
Homer the Rhetorician is the first monograph study devoted to the monumental Commentary on the Iliad by Eustathios of Thessalonike, one of the most renowned orators and teachers of the Byzantine twelfth century. Homeric poetry was a fixture in the Byzantine educational curriculum and enjoyed special popularity under the Komnenian emperors. For Eustathios, Homer was the supreme paradigm of eloquence and wisdom. Writing for an audience of aspiring or practising prose writers, he explains in his commentary what it is that makes Homer's composition so successful in rhetorical terms. This study explores the exemplary qualities that Eustathios recognizes in the poet as author and the Iliad as rhetorical masterpiece. In this way, it advances our understanding of the rhetorical thought of a leading intellectual and the role of a cultural authority as respected as Homer in one of the most fertile periods in Byzantine literary history.
This study investigates how the twelfth-century Byzantine scholar Eustathios of Thessalonike interpreted Homeric poetry through the specific lens of rhetorical theory and pedagogical practice. Baukje van den Berg examines the Commentary on the Iliad to reconstruct the intellectual framework of the Komnenian period. By analyzing Eustathios's focus on Homer as a paradigm of eloquence, the author demonstrates how Byzantine intellectuals utilized classical texts to refine their own prose composition and rhetorical standards.
What You Will Find
Scope Limits
Scholars recognize this work as a significant contribution to the study of Byzantine literary reception and the history of rhetoric. Readers frequently note the academic density of the prose, which is tailored for specialists in classical and Byzantine literature.
Page Count:
278
Publication Date:
2022-01-01
Publisher:
OUP Oxford
ISBN-10:
0192689088
ISBN-13:
9780192689085
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