦσαι σοι, συνάρασθαι τοῦ πόνου	I wished to join your campaign, take part in the toil of war,
17.6	καὶ συνοπλοδυτῆσαι σοι καὶ συμπερσομαχῆσαι·	and bear arms and fight the Persians together;
17.7	ἀλλὰ μου τὴν ἀσθένειναν τὴν ἄκραν ἐννοήσας	yet, having considered my very deep weakness,
17.8	ἑτέραν ἔτεμον ὁδόν, ἄλλην ἐτράπην τρίβον	I advanced upon another road, I turned upon another path
17.9	καὶ ταῖς εὐχαῖς προπέμπω σε καὶ ταύταις συμμαχῶ σοι	and I send you forth with prayers, through which I join you in battle
17.10	καὶ ταύταις συνασπίζω σοι κατὰ τῶν ἐναντίων.	and shield you against adversaries.
17.11	Εἰ μὲν ἐπέγνων ἐμαυτὸν ἐξ ἔργων ἐναρέτων	If I could recognize myself by virtuous deeds,
17.12	τὸ θεῖον θεραπεύσαντα, γῆς κράτορ μονοκράτορ,	praying God, sole ruler of the earth,
17.13	καὶ ζήσαντα προδρομικῶς, ὡς ἡ προσηγορία,	and living in a [prodromic way], as my name goes,
17.14	τάχ᾽ἂν ηὐχόμην σοι θαρρῶν ἐν πλείστη πεποιθήσει	I’d probably pray, trusting you with the utmost confidence,
17.15	ἐξ ἐμαυτοῦ σοι τὰς εὐχὰς εὐνοϊκῶς κομίζων·	and gracefully conveying my prayers from myself to you;
17.16	ἐπεὶ δὲ συγγινώσκω μου πᾶν ῥυπαρὸν τῷ βίῳ,	but since I know how filthy my life is,
17.17	ἀπ᾽ἐμαυτοῦ μὲν οὐ θαρρῶ τὰ τῆς εὐχῆς σοι δοῦναι,	I do not dare to offer you such prayers myself:
17.18	ἐκ τῶν σοφῶν δὲ προφητῶν δανείζομαι καὶ λέγω	instead I borrow [those] from the wise prophets and I speak
17.19	καὶ μάλιστα τῆς τοῦ Δαυὶδ πνευματοκρούστου λύρας	most through the lyre of David of the beautiful soul
17.20	καὶ τούτοις χρῶμαι συνεργοῖς ἄρτι καὶ συνευχέταις.	and now I use them as co-operating and co-prayers.
17.21	Πάρεσο, θεῖε ψαλτῳδέ, προφῆτα θεοπάτορ,	Come now, divine psalmist, prophet and Theopator,
17.22	καὶ κάταρχέ μοι τῆς εὐχῆς ὥσπερ ἐκ χρηστηρίου,	and begin the prayer through me as if from an oracle;
17.23	ἔντεινε καὶ κατευοδοῦ, βοῶν τῷ βασιλεῖ μου,	stretch tight your bow and greatly prosper, shouting to my emperor,
17.24	ἕνεκεν ἀληθείας σου, χάριν πραότητός σου,	in behalf of your truth, of your gentleness,
17.25	χάριν δικαιοσύνης σου, χάριν φιλανθρωπίας.	your justice, and your philanthropy.
17.26	ἠκονημένα, δυνατέ, τυγχάνει σου τὰ βέλη,	being sharpened, O mighty one, are your arrows,
17.27	ῥάβδος ἐστὶν εὐθύτητος ἡ ῥάβδος σου τοῦ κράτους,	a sceptre of justice is the sceptre of your kingdom,
17.28	ἐν τῷ μηρῷ σου τὴν λαμπρὰν περίζωσαι ῥομφαίαν.	gird your shiny sword at your side.
17.29	λαοὶ πεσοῦνται κάτω σου καὶ προσκυνήσουσί σοι,	Nations shall fall beneath you prostrate,
17.30	καὶ πᾶσαν ὁ παμβασιλεὺς πληρώσει τὴν βουλήν σου.	and may the Lord make all your plans succeed.
17.31	Καὶ πάλιν πάρεσο, Δαυίδ, καὶ πάλιν χρησμοδότει	Come again, David, and again give us oracles
17.32	καὶ πρόλεγε τὴν τῶν Περσῶν ἐρήμωσιν καὶ πτῶσιν·	and foretell the despoliation and fall of the Persians.
17.33	ὁ κατοικῶν ἐν οὐρανοῖς τούτους καταγελάσει,	Τhe one dwelling in heaven shall mock them,
17.34	καὶ κύριος μυκτηριεῖ τὸν τούτων σατραπάρχην.	and the lord shall ridicule their satrap.
17.35	τότε λαλήσει πρὸς αὐτούς πλὴν ὀργῇ βαρείᾳ,	Then, he shall speak to them without anger,
17.36	καὶ συνταράξειεν αὐτούς, πλὴν ἐν θυμῷ μεγάλῳ.	and agitate them, without great rage.
17.37	παγίδα βρέξει πρὸς αὐτοὺς καὶ βέλη κατενέγκει	He shall rain upon them snares and throw arrows
17.38	καὶ πῦρ καὶ θεῖον ἐν ταὐτῷ καὶ πνεῦμα καταιγίδος.	and fire and sulfur and the wind of a hurricane.
17.39	λεπτύνει τούτους ὡσεὶ χνοῦν εἰς πρόσωπον ἀνέμου	He dissolves them as dust before the wind
17.40	καὶ λεανεῖ κατὰ πηλὸν τὸν ἐπὶ ταῖς πλατείαις.	and tramples them like mud in the streets.
17.41	Ἄκουσον, θεῖε βασιλεῦ, λαμπρὲ τροπαιοφόρε,	Listen, divine Emperor, radiant trophy bearer,
17.42	ἅπερ Δαυίδ ὁ παλαιὸς σοί, τῷ Δαυὶδ τῷ νέῳ,	to those things David the elder, to you, David the young,
17.43	ὡς ἐκ φωνῆς τῆς θεϊκῆς προφητικῶς προλέγει·	announce prophetically, through a divine voice.
17.44	εὖρον Δαυὶδ τὸν δοῦλον μου τὸν χαριτωνυμοῦντα,	I have found David my servant of gracious import,
17.45	ἔχρισα τοῦτον ἱερῶς ἁγίῳ χρίσματί μου,	and anointed him sacredly with my holy unction,
17.46	ὅθεν συναντιλήψομαι τούτῳ καὶ συμμαχήσω,	whence Ι will take part in this and ally together,
17.47	καὶ κατισχύσειεν αὐτὸν ὁ μέγας μου βραχίων.	and my great arm will strengthen him.
17.48	αὐτὸς θεόν με προσερεῖ, καλέσει με πατέρα,	He shall address me as God, he shall call me father,
17.49	κἀγὼ πρωτότοκον αὐτὸν ἐν τοῖς υἱοῖς μου θήσω,	and I will make him, among my children, the first-born,
17.50	ἐπείπερ ἠγαπήθη μοι, καθὼς ἠγάπησέ με.	and he will be loved by me as much as he will love me.
17.51	Ἔρρε, Περσάρχα βάρβαρε, μέχρι πυθμένων Ἅιδου,	Be gone, barbarian Persian Lords, up to the depths of Hades,
17.52	μεταναστεύσαι σε θεὸς ἀπὸ σκηνώματός σου,	God will pluck you from your tents,
17.53	ἐκτίλαι σε προθέλυμνον, ἐκκόψαι σε ῥιζόθεν,	uproot you and eradicate you,
17.54	ἐντείναι τόξον ἑαυτοῦ, μέχρις ἐξασθενήσεις	and stretch out his bow, until you are exhausted,
17.55	καὶ μέχρις ἀνταναιρεθῆς κατὰ κηρὸν τακέντα	and you’ll be struck off like beeswax melting away.
17.56	καὶ νύκτωρ ἀνθυποστραφῆς ὡς κύων καὶ λιμώξεις.	and return at night and be famished like a dog.
17.57	ὁ Κομνηνὸς δὲ βασιλεὺς ὡς φοῖνιξ ἐξανθήσει	The Komnenos Emperor shall bloom like a palm tree,
17.58	καὶ τοῖς τροπαίοις πληθυνθῆ καὶ ταῖς ἀνδραγαθίαις	and multiplied in trophies and manly virtues
17.59	ὑπὲρ τὴν καλλιέλαιον καὶ τὴν Λιβάνου κέδρον.	[raising] above the garden olives and the cedar of Lebanon.
17.60	καὶ ταῦτα τὴς Δαυιτικῆς ἠχήματα κιθάρας.	And these are the songs of David’s lyre.
17.61	Χώρει, γεννάδα βασιλεῦ, θαρρῶν κατὰ τοῦ Πέρσου,	Go, noble Emperor, be courageous against the Persians,
17.62	ὁ γὰρ θεός σε ῥύσεται, καθ᾽ἃ Δαυὶδ προλέγει,	for God shall protect you, as David foretells,
17.63	ἀπὸ παγίδος θηρευτῶν καὶ λόγου ταραχώδους,	from the snare of the fowler and from the noisome pestilence;
17.64	σκιάσει δέ σε θαυμαστῶς τοῖς τούτου μεταφρένοις	with his feathers he shall cover you marvellously
17.65	καὶ τοῖς ἀγγέλοις ἑαυτοῦ δεσποτικῶς κελεύσει	and like a master he shall order his angels
17.66	διαφυλάσσειν σε καλῶς ἐν πάσαις ταῖς ὁδοῖς σου.	to guard you well in all your ways.
17.67	ἐπὶ χειρῶν ἀροῦσι σε, μήποτε καὶ προσκόψης.	They will lift you up in their hands, so that you won’t stumble.
17.68	ἑῴου βασιλίσκου δὲ καὶ δυτικῆς ἀσπίδος	Cobra of the east and serpent of the west
17.69	καὶ λέοντος μεσημβρινοῦ καὶ δράκοντος ἀρκτῴου	and lion of the south and dragon of the north
17.70	τὸ κράτος ἄκρῳ τῷ ταρσῷ βασιλικῶς πατήσεις.	you shall royally trample on power with the ends of your feet.
17.71	Καλῶ καὶ σὲ τὸν Ἀββακοὺμ τὸν βλέποντα τὸν μέγαν	I also summon you, Abbakum the great seer,
17.72	συνάρασθαί μοι τῆς εὐχῆς τῆς εἰς τὸν βασιλέα	to join me in praying for the Emperor
17.73	καὶ προφοιβάσαι τρόπαια καὶ προχρηστηριάσαι	and predict the defeat [of the enemies], give oracles
17.74	καὶ προειπεῖν τὸν ὄλεθρον τοῖς ἀλαζόσι Πέρσαις.	and foretell the ruin of the arrogant Persians.
17.75	ἰδοὺ κινήσω καθ᾽ὑμῶν τοὺς μαχητὰς Ῥωμαίους,	Now I arouse the Roman warriors against you:
17.76	τοῖς ἵπποις τούτων ἁλτικὰς ἐνθήσομαι δυνάμεις	I shall imbue the jumping powers of their horses,
17.77	ὑπὲρ ὁρμὴν παρδάλεων καὶ λύκων Ἀρραβίας,	[which are] swifter than the leopards and wolves of Arabia
17.78	καὶ γαῦρον ἐξιππάσονται καὶ δράμονται μακρόθεν	and they shall ride forth [in exultation] and run far off
17.79	καὶ πετασθῶσι κατὰ γῆς τῆς σοβαρᾶς Περσίδος	and fly over the violent Persian land,
17.80	ὡς ἀετὸς ὀξύρροπος καὶ πρόθυμος εἰς βρῶσιν.	like an eagle quickly turning and swooping for meat.
17.81	Ἄκουε, πορφυρόβλαστε σκηπτοῦχε πολιοῦχε,	Listen, porphyrogenitus sceptered city protector,
17.82	ἅπερ ὁ μέγας Ἀββακοὺμ εὐαγγελίζεταί σοι	to the words the great Abbakum announces you
17.83	πορευομένῳ κατ᾽ἐχθρῶν καὶ πάλιν τῶν ἑῴων.	while you march against the enemies and back to the East.
17.84	ἐξῆλθες, ἄναξ, εἰς τοῦ σοῦ λαοῦ τὴν σωτηρίαν	You came out, Lord, to save your people,
17.85	καὶ πάλιν θάνατον βαλεῖς εἰς κεφαλὰς ἀνόμων,	and again you shall cast death onto the heads of the impious,
17.86	πάλιν δεσμοὺς ἐξεγερεῖς ἕως αὐτῶν τραχήλων	and again place bonds unto their necks
