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Bold Men, Fair Maids and Affronts to their Sex: The characterisation and structural roles of men and women in the Escorial

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 January 2016

Sarah Ekdawi ,
Patricia Fann  and
Elli Philokyprou
Sarah Ekdawi
Affiliation:
St Cross College, Oxford
Patricia Fann
Affiliation:
St Antony’s College, Oxford
Elli Philokyprou
Affiliation:
St Cross College, Oxford
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Extract

The Grottaferrata has been studied in terms of its function as ‘a re-affirmation of the social world’ and ‘an instrument of social reproduction’, and the roles of men and women have been examined in this context. No comparable study of the Escorial version has been undertaken. In this paper, we shall look at certain aspects of the behaviour of men and women in the E version, focusing on the text itself rather than on any social values or beliefs which it may reflect or express. The first part of the paper will examine the portrayal of the ideal man and woman and their antithetical, or anti-ideal, counterparts; the second part will concentrate on the structural implications of the role played by women in ΔA.

Type
Articles
Information
Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies , Volume 17 , 1993 , pp. 25 - 42
Copyright
Copyright © The Centre for Byzantine, Ottoman and Modern Greek Studies, University of Birmingham 1993

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References

1. Galatariotou, Catia, ‘Structural Oppositions in the Grottaferrata Digenes Akrites ’, BMGS 11 (1987) 35 Google Scholar. See also Magdalino, Paul, ‘Honour among Romaioi: the framework of social values in the world of Digenes Akrites and Kekaumenos’, BMGS 13 (1989) 183–218.Google Scholar

2. See Ricks, David, ‘The pleasures of the chase: a motif in Digenes Akrites’, BMGS 13 (1980) 290 Google Scholar, where he refers to ‘the ethos of the E version as distinct from that of G’.

3. Inevitably, some of our findings about E coincide with those of Galatariotou and Magdalino referring to G.

4. All references to the text are to David Ricks’ edition: Ricks, David, Byzantine Heroic Poetry (Bristol, 1990).Google Scholar

5. Beaton, Roderick, The Medieval Greek Romance (Cambridge, 1989) 31.Google Scholar

6. Ricks, David suggests, ‘it may be that here is a slip for , rather than being any sort of pun on ’ (Byz. Heroic Poetry 130)Google Scholar. We tend to agree, however, with Beaton’s suggestion concerning the G. version, that this pun is significant ( Beaton, Roderick, ‘Was Digenes Akrites an Oral Poem?’, BMGS 7 [1981] 20).Google Scholar

7. Related to this is the way Digenes insults the defeated apelatai, as David Ricks points out: ‘They should stick to everyday hunting […] and leave the best quarry to the best man’ (‘The pleasures of the chase’ 291).

8. Catia Galatariotou points out the importance of trustworthiness in ΔA (op. cit. 47).

9. For more on the subject of bridesnatching in ΔA, see Peter Mackridge, ‘Bride snatching in Digenes Akrites and Cypriot Heroic Poetry’ (forthcoming,

10. As Paul Magdalino argues, ‘Eugeneia may imply the prestige of an illustrious pedigree, but what it actually denotes throughout the poem is something more tangible: the solidarity of a powerful kin group. A character’s genos is evoked less in terms of ascending genealogy than in terms of a body of close relatives (syngeneis), among whom, besides parents and siblings, uncles and grandparents are specified’ (op. cit. 194–95).

11. Alexiou, Stylianos, (Herakleion 1979) 33.Google Scholar

12. This may be supported by the ‘ummetrical introduction’ of Akrites among the Raiders, where the line is preceded by the statement that

13. The importance of this duty is summed up by Paul Magdalino: ‘Except where andreia is at stake, they are in danger of losing their honour only when they fail to fulfil their roles as husbands, wives, fathers, mothers, sons and daughters’ (op. cit. 197).

14. This is the term employed by Catia Galatariotou, who argues that ‘Digenes is built around a set of binary oppositions which express a number of formal or “structural” conflicts’ (op. cit. 36).

15. The importance of the heroines’ chastity in ΔA has been pointed out by Lynda Garland, ‘Be Amorous, But Be Chaste … Sexual Morality in Byzantine learned and vernacular romance’, BMGS 14 (1990) 62–120.

16. Maximou’s ‘unnatural has been pointed out by D. Ricks (‘The pleasures of the chase’ 292).

17. R. Beaton, The Medieval Greek Romance 29.

18. C. Galatariotou, op. cit. 53.

19. The fact that Digenis himself announces (1.803) may be related to the fact that, as D. Ricks observes, ‘Although the hero carries off the girl with her consent, he does not want to lose the traditional fun to be had from (‘The pleasures of the chase’ 293); this should not, however, obscure the fact that what he carries out is an elopement rather than an abduction.