THE ORACLES OF THE MOST WISE EMPEROR LEO

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THE ORACLES OF THE MOST WISE EMPEROR LEO

& THE TALE OF THE TRUE EMPEROR (AMSTELODAMENSIS GRAECUS VI E 8)

SAPIENTIS SIMI IMPERA TORIS LEONI S ORACULA

& ANONYMI NARRATIO DE VERO IMPERATORE

THE ORACLES OF THE MOST WISE EMPEROR LEO

& THE TALE OF THE TRUE EMPEROR (AMSTELODAMENSIS ORAECUS VI E 8)

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TEXT, TRANSLATION AND INTRODUCTION EDITED BY W.O. BROKKAAR

with the collaboration of Joke A. Aalberts, 1. Ireen Beijemum-Averink, Arthur S.M. Bot. Matjolijne C. Janssen. Daniel R .1. Koster, Marc D. Lau~1ennann. Tatiana Markaki, Pinelopi Motsenigou. Sonia Stamboulidou, 1.H. Marietje Wennekendonk-Visser

IN HONOUR OF PROF. DR AT V AN GEMERT ON THE OCCASION OF HIS RETIREMENT

Amsterdam 2002

CONTENTS

PREFACE .............................................................. .. ...................................... 9 IN1RODUCnON ........................................................................................... 11

I

The Manuscript VI E 8, Bibliotheca Universitatis Amstelodanlensis ............ 11

n The Oracles of Leo and the Tale of the True Emperor..... .. .. .. .......... .. ...... ... 23 ill Language .......................................................................................... 45 TEXT AND 1RANSLAnON ............................ ................................. . ................ 51 INDEX OF GREEK WORDS ............................................................................ 103

BIBLIOGRAPHY ....................... .. ............ .................................................... 117

' 1::' 2002 by the authors, c/o Leerstoelgroep Nieuwgriekse taal- en letterkunde en

Byzantinologie. Spuistraat 210, 1012 VT Amsterdam ISBN 90-9016178-3 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced. stored in a retrieval system. or transmitted in any form or by any means. electronic. mechanicaL photocopying. recording or otherwise without thc prior written permission of the authors Cover illustration: Ms. Amstelodamcnsis Graecus VI E 8. f. 4 v Printed at the Universiteit van Amsterdam. Repro Roeterseiland Fonts: Times New Roman and Symbol Greek P

PREFACE In the year 2000 Arnold van Gernert intimated to his friends and colleagues his wish to retire and to be accorded emeritus status in November 2002. at the age of siA1y-four. He has served the Universiteit van Amsterdam for more tllan thirty-five years, first as an academic staff member and then. from 1996 to the present day, as head of tile Section of Modem Greek and Byzantine Studies (formerly known as 'Byzantijns-Nieuwgrieks Seminarium'). Arnold van Gemert is the third professor of our section, after G.H. Blanken (1954-1972) and W.F. Bakker (1972-1995). During the years of his outstanding academic career, Arnold devoted his time and talents to moulding the section into an institute of international renown. TIrroughout tllese long years his commitment has been essential in many ways, but foremost in developing tile institute. building up the library, professionalizing the curriculllIR creating a centre of research, and establishing a network of contacts abroad and in the Netherlands. Although Arnold's decision to retire one year ahead of schedule was no secret, it apparently did not immediately dawn upon us what this entailed, for it was not until the autwnn of 2001 that we (his colleagues and friends) started to think about the Festschr~ft he so much deserved. At our very first meeting, where we discussed what would be the best way to express our gratitude for all he had done for our institute, it was already clear to all of us tIlat a great scholar and passionate reader like Arnold deserves a scholarly publication: a BOOK. But what sort of book? Arnold is interested in almost any subject, provided it is not too classical (in his 1973 PhD tIlesis, he confessed to his professor of Ancient Greek that he was actually interested in a text only if it contained obvious elements of post-classical and thus vulgar Greek). Finally we decided to publish tile contents of the AnlStelodamensis Graecus VI E 8, a precious manuscript at our University Library, which contains the texts of tile Oracles of Leo and the Tale of the True Emperor. We hope that tIlese texis are post-classical enough for Arnold's taste. An additional plus was that this seemed a project that could easily be completed within one year. Little did we know! As it turned out, the edition of IllS. VI E 8 presented lnaoy difficulties: not only the Greek text itself, but also tile interpretation of this ratller obscure prophetic material gave us quite a lot of trouble. Once we had inspected tile manuscript and scrutinized its contents, we knew that we were in over our heads. in the deep and muddy waters of philology - but lucky for us, we did emerge in the end. And this is the report of our underwater experiences. The manuscript is rightly considered to be one of the jewels of tile collection of tile University Library of Amsterdam. It is also the manuscript Lanlbeck used for his edition ofthe Oracles of Leo and the Tale of the True Emperor. And as Lanlbeck's edition was

