Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of Figures
- List of Tables
- List of Contributors
- Introduction: Poetry in Byzantine Literature and Society (1081–1204)
- Part I Poetry and Twelfth-Century Literary Culture
- Part II Poetry and the School
- Part III Poetry, Patronage and Power
- Part IV New Texts, New Interpretations
- 12 Manganeios Prodromos: His Life and Writings
- 13 An Unedited Cycle of Byzantine Verse Scholia on Herodotus in the Light of Twelfth-Century Verse Scholia on Ancient Historians
- 14 Constantine Manasses’ Astrological Poem: Editorial Problems, Quellenforschung and Cultural Context
- 15 The Learned Bishop and the Unicorn: Michael Choniates, Poem 5 Lampros
- Index
15 - The Learned Bishop and the Unicorn: Michael Choniates, Poem 5 Lampros
from Part IV - New Texts, New Interpretations
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 17 October 2024
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of Figures
- List of Tables
- List of Contributors
- Introduction: Poetry in Byzantine Literature and Society (1081–1204)
- Part I Poetry and Twelfth-Century Literary Culture
- Part II Poetry and the School
- Part III Poetry, Patronage and Power
- Part IV New Texts, New Interpretations
- 12 Manganeios Prodromos: His Life and Writings
- 13 An Unedited Cycle of Byzantine Verse Scholia on Herodotus in the Light of Twelfth-Century Verse Scholia on Ancient Historians
- 14 Constantine Manasses’ Astrological Poem: Editorial Problems, Quellenforschung and Cultural Context
- 15 The Learned Bishop and the Unicorn: Michael Choniates, Poem 5 Lampros
- Index
Summary
The hexametric poem On the Unicorn by Michael Choniates is a poetic rewriting of the parable The Man in the Well. This chapter analyses the text in comparison to the versions of the story as preserved by Barlaam and Josaphat and Stephanites and Ichnelates, and other Byzantine and early modern poems on the same subject. Next, the Byzantine imagery of the tale is described on the basis of the preserved medieval depictions. Finally, the chapter offers some reflections on Choniates, his source (Barlaam and Josaphat) and the interconnections between this poem and another hexametric one by the same author entitled On the Ladder Described in John the Ascetic.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Poetry in Byzantine Literature and Society (1081-1204)New Texts, New Approaches, pp. 389 - 408Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2024