Most Byzantine literary works are limited by the ancient Greek language and literary tradition, so they lack originality. Only in religious poetry, Byzantine literature found its own way and produced beautiful poems. Since the13rd century, Byzantine literary vocabulary has been close to the daily language of contemporary Greece.
During the first 300 years of the rule of the Eastern Roman Empire, the pagan cultures of Byzantine Rome and Greece were transformed into Christian cultures. Poetry at that time reflected this transformation process. People's passion for Christianity and their love for life go hand in hand. Hymns are full of Christian and pagan ideas. The vast number of artistic works comments not only praise the famous works bred by Christian thought, but also praise the famous works bred by pagan thought. The analysis of Paul's poem describing the church of Hagia Sophia is the most wonderful in the book. The author praised the glory of the church and the perfection of the political system with a lot of pen and ink, which laid the foundation of Byzantine life. The achievements of Byzantine poetry are mainly manifested in the following five aspects:
I. Religious poetry
The early religious poems in Byzantium adopted the form of classical Greek poetry, such as rhythm, six-step rhythm, elegy, iambic poem and iambic poem. Its representative figures are Metodi uz, Sinisi uz and Gregory (4th to 5th century). Later, new rhythm forms appeared one after another, and its musicality depended on the number of syllables and the position of stress in a line of poetry. In addition, the poets at that time not only advocated the dedication of saints, but also believed in mysterious new religions themselves. These factors make Byzantine religious poetry full of vitality and unique, which is far superior to Greek poetry in the late Middle Ages in quality.
The poetic creation of Byzantine hymns can be divided into three periods. Typical initial hymns (4th to 5th centuries) are short poems, also known as Orthodox hymns; The middle period (6th-7th century) is a long sermon poem with beautiful melody. In the later period (7th-9th century), there were hymns. There is no doubt that the middle period is the prosperous period of Greek hymn creation. Romanos, the most famous religious poet in Byzantium, lived in the early period of this era (6th century). There are about 85 existing poems, all of which are metrical poems created to celebrate various orthodox religious festivals. These poems were set to music and sung collectively by believers. Unfortunately, the music has long been lost. As a devout Christian, the theme of Romanos' poems is completely consistent with the teachings of the church. But he occasionally spreads his wings of imagination and expresses his feelings. Only at this time can he write brilliantly and brilliantly. In narrative poems, he often integrates different chapters in the Bible, showing superb skills. Generally speaking, his poems are regular in language, rich in metaphors and vivid in image. However, due to his love for great works, modern readers are inevitably discouraged.
Andrew (about 660-740), Bishop of Crete, wrote a large group of poems, which marked the beginning of the third period of Byzantine religious poetry creation. Although this poem is magnificent in length and exquisite in form, it lacks charm and * * *. The two representative poets in this period are Saint John Dames Sing (7th-8th century) and Cosmas Brothers. As a psalmist and critic, John Dames Sheehan is very famous. In his later period, he began to write long-syllable poems again and tried to combine them with new musical forms. In the era of St. John Dames Sheehan, a great debate broke out about breaking idolatry, which brought vitality to the poetry world and pushed hymns to a new stage of prosperity. Most of the poems in this period were anonymous works, mainly praising the worship ceremony of the Orthodox Church, which replaced the stale hymns and metrical sermons during Roman rule.
Among the poets who broke away from idolatry, the mysterious poet Simon (949- 1022) made outstanding achievements. Although his poems are loose and mysterious, Simon is still the most famous poet in Byzantine poetry since Roman rule. Besides, he was the first poet to express his personal feelings in fifteen syllables. This style of poetry will dominate Greek poetry in the future.
Byzantine religious poetry later completed a great historical mission, which not only enabled the Greek nation to maintain its national dignity and Christian spirit in numerous foreign invasions, but also spread its essence to the east, west, north and south, and promoted the prosperity of literature of various nationalities in Russia, Yugoslavia, Romania, Syria, Coptic and Armenia.