10

PREFACE

reprinted in Migne's Palr%gia Graeca (albeit with some considemble changes). it is fair to say that the scholarly world knows these two te:\1s in the version of illS . VI E 8. Lambeck's edition. however, is not entirely satisfactOlY. TItis alone is reason enough to justify a new edition of these two texts. The edition and translation of the texts were entrusted to the following contributors: Joke Aalberts and Arthur Bot: ff. 7\ gf. gv and 12v; !reen Beijemlan and Walter Brokkaar: if. IV, 2f and 2v; Walter Brokkaar: ff. lOf and lOv; Walter Brokkaar and Pinelopi Motsenigou: ff. 4 v )T and 5 v; Walter Brokkaar and Sonia Stamboulidou: f. 9f ; MaIjolijne Janssen and Marc LauxtemIann: ff. 3 f. 3 v. 4f. 111' and llv ; Tatiana Markaki and Marie~e Wennekendonk: ff. 6 f• 6 v. 7f and l2f. Walter Brokkaar. Mrujolijne Janssen and

Marc Lauxtennann checked the Greek te:\1 and the translation. The introduction was written by Daniel Koster and Walter Brokkaar (l Manuscript). Marc Lam.ieID1allll and Marjolijne Janssen (II Oracles and Tale). and Walter Brokkaar (m Language). The index was compiled by Walter Brokkaar and Pinelopi Motsenigou (with the help of Marc LatL....1ennann). and the bibliography by WaIter Brokkaar. Matjolijne Janssen prepared the book for printing and Walter Brokkaar supervised the edition as a whole. Needless to say, each individual author is responsible for his own contribution. We would like to e""press our gratitude to the following persons: Jeannine Vereecken for providing us with a copy of several pages of her still unpublished dissertation; Katerina Kyriakou for sending us her book on the illuminated oracles; Paul Magdalino and Eva de Vries-van der Velden for valuable comments on the second chapter of the introduction; Jos Bielllans for useful infonnation concerning the lnanuscript: Paul Dijstelberge for photograplting the manuscript; and Wim Bakker. Dia Philippides and Richard Kweskin for correcting our English. We should like to thank the University Library of Amsterdam for granting us pemtission to publish the pictures of ms. VI E g and providing us with help in every possible way. We are also extremely grateful to the Executive Board of the Universiteit van Amsterdam and to the Department of Language and Literature of the Faculty of Humanities for supplying a substantial part of the funds necessary for this publication.

