Rewriting History: The Metaphrasis of a Mid-Byzantine Chronicle

Abstract

Byzantine metaphrasis means reformulating texts in another register, either by upgrading (a common practice with regard to saints’ Lives in the tenth century) or downgrading (a phenomenon best known from the fourteenth century). In this paper, a previously unstudied example of upgrading is investigated: the so-called Version B of the Chronicle of Symeon the Logothete. Changes in B as compared to its source text, Symeon’s Chronicle, mostly involve case and the syntax of participles, word order and vocabulary. Some explanations for the changes are suggested and wider implications discussed.