Three Medieval Greek Romances

Gavin Betts

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9780429620300
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Medieval Literary Collections
• Index: Literature

Published in 1995: These three 14th century medieval Greek romances, which are presented here for the first time in English translation, form part of a curious and previously neglected corner of literature.

Introduction to Livistros and Rodamni

In Livistros and Rodamni we have two stories combined and narrated in a rather complicated way. The whole poem is told in the first person by Klitovon. Within Klitovon’s narrative, after he and Livistros have met, we start with Livistros telling his newly found friend more than half his own story; and then Klitovon does the same for Livistros. After this exchange of histories Klitovon joins Livistros in his quest. Only here, after the mid-point of the poem, does Klitovon begin to present the story directly to his audience as he himself has seen and experienced it. But even in this latter part we get recapitulations of the kidnapping scene, first from the witch and then from Rodamni herself; each recapitulation adds further information which supplements the first account, as well as furthering our acquaintance with Rodamni and Verderichos, not to mention the witch herself. The element of suspense and the interplay of characters which this technique allows give Livistros a sophistication and depth that we do not find in Velthandros and Kallimachos.

Livistros is a frame or boxed story. The original author seems to have been influenced in this by the twelfth century novel of Makrembolites (see p.xix) which has a similar structure (and which also contains a description of the Twelve Months and other motifs which occur in Livistros). Whether Livistros owes anything to the collections of boxed stories of the sort which were popular in the Arabic medieval world is doubtful. Two works of this nature, originating in India, had circulated in different middle eastern languages and were translated into Greek in the eleventh century with the titles Barlaam and Ioasaph and Stephanites and Ichnelates. Both became very popular. But boxed stories of this sort (the Thousand and One Nights is the most famous example) are different from Livistros in one important respect: their stories, which need not be related to each other, do not make up a coherent narrative. In Livistros the boxing is used to provide an added dimension to the plot, which we see from the perspectives of all the main characters except Verderichos. Velthandros and Kallimachos, on the other hand, are narrated almost wholly from the point of view of the hero.

Text

There are five surviving manuscripts of Livistros. These have been designated by scholars with the letters E (late 15th century), N, P, S,¹ and V (all early 16th century). Of them only E and V are complete (or nearly so). V gives a shorter version (3811 lines against E’s 4405) where brevity is achieved by condensing (but not abridging) the story as it appears in the other manuscripts. It is the version presented by the other four manuscripts that is presented here in translation. The verbal differences between even these, however, are sometimes great. Scribal carelessness has only contributed to this to a certain degree. As suggested in the General Introduction (p.xxx), it seems that scribes were under no constraint to preserve the exact words of a poem which they were copying.

As an extreme example of this type of variation we may take a line from the text when Klitovon realizes that Livistros wants to hear his story (p. 149). In the manuscript followed at this point in the translation he expresses his feelings towards Livistros: The foundations of my heart hold you within them (S1470). But in ms. E the words that Klitovon says are: You are rooted inside my limbs (E2614). Not all differences between these manuscripts are as striking, but the lines do show that even E, N, P, and S can present separate versions. While they do not differ from each other as much as any one of them does from V, they nevertheless do not allow us to reconstruct the original author’s words as can normally be done, or at least attempted, with most surviving Latin and Classical Greek texts.

Mainly because of this complex situation no satisfactory text of Livistros has been produced up to now.² Ideally, each manuscript would be edited separately, and we would be able to catch the flavor of each version. Among the differences to surface more clearly would be that of language because there is a difference in the Greek employed in each. But this, unfortunately, would not give us four versions of Livistros in its entirety because there are considerable gaps in N, P, and S while E, though virtually complete, has sections so corrupt as to be unintelligible. This means that we are forced to take the manuscript which presents the best text (S) and supplement its gaps (and sometimes correct its mistakes) from the others. If it is objected that the result is a version that never existed in the original Greek the reply can only be that we have no other choice.

This method has been followed in establishing a text for the present translation. The first quarter of the poem, which is missing in S, has been supplied from N; in this case (and elsewhere) the reader will be able to discover the provenance of a passage by the manuscript letter prefixed to the line numbers. But even in the combination of S and N there are further gaps, ranging from one to sixty lines. These have been filled from P, and very occasionally from E and V.³ The translation of passages which supplement gaps in N (up to l.979) and S has been put into italics; in all cases the provenance is given, either in the actual translation or in an endnote. Occasionally italics indicate that a half line or more in N or S has been replaced with what stands in another manuscript.

A transcript of manuscripts S, E, and N (up to l.919) has been published by Lambert⁴ and the line numbers in her book have been followed. For P and N (after l.979) I have used the numeration in a transcript of these mss. For P the misplaced folios 84-91 have been restored to their proper position and numbered accordingly; to have attempted to reconstruct the numeration of Hatziyiakoumis, who follows the present order of folios in the manuscript, would have inevitably led to errors. To make the shorter supplements taken from N (after l.979) and P easier to identify I have, in the endnotes, added the first words of the line or passage in question to all line references. The manuscript N also suffers from misplaced folios but as these are all within the section published by Lambert (they occur between l.280 and l.487) I have not attempted to renumber them.

Rubrics occur in Livistros which are similar to those in Kallimachos. These have been supplied in the translation where they occur in the manuscript used at any given point. None occur in the latter part of the translation because of their absence in S after l.1438.

Nearly all the corrections made to the text of N and S by Lambert in the critical apparatus of her edition of these manuscripts have been adopted without comment. Other changes are indicated in the endnotes.

Livistros and Rodamni

The very romantic verses of the story of Livistros as told by his friend Klitovon to Myrtani

All sensitive people schooled in love,⁵ who have been reared and instructed by the noble Graces; who have been subjected to love’s torments; and all you of low degree; every soul of goodwill who is versed in love, every heart of noble grace which is devoted to virtue—come now and hear with me of love’s passion in the fair story which I shall tell. And you, lady Myrtani, who are the queen of the Graces,^(N10) a spring flowing with love and esteem, the living embodiment of the Graces, mistress of Aphrodite, join with all the glorious land of the Litavians and your noble kinsfolk down to those of low degree; men, noble women, old, young, let all come and gather round me. Today, my lady, I am going to tell a wonderful tale of love and of the terrible sufferings endured by a man of many trials and woes whom Love persecuted.^(N20) From my story of passion’s fury everyone will learn of the bitterness of Love and will marvel at how a man innocent of the world suffered so much from the time he began to feel desire.⁶

And now I shall begin my story of the love of the unfortunate Livistros and the lady Rodamni.

His friend Klitovon begins the story.

On a narrow path beside a flowing river a sorrowful young man was crossing a sloping meadow. The meadow must have been a place where strangers camped and the fair river a source of refreshment for the afflicted;^(N30) the meadow charmed them with its trees, its flowers and springs, and the river gave them comf...