Chapter Three ANTHOLOGIES AND ANTHOLOGISTS Between c ...

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Part One: Texts and Contexts
gr. 433 (s. XI) 91 . What is more, Ignatios the Deacon did not hit upon the
unusual idea of writing a sepulchral eis heauton (AP XV, 29) all by himself, but
probably adopted the idea from Gregory of Nazianzos (cf. AP VIII, 80–84 and
Greg. Naz. II, 1, 99). In AP XV, 29 Ignatios speaks to us from the grave,
confesses his sins and prays to God for mercy 92 . AP XV, 30 and 31 are ordinary
encomiastic epitaphs: the first praises a young man called Paul for the virtue
and intellectual brilliance he displayed when he was still among the living; the
second celebrates Samuel, a deacon of the Hagia Sophia, who showed his
Christian zeal and piety by bequeathing his earthly possessions to the church.
The language and style of these three epitaphs is obviously classicizing, but it
is impossible to identify a particular literary model imitated by Ignatios: we
find Homeric endings, such as -oio, -øsi and -essi, but Byzantine elegiacs in
general make use of Homeric forms; Ámmati eJmen6i may be an imitation of Ámma
eJmen6ß in AP VIII, 248. 2 by Gregory of Nazianzos, but late antique and
Byzantine poetry is fond of the word Ámma (“the eye of Justice, the Emperor,
God Almighty”, etc.) 93 ; parallels for the rare expression n lagönessi aÉhß (“in
the womb of earth”) can be found in ancient inscriptions 94 , but was Ignatios
familiar with these parallels? Ignatios does not make prosodic errors, but
rather surprisingly treats the caesura of the pentameter as a full stop where
hiatus and even brevis in longo are allowed (29. 6; 30. 2 (!); 30. 4; 31. 2). The two
book epigrams AP XV, 39, v. 1 and vv. 2–3 clearly indicate that Ignatios the
Deacon did some scholarly work on Homer: see their title: “on the same”, that
is, on Homer (the subject of AP XV, 36–38), and see the phrase soó‰ß pol7idriß
äoid‰ß 95 . Ignatios proudly states that he “has brought to light the science of
grammar hidden in the ocean of oblivion” – which is probably a gross exaggeration,
but at least gives a clue as to Ignatios’ precise contribution to the field
of Homeric scholarship: grammatical epimerisms on Homer 96 . Since Homeric
91 See H.M. WERHAHN, Übersichtstabellen zur handschriftlichen Überlieferung der Gedichte
Gregors von Nazianz, in: W. HÖLLGER, Die handschriftliche Überlieferung der Gedichte
Gregors von Nazianz. 1. Die Gedichtgruppen XX und XI. Paderborn 1989, 34.
92 The last two verses were re-used by the scribe of Laur. LXX 20 (s. XI) as a token of his
humility: ed. BANDINI 1763–70: II, 680 and COUGNY 1890: IV, no. 116. The epigram can
also be found in Laur. XXXII 16 (see below, n. 119) and in Barb. gr. 74, Allatius’
collection of Byzantine poems (the source used by Allatius is the Palatine manuscript
itself, which was in Rome at the time).
93 See, for instance, ROBERT 1948: 17, 25 and 138.
94 See CIG 7. 117 and 14. 2001.
95 In Ignatios’ letters no pagan author is quoted as often as Homer: see the Fontes in MANGO
1997.
96 On ninth-century Homeric epimerisms (by Choiroboskos?), see A.R. DYCK, Epimerismi
Homerici. Pars prior epimerismos continens qui ad Iliadis librum A pertinent. Berlin–
New York 1983, 5–7; Pars altera epimerismos continens qui ordine alphabetico traditi
sunt. Berlin–New York 1995, 23–24.