From Homer to Digenis Akritis: Epics on the Byzantine Frontier, lecture by Elizabeth M. Jeffreys (University of Oxford), University of Edinburgh, November 27, 2019, 6:00–7:30 pm

That important manuscripts of classical Greek were copied in the monasteries of South Italy is well known; much less appreciated by Byzantinists (and classicists?) is that text in vernacular Greek were also known in this environment. Digenis Akritis, Byzantium's only epic, has a complex transmission history with a key version, now housed in the Grottaferrata monastery, produced in South Italy c. 1300: this paper will explore what the implications might be.

Elizabeth M. Jeffreys is Emeritus Bywater and Sotheby Professor of Byzantine and Modern Greek Language and Literature in the University of Oxford, and Fellow Emerita of Exeter College, Oxford. She has published widely on many aspects of Byzantine literature; her books include editions of the epic Digenis Akritis, the romance The War of Troy, and the letters of the monk Iakovos.

Lecture is co-sponsored by the PAIXUE project and the Classical Association of Scotland.