17.87	καὶ κεφαλὰς τῶν δυναστῶν συγκόψεις ἐν ἐκστάσει,	and cut the heads of their rulers in anger;
17.88	λαμπραὶ δ᾽ἀπὸ τῶν ὅπλων σου πορεύσονται βολίδες,	shiny arrows shall go forth/depart from your army,
17.89	αἰχμαλωσίαν δὲ πολλὴν ὡς ἄμμον συναγάγης	and you shall gather as the sand much captivity,
17.90	καὶ πᾶσιν ὀχυρώμασι βαρβαρικοῖς ἐμπαίξεις.	and you sport in [shall mock) all the barbarian strongholds.
17.91	Μάνθανε, γῆ Χαλδαϊκὴ καὶ γῆ Βαβυλωνία	Learn your fate, land of Chaldea and land of Babylonia
17.92	καὶ χῶρος Αἰθιοπικὸς καὶ γῆ Μαδιηναία,	and the country of Ethiopia and the land of Madiina,
17.93	ἐξ Ἀββακὺμ τοῦ βλέποντος τὰ συναντήματά σου.	from Abbakum the seer.
17.94	Αὔσονες, γραία Βαβυλών, νῦν ἐπιθήσονταί σοι,	The Ausones, O old Babylon, now come against you,
17.95	καὶ κρατηθήσῃ Βαβυλὼν αὐτοῖς ἀνεπαισθήτως.	and imperceptibly, you Babylon, shall be ruled by them.
17.96	θεὸς γὰρ ἤνοιξεν αὐτοῦ τὸν ὀφθαλμὸν τὸν μέγαν	God opened his great eye
17.97	καὶ τῆς ὀργῆς ἐξήνεγκε τὰ σκεύη τῆς ἰδίας,	and carried off the equipment of his own anger,
17.98	ὅτι καιρὸς ἐλήλυθε τῆς πτώσεως Χαλδαίων	for the time had come for the fall of the Chaldeans,
17.99	καὶ σκηνωμάτων Μαδιὰμ καὶ χώρας Αἰθιόπων	and the quarters of Midian and the lands of Ethiopia
17.100	διὰ χειρὸς Κομνηνικῆς τῆς μονοκρατορούσης.	at the hands of the victorious Komnenos, the sole ruler.
17.101	Σὺ δέ μοι, διορατικὲ νοῦς καθαρὸς Μιχαία,	Will you not now, clear sighted and pure minded Micah,
17.102	οὐ συνεργεῖς εἰς τὴν εὐχήν, οὐκ ᾄσματα δανείζεις;	join me in prayer, will you not lend me a song?
17.103	οὐχ ὑπερεύχη τῶν πιστῶν, οὐ καταρᾷ τοῖς Πέρσαις;	Don’t you pray for the believers, do not you curse the Persians?
17.104	πάνυ μὲν οὖν ἐλήλυθας καὶ προφητεύων λέγεις·	Come now and speak in a prophetic way:
17.105	ἰδού σοι, τέκνον Ἰσμαήλ, ὁ Κομνηνὸς δεσπότης	Behold, O child of Ismael, the Komnenian Despotes
17.106	προῆλθεν ἐκ τῆς ἑαυτοῦ βασιλικῆς ἑστίας	came from out of his own imperial estate,
17.107	καὶ μέχρι σκηνωμάτων σου πορεύεται καὶ πάλιν	and marches as far as your quarters and back,
17.108	καὶ τοῖς ὑψώμασι τῆς σῆς γῆς ἐπιβαίνει πάλιν,	and upon the heights of your land he trades once more,
17.109	καὶ σύμπαν ὄρος πρὸ ποδῶν τούτου καταπεσεῖται	and the mountain shall at once fall at his feet,
17.110	καὶ συντριβῇ καὶ συμπτωθῇ καὶ σαλευθῇ καὶ πέσῃ.	shattered and shaken, rocked and fallen.
17.111	Ἔτι μοι λείπει τῆς ᾠδῆς σῆς, σοφὲ Μιχαία,	Still, wise Micah, I need your song:
17.112	ἔτι μοι δάνεισον εὐχὴν καὶ χρῆσον χρησμῳδίαν·	lend me already a prayer and pronounce a chanted prophecy:
17.113	ἕνεκεν τούτου κόψεται Περσὶς καὶ θρηνῳδήσει,	because of this Persia shall beat her chest and wail,
17.114	γυμνὴ γυμνόπους πορευθῆ κατὰ τὰς θρηνητρίας,	driven bare and barefooted into lamentations
17.115	ποιήσεται καὶ κοπετὸν ὡς κοπετὸν δρακόντων,	and shall make a wail like that of dragons,
17.116	κατὰ τὰς τῶν σειρήνων δὲ πενθήσει θυγατέρας	and mourn like the daughters of the Sirens
17.117	καὶ νικηθῆ καὶ τροπωθῇ καὶ λείξει χοῦν ὡς ὄφις	and beaten and put to fight and licking the earth like a serpent,
17.118	καὶ γνῷ τὴν πτῶσιν ἑαυτῆς, γνῷ τὴν ἰδίαν λύμην·	and being aware of her fall and her own defilement;
17.119	αὐτὴ τὴν γῆν κατασπερεῖ, πιέσει τὴν ἐλαίαν,	she shall herself work the land, and press the olives,
17.120	τρυγήσεται τὴν ἄμπελον, Ῥώμη δ᾽αὐτὰ κερδάνῃ.	and harvest the grapes, but Rome would take the profits.
17.121	Ἀνάστα, θύγατερ Σιών, ἡ νεωτέρα Ῥώμη,	Arise, daughter of Zion, the newer Rome,
17.122	καὶ λίκμα τὸ βαρβαρικόν, ἀλόα τὴν Περσίδα·	and winnow the barbaric tribe, crush the Persians:
17.123	διὰ Μιχαίου γὰρ θεὸς εὐαγγελίζεταί σοι	God announces you, through the words of Micah,
17.124	τὸ κέρας θεῖναι σιδηροῦν καὶ τὰς ὁπλὰς χαλκείας,	to turn the horn into iron and your hoofs into brass,
17.125	λαοὺς πολλοὺς δ᾽ὡς ὄστρακον λεπτῦναι πρὸ ποδῶν σου	and to break many people as a shell in front of your feet
17.126	καὶ κατισχῦναι σοι τὸ πᾶν τῶν ἀλλοφύλων φῦλον	and to put to shame all foreign tribes
17.127	καὶ θεῖναι σε βασίλισσαν τῆς ὅλης περιγείου	and make you the queen of the whole earth
17.128	καὶ τὸν Κομνηνοβλάστητον πορφυρανθῆ δεσπότην,	and the purple bloom of the Komnenian branch [make] Despotes,
17.129	τὸν παῖδα καὶ σωτῆρα σου καὶ τὸν ἐκδικητήν σου	your child and saviour and your avenger
17.130	γῆς καταστῆσαι κύριον ἁπάσης καὶ θαλάσσης.	and to restore the possession of the entire land and sea.
17.131	Ἀμὼς ἀκρέμον προφητῶν, καὶ σὺ συμπάρεσό μοι	Amos, branch of the prophets, you too shall join me
17.132	καὶ «τἀδε λέγει κύριος ὁ παντοκράτωρ» λέγε·	and «thus says the Pantocrator» tell:
17.133	πῦρ ἄσβεστον ἀποστελῶ περὶ τὰ τείχη Γἀζης,	I shall send unquenchable fire around the walls of Gaza,
17.134	καὶ καταφλέζει σύμπαντας αὐτῆς τοὺς θεμελίους,	and it shall burn all of her foundations,
17.135	ἐξολοθρεύσει παντας δὲ κατοίκους τῆς Ἀζώτου·	and destroy all the inhabitants of Azotus,
17.136	σὺν τούτοις ἄρδην ἀπολεῖ καὶ τοὺς Ἀσκαλωνίτας·	and together with them annihilate the Ascalonians;
17.137	ἐπάξω δὲ τὴν χεῖρα μου πρὸς τέρματα Περσίδος,	I will bring my hand upon the boundaries of Persia,
17.138	καὶ πάντες οἱ κατάλοιποι βαρβάρων ἀπολοῦνται,	and all the remaining barbarians shall be destroyed,
17.139	καὶ τὰς ἐκείνων ἑορτὰς εἰς πένθος μεταστρέψω	and Ι will change those feasts in sorrow
17.140	καὶ τὰς ᾠδὰς εἰς θρήνημα καὶ τὴν χαρὰν εἰς λύπην.	and the songs in lament and joy in pain.
17.141	Μάθετε, παῖδες Ἰσμαήλ, ἀκούσατε, Περσίδες,	Learn, children of Ismael, listen, Persians,
17.142	ἦλθεν ἡμέρα καθ᾽ὑμῶν, ἡμέρα ποινηλάτις,	the day has come upon you, the day of vengeance,
17.143	καὶ χεὶρ ὑμᾶς Κομνηνικὴ μεθ᾽ὅπλων καταλάβη	and the Komnenian hand has seized you with his army,
17.144	καὶ τοὺς συμμάχους τοὺς ὑμῶν καὶ συμπολεμιστῆρας	and your allies and fellow warriors
17.145	εἰς μέγα χεῖλος ἐμβαλεῖ λεβήτων καιομένων	shall throw into a great rim of burning cauldrons,
17.146	καὶ κατασκάψειεν ὑμᾶς ὡς πόλεις τῶν Σοδόμων	and raze you to the ground as the city of Sodom
17.147	καὶ κατατρίψειεν ὑμᾶς ὡς χώρας τῶν Γομόρρων,	and break you down as the country of Gomorrah,
17.148	καὶ γένοισθε κατὰ δαλὸν ἀπὸ πυρὸς ῥιφέντα,	and [make you] become a fire-brand hurled from the fire,
17.149	καὶ σύμπας νῶτος Περσικὸς σάκκον ἐπενδυθείη.	and sackcloth shall be put over the whole back of Persia.
17.150	ἐκ τῆς Ἀμὼς δανείζομαι καὶ τάδε προφητείας.	from Amos I borrow also these prophetic words.
17.151	Καὶ σὲ τὸν μὲγαν Ἰωὴλ εὐχέτην προκαλοῦμαι,	You, great Joel, the one who prays, I summon,
17.152	εὐχέτην τοῦ κρατίστου μου μεγάλου βασιλέως	[a prayer] for my mightily great Emperor
17.153	ὡς ἐκ Περσίδος τῆς ἁβρᾶς τάδε θεσπιῳδοῦντα·	to sing in a prophetic strain these things as […]
17.154	ἔθνος ἀνέβη μάχιμον ἐπὶ τὴν γῆν μου μέγα,	a great war-like nation ascended upon my earth,
17.155	ἡ τῶν Αὐσόνων στρατιά, τὸ φῦλον τῶν Ῥωμαίων·	the army of the Ausones, the tribe of the Romans:
17.156	ὀδόντες τούτου δάκνουσιν ὡς λέοντος ὀδόντες,	its teeth bite as lions’ do,
17.157	αἱ μύλαι δὲ συντρίβουσι καθάπερ σκύμνου μύλαι.	but their molars shatter as cubs’.
17.158	ἔθετο τὰς ἀμπέλους μου πρὸς ὄλεθρον καὶ λύμην	It appointed my grapevine for ruin and corruption
17.159	καὶ τὰς συκᾶς μου τὰς καλὰς εἰς συγκλασμὸν καὶ πτῶσιν·	and my beautiful fig-trees for breaking and falling:
17.160	τῷ Κομνηνῷ γὰρ ὁ θεὸς διδοῖ τὴν μοναρχίαν.	God grants sovereignty to the Komnenos.
17.161	Καὶ πάλιν βλέπων, Ἰωήλ, προφήτευε καὶ λέγε	And again, Joel the seer, you utter prophecy and speak
17.162	περὶ τὴν νῦν τοῦ Κομνηνοῦ κατὰ Περσῶν στρατείαν·	about the present campaign of the Komnenos against the Persians:
17.163	ὡς ὄρθρος ἐκχυθήσεται λαὸς πολὺς καὶ μέγας,	at the dawn shall be squandered a vast and great people,
17.164	λαὸς πολὺς Ῥωμαϊκὸς ἐπὶ βουνὰ Περσίδος,	many Roman men on the Persian mountain;
17.165	καὶ τὰ μὲν ἔμπροσθεν αὐτοῦ πῦρ λάβρον ἀναλίσκον,	before them a fierce and consuming fire,
17.166	τὰ δ᾽ὄπισθεν ἀφανισμοῦ καὶ συντριμμοῦ πεδίον.	but behind them a plain of destruction and ruin.
17.167	δραμοῦνται κατὰ φάραγγος καὶ κατὰ πεδιάδος	They will run down the ravine and the plain
17.168	καὶ κατὰ πάσης πόλεως βαρβάροις δουλευούσης.	and down every city ruled by Barbarians.
