Mazaris (; fl. c. 1415) was a late

Byzantine Greek Medieval Greek (also known as Middle Greek, Byzantine Greek, or Romaic; Greek: ) is the stage of the Greek language between the end of classical antiquity in the 5th–6th centuries and the end of the Middle Ages, conventionally dated to the F ...

writer known only for having authored a satirical text entitled ''Mazaris' Journey to Hades''. Although his identity and first name are unknown, Mazaris has been tentatively identified with at least two known historical personalities of the same name, one Manuel Mazaris, who was a hymnographer and served as ''

protonotarios A prothonotary is the "principal clerk of a court," from L.L. ''prothonotarius'' ( c. 400), from Greek ''protonotarios'' "first scribe," originally the chief of the college of recorders of the court of the Byzantine Empire, from Greek ' ''protos ...

'' of

Thessaloniki Thessaloniki (; ), also known as Thessalonica (), Saloniki, Salonika, or Salonica (), is the second-largest city in Greece (with slightly over one million inhabitants in its Thessaloniki metropolitan area, metropolitan area) and the capital cit ...

, and one Maximus Mazaris, who was a monk and author of a text on grammatical rules. According to yet another hypothesis, however, these two were actually the same person. Because of this uncertainty, the author of the ''Journey'' is mostly referred to simply by his family name. The ''Journey to Hades'' is believed to have been written between January 1414 and October 1415. It contains elements of social satire targeting the Byzantine ruling elite, but also some information about the lower classes in the

Peloponnese The Peloponnese ( ), Peloponnesus ( ; , ) or Morea (; ) is a peninsula and geographic region in Southern Greece, and the southernmost region of the Balkans. It is connected to the central part of the country by the Isthmus of Corinth land bridg ...

, including some remarks about the various ethnic groups that made up its population.

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References

* * * * {{Authority control Byzantine writers 15th-century Byzantine writers Greek satirists Byzantine Thessalonian writers Year of birth unknown Year of death unknown 15th-century Greek writers