The Reception of Classical Literature and Ancient Myth

Abstract

The reception of classical literature in Byzantium was a tense field, as ancient texts were socially and intellectually prestigious but religiously and theologically dangerous. Moreover, the rhetorical tradition in which Byzantine scholars were trained applied the same categories of analysis to both pagan and Christian texts, and linguistic affinity was not overridden by religious alienation. This chapter, focusing on the reception of texts about the gods, traces how Byzantine readers and writers coped with these tensions and found ways to ameliorate them. Pagan and Christian paradigms were at times juxtaposed, combined, or placed in an overt hierarchy. Through their selection of texts and commentaries on them, Byzantine scholars played a major role in shaping the modern “classical canon,” though this process is largely ignored by modern classical scholars. The chapter surveys the technologies (ideological and material) of this reception. How did the Byzantines cope with the gods?