17.169	ὄρος δὲ βρέξει γλυκασμόν, βουνὸς δὲ στάξει γάλα	The mountain shall rain sweetness, the hill shall drip with milk
17.170	εἰς πᾶσαν γῆν ¨Ρωμαϊκὴν ἐν ταύταις ταῖς ἡμέραις.	in all Roman lands in these days.
17.171	Αὔσονες, ἄνδρες Ἄρεος, μεγαλουργοὶ Ῥωμαῖοι,	Ausones, men of Ares, Romans of great deeds,
17.172	ἀκούσαντες τοῦ βλέποντος πανσόφου Σοφονίου	having heard Zephaniah the cleverest seer,
17.173	ἐγείρατε τοὺς μαχητάς, βαίνετε πρὸς πολέμους,	now rouse the warriors, go to war,
17.174	συγκόψατε τὰ δρέπανα, δράσατε σειρομάστας,	cut up the sickles, draw the spears,
17.175	τὰ δ᾽ἄροτρα συνθλάσατε, χαλκεύσατε ῥομφαίας	crush together the plough, forge the broadswords
17.176	καὶ μετὰ θάρσους καὶ βοῆς κατὰ Περσῶν χωρεῖτε.	and with courage and war-cry, advance against the Persians.
17.177	ἐκθλίψει τούτους ὁ θεὸς χειρὶ τῇ Κομνηνίδι,	God shall pressure them at the hand of the Komnenos,
17.178	καὶ πορευθῶσιν ὡς τυφλοὶ περὶ βαθὺ τὸ σκότος,	and they shall march as the blind around the deep darkness,
17.179	τὸ δ᾽αἶμα τούτων ἐκχεεῖ καὶ διαρράνει κάτω,	their blood he shall shed and sprinkle down,
17.180	τὰς σάρκας δ᾽ἐξαφανιεῖ δίκην σαπρῶν βολβίτων.	and tarnish the flesh in the way of rotten dung.
17.181	Μωὰβ ἀφανισθήσεται καθάπερ γῆ Σοδόμων	Moab shall be destroyed just as the land of Sodom
17.182	καὶ Δαμασκὸς ἐκλικμηθῆ καθάπερ θημωνία.	and may Damascus be winnowed just as into a heap.
17.183	Αἰθίοπας ἐκ τῆς ἐμῆς τραυματιῶ ῥομφαίας,	Ethiopia, be wounded by my broadsword,
17.184	ἐπὶ βορρὰν τὴν κραταιὰν ἐκτείνω μου παλάμην,	against the north I stretch out my mighty hand,
17.185	τὸν νοῦν δὲ τὸν Ἀσσύριον ἄρδην ἐξαπολέσω	the Assyrian heart I shall utterly destroy,
17.186	καὶ θήσομαι τὴν Νινευὶ πάμπαν ἠφανισμένην.	and I will set up Nineveh to vanish entirely.
17.187	ἐρῶ δ᾽ἐμοῦ τῇ θυγατρὶ τῇ νεωτέρᾳ Ῥώμῃ·	I shall tell my daughter, the new Rome:
17.188	θάρσει μοι, θάρσει, θύγατερ, ἡ χείρ σου κραταιούσθω·	trust me, fear not, daughter, be strong your hand:
17.189	ἐπάξω γάρ σοι καινισμόν, ἐπάξω θυμηδίαν.	I shall bring you renewal, I bring you gladness.
17.190	ταῦτα φησί σοι, βασιλεῦ, θεὸς ἐν Σοφονίᾳ.	This God says to you, Emperor, in the book of Zephaniah.
17.191	Τί δέ, γεννάδα βασιλεῦ, οὐχὶ καὶ Μαλαχίας	Why, noble Emperor, should not also Malachi
17.192	τὰ πρώτιστα τῶν ἀγαθῶν εὐαγγελίζεταί σοι;	announce you the very best of things?
17.193	πάνυ μὲν οὖν, καὶ πρόσεχε τῇ τούτου χρησμῳδίᾳ.	Very well, now, let’s turn to his chanted prophecy.
17.194	ἰδού, φησίν, ὁ βασιλεὺς εἰσέρχεται Ῥωμαίων	Behold, he says, the Emperor of the Romans arrives
17.195	εἰς Περσικὰ σκηνώματα καὶ χώρας ἀλλοφύλων,	to Persian quarters and foreign lands,
17.196	καὶ τίς εἰσόδου τῆς αὐτοῦ βαστάσει τὴν ἡμέραν;	and who shall endure the day of his coming?
17.197	ὡς πῦρ γὰρ εἰσπορεύεται λαμπρὸν χωνευτηρίου,	for he enters as fire into a bright furnace,
17.198	καὶ χεὶρ αὐτοῦ προσέοικε κλιβάνῳ καιομένῳ	and his hand resembles a burning pan
17.199	καὶ πάντας τοῦς ἀλλογενεῖς φλάξει καλάμης δίκην,	and all the foreigners he crushes like stalks of corn,
17.200	ὑπολειφθείη δ᾽ἐξ αὐτῶν οὐ ῥίζωσις, οὐ κλῆμα.	not a root nor a twig among them left behind.
17.201	Οὐδ᾽ὁ Ναοὺμ ὁ θαυμαστὸς ἀπολειφθῇ τοῦ λόγου	Not even Nahum the wonderful falls short of words
17.202	μὴ συνελθεῖν καὶ συνειπεῖν ὑπὲρ τοῦ βασιλέως·	to deal and speak for the safety of the emperor:
17.203	ἡ τρίβος ἡ βασιλικὴ μετὰ σεισμοῦ μεγάλου,	the imperial way [is like] the aftermath of a great earthquake,
17.204	ποδῶν αὐτοῦ κονιορτὸς ὑπὲρ αὐτὰς νεφέλας,	with the cloud of dust [raised] by his feet above the clouds themselves,
17.205	ὀλιγωθῇ καὶ Κάρμηλος καὶ Λίβανος ἐκλίπῃ,	Carmel is lessened and Lebanon failed,
17.206	ἀνασταλήσεται καὶ γῆ τούτου πορευομένου,	and the earth shall rise while he is passing through,
17.207	θυμὸς αὐτοῦ τὰς ἐθνικὰς τήξει σατραπαρχίας	his spirit shall melt the foreign satraps
17.208	καὶ στήσει ῥεῖθρα ποταμῶν καὶ πέτρας διαθρύψει.	and halt the course of rivers and break stones.
17.209	πόλεις Περσίδος ἄδικοι, νῦν τῷ πυρὶ βρωθῆτε,	Unjust Persian cities, now you were devoured by the fire,
17.210	νῦν ὡς γυναῖκες ἐν ὑμῖν λαὸς ὑμῶν ὁ μέγας.	now your great people are like women among you.
17.211	Ἀνέβη λέων ἄλκιμος ὁ Κομνηνὸς δεσπότης	The Despotes Komnenos, stout lion, arises
17.212	ἀπὸ τῆς μάνδρας ἑαυτοῦ τῆς νεωτέρας Ῥώμης	from his own fold of New Rome
17.213	μετὰ τῶν σκύμνων ἑαυτοῦ τῶν πορφυρογεννήτων	with his purple born cubs
17.214	ἐξολοθρεῦσαι σύμπασαν Περσίδος ἐθναρχίαν·	to destroy the entire Persian ethnarchs;
17.215	Ναοὺμ ὁ μέγας ἐκβοᾷ καὶ πάλιν προφητεύων·	Nahum the great cries aloud and again prophecies:
17.216	κἀντεῦθεν ἀνατιναγμός, βρασμός, θραυσμὸς καρδίας,	hence violent shaking, tumult, heart breaking,
17.217	ὀδύνη, λειποψύχησις, παράλυσις γονάτων	pangs, leaving life, loosening of the knees,
17.218	καὶ συντριμμὸς καὶ σπαραγμὸς πάση Περσῶν ὀσφύι	and ruin and tearing for the entire Persian loin
17.219	καὶ πᾶν αὐτῶν τὸ πρόσωπον ὡς πρόσκαυμα χυτραῖον.	and every face shall be like the soot on the outside of the pot.
17.220	καὶ τίς τοιούτου λέοντος ὁρμὴν οὐχ ὑποτρέσει;	and who will not flee before the assault of such a lion?
17.221	Εἰς τί κομπάζεις, βάρβαρε τί κεναυχεῖς εἰς μάτην;	What do you boast of, barbarous vain glorious, why do you
	boast in vain?
17.222	τῆς Ἀβδιοῦ κατάκουσον ᾠδῆς τοῦ θεσπεσίου	listen to the divinely sung song of Obadia,
17.223	καὶ τρέσον καὶ συστάληθι καὶ γνῶθι σου τὴν πτῶσιν·	and be afraid and cast down and perceive your fall:
17.224	ὡς ἀετὸς ἀνεπαρθεὶς ἂν αἰθεροδρομήσης	having risen up as an eagle skimming the ether
17.225	καὶ θήσεις σου τὴν νοσσιὰν ἐν μέσῳ τῶν ἀστέρων,	and placed the hatchling in the middle of the stars,
17.226	ἐκεῖθεν καταγάγω σε, φησὶν ὁ παντοκράτωρ,	thence I lead you down, thus says the Pantokrator,
17.227	καὶ θῶ τὸν οἶκον Ἰακὼβ τοῦ δούλου καὶ παιδός μου,	and Ι make the house of Jacob, my servant and child,
17.228	ὃν ἔχρισά μου τῇ χειρὶ Ῥωμαίων βασιλέα,	whom I anointed with my hand emperor of the Romans,
17.229	ὡς πῦρ παφλάζον καυστικόν, ὡς δ᾽εὔπρηστον καλάμην	like a corrosive burning fire, and like a well blowing stubble
17.230	Ἠσαῦ τὸν οἶκον τοῦ πικροῦ, σοῦ τοῦ δολίου Πέρσου.	[I will make] the house of the bitter Esau, and of your deceitful Persian.
17.231	Ἀγγαῖε, ποῦ προλέλοιπας τοὺς ἄλλους συμπροφήτας;	Hagar, why have you abandoned the other fellow-prophets?
17.232	οὐδ᾽ἔρχη μετὰ τῆς αὐτῶν βελτίστης συνοδίας	why do you not join this most excellent company
17.233	ἐπεύξασθαι τῷ βασιλεῖ, τοῖς Πέρσαις ἀπειλῆσαι;	to pray for the Emperor, to destroy the Persians?
17.234	νῦν οὐρανὸν καὶ θάλασσαν καὶ γῆν ἐγὼ συσσείσω,	Now heaven and sea and earth I shake together,
17.235	ἐθνῶν δὲ πάντα θησαυρὸν ἀργύρου καὶ χρυσίου	all the gold and silver treasures of nations
17.236	τῷ κλήρῳ μου χαρίσομαι, φησὶν ὁ παντοκράτωρ,	I offer to my [lot], the Pantokrator says,
17.237	καὶ θήσομαί σε, Κομνηνέ, τὸν δοῦλον μου καὶ παῖδα	and I shall make you, Komnenos, my servant and child
17.238	ὡς καθαρὰν καὶ τηλαυγῆ σφαγῖδα καὶ τιμίαν·	like a pure and far shining seal and honour.
17.239	θρόνους δ᾽ἐχθρῶν σου πρὸς τὴν γὴν κυμβάχους καταβάλω,	The thrones of your enemies' head, foremost I’ll throw down to earth
17.240	καὶ γὰρ ἡρετισάμην σε καὶ γὰρ ἠγάπησά σε.	and I will choose you and love you.
17.241	Ὁ δ᾽Ἰωνὰς ὁ θαυμαστὸς αὐτομολεῖ τῷ λόγῳ	Jonah the marvellous spontaneously joins the discourse,
17.242	οὐ περιμείνας ὑπ᾽ ἐμοῦ πρὸς τὴν εὐχὴν κληθῆναι,	not waiting to be summoned for prayer by me,
17.243	οὐ φεύγων μὲν ὡς ἔκπαλαι τὸ πρόσωπον κυρίου	not fleeing as long ago from the face of the Lord
17.244	οὐδ᾽ἐκδιδράσκων εἰς Θαρσαῖς ἐπί τινος φορτίδος·	and not having escaped to Tarshish on a ship of burden;
17.245	τάχα γὰρ ὑποστέλλεται τὸν κλύδωνα καὶ πάλιν,	quickly he draws back the wave and again,
17.246	πάλιν φοβεῖται τὸν βυθόν, κατέπτηχε τὸ κῆτος	again fear the depths, cower the whale
17.247	καὶ τὴν ἐν τούτῳ προσμονὴν ἄχρι τριττῆς ἡμέρας.	and in the inside he stays for three days.
17.248	σὺν δὲ κηρύγματι λαμπρῷ καὶ σὺν φωνῇ μεγάλη	With a radiant proclamation and with a great voice
17.249	«ἔτι τρεῖς μόναι», κέκραγε, «παρέλθωσιν ἡμέραι,	«yet three alone», he clamoured, «days pass,
17.250	καὶ Περσικὴ καταστραφῇ χώρα καὶ πόλις πᾶσα».	and the Persian country and all cities will be subdued».
