Skip to main content

IMC 2004: Sessions

Session 1214: Byzantium and the Latins in Literature

Wednesday 14 July 2004, 14.15-15.45

Moderator/Chair:Judith E. Herrin, Department of Byzantine & Modern Greek Studies, King's College London
Paper 1214-aThe Latins in Anna Comnena
(Language: English)
Frederick Lauritzen, Department of Classics, Columbia University
Index terms: Byzantine Studies, Crusades, Historiography - Medieval
Paper 1214-bPenthesilea and a German Queen: The Mythology of Eleanor of Aquitaine on the Second Crusade
(Language: English)
Michael Evans, School of History, University of Reading
Index terms: Crusades, Gender Studies
Paper 1214-cPro-Latin Byzantines: The Stance of the Author of the Synopsis Chronike
(Language: English)
Konstantinos Zafeiris, St Andrews Institute of Mediaeval Studies, University of St Andrews
Index terms: Byzantine Studies, Language and Literature - Greek
Abstract

grouped by Liz James 24-10-03:
Abstract paper a
Anna Comnena’s account of the first crusade if invaluable for the Byzantine prospective of the events from a Byzantine point of view. This paper wants to explore the prejudices which lay behind the notion of Latin and what characteristics are referred to when the term Latin is used. These prejudices are interesting as they also shed light on general interactions between east and west which have arisen for the first time in this way at the time of Anna Comnena.

Abstract paper b
Eleanor of Aquitaine’s alleged behaviour on the Second Crusade has given rise to many legends, not all of them medieval in origin. This paper will focus on the claim by Byzantine historian Nicetas Choniates that a 'German' queen and her ladies dressed and behaved like Queen Penthesilea and the Amazons. This comment, and later historians (in my view, mistaken) interpretation of it illustrate a clash of cultures – not only between East and West but between men and women and ancient and modern.

Abstract paper c
The Synopsis Chronike, a Byzantine chronicle of the late 13th century published by C. Sathas in 1894, carries some unique information about Greco-Latin relations of the 12th and 13th centuries. The proposed paper will discuss and examine the pro-Latin stance that has been attributed to the text, a) by looking at its sources and the way the author used and incorporated them, and b) by analysing the language of the text in the relevant passages.