Some Aspects of Theodore Prodromos’ Poetry in the Tetrasticha on Chapters from the Old and New Testament, lecture by Manolis Patedakis (University of Crete), Ghent University via Zoom, May 17, 2022, 4:00 pm (CET)

The collection of poems by Theodore Prodromos known as the Tetrastichs both on the Old and the New Testament preserves certain interesting aspects as regarding the aesthetics and the spirit of his. Simple comments on biblical incidents to a more perplexed criticism addressed to sacred figures, monologues and dialogues –which sometimes become more dramatic– coloured with a sense of humour, or possible sarcastic references to the poet himself, are only a few amongst the attributes that we can mention for this group of poems. As the narration moves from the Old to the New Testament the reader wonders whether the logic slightly changes, and the new spirit of Christian art and art of speech also allows further connections between Prodromos’ poetics and other artistic and cultural means in twefth century Constantinople and Byzantium.

Manolis S. Patedakis is Assistant Professor in Byzantine Philology at University of Crete. His special interests focus on texts and literature of the Palaeologan period, epigraphy and manuscript culture from medieval and early modern Crete, and Symeon the New Theologian.

In Spring 2022, the Database of Byzantine Book Epigrams (DBBE), an ongoing project hosted at Ghent University, is organising the third season of the Speaking From the Margins lecture series. All lectures will take place at 4:00 pm (CET) and will be freely accessible via Zoom. No registration required. The links to the individual lectures will be broadly advertised before each lecture.