17.251	Σὺ δ᾽ἀλλὰ ποῦ προφεύγεις με καὶ ποῦ με δραπετεύεις,	But why did you shun me and why did you run from me,
17.252	Ἱερεμία θαυμαστὲ θρηνητικὲ προφῆτα;	O marvellous Jeremiah, the lamenting prophet?
17.253	ἢ κάθῃ πάλιν τὴν Σιὼν ὡς πάλαι περικλαίων	Shall you make Zion stand weeping round as long ago,
17.254	πυρποληθῆναι μέλλουσαν ὑπὸ Βαβυλωνίων	as she is about to be burned by the Babylonians
17.255	καὶ πάλιν ὕδωρ ἐξαιτεῖς τῇ κεφαλῇ δοθῆναι,	and shall you again ask for water to be given to your head,
17.156	τοῖς δ᾽ὀφθαλμοῖς ἐπιζητεῖς ὅλας πηγὰς δακρύων;	and seek many tears for your eyes?
17.257	μὴ σύ, βλεπόντων κορωνίς, <…………………..	You do not, garland of the seers, <………………..
17.258	…………………………..> ἀλλὰ λιπὼν τοὺς θρήνους	……………………..> but having finished the lament
17.259	σὺν εὐφροσύνῃ πρόπεμπε τὸν αὐτοκράτορά μου	with merriment send forth my Autokrator
17.260	στρατεύοντα κατὰ Περσῶν ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν καὶ πάλιν.	to fight for us again against the Persians.
17.261	Θεός σοι ταῦτα, μέγιστε Ῥωμαίων αὐτοκράτορ,	God tell you these things, great Autokrator of the Romans,
17.262	ἐν γλώσσῃ τῇ προφητικῇ φησὶν Ἱερεμίου·	through the prophetic tongue of Jeremiah:
17.263	εἶδον σε καὶ γινώσκω σε καὶ δεδοκίμακά σε,	I saw you, knew you and then I had chosen you;
17.264	πρὶν ἐν κοιλίᾳ συλληφθῆς, αὐτὸς ἐπίσταμαί σε,	before you were even shaped in the belly, I myself knew you,
17.265	καὶ πρὶν ἐξέλθης ἐκ γαστρός, αὐτὸς ἡγίακά σε	and before you came out of it [the belly], I sanctified you
17.266	καὶ πάσης αὐτοκράτορα τῆς γῆς πεποίηκά σε	and I made you Autokrator of the whole earth,
17.267	καί πρὸ ποδῶν σου τέθεικα πάντων ἐχθρῶν αὐχένας	and in front of your feet I placed the necks of all the enemies
17.268	καὶ μετὰ σοῦ πορεύσομαι καὶ μετὰ σοῦ στρατεύσω	and I shall march and take the field with you
17.269	ῥυόμενος καὶ σκέπων σε καὶ σώζων καὶ φρουρῶν σε	delivering you and sheltering you and saving you and protecting you
17.270	ἐν πάσαις ταῖς ἡμέραις σου καὶ σύμπαντι τῷ βίῳ.	every day and for all your life.
17.271	Χαῖρε μοι, πόλις Βυζαντίς, χαῖρε, Σιὼν ἡ νέα,	Rejoice with me, Byzantium, rejoice, New Zion,
17.272	καὶ πάλιν γὰρ ὁ βασιλεὺς ὁ σὸς στραροπεδεύει	and once again thy Emperor encamps
17.273	ἐξολοθρεύσων ἀπὸ σοῦ τόξα Περσῶν καὶ βέλη	violently warding off the bows and arrows of the Persians from you
17.274	καὶ πᾶσαν ἵππον ἐθνικὴν καὶ πᾶν βαρβάρων ἅρμα.	and all foreign horses and all the chariots of the barbarians.
17.275	ἀνύδρων ἐξαπόστειλον λάκκων τοὺς σοὺς δεσμίους,	Send out your prisoners from the waterless pit,
17.276	ἰδοὺ γὰρ ἔφθασε καιρὸς ἡμέρας σωτηρίου,	and now the day of the saviour has arrived,
17.277	καὶ χρηματίσει βασιλεὺς εἶς μόνος μονοκράτωρ	and he shall be appointed as emperor, a sole ruler,
17.278	ὁ Κομνηνὸς ὁ κραταιὸς καὶ κλῆσις τούτῳ μία	the mighty Komnenos and his name only
17.279	κυκλοῦσα σύμπασαν τὴν γῆν, πᾶσι προσκυνουμένη.	shall revolve around the earth, being worshipped by everyone.
17.280	προλέγει ταῦτα σοι τρανῶς ὁ μέγας Ζαχαρίας.	This the great Zacharias announces clearly to you.
17.281	Καὶ πῶς τὸ μέλος τῆς εὐχῆς εὐρύθμως μοι πλακείη	And how can I compose a song of prayer in good rhythm
17.282	μὴ συμπαρούσης ἐνταυθοῖ τῆς Ἠσαΐου λύρας	if the lyre of Isaiah does not assist in this,
17.283	καὶ συναυλούσης ἐμμελῶς καὶ συμμουσηγετούσης;	if it does not play along in harmony and co-direct the music with me?
17.284	«εὐφράνθητι» γὰρ κέκραγεν, «ἔρημος ἡ διψῶσα,	«Be glad» he clamours, «desert and parched land,
17.285	ἄνθησον, ὑλοχάρησον καὶ βλάστησον ὡς κρίνον·	bloom, overgrow and sprout like a lily:
17.286	πορευομένου γὰρ εἰς σὲ τοῦ Κομνηνοῦ δεσπότου	the Despotes Komnenos has come to you,
17.287	ἀντὶ στοιβῆς μὲν χθαμαλῆς κυπάριττος μεγάλη,	in place of a low pile [shall rise] a great cypress,
17.288	ἀντὶ κονίζης δὲ μικρᾶς ἀρθήσεται μυρσίνη,	in place of a small briar, shall raise a myrtle,
17.289	καὶ τῶν ἀψύχων ἐπ᾽αὐτῷ πάντως ἀγαλλομένων	and the faint-hearted of them all exulting
17.290	καὶ τὴν χαρὰν τὴν ἑαυτῶν πραγματικῶς δεικνύντων.»	and the joy itself shines forth fit for action.»
17.291	Ξυρήσειεν, Ἀσσύριε, θεὸς τὴν κεφαλήν σου,	God has shaved your head, Assyria,
17.292	ἀφέλῃ δὲ τὸν πώγωνα κατὰ τὸν Ἠσαΐαν,	remove the beard, as Isaiah says,
17.293	καὶ σχοῖνος ἔσται σοι ζωστὴρ ἀντὶ χρυσοῦ ζωστῆρος,	and in place of a golden warrior's belt there will be for you a reed [belt],
17.294	σάκκον δ᾽ἐνδύση τρίχινον ἀντὶ τῆς πορφυρίδος	in place of the purple robe you’ll wear a hair sackcloth,
17.295	καὶ σχῆς φαλάκραν κεφαλῆς ἀντὶ τοῦ ταύτης κόσμου,	and in place of a well-dressed head you’ll have a bald one,
17.296	ὡς δὲ τερέβινθος φανῇς τῶν φύλλων γυμνωθεῖσα,	you’d look like a terebinth stripped of its leaves,
17.297	ὡς ἄνυδρος παράδεισος, ὡς αὐχμηρός τις κῆπος,	as a waterless garden, a dry orchard,
17.298	καὶ ταπεινώσαι σε θεὸς ὁ μέγας καὶ μονώσαι	and God, the great one, shall humble and isolate you
17.299	ὡς ἔρημον καὶ ταπεινὴν σκηνὴν ἐν ἀμπελῶνι,	as a desert and as a miserable tent in a vineyard,
17.300	ὡς ὀπωροφυλάκιον ἐπὶ σικυηλάτῳ.	and a storehouse in a cucumber garden.
17.301	Ἄγγειλον, Ἰεζεκιήλ, καὶ σὺ τὴν ὅρασίν σου,	You announce, Ezekiel, and your vision is this:
17.302	ἣν εἶδες ὡς ὑπερφυῶς ἀμφὶ τὴν γῆν Χαλδαίων.	you see extraordinarily how great the land of Chaldea is.
17.303	πνεῦμα, φησίν, ἐξήρχετο μεγάλη σὺν νεφέλη,	a wind, he says, came together with a great cloud,
17.304	φέγγος καὶ πῦρ περὶ αὐτὸ καὶ χάρις τεραστία	with brightness and fire around it and a prodigious grace
17.305	καὶ κύκλῳ τούτου θαυμαστὸν σχῆμα τεττάρων ζῴων.	and surrounding it a marvellous likeness of four animals.
17.306	πτέρυγες τούτων τοῖς ποσί, σπινθῆρες ἀπὸ τούτων,	Wings on their feet, sparks from them,
17.307	τὰ πρόσωπα τοῖς τέσσαρσιν ἀλλήλοις ἡνωμένα,	the faces of the four united as one,
17.308	καὶ τέλος τῆς ὁράσεως τῆς παραδόξου ταύτης·	and the end of such an incredible vision:
17.309	ὅπου τὸ πνεῦμα τὴν ὁρμὴν ἐποίει καὶ τὴν ῥύμην,	where the wind makes way and goes,
17.310	ἐκεῖ συνεπορεύοντο συνάμα καὶ τὰ ζῷα.	there the animals go all together at the same time.
17.311	Δοκῶ μοι, θεῖε προφητῶν, τὴν ὅρασίν σου ταύτην	It seems to me, divine prophets, this vision of yours
17.312	τὸν Κομνηνὸν αἰνίττεσθαι δεσπότην Ἰωάννην	speaks in riddles of the Despotes John Komnenos
17.313	καὶ τὴν ἐκ τούτου τετρακτὺν τῶν πορφυρογεννήτων.	and the four [creatures] are those porphyrogenites from him [his offspring]
17.314	κινεῖται γὰρ κατὰ Περσῶν ὡς λαίλαψ τεραστία	He urges us on against the Persians as a monstrous hurricane
17.315	καὶ πῦρ καὶ φῶς περὶ αὐτόν, τοῖς μὲν ἐχθροῖς ἐκεῖνο,	with fire and light around him, against the enemies there,
17.316	τοῦτο δ᾽ἡμῖν τοῖς Αὔσοσιν, ἀλλὰ καὶ κύκλῳ τούτου	here with us against the Ausones, but around him,
17.317	ζῴων ἀρίστων τετρακτὺς ἡ τετρακτὺς τῶν παίδων.	the sum of the first four numbers which are the sum of the first four number of sons.
17.318	οἱ πόδες τούτων πτερωτοὶ τῷ πρὸς τὰς μάχας τάχει,	The winged feet of them [going] towards battles fleetly,
17.319	πυρὸς σπινθῆρες ἐξ αὐτῶν ὥσπερ χαλκὸς ἀστράπτων	the sparks of fire from them just as hurling copper lightning
17.320	καὶ τῷ πατρὶ καὶ βασιλεῖ πάντοτε συγκινοῦνται.	and always go everywhere together with their father and emperor.
17.321	Θαρσεῖτε, κλῆρος εὐσεβῶν, θαρσεῖτε, τέκνα Ῥώμης,	Take Courage, pious people, take courage, children of Rome,
17.322	ἀνάστητε καὶ ζήσατε, νῦν γὰρ ὁ παντοκράτωρ	rise up and live, for now the Pantokrator
17.323	ἡμῖν ὀστέοις τοῖς ξηροῖς πνεῦμα ζωῆς κομίσει	shall bring a spirit of life into my dry bones,
17.324	ἐν τῇ χειρὶ τοῦ κραταιοῦ πορφυρανθοῦς δεσπότου	in the hand of the mighty Despotes of the purple blossom
17.325	καὶ δώσει νεύρων ἔκφυσιν καὶ σάρκας ἐπανάξει	and shall provide growing nerves and restore the flesh
17.326	καὶ δέρμα ταύταις ἐντενεῖ καὶ μέλη διαπλάσει,	and shall place skin upon them and shape limbs,
17.327	καὶ ζήσομεν καὶ τῶν πικρῶν ἐξεγερθῶμεν τάφων,	and we shall live, and awaken from bitter graves,
17.328	ἡ δὲ Περσὶς ἡ σοβαρὰ μέχρι ξηρῶν ὀστέων	while the violent Persia [shall become] dry bones,
17.329	καὶ μέχρις Ἅιδου καὶ ταφῆς ἀντικατενεχθείη.	brought down in Hades and to their graves.
