Epigraphies of Pious Travel: Three Thousand Years of Pilgrimage Graffiti (1500 BC -1500 AD) (original) (raw)
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Among the plethora of epigraphs from medieval Greece, written for the most part in Greek, there are some inscriptions composed in languages other than Greek, as well as a small number of bilingual ones, that point to the temporary or lasting presence, settlement, and activities – military, commercial, administrative, religious – of foreign groups or individuals. In addition, it has been ascertained that some epigraphs written in Greek were commissioned by non-native speakers of Greek or “Hellenized” conquerors, rulers, and settlers. Various considerations and motivations that may be detected in the choice of language will be discussed, e.g. difference of ethnicity, identity, and culture, interaction or cultural and linguistic appropriation between coexisting communities, as well as individual aspirations and expectations.
Breaking the Analogy: Eclectic Byzantinism in Speculative World-Building
48th Annual Byzantine Studies Conference at UCLA, 2022
Authors of speculative fiction—in its wider sense encompassing fantasy, science fiction, and its subgenres—have occasionally appropriated Byzantine history. Their adoption of Byzantine topoi and nomenclature presents a unique Byzantinism in terms of utilization of history, for these authors’ reception of Byzantine history is not exclusively concerned with historical accuracy per se. Instead, they are keen on historicizing idiosyncratic speculative storyworlds that feel authentic. Role of Byzantine history in world-building and the novel ways in which speculative fiction authors select and appropriate historiography attest to the impact of evolving historiography on popular culture. Two such authors, Gene Wolfe (1931- 2019) and Jeff VanderMeer (b. 1968) built differing storyworlds imagined in the far future and alternate reality, in which Byzantine history is put to use in creating idiosyncratic fantasy and science fiction settings by conforming to a multitude of historiographical traditions. Wolfe and VanderMeer are analogous in their Byzantinism, which at the surface level is difficult to grasp, due to the eclecticism and the severe deformity of Byzantine elements (tropes, nomenclature, art, etc.) in the process of their appropriation for the purpose of worldbuilding. Wolfe’s The Book of the New Sun cycle (1980) imagines a stagnant and hierarchical society where an emperor-like figure governs the realm along with the bureaucratic elite. The story takes place in the far future in medieval Byzantine-like society, where the Hellenic, modern, and a futuristic extra-terrestrial past of humanity mold into myth. VanderMeer’s Ambergris cycle (2001) relates chronologically wide-spanning stories of a city-state through a very eclectic selection of literary forms. The weird connection between Ambergris’ timeline and the actual history makes the city-state prone to arbitrary impregnation of it by the history—specifically a Byzantine one. These authors’ seemingly arbitrary choice of historical names, titles, and phenomena, combined with spoliation of myths, ekphrases, and hagiographies render their storyworlds virtually unrecognizable but historicized timelines. When it comes to world-building, they are unique in their rejection of historical fiction and historical fantasy, and in the utilization of historicizing layers, and spoliation of history to provide an authentic but uncanny bond between history and fantasy. By examining the topoi and the nomenclature, which Wolfe and VanderMeer derived from Byzantine sources and historiography on Byzantium, I propose to show varying ways of corresponding with Byzantine history in speculative fiction. This is revelatory for the reception of Byzantine history, because, even though these settings are purely speculative they are submissive to modern ideologies and historiographies. Relevance of historiography in the speculative testify to a new way of appropriation, one that expanding scope of narration in accordance with historiography.
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