John Tzetzes
John Tzetzes (* 1110 in Constantinople Opel, † 1180 ) was a Byzantine scholar, were obtained by the extensive commentary work to classical authors a lot of information about Greek literature of the Classical and the Hellenistic.
Life
After a good education at a young age Tzetzes was secretary of the Eparch of Beroia, who threw him headlong, when he learned that Tzetzes stalked his wife. Tzetzes it spent some time in poverty and had to sell almost all of his books. Besides his work as a writer ( grammateus ) soon fed him also a teacher ( grammatikos ), in which he certainly due to family relations, which reached down to the imperial house, soon became very successful. He was commissioned to Bertha of Sulzbach, the future wife of the Emperor Manuel I to teach after their arrival in Byzantium in the literature of their new home. He apparently lived a long time in a convent and was served by the monks in return for his teaching.
Tzetzes was taken extremely of himself, attacked violently putative competitors and at the same time complained regularly about his material situation that did not allow him to buy the books are important to him.
His brother Isaac should Tzetzes (Greek: Ἰσαάκιος Τζέτζης ) have been.
Works
From the period 1135-1170 107 letters from him to high ranking individuals, but also fictional characters are preserved, which contain on the one hand valuable contemporary historical and biographical information, on the other hand, spreads the author already here an extensive mythological, literary and historical knowledge. In commenting on these letters (!) Tzetzes wrote his major work, the Biblos Historion ( "Book of Stories " ), a collection of 660 notes and digressions in 12674 Five Ten Silver, so-called " political verse ". Because the work was arbitrarily divided into sections, each a thousand verses in his first print in 1546 in Basel by the editor, it bares the name Chiliades, " thousands ".
Also in " political verse " he wrote Homeric allegories, interpretations of the Iliad and the Odyssey by all common in the ancient method. He dedicated the work to the new Empress, who now bore the name of Irene. He also wrote a commentary on the Iliad, in which he attacked other interpretations, and the later so-called Carmina iliac, "Poems for Iliad " in three parts: the first contains stories from the Trojan cycle of legends that play before the action of the Iliad, the second the substance of the Iliad, the third subsequent events, which are no longer reported by Homer. Tzetzes also commented on his Carmina.
From a young age he wrote scholia to Hesiod, several comedies of Aristophanes ( The wealth, the clouds, The Frogs, The Knights, The Birds ) and Alexandra Lycophron. As the author of the latter work in 1038 his deceased brother Isaac is mentioned in the manuscripts, but since everything points to John, it is assumed that the naming of Isaac is a kind of dedication.
These writings come to poetry, some themselves again in poem form, the logic ( a commentary on Porphyry's Introduction to Category writing of Aristotle ), the allegorical myths interpretation, a scripture about the origin of the gods, comments on Claudius Ptolemy, Pindar, Aeschylus, Euripides, Thucydides, etc.
That Tzetzes wrote many theoretical works and comments in poem form, is related to their use in the classroom: You were so easily be impressed.
Importance
By numerous authors Tzetzes were much larger issues before us today. On the other hand, he quotes often incorrect, apparently from memory. Nonetheless, his writings important sources for ancient literature and cultural history dar.