17.330	ἀπὸ τῶν Ἰεξεκιὴλ καὶ τάδε θεαμάτων.	From Ezekiel came this vision.
17.331	Ὁ λίθος, ἄναξ, ὁ τμηθεὶς ἄνευ χειρὸς ἀνθρώπου,	The stone, Lord, the one cut without human hands,
17.332	ὁ βροτωθεὶς καὶ γεννηθεὶς ἀπὸ μητρὸς ἀσπόρως,	the generated and produced from an unsown mother,
17.333	συντρίψαι σοι τὴν ἐθνικὴν εἰκόνα τὴν μεγάλην,	shall shatter […] the great foreign image,
17.334	τὴν κεφαλὴν τὴν ἐκ χρυσοῦ, τὰς ἐξ ἀργύρου χεῖρας	the golden head, the hands of silver
17.335	καὶ τοῦς μηροὺς τοὺς ἐκ χαλκοῦ, τὰς ἐκ σιδήρου κνήμας	and the thighs of copper, the legs of iron
17.336	μέχρι ταρσῶν τε καὶ ποδῶν τῶν ὀστρακοσιδήρων,	as far as iron covered feet,
17.337	λεπτύναι καὶ λικμήσαι σοι καὶ θείη κούφην κόνιν	and for you reduce and winnow the divine unsubstantial dust
17.338	ὡς ἅλωνος κονιορτὸν ἀέρι κεχυμένον,	as threshing sheds a dust cloud,
17.339	τὸ δ᾽εὐσεβὲς τοῦ κράτους σου τοῦ τρισαυγούστου σκῆπτρον	the pious sceptre of the mighty thrice Augustus
17.340	κατὰ τὸν μέγαν Δανιὴλ ὡς ὄρος μέγα θείη.	according to Daniel as a great divine mountain.
17.341	Τῶν σῶν δέ, μέγιστε Δαυίδ, κόρον οὐκ ἔχω λόγων,	I am not yet full of your words, Great David,
17.342	ἀλλὰ καλῶ καὶ πάλιν σου τὴν ἱερὰν κιθάραν	and once more I summon your holy Kithara,
17.343	κιθαρῳδῆσαι τὰ χρηστὰ τῷ Κομνηνῷ δεσπότη.	so to sing the best things to the Komnenian Despotes.
17.344	παμβασιλεῦ, τὸ κρῖμα σου τῷ βασιλεῖ μου δίδου	All-Emperor, give to my Emperor your verdict,
17.345	καὶ τὴν δικαιοσύνην σου τῷ βασιλέως τέκνῳ.	and your righteousness to his son.
17.346	ἐν ταῖς ἡμέραις γὰρ αὐτοῦ πλῆθος ἐστὶν εἰρήνης,	For in his days is a multitude of peace,
17.347	σώσει πτωχοὺς καὶ πένητας καὶ θραύσει συκοφάντας,	he shall deliver beggars and poor men and shatter false advisors,
17.348	πασῶν κρατήσει θαλασσῶν, ἄρξει πασῶν ἠπείρων,	have dominion over all the seas, rule all lands,
17.349	ἔμπροσθεν τούτου πέσωσιν ἄρχοντες Αἰθιόπων,	in front of him fall the lords of Ethiopia,
17.350	ἐχθροὶ δὲ τούτου λείξουσι κατὰ τοὺς ὄφεις χῶμα.	and his enemies shall lick dust like serpents.
17.351	Ζητῶ τὸ λεῖπον τῆς εὐχῆς τῆς εἰς τὸν βασιλέα,	I am seeking for the remainder of the prayer for the Emperor,
17.352	οὐ γὰρ ἐξετελέσθη σοι, προφῆτα μουσηγέτα.	it is not finished yet for you, prophet and leader of the Muses.
17.353	Θαρσεῖς οἱ βασιλεύοντες, Ἀρράβων οἱ κρατοῦντες,	The lords of Tarshish, the Arab rulers,
17.354	οἱ κυριεύοντες Σαβᾶ, νήσων οἱ τυραννοῦντες	the lords of Sheba, the tyrants of the islands
17.355	δῶρα προσοίσουσιν αὐτῷ καὶ φόρους κομιοῦσι,	bring gifts to him and provide tribute,
17.356	καὶ σύμπαν ἀλαζονικὸν ἔθνος αὐτῷ δουλεύσει,	and all boastful peoples shall submit to him,
17.357	ἀρθῶσιν ὑπὲρ Λίβανον οἱ τούτου θεῖου κλάδοι,	may the divine branches of Lebanon be taken away,
17.358	καὶ ζήσεται μακραίωνα πανευτυχῶς τὸν βίον,	and he shall live for a long time and be fortunate,
17.359	κἀκ τοῦ χρυσοῦ κομίσουσιν αὐτῷ τῆς Ἀρραβίας.	and they shall give him gold from Arabia.
17.360	γένοιτο ταῦτα, γένοιτο τῷ βασιλεῖ, παντάναξ.	May it be, may it be to the Emperor, Pantanax.
17.361	Ναί, θεοπάτορ ψαλτῳδέ καὶ πάλιν τοῖς βαρβάροις	Verily, Theopator Psalmist and again to the barbarians
17.362	ἀρὰς μεγάλας πρόπεμπε καὶ παλαμναιοτάτας	send great ruin and murder
17.363	«ὀλόθρευσον», ἀναβοῶν, «θεὸς τοὺς Ἰδουμαίους	«God destroys», I shout aloud, «the Edomites
17.364	καὶ τοὺς τῆς Ἄγαρ σκύλακας καὶ τοὺς Ἰσμαηλίτας	and the whelps of Hagar and Ismaelites
17.365	ὡς τὸν Γεβὰλ καὶ τὸν Ἀμμὼν καὶ τοὺς Ἀμαληκίτας,	as Gebal (Gibelet) and the Ammonites and the Amalekites,
17.366	τοὺς ἐν Σιδῶνι δυσσεβεῖς καὶ τοὺς κατοίκους Τύρου.	the impious Sidones and the inhabitants of Tyre.
17.367	καὶ τόσα ποίησον αὐτοῖς χειρὶ τῇ Κομνηνίδι,	and at the hands of the Komnenos you shall do many things,
17.368	ὁπόσα πρὶν τῇ Μαδιὰμ καὶ τῷ πικρῷ Σισάρᾳ.	as many as to Midian before and to bitter Sisera.
17.369	ὡς κόπρος γενηθήτωσαν, εἰς γῆν ἠτιμωμένοι,	As dung they became, dishonoured in earth,
17.370	καὶ θοῦ μοι τούτους ὡς τροχὸν καὶ τῆξον ὡς κηρίον.»	and make them as a whirlwind melts them like honeycomb.»
17.371	Ἄμπελον, ἄναξ ὕψιστε, μετῆρας ἐξ Αἰγύπτου,	A grape vine, loftiest lord, you transplanted from Egypt,
17.372	ἡμᾶς τὸν νέον σου λαόν, τὸ νέον σχοίνισμά σου,	your new people [for us], your new lands,
17.373	καὶ κατεφύτευσας αὐτῆς ἐν γῇ καλῆ τὰς ῥίζας,	and planted her roots in this fine land,
17.374	ἐν γῆ καλῆ καὶ πίονι, τῇ νεωτέρᾳ Ῥώμῃ·	a fine and wealthy land, the new Rome:
17.375	ἐκάλυψεν ἐν τῇ σκιᾷ βουνῶν μεγάλων ὕψη,	the heights of the great hills covered in the shade
17.376	τὰς κέδρους δὲ τὰς ὑψηλὰς ἐν ταῖς ἀναδενδράσιν,	and the high cedars in the vine that grows up trees,
17.377	ἐξέτεινε τὰ κλήματα μέχρι θαλάσσης ἄκρας	stretch out the vine branch as far as the furthest sea
17.378	καὶ μέχρις ἄκρων ποταμῶν τὰ τῶν παραφυάδων·	and as far as the furthest the offshoots:
17.379	καὶ νῦν ἐπίσκεψαι, θεός, τὴν ἄμπελόν σου ταύτην,	and now watch over, God, this grapevine of yours,
17.380	μὴ σῦς αὐτὴν ἀπὸ δρυμοῦ καὶ μονιὸς λυμήνη.	so that the pig from the forest and the boar do not waste her.
17.381	Χριστός, γεννάδα βασιλεῦ, ὁ κτίσας σε καὶ πλάσας	Christ, noble Emperor, the one who he created, made
17.382	καὶ στέψας ἀπὸ βρέφους σε καὶ βασιλέα χρίσας	and crowned you from the womb and anointed you Emperor
17.383	δύναμιν περιζώσαι σε καὶ κράτος ἐπενδύσαι	might gird you and dress you with power,
17.384	καὶ καταρτίσαι πόδας σου καὶ στέρνα θωρακίσαι	and ready your feet and put on your breastplate
17.385	καὶ θείη τοὺς δακτύλους σου καὶ τοὺς βραχίονάς σου	and make your fingers and your arms
17.386	τόξον χαλκοῦν σφυρήλατον ἐν τῷ πολέμῳ πάλιν,	as the bow of brass and iron ready to war again,
17.387	ἐφ᾽ὑψηλοῦ δὲ στήσαι σε καὶ δοίη σωτηρίαν·	raise you up high and grant you salvation:
17.388	καὶ σὺ διώξη τοὺς ἐχθροὺς καὶ τούτους καταλήψη.	and you shall pursue the enemies and the seize them.
17.389	οὐκ ἀποστρέψεις ἀπ᾽αὐτῶν, ἕως ἐκλίπωσί σοι,	Do not turn away from them, until they are slain by you,
17.390	καὶ σοὶ λαὸς δουλεύσειεν, ὅνπερ οὐκ ἔγνως ἔτι.	and their people, whom I know not yet, enslaved.
17.391	Οἱ μὲν λοιποὶ τῶν προφητῶν, ἄναξ, ἐπηύξαντό σοι,	The remaining prophets, Lord, they pray for you,
17.392	ἡ τοῦ βοῶντος δὲ φωνὴ λοιπὸν ἐκλαλησάτω,	but the voice of the one who screams shall tell the rest,
17.393	ἐμὲ φημὶ τὸν Πρόδρομον τὸν ἐκ τῆς πανερήμου.	Myself, I say, Prodromos from the desert.
17.394	ἰσχύσαι τοίνυν, ὕψιστε, τὰ φῦλα τῶν βαρβάρων	therefore be strong, highest, the tribes of barbarians
17.395	καὶ τῆς Περσίδος ὁ λαός, ὅσον αὐτὸς ἰσχύω,	and the Persian people, as much as is in my power,
17.396	οὕτω τὸ βέλος πέμψειεν, ὥσπερ αὐτὸς ἐκπέμπω,	as they sent an arrow, so I sent it out,
17.397	οὕτω τὸ δόρυ τείνειεν, ὥσπερ αὐτὸς ἐντείνω.	as they stretch out the spear, so I stretch it too.
17.398	εἴπω τὰ πάντα συνελὼν καὶ παύσω μου τὸν λόγον·	I briefly say it all and I finish my speech:
17.399	γένοιτο τούτοις στόμαχος ὡς στόμαχος Προδρόμου	This throat becomes as the throat of Prodromos
17.400	καίτοι μετὰ τὸν σίδηρον καὶ μετὰ τὸν καυτῆρα.	and even greater after the iron and after the burner.
17.401	Ἔμαθες, γραῖα Βαβυλών, τὰ πάθη τῆς Περσίδος	Learn, old woman Babylon, the fate of Persians
17.402	καὶ πόσα δέδρακεν αὐτὴν ὁ Κομνηνὸς δεσπότης,	and how many great things the Komnenian Despotes did to her,
17.403	καὶ συσταλεῖσα τὴν ψυχὴν καὶ φόβου πληρωθεῖσα	and after humbling your soul and being full of fear
17.404	δορυφορεῖν οἰκετικῶς λατρεύειν ἐπαγγέλῃ.	promise to serve and guard in a slavish manner.
17.405	κάμπτεις αὐτῷ τὸν τράχηλον, ὁμολογεῖς δουλεύειν	Bend your neck in front of him, accept service
17.406	καὶ φόρους κατατίθεσαι τῇ νεωτέρᾳ Ῥώμῃ·	and proffer tribute to new Rome:
17.407	οὕτως τὸ σκέμμα γηραιᾶς, τὸ δούλευμα φρονίμου·	so the problem of an old man, a service of the prudent one:
17.408	καὶ δούλευε καὶ λάτρευε, μὴ πάθης τὰ Περσίδος.	serve and be a subject, so as not to suffer the fate of Persia.
17.409	σοὶ δὲ τὸ θεῖον, βασιλεῦ, δοίη μακροὺς αἰῶνας	To you, Emperor, may the Divine give you a long life,
17.410	εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας οὐρανοῦ καὶ τοὺς ἡλίου κύκλους.	unto the ages of heaven and the cycles of the sun.

