Projekt

“In Search of the Byzantine Herodotus: Reception, Readership and Imitation of the Histories in the Medieval Greek East”

This project examines the overlooked reception of Herodotus’ Histories in the Byzantine world by investigating how this work was read, adapted and imitated during the Greek Middle Ages. While Herodotus’ reception in other historical periods has been extensively studied over the last decades, Byzantine uses of the Histories remain largely uncharted. At best, Byzantium is credited with an honorary role in preserving the ancient text for later readers. However, Byzantine readers had their own motivations and purposes for engaging with the Histories. Its pervasive presence in the cultural production of the Greek-speaking East calls for a comprehensive reassessment of the Byzantine Herodotus. My project addresses that gap by focusing on two major domains of Herodotus' reception: (1) 12th-century historiographical works that rewrite, cite and allude to Herodotus, and (2) textual and material aspects of surviving Byzantine manuscripts of the Histories.

Byzantine readers approached Herodotus’ pre-Christian history less out of interest in ancient Greece than for its account of non-Greek empires and biblical times. At the same time, Hellenism remained central to the cultural capital of the Byzantine elite and Herodotus’ portrayals of barbarians served to represent contemporary others. The 12th-century world chronicles of John Zonaras and Constantine Manasses make frequent use of Herodotus not only as a source for historical events and characters, but also as a narrative model. Within their respective socio-political contexts, historiographical methods and literary styles, both chronicles reveal how Herodotus helped Byzantines articulate imperial ideology, perceptions of the past and their cultural identity.

The project also investigates Herodotus’ manuscript tradition and its possible connections to Zonaras’ and Manasses’ compositional process. Drawing on new philology, literary studies and reception studies, the project shifts focus from a passive transmission of the Histories through the Middle Ages to an active engagement of Byzantine readers and authors with Herodotus, shaped by contemporary agendas within specific material and intellectual contexts.