Universiteit van Amsterdam, September 2002

IN1RODUCTION TIlE MANUSCRWT VI E 8. BIBLIOTHECA UNIVERSITATIS AMS1ELODAMENSIS

Ms. VI Egis listed as no. 70 in the general catalogue of lllanuscripts of the University Library of Amsterdam; this is why the lllanuscript is usually, but incorrectly, nanIed Amstelodamensis Gmecus 70. Ms. VI E g contains a collection of oracles. Tou oo'to:wu ~aeooocnot; Z'\J'f0J.laA.ut;) was the son of the scholar loannis Zygomalas. At the age of nineteen. he already was the foremost assistant of his father. He copied many manuscripts and sold them to European scholars. He was on good terms with Stefan Gerlach (1546-1612), a well-known theologian of those days, and corresponded regularly with the famous German scholar Martin Crusius (1526-1607). He translated Ta l(uta Lteavl.'tTjv Kat "XVTJA.a'tT1V from Byzantine into modem Greek. Zygomalas may have been the scribe of the Amsterdam manuscript (see above. footnote 10). 21 That is to say, he held a position in the patriarchal chancellery as first secretary; it is not easy to establish how high this position was at the time. See Beck, Kirche, p. 99. 22 For Georgios Kantakouzenos (reroP'YtOt; KavtalCo'USllvOt;), see Foerster, Commentalio and Papazoglou, BLfJA.wlJijICe.;. passim. 23 Omont, Crusius. p. 68. 24 Omont. Crusius. p. 68 sq., also published an agreement between Dousa and Kantakouzenos concerning the publication of three manuscripts copied from his library: 'OIlOA.O,¥ro eyro reroP'¥tOt; ~o'Umoollt; nrot; EA.a~OV ono trov xelprov to\i 'tlllio'U apX0V'tot; lC'Upio'U rerop,¥io'U KavtalCo'USllvoii 'to taov tiiV"teVJl£VT] N 95; 7t£4>VKEv N 100; TtAelJlJl£VOC; N 105; £~Ecr"tT]K(.\tEC; N Ill: eK"tEtaJl£VOv N 121. 4 The periphrastic construction 0 Jl£UOlV U1tOKOAV4>6fiVOt N 11 does not have the same meaning as 0 unOKaA1Jcj>e"O"()JlEVOC;, and the same holds true for Jl£AAEl 1tpa't'tElv N 147.

46

~~ODUCTION,LANGUAGE

o III. 6: K£pbav£tr; 0 XVI, 4; n:pOKPlv£t (post correcturam) 0 XVI, 5; on:oa'LeA.el N 48. - The endings of the imperfect indicative and the aorist indicative are still formed according to the rules of ancient grammar; the mixture of imperfect and aorist forms that 5 we find in post-classical Greek , does not occur. Likewise, the second person of the aorist imperative does not end in -£, but in -ov: £u8UIlTJaOv 0 VII, 14; Ol>£ucrov 0 XlI, 8: EJ..tn:ATJaOV 0 XV, 14; EAeTJaOv N 113. - The athematic veros in -Ill have not yet been replaced by thematic verbs in -Ol: one finds numerous examples of OCPLTJ!ll, an:£LIlL (an:Levat), bW'Li8£J.lat, OiOOlIlL, bLLa'Lallat, eiJ.li, ESiaLaJ.wL, en:£LJ.lL (Entevat), 'ia'IaJ.lat, J.l£LaotbOlJ.lt, n:pO£LJ.lL (n:polEvat). and so on. - The middle voice is still e>..1.ant (,y£vlia£L 0 L 29; yevTJ'Iat 0 Xl. 6; ES£A£uaoVlat N 19; eia£A£ua£l N 19; ES£A£Ua£LaL N 42; eiaaKOOOerat N 46; ot£8ero N 122; A.1l\jf£LaL N 135; n:poa£UsoJl£VOr; N 140; n:poa£uSOJl£VOl N 142) and has not yet been replaced by the active or the passive voice, except for un:oKpt8ei..; « Un:OKPl vaJl£Vor;) 0 IX, 2 and an:obpaaoucrL « on:oopaaovLat) N 154. - The dative case is used frequently: it appears in the texts with almost all its syntactical functions (pure dative [indirect object], instrumental and locative dative)". - The use of the optative: opaa£ta.; 0 I, 11 (which is, by tlle way, the only optative). - Participle constructions, both as adjectives and as adverbs, are frequently used: the predicative adjunct, on the contrary, occurs only twice (N 40)'. For the genitive absolute, see 0 II, 13; 0 VIII, 6; 0 IX, 7 (which in our opinion does not belong to the oracle itself): 0 XIV, 8/9: 0 XV, 7; 8: N 10; N 79: N 112/113; N 122/123: N 141. - The infinitive has not yet been replaced by 'iva- or on-constructions. - With a neuter plural as subject the verb still appears in tlle singular: 0 VI, 7 (post correcturam): N 9: N 68: N 80: see, however, 0 VI, 5 and 0 VIII, 8, wllere we find verbs in the plural. One may wonder whether, with all these archaizing elements, there is still any room left for the characteristic forms of post-classical Greek. The answer is yes, but it is an