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1 This paper would never have been possible without the advice of John Ritzema, with whom I should certainly write a joint paper on the Old Testament in Byzantium more broadly in future, and Nina Soleymani, who invited me to be part of this project and did sterling work organising us during the colloquium in Orleans in 2022 and for this publication. I would also like to thank Giulia Paoletti once again for collaborating on the translation of the poem as a whole.

2 For an introduction, see: Beaton, Roderick, and Ricks, David, Digenēs Akritēs: New Approaches to Byzantine Heroic Poetry, Aldershot, Variorum, 1993.

3 Euthathios of Thessalonike, Eustathii commentarii ad Homeri Iliadem pertinentes. vol. 1, van der Valk. Marchinus (ed.), Leiden, Lugduni Batavorum, 1971; Demoen, Kristoffel and Verhelst, Berinice, “The tradition of epic poetry in Byzantine literature”, in Reitz, Christianje, and Finkmann, Simone (eds.), Structures of Epic Poetry, vol. 3, Berlin, De Gruyter, 2020, p. 177.

4 Ibid., p. 175-210.

5 Verhelst, Berinice, “Greek biblical epic: Nonnus’ Paraphrase and Eudocia’s Homerocentones”, in Reitz, Christianje, and Finkmann, Simone (eds.), Structures of Epic Poetry, vol. 3, Berlin, De Gruyter, 2020, p. 53-78.

