Court poetry: questions of motifs, structure and function

The reception of Plutarch in George Pisides’ panegyrical poems

“…Pisides' acute modifications of ancient authorities tie in very well with the distinctive place critics have assigned him in Byzantine literature. He has been called 'the first Byzantine court poet' 54 and 'a man of extraordinarily wide literary culture and high intelligence', 55 which all square with the bold self-depiction we have noted throughout; while it has been rightly emphasised that he 'appears to stand apart from the high-brow poets of the sixth century with their affected and apologetic classicism', since his own mode of expression 'looks forward to the new and explicitly Byzantine literature'. 56 The cited remark is mainly based on Pisides' revolutionary preference for the iambic metre over the bombastic, classicising hexameter, and his confidence in fusing the sacred with the profane without any need for self-apology, but I hope to have shown that his exultant denunciation of classical characters and texts is another major feature of his work that anticipates some of the truly innovative aspects of later Byzantine literature, including poetic independence and self-confidence.…”