See Browning, lvfedieval Greek, pp. 31-32: Horrocks, Greek, pp. 60 (4.9) and 88-89 (5.8). See Browning, Afedieval Greek, pp. 36-37; Horrocks, Greek, pp. 58-59 and 124-126. 7 Both texts abound with participles: there are 196 participles in total, of which 81 are used in an adverbial sense (41%), 113 as an adjective (58%) and only 2 as a predicative adjunct (1%). However, there is a marked difference between the Oracles q( Leo (47 participles used in an adverbial sense [71%] and 19 as an adjective [29%]) and the Tale of the True Emperor (34 participles used in an adverbial sense [26%] and 94 as an adjective [72%], used mainly to denote the features of the true emperor). 5

o

ThITRODUCTION,LANGUAGE

47

undeniable fact that the authors of the Oracles ofLeo and the Tale of the True Emperor did their very best to minimalize the number of post-classical forms as much as they could. The orthography is a feast for the eyes: iotacisms in all sorts and kinds (£1 instead of ", t, Ot; TJ instead of £1, L, OL, U; 1 instead of £t, TJ, Ot, u: u instead of £t, TJ, L; Ut instead of £L); 0 instead of Ol and vice versa; at instead of £: single intervocalic consonants instead of double consonants and. less frequentIy, vice versa; forms without iota subscript (in about 40% of all cases); -u- instead of -~- (euoOJlanKQ> euooJlC!> N 5; euMJ.lU N 37): -cr'L- instead of -cr8- (Aijana = Aota8ta 0 VIlI, 15); unaspirated forms instead of aspirated ones and vice versa. Although these spelling mistakes are indicative of fundamental changes in the phonological structure of the Greek language. it is reasonable to assume that they should not be ascribed to the authors themselves, but to the many scribes who copied the texts throughout the centuries. We will not enumerate all these silly mistakes (for matters of orthography, see tile notes attached to the translation). Features of post-classical Greek are: - Comparative plus article instead of superlative: 0 JletsOlV oaLrlp 0 XlI, 7. - Veros in a clearly demotic fonn: oepvOl < oepOl (o£pVOV'LOlV 0 IX 7; however, in our opiniofL this line does not belong to the oracle itself. but forms a caption to ilie picture); veros that were formed after the classical period: XUVOl < XEOl formed from the aorist Exucra (xuaav'I£..1 to forms ofthe future tense that derive from the aorist oocp8TJv in 0 IV, 4; 0 VIII, 3; 0 XII, 7; 0 XIII, 6). - Although most perfect tense fomls are used to indicate the result of an action in accordance with the rules of ancient Greek, there is one example of a perfect used instead of an aorist (the confusion of tIlese two tenses began in the Hellenistic period): o£oro8 For the development of verbs in -VO), see Browning, lvfedieval Greek, p. 65; Horrocks, Greek, pp. 235-238. 9 See BI.Debr.Rk., Grammatik. p. 86 (§ 108, 2).