6 Cf. Sauvage, Baptiste, “Du travail épique au travail mystique. Caractéristiques du “travail épique” dans la Bible: l’exemple d’Ex 14”.

7 Niditch, Susan, “The Challenge of Israelite Epic”, in Foley, John (ed.), Companion to the Ancient Epic, Oxford, Blackwell, 2005, p. 277-287. See also n. 2 of Sauvage’s paper.

8 Oinas, Felix, Heroic Epic and Saga: An Introduction to the World’s Great Folk Epics, Bloomington, Indiana University Press, 1978, esp. p. 4.

9 Niditch, Op. Cit., p. 287.

10 Ibid.

11 Magdalino, Paul, and Nelson, Robert, “Introduction”, in Magdalino, Paul, and Nelson, Robert (eds.), The Old Testament in Byzantium, Washington D.C., Dumbarton Oaks, 2010, p. 1-38.

12 Jeffreys, Elizabeth, “Old Testament ‘history’ and the Byzantine chronicle” in Magdalino, Paul, and Nelson, Robert (eds.), The Old Testament in Byzantium, Washington D.C., Dumbarton Oaks, 2010, p. 153-174.

13 Lau, Maximilian, “Rewriting History at the Court of the Komnenoi: Processes and Practices”, in Winkler, Emily, and Lewis, Chris (eds.), Rewriting History in the Central Middle Ages, Brepols, Turnhout, 2021, p. 121-147.

14 Hörandner, Wolfram, Theodore Prodromos: Historische Gedichte, Vienna, Verlag d. Österr. Akad. d. Wiss., 1974, pp. 94–97; Kazhdan, Aleksandr, and Franklin, Simon, “Theodore Prodromos: A Reappraisal”, in Studies on Byzantine Literature of the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1984, p. 106; Mullett, Margaret, “Did Byzantium have a Court Literature?”, in Odekan, Ayla, Necipoğlou, Nevra, and Akyürek, Engin, (eds.), The Byzantine Court: Source of Power and Culture, Istanbul, Koç University Press, 2013, p. 173–182.

15 Hörandner, Wolfram, “Zur kommunikativen Funktion byzantinischer Gedichte”, in Ševčenko, Ihor, and Litavrin, Gennadij (eds.), XVIII Mezdunarodnyj kongress vizantinistov. Plenarnye doklady, Moscow, Moscow State University, 1991, p. 415-432; Mullett, Margaret, “Aristocracy and Patronage in the Literary Circles of Comnenian Constantinople”, in Angold, Michael (ed.), The Byzantine Aristocracy from IX to XIII Centuries, Oxford, B.A.R., 1984, p. 173-201; Magdalino, Paul, The Empire of Manuel I Komnenos, 1143–1180, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993, p. 332-356; Lau, Maximilian, “The Power of Poetry: Portraying the Expansion of the Empire under John II Komnenos”, in Lau, Maximilian, Franchi, Caterina, and Di Rodi, Morgan (eds.), Landscapes of Power – Selected Papers from the XV Oxford University Byzantine Society International Graduate Conference, Oxford, Peter Lang, 2014, p. 195-214.

16 Miller, James, “The Prophetologion: The Old Testament of Byzantine Christianity?”, in Magdalino, Paul, and Nelson, Robert (eds.), The Old Testament in Byzantium, Washington D.C., Dumbarton Oaks, 2010, p. 55-76.

17 Parpulov, Georgi, “Psalters and Personal Piety in Byzantium”, in Magdalino, Paul, and Nelson, Robert (eds.), The Old Testament in Byzantium, Washington D.C., Dumbarton Oaks, 2010, p. 77-106; Schaper, Joachim, “The Septuagint Psalter” in Brown, William (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of The Psalms, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2014, p. 173-184.

18 Septuaginta: Revised Edition, Rahlfs, Alfred (ed.), Stuttgart, Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, 2006, p. XXXI-XL.

19 Noth, Martin, The Deuteronomistic History, Sheffield, University of Sheffield, 1981.

20 Römer, Thomas, The So-Called Deuteronomistic History: A Sociological, Historical and Literary Introduction, London, T&T Clark, 2007; idem; “Deuteronomy in Search of Origins” in Knoppers, Gary and McConville, J. Gordon (eds.), Reconsidering Israel and Judah. Recent Studies on the Deuteronomistic History, Penn State University Press, Pennsylvania, 2000, p. 112-138.

21 For biblical references, see in particular: Isaiah 1. 25–26; 11. 10–11; Jeremiah 23. 3–4; Amos 5. 14–15; Micah 4. 6–7. Compare Meyer 1992, pp. 669–71. On the possible relationships between these Biblical accounts and what can be reconstructed from sources such as archaeology, surface surveys and epigraphy, see: Halpern, Baruch, “The State of Israelite History” in Knoppers, Gary and McConville, J. Gordon (eds.), Reconsidering Israel and Judah. Recent Studies on the Deuteronomistic History, Penn State University Press, Pennsylvania, 2000, p. 540-565.

22 2 Kings 3 2-3 on Jeroboam, and 2 Kings 22 2 on Josiah. See: Cross, Frank, “The Themes of the Book of Kings and the Structure of the Deuteronomistic History” in Knoppers, Gary and McConville, J. Gordon (eds.), Reconsidering Israel and Judah. Recent Studies on the Deuteronomistic History, Penn State University Press, Pennsylvania, 2000, p. 79-94; McConville, J. Gordon, “1 Kings 8:46-53 and the Deuteronomic Hope”, in idem, p. 358-369; Weippert, Helga, ““Histories” and “History”. Promise and Fulfilment in the Deuternonomistic Historical Work”, in idem, p. 47-61.

23 Dagron, Gilbert, Emperor and Priest: The Imperial Office in Byzantium, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2003; Rapp, Claudia, “Old Testament Models for Emperors in Early Byzantium”, in Magdalino, Paul, and Nelson, Robert (eds.), The Old Testament in Byzantium, Washington D.C., Dumbarton Oaks, 2010, p. 175-197; Magdalino and Nelson, “Introduction”, p. 1-38; Magdalino, Paul, “Basileia: The Idea of Monarchy in Byzantium, 600-1200”, in Kaldellis, Anthony, and Siniossogloy, Niketas (eds.), The Cambridge Intellectual History of Byzantium, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2017, esp. p. 579; Riedel, Meredith, Leo VI and the Transformation of Byzantine Christian Identity. Writings of an Unexpected Emperor, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2018, esp. p. 154-73; Eshel, Shay, The Concept of the Elect Nation in Byzantium, Leiden, Brill, 2018.

24 Magdalino, Op. Cit., p. 27-34; Angold, Michael, “The Byzantine Empire 1025-1118” in Luscombe, David and Riley-Smith, Jonathan (eds.), The New Cambridge Medieval History, vol. 4.2, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2004, p. 217-53; idem, “Belle Époque or Crisis?”, in Shepard, Jonathan (ed.), Cambridge History of the Byzantine Empire c.500-1492, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2008, p. 583-626.

25 Hörandner, Op. Cit., p. 21–35; Bazzani, Marina, “The Historical Poems of Theodore Prodromos, the Epic-Homeric Revival and the Crisis of Intellectuals in the Twelfth Century” Byzantinoslavica, 65 (2007), p. 211–214, 225; Zagklas Nikos, Theodore Prodromos: The Neglected Poems and Epigrams (Edition, Commentary and Translation), Unpublished Doctoral Thesis, Vienna: University of Vienna, 2014, p. 52–72; Faulkner, Andrew, “Theodoros Prodromos’ Historical Poems: A Hymnic Celebration of John II Komnenos” in Faulkner, Andrew, Vergados, Athanassios, and Schwab, Andreas (eds.), The Reception of Homeric Hymns, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2016, p. 261-274; Prodromos, Theodore, Der byzantinische Katz-Mäuse-Krieg. Theodore Prodromus, Katomyomachia, Hunger, Herbert (ed.), Graz, Böhlau in Kommission, 1968.

26 Prodromos, Poem XVII, in Hörandner, Historische Gedichte, p. 286-301.

27 Lau, Op. Cit., esp. p. 201-202; Magdalino, Paul, “The Triumph of 1133” in Bucossi, Alessandra, and Rodriguez Suarez, Alex (eds.), John II Komnenos, Emperor of Byzantium: In the Shadow of Father and Son, Abingdon, Routledge, 2016, p. 59-62.

28 Regarding John, see the essays in the aforementioned Bucossi and Rodriguez Suarez volume, and Lau, Maximilian, Rebuilding New Rome. Emperor John II Komnenos 1118-1143, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2023, Forthcoming.

29 Prodromos, Poem XVII, lines 1–2.

30 C.f. lines 44-50. For Ishmael as the son of Abraham and Hagar see Genesis 16–17, 21. His supposed descendants, the Ishmaelites, are identified with the Midianites who sell Joseph to Egypt: they are listed as enemies of Israel in Psalm 83. See: Knauf, Ernst Axel, Ismael: Untersuchungen zur Geschichte Palästinas und Nordarabiens im 1. Jahrtausend v. Chr, 2^nd Edition, Wiesbaden, O. Harrassowitz, 1989. Under Cyrus the Great, Persia replaced Babylon as the Mesopotamian hegemon, and part of the old kingdom of Judah was reconstituted as the Persian province of Yehud. On this period, see the essays in: Lipschits, Oded, and Oeming, Manfred (eds.), Judah and the Judeans in the Persian Period, Winona Lake IN, Penn State University Press, 2006.

