Dude, who even knows.
Post reblogged from the old lie: dulce et decorum est pro discourse mori with 79 notes
John Tzetzes was a teacher and scholar who lived in Constantinople in the 12th century and was a real asshole. Apparently the gentleman had this habit, which was he would write a letter to someone and then write erudite scholarly annotations in verse on the letter so you got all of his very good jokes. Not, like, on the letter! No no no, in a separate book of poetry called “the Histories” that he published in which the allusions are explained. Also apparently a lot of sources only survived in the references that John Tzetzes made about them, which at first I was like, “no he would hate that, takes the focus away from him!” but actually I think John Tzetzes’ ghost should be antiplacated by any means possible
Tzetzes described himself as hot, like Cato the Younger, as well as modest– not a joke!– although he admitted he was quick to temper. Here are some quotes from ordinary scholars otherwise driven to madness by reading John Tzetzes for too long:
Throughout his life Tzetzes was both prolific and fiercely, cantankerously outspoken about what he considered to be the exceptional quality of his work. This combination rendered him well known and has secured him an enduring place in the Classical tradition, despite the fact that the actual quality of his work rarely equals his perception of it and is often seriously marred by inaccuracy, false logic and awkward phrasing. – Aaron Heinrich
Another major difficulty in studying Tzetzes is the extreme and quite particular presence of his own self in his texts, to the point that the vast majority of his writings appears to be driven by an ‘autographic syndrome’. The textual image of this phenomenon– Tzetzes’ egocentric, idiosyncratic and contentious character– has been mostly interpreted as a purely personal trait of his. – Panagiotis Agapitos
…And there were many other verses of sundry dialects, but I omitted them as useless. – an medieval scribe trying to copy one of John Tzetzes’ texts and giving up
TZETZES (languagehat) contains one of his showoffy poems in which the punchline is some WILD medieval anti-Semitism and here is an exegesis of the million languages the dude crammed into the poem and also a lengthy discussion of whether or not some real filthy profanity was in the original (conclusion: absolutely)
anyway i have to go to spanish class but i thought some of you might want to know about this dude, i leave you with his commentary on his upstairs neighbors
I live in between the horrors of fire and watery deluge. For, beneath me the hay is strewn about, while above my head and around the lintel of my doorway rain flows in as a great stream. For, the house is a three-storey [building] and a holy priest, although of a lower rank, resides on the second floor above me … Together with his children he raises little pigs. These children and the piglets do just the opposite of what the cavalry of Xerxes did. For, [Xerxes’s] horses leaned over to drink [water] and completely dried up the rivers … On the contrary, these little ones produce so much water [literally, urine] that it flows together to form navigable rivers.