48

~ODUCTION. LANGUAGE

~~ODUCTION, LANGUAGE

49

!COOl N 4 (Att. £oooov): in N 138 we find the 'correct' fonn: EOCincoc;lo. - The aorist subjunctive is frequently used to indicate the future tense II. Because of the phonological changes of the Greek language. it is often difficult to establish whether we are dealing ',"'ith a fonn of the active voice of the aorist subjunctive or of the future indicative (most endings are phonologically identical, except for the second and third persons plural). But the distinction between aorist and future is easily recognizable if the root of the vern or the voice is different in both tenses: and of course. in the passive voice of aorist and future, there is an obvious distinction: see n:£01]C; (AU. n:£OE1) 0 III, 7; eVpTrtE (An. eVPTtoe'te) 0 xm, 9; £VTJXTJ9TI (Att. eVllXTJf111oe'tat) N 12: et1t\l (Att. A£S£l or epel) N 14: N 15: N 18: N 135: mlocoOlv (Att. n:aoouow) N 45: £\.7[(oot (An. A£SO'OO1) N 138 (cf. A.aA.Ttoouot N 147); VyCOOl (An. £Usov'tat) N 142: !COA.£OCOOtv (Att. !CaA.OU01v) N 143. In 0 XI, 7 we find the exact opposite: the use of future indicative instead of aorist SUbjunctive: ~A.£n:e I1Tt r£vTJ'tat (aorist subjunctive) [... ] KOPTtOet (future indicative) [ ... ] aXP1cof1110£t (future indicative). - As for the use of the infinitive, we occasionally find constructions that used to be popular in Koine: a. the substantivization of the infinitive in the genitive case in order to express a goal : n:pOO1(aA£t'tat yap oe 'toun:oll1atv£lv A.aov n:£PWtxHOv N 16-17; b. the substantivized infinitive, dependent on a preposition: ola 'to IlTJ XPTJOlIl£U£lV N 30-31 (in N 54 the 'classical' construction: eic; ouoev XPTJollleucov). l2 Both uses of the infinitive should probably be viewed as literary reminiscences that go back to the Septuagint and the New Testament, seeing that the language of the Tale of the True Emperor is often very similar to the language of the Bible. - The negative particle IlTt (and its derivations) is frequently used in combination with a participle instead of ou (a development that started in the Hellenistic period)l3, but it has certainly not replaced ou entirely: IlTJ oe001KOOs 0 XV, 5: 'tOY n:'tCOXov !Cal. IlTJ uo't£pou/l£vov N 51 ; IlTJ atvOIl£vOC; N 134; n:ap' ouoevoc; ~A£n:6Ilevov Kat n:apa IlTJo£VOC; YV(OP1t;01l£vOV N 50; tiC; IlTJoev XPTJOllleUOOC; N 102; IlTJO£v XPTJOlll£UoV'ta N 103 (cf. roc; ouoev ov'ta !Cat £tC; ouoev XPTJ011l£Uov'ta N 39-40; dC; ouoev XPTJOllleUCOV N 54). - Many of the classical prepositions disappeared in the vernacular in post-c1assical Greek and those that remained, were constructed with the accusative I 4. These changes