31 Prodromos, Poem XVII, lines 61–70; Psalm 90. 12: ‘ἐπ᾽ ἀσπίδα καὶ βασιλίσκον ἐπιβήσῃ | καὶ καταπατήσεις λέοντα καὶ δράκοντα’ (‘You shall walk over the asp and basilisk [cobra] | and tread [on] the lion and the dragon’. This passage as used by Prodromos also has an extra play on words as basiliskos means both ‘princelet’ and ‘basilisk’ (serpent), while aspis means both ‘shield’ and ‘cobra’. Author’s own translation with Giulia Paoletti.

32 Prodromos, Poem XVII, lines 71–80.

33 This is found both in the original Codex Chisianus Septuagint text, and the standard Theodotion version, and relates the story of ‘Bel and the Dragon’, where Habakkuk is transported by God from Judea to the lion’s den in Babylon to bring food to Daniel: Daniel 14. 23–28. This story associated Daniel and Habakkuk with the warrior saints George and Demetrios in Byzantium, adding another dimension to the appropriateness of this parallel for a ‘warrior emperor’ such as John: Pitarakis, Brigitte, Les croix reliquaires pectorales byzantines en bronze, Paris, Picard, 2006, p. 178-179.

34 Prodromos, Poem XVII, lines 91–92.

35 E.g. Ezekiel 29:10; Psalm 68:31; Isaiah 18:1; Jeremiah 46:9. Cf. “Ethiopia” in Hornblower, Simon and Eidinow, Esther (eds.), The Oxford Classical Dictionary, Oxford, Oxford University Press, p. 538.

36 On the Biblical Egypt, see: “Egypt” and “Ethiopia” in Smith, William (ed.), Smith’s Bible Dictionary, Revised and Updated Edition, Peabody, MA, Hendrickson, 2006, p. 161, 182-183. On twelfth century Egypt, see: Brett, Michael, “‘Abbasids, Fatimids and Seljuks” in Luscombe, David, and Riley-Smith, Jonathan (eds.), The New Cambridge Medieval History IV, c. 1024-1198, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2004, p. 675-709; idem, The Fatimid Empire, Edinburgh, Edinburgh University Press, 2017.

37 2 Kings 6:17: the complete verse continues that: “the LORD opened the servant’s eyes, and he looked and he saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha”. On epic arming scenes, see: Reitz, Christiane, “Arming scenes, war preparation, and spoils in ancient epic” in Reitz, Christianje, and Finkmann, Simone (eds.), Structures of Epic Poetry, vol. 2.1, Berlin, De Gruyter, 2020, p. 13-38.

38 In addition to Micah, see: 2 Kings 19:21; Isaiah 1:8 and 62:11; Jeremiah 4:31; Zechariah 9:9. Regarding Constantinople/New Rome as the New Jerusalem, Miller gives the example of the Prophetologion reading for Vespers on the anniversary of the foundation of Constantinople (11^th May) being from Isaiah 54. This verse prophecies the future vindication of Zion, but the Prophetologion uses the additional incipit: “Thus says the LORD to the Holy City”, which creates an ambiguity that encourages the listener to believe that the reading is addressed to Constantinople as “the Holy City”. See: Miller, “Prophetologion”, p. 68, n. 39. The so-called Patria of Constantinople is also informative. This text, whose major edition dates from the late tenth century, describes the sacred and legendary geography of Constantinople, and it is full of Old Testament associations. Book 2.40 recalls a statue of Solomon erected by Justinian that gazed at the Great Church of Hagia Sophia, while 2.87 mentions statues of Adam and Eve in the Hippodrome. 2.102 also recalls that a cross in the forum was flanked by statues of Constantine and Helena and two angels; given the cross was said to be inscribed with the Trisagion (ἅγιος ἅγιος ἅγιος, cf. Isaiah 6:3), these angels may represent the seraphim of Isaiah’s vision. The prophets Isaiah and Daniel were said to be buried in two Constantinopolitan churches (3.71 and 3.81), while Old Testament relics such as the rod of Moses and the horn of oil used by Samuel to anoint the kings of Israel were kept at others. In particular, the relationship between the great Church of Hagia Sophia and Solomon’s Temple is emphasised. In Book 4’s discussion of Justinian’s rebuilding of Hagia Sophia, the account echoes the rebuilding of the Temple described in Ezra 4-5, with 4.14 specifically claiming that the bricks on the arches of the dome were stamped with Psalm 45:6 (“God is in the midst of her, God will help her at break of day”). This would apply the Old Testament theology of Zion’s inviolability to both the church and the city as whole. 4.14 also calls the church’s presbytery (Το [δὲ] ἅγιον θυσιαστήριον) the ἅγια ἁγίων: “the Holy of Holies”, as in Solomon’s Temple, making the claim to succession absolutely clear, as it was in Hagia Sophia that God now dwelled. See: Berger, Albrecht (tr. and ed.), Accounts of Medieval Constantinople: The Patria, Cambridge MA, Harvard University Press, 2013.

39 Stanković, Vlada, “John II Komnenos before the year 1118” in Bucossi, Alessandra, and Rodriguez Suarez, Alex (eds.), John II Komnenos, Emperor of Byzantium: In the Shadow of Father and Son, Abingdon, Routledge, 2016, p. 16-7.

40 Used in the Greek Bible as a translation for what we usually translate as ‘Lord of Hosts’ in English, from YHWH Saboath, but with added resonance for John because of the monastery he founded dedicated to Christ Pantokrator. For the monastery, see: Gautier, Paul, “Le Typikon du Christ Sauveur Pantocrator”, REB, 32 (1974), pp. 1-145; R. Jordan, English tr.: “Pantokrator: Typikon of Emperor John II Komnenos for the Monastery of Christ Pantokrator in Constantinople” in Thomas, John, Constantinides, Angela, and Constable, Giles, (eds.), Byzantine Monastic Foundation Documents, Washington, D.C., Dumbarton Oaks, 2000, p. 725-81.

41 Prodromos, Poem XVII, lines 131–38.

42 For overviews of this campaign: Magdalino, Op. Cit., p. 37–38; Lilie, Ralph-Johannes, Byzantium and the Crusader States, 1096-1204, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1993, p. 117–35; Birkenmeier, John, The Development of the Komnenian Army 1081-1204, Leiden, Brill, 2003, p. 48, 85–92; Harris, Jonathan, Byzantium and the Crusades, London, Hambledon, 2006, p. 80–92; Parnell, David, “John II Comnenus and Crusader Antioch” in Madden, Thomas, Naus, James, and Ryan, Vincent (eds.), Crusades - Medieval Worlds in Conflict, Farnham, Ashgate, 2010, p. 149-60; Lau, Op. Cit.

43 Goitein, Shelomo, “A Letter from Seleucia (Cilicia): Dated 21 July 1137”, Speculum, 39 (1964), p. 298-303.

44 Basilakes, Nikephoros, Nicephori Basilacae Orationes et Epistolae, Garzya, Antonio, (ed.), Leipzig, De Gruyter, 1984, Or. 1 and 2, pp. 46 and 63-4; William of Tyre, Willelmi Tyrensiis Archiepiscopi Chronicon, Huygens, Robert (ed.), Turnhout, Brepols, 1986, 15.21, p. 702; Lilie, Byzantium and the Crusades, p. 138; Lau, Op. Cit.

45 Italikos, Michael, Michel Italikos Lettres et Discours, Gautier, Paul (ed.), Paris, Institut Français d'Études Byzantines, 1972, Letter 44, p. 290. See: Lau, Op. Cit.

46 Prodromos, Poem XVII, lines 151–170.

47 Ibid. Lines 258-270.

48 Ibid. Line 283. On Musagetes, see: “Apollo” Oxford Classical Dictionary, p. 119.

49 Ezekiel 1 for the vision.

50 Scheck, Thomas, St. Jerome: Commentary on Matthew, Washington, D.C., Catholic University of America Press, 2008, p. 55.

51 Prodromos, Poem XVII, lines 341-370.

52 Ibid. Lines 381-390. Cf. Psalm 18:50.

53 The reference to the spear may be a reference to Joshua 8, where Joshua extends his spear before taking the city of Ai. Babylon is given the epithet of an old woman, which at once compares it with the vibrant daughter of Zion that is Constantinople, whilst also linking it to description of Babylon in Revelations 17.

54 Turks are mentioned in John’s armies in: Choniates, Niketas, Nicetae Choniatae Historia, van Dieten, Jan (ed.), Berlin, Weber, 1975, p. 16, 29-30; Kinnamos, John, Ioannis Cinnami Epitome rerum ab Ioanne et Alexio Comnenis gestarum, Meineke, Augustus (ed.), Bonn, Weberi, 1836, p. 10. On Axouch, see: Brand, Charles, “The Turkish Element in Byzantium, Eleventh-Twelfth Centuries”, DOP, 43 (1989), p. 8; Magdalino, Empire of Manuel, p. 208; Beihammer, Alexander, “Patterns of Turkish Migration and Expansion in Byzantine Asia Minor in the 11^th and 12^th Centuries” in Preiser-Kapeller, Johannes, Reinfandt, Lucian, and Stouraitis, Yannis, Migration Histories of the Medieval Afroeurasian Transition Zone: Asia and Europe, 300-1500 C.E., Leiden, Brill, 2020, p. 170; Lau, Op. Cit..

55 Cf. n.42.

Pour citer ce document

Maximilian Lau, «Will Zion Fall Again ? The Deuteronomistic Epic in Twelfth Century Byzantium», Le Recueil Ouvert [En ligne], mis à jour le : 09/11/2023, URL : http://epopee.elan-numerique.fr/volume_2023_article_414-will-zion-fall-again-the-deuteronomistic-epic-in-twelfth-century-byzantium.html

Quelques mots à propos de :  Maximilian  Lau

Maximilian Lau est Junior Research Fellow à Oxford. Ses recherches portent sur l’histoire et la littérature de Byzance au XII^e siècle, ainsi que sur les élites et la notion de bien public dans toute l’Afro-Eurasie au Moyen Âge, dans le cadre de son projet financé par l’AHRC, "Noblesse Oblige". Sa monographie, Emperor John II Komnenos : Rebuilding New Rome 1118-1143, paraîtra chez Oxford University Press en 2023. Il a également publié des ouvrages sur des thèmes aussi divers que les élites musulmanes féminines, Byzance et Dune de Frank Herbert, et la guerre navale médiévale. 
Maximilian Lau studied at the Universities of St Andrews and Oxford before becoming a postdoctoral research fellow and lecturer at Hitotsubashi University, Tokyo. He is now a Junior Research Fellow in Oxford, where his research includes the history and literature of twelfth century Byzantium, as well as the examination of elites and the public good across all of Afro-Eurasia in the Middle Ages through his AHRC funded project, ‘Noblesse Oblige ?’. His monograph, Emperor John II Komnenos : Rebuilding New Rome 1118-1143, comes out from Oxford University Press in 2023, while he has otherwise published on themes as diverse as female Islamic elites, Byzantium and Frank Herbert’s Dune, and medieval naval warfare.