Second, epic
The court epics in the late ancient Greece were revived in the early Byzantine era, but the artistic value of these poems was limited to the existing fragments. The representative of Byzantine epic writers is G. Pi Sieders (7th century), whose main theme is to praise the brilliant victory of Emperor heraclius and his patron in defeating Persians. In Pi Sieders's works, the new Byzantine melody began to take shape, especially the iambic poems with 12 syllables became more and more perfect. This poetic style later became the main musical form of medieval Greek poetry. The most important epic of Byzantium was produced in the eastern provinces of 10 century. Its plot revolves around a medieval hero named Degennis, spreading in the vast space from the Greek colony in southern Italy to the Russian prairie in the east and then to the Syrian desert in the south. However, the original version of this epic has long been lost, and only six versions of the irrelevant folk song "Achray Tass Folk Song" and the long poem "basire Degennis Achray Tass Epic" have been preserved (from12nd century to17th century). These six versions have different languages, different styles and even different narrative order. In this epic, the Greek theme is mixed with oriental culture and some historical events that are difficult to verify.
Third, lyric poetry
The Greeks believed that epigrams were lyric poems carefully created by Byzantine poets. At first, this kind of poetry followed the pattern of ancient Greece, with little originality, such as the works of Agatias (6th century) and Paul of Silesia. However, since the 7th century, lyric poetry has begun to show a new religious spirit, taking religious stories as the theme and praising religion and temple life. Theodore Stu Teeters (759-826) is an outstanding representative of this poetic trend. Cassia, a poetess in the 9th century, is often called "Sappho" of Byzantium by later critics. She inherited the students' poetic style and is one of the representatives of this trend. However, the heyday of Byzantine lyric poetry was from 10 to1century. During this period, John Yehormet Reyes, Christopher Ross and John Maflop Uus dominated the poetry world. They inherited the tradition of ancient Greek poetry and created a lot of poems with strong feelings, elegance and beauty. In Byzantine elegant lyric poetry, another type worth mentioning is elegy. Some of these poems are the poet's inner monologues, some are elegies, and some are elegies, which embodies the prevailing asceticism at that time. Although elegies are deeply influenced by Gregory's tedious autobiographical poems, many important Byzantine poets, such as G. Pi Sides and Christopher Ross, are still keen on writing elegies. This kind of poem lasted until the end of Byzantine era; Its content is mainly moral admonition or pious prayer for God's forgiveness.
Medieval literati poetry is also full of asceticism. Although love is one of the great sources of inspiration for lyric poetry at any time, Byzantine poets cannot get inspiration from secular love. Therefore, the existing Byzantine love poems are not only rough in language, but also scattered in some legendary poems and some poetic love letters in Greek Xinmin songs since the Middle Ages.
Fourth, legendary poems.
After the fourth Crusade captured Constantinople (1204), a large number of Frankish knight poems were translated into Greek. Under the influence of this kind of poetry, a new type of Greek knight poetry came into being. Its language is clear and light, which is contrary to the dull tradition of elegant Byzantine legendary poems. In the past, writers of Byzantine legendary poems, such as Noyenianos (12nd century) and Tprodromos (12nd century), blindly followed the legendary poetic style of Greek poets Heliodorus and Tatius in the later period, resulting in their works being dull in form and outdated in language. The emerging Byzantine legendary poems are full of romance, and the protagonist's persistent pursuit of love and amazing persistence add romance to the works. In the works of Byzantine poets, the cultural traditions of the East and the West blend together, which makes many plots full of magical colors of the East and endows these poems with unique charm.
V. Irony
Satire appeared in Byzantium in the12nd century. These poems are full of bitter Byzantine humor, but not all of them are artistic masterpieces. Interestingly, they describe the social life and temple life at that time and use a lot of oral language.
Intransitive verbs educate poetry and drama.
Apart from epigrams, the poems that Byzantine poets constantly devote themselves to are all educational poems. But strictly speaking, these poetic essays describing flowers, birds, insects, fish and rocks are not poems, and even whether their authors have the original intention of artistic creation is doubtful. Their purpose is to spread knowledge. In Byzantium, drama in the true sense does not exist. Literary works created in the form of drama are for people to see, not for performance. Among them, Cristos Patience, a collection of dramatic poems published in 1 1 century, has the greatest influence. The drama talent of the Greeks is manifested in their long metrical poems and Taoist poems, and they have absorbed rich nutrition from the spectacular court ceremony and the worship ceremony of the Greek Orthodox Church.