cannot be spotted in the Oracles ofLeo and the Tale of the True Emperorl s, but it must be said that there is some confusion in the choice of the cases used in combination with prepositions. The use of the prepositions tis and EV is somewhat confusing and £iC; sometimes has the meaning of the Modern Greek oe: etc; 'to. 't£l.XTJ oou 0 X. 3 (= EV 'tolC; 'teLX£oi. oou): ets 'to 'tEAOS 'trov 'I0llaTJAl'trov N 6 (cf. etc; 'to. 't£ATJ 'trov Ttlleprov N 41 and N 104), but ev't0 T£A.£t 0 IX, 10; £iC; 'to o~ au'tou £\.n:lJ N 14 and eic; 'ta cb'ta au'tou AaA,1ioo'OOl N 147: eAaias £Xcov etc; 'to. O£Slo. Il£PTJ, dC; 'tE 'to Un:Ollot;tOV N 70-71 (= o'to. o£sto. Il£PTJ Kal o'to un:ollat;tov); CPEPOUOt au'tov ev 'tij ll£raA.l] L1rov N 129-130 and a.SOUOlV ev't0 n:aAa'tlql N 145, but avosouOlV atJ1:ov Ei.C; 'tiJv lleyaATJv L1WV N 139-140. The preposition £iC; is once used where En:i would have been more correct: Xoiiv etc; 'tas !C£aAo.c; au'trov n:aoav'tec; N 114 (cf. XOUV n:aocoOlv £n:1. 'tac; K£aMc; au'trov N 45). The genitive and tlle dative case after en:! are sometimes used without any apparent distinction in meaning. Both cases are used to indicate "on" in a local sense, not only the correct genitive: en:' WIlCOV 0 XI, 5; en:t wu o-ritOous N 33-34: en:t 'trov n:A.£uprov N 34; en:t 'tou 'tpaXTtAOU N 35 (see also N 72 and N 90). but also the accusative: en:\. 'tO~ ovo roIlOn:Aa'tas N 33; en:\. 'tOY aUxEva N 34; en:!. 'tiJv oeS10v opuv N n . On two occasions En:l is used with genitive instead of accusative or instead of etc;: olOOOU01 'ta n:poocon:a m)-rrov en:\. Tilc; Yiic; N 44 (cf. 'to. Il£'tcon:a atnrov etc; 'tiJv riiv KpoooaV't£c; N 113-114); ava~t~aoaV't£C; ecjl' V'I'TJAOU 'ton:o'O N 142-143. - There is a tendency to substitute the pronoun au'toc; for the pronoun o-\)'toc; as an alternative way of ex'l>ressing the personal pronoun of the third person and tlle possessive pronoun (in the genitive)16. OU'tOC; can still be found, both in the Oracles and the Tale (e.g. !Cav IlTJodC; WUtov ~A£1t\I 0 XIII. 3; 'ta 'tomou Il£A.TJ 0 VIII, 9)17, but hardly as frequently as autos. Another post-classical feature is that aU'toii/au'trov is used in order to refer to the subject of the sentence; however, this happens only sparingly, and in }mticular in the Tale , in pluases that show striking similarities to biblical Greek: ac; Exe1 't0Ve; oaKwAous au'tou open:avcoTouc; 0 X, 6: E7rlf111oet KUptOs 'tiJv x£1pa au'tOu N 40: orooo'Ool 'ta n:poocon:a oU'trov En:t Tilc; riic; N 44. - Interesting is also the excessive use of the connective Kai ls , especially in the Tale of the True Emperor, where in some passages almost every sentence starts Witll !Cal. We

See Browning. Medieval Greek, pp. 30 and 64; Horrocks. Greek. pp. 53, 77 and 118-119. II See Browning. Medieval Greek. p. 31 ; Horrocks, Greek. pp. 75-76. 12 See BI.Debr.Rk., Grammatik. pp. 330-332 (§ 4(0) and 332-333 (§ 402): Browning. A4edieval Greek. pp. 63-64; Horrocks, Greek. pp. 46-47. 1:< See BI.Debr.Rk.. Grammatik, pp. 355 (§ 426) and 358-359 (§ 430) 14 See Browning. Medieval Greek. p. 37: Horrocks, Greek, pp. 216-217 .

IS 'A1to is constructed with the genitive. except for N 162, U1tO 1taAaUJl·ta'tov ~t~A.iOV. but lines 162-163 probably form a personal comment of the scribe, not of the author. 16 See BI.Debr.Rk., Grammatik. pp. 228-230 (§§ 277-278) and 233-235 (§ 284); Browning. Medieval Greek. pp . 61-62; Horrocks. Greek, pp. 58 and 74-75. 17 The fact that ou'tO.; EUIlEvij.; O£. Kuva.; EKtPE.; Ul'YOU'; KAvorovo.; EXeU; !lEcrOV' 5 aU' anaUasn tOY AOY1crllOV xpovo.;· / 0crn taxo.;· crvVeyOAOVXEi..; KOI "(£Y118a.; a8Ai(ro).;· / (Kat) x£1pa.; anAtl.; Kat nooa.; OtacrtPE, 0'; to crtOIlO K£xvva.; Ei.; UnOJt1:EPOV';' / 15 noo.; anopEUSEl piilla XP11cr10V 1ii nOAE1: / 1 deesl lilli/US in A: atlla La (ex 1.2 lralls/alum). 4 A.AtyOU on his chest and ncck, and cords on his sides. 35 his throat, his thighs and his anns. The name

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