Theodore Prodromos or Prodromus ( el, Θεόδωρος Πρόδρομος; c. 1100 – c. 1165/70), probably also the same person as the so-called Ptochoprodromos (Πτωχοπρόδρομος "Poor Prodromos"), was a

Byzantine Greek Medieval Greek (also known as Middle Greek, Byzantine Greek, or Romaic) 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 Ottoman co ...

writer, well known for his prose and poetry.

Biography

Very little is known about his life. Further developing a genre begun by

Nicholas Kallikles Nicholas Kallikles ( gr, Νικόλαος Καλλικλῆς, Nikólaos Kalliklēs) was a prominent Greek physician and a leading court poet active in the Byzantine court in Constantinople during the reigns of Alexios I Komnenos () and John II Komn ...

, he wrote many occasional poems for a widespread circle of patrons at the Byzantine court. Some of the literary pieces attributed to him are unpublished, while still others may be wrongly attributed to him. Even so, there does emerge from these writings the figure of an author in reduced circumstances, with a marked inclination towards begging, who was in close touch with the court circles during the reigns of John II Komnenos (1118–1143) and

Manuel I Komnenos Manuel I Komnenos ( el, Μανουήλ Κομνηνός, translit=Manouíl Komnenos, translit-std=ISO; 28 November 1118 – 24 September 1180), Romanization of Greek, Latinized Comnenus, also called Porphyrogennetos (; "born in the purple"), w ...

(1143–1180). He was given a prebend by Manuel I, and he ended his life as a monk. Despite the

panegyric A panegyric ( or ) is a formal public speech or written verse, delivered in high praise of a person or thing. The original panegyrics were speeches delivered at public events in ancient Athens. Etymology The word originated as a compound of grc, ...

and conventional treatment, his writings, often produced on some public occasion, provide important information on many aspects of contemporary Byzantine history. There is a strongly

satirical Satire is a genre of the visual, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, often with the intent of shaming or e ...

vein in his works, which range from

epigram An epigram is a brief, interesting, memorable, and sometimes surprising or satirical statement. The word is derived from the Greek "inscription" from "to write on, to inscribe", and the literary device has been employed for over two mille ...

s and

dialogue Dialogue (sometimes spelled dialog in American English) is a written or spoken conversational exchange between two or more people, and a literary and theatrical form that depicts such an exchange. As a philosophical or didactic device, it is c ...

s to letters and occasional pieces in both prose and

verse Verse may refer to: Poetry * Verse, an occasional synonym for poetry * Verse, a metrical structure, a stanza * Blank verse, a type of poetry having regular meter but no rhyme * Free verse, a type of poetry written without the use of strict me ...

. He had a biting sense of humour, and his comments are shrewd and pithy.

Works in literary language

The literary activity of Theodore Prodromos was vast and versatile, and there survive many of his writings in the literary Byzantine Greek language. Taking example by Heliodorus of Emesa's '' Aethiopica'', he wrote a

novel A novel is a relatively long work of narrative fiction, typically written in prose and published as a book. The present English word for a long work of prose fiction derives from the for "new", "news", or "short story of something new", itsel ...

in verse, '' Rodanthe and Dosikles'' () in 9 books. The ''Battle of Cats and Mice'' (Κατομυομαχία) is a parody drama of the classical

Greek tragedies Greek tragedy is a form of theatre from Ancient Greece and Greek inhabited Anatolia. It reached its most significant form in Athens in the 5th century BC, the works of which are sometimes called Attic tragedy. Greek tragedy is widely believed t ...

, with dramatic roles for the mice. The action takes place off stage, and is related in two speeches by the messenger. A '' deus ex machina'' saves the mice from the housecat in the end. He also wrote "Iambic and Dactyllic Quatrains on 293 Biblical Verses". The iambic quatrains are in the Vulgar Greek, and the Dactyllic quatrains are in the Homeric Greek. He also wrote two

poems, one against a lustful old woman (), and the other against an old bearded man (). There also survives an astrological poem on the power and meaning of

planets A planet is a large, rounded astronomical body that is neither a star nor its remnant. The best available theory of planet formation is the nebular hypothesis, which posits that an interstellar cloud collapses out of a nebula to create a young ...

. The ''Verses on the Twelve Months'' () are important for contemporary cultural history. Prodromos also wrote numerous occasional poems and

s, often on the occasion of some public event of historical significance, or for the purpose of begging for something; a few religious poems and treatises on the topics of theology,

philosophy Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. Some ...

and grammar;

s written in the style of Lucian of Samosata; a

hagiography A hagiography (; ) is a biography of a saint or an ecclesiastical leader, as well as, by extension, an adulatory and idealized biography of a founder, saint, monk, nun or icon in any of the world's religions. Early Christian hagiographies migh ...

of Saint Meletios the Younger; occasional speeches,

epistle An epistle (; el, ἐπιστολή, ''epistolē,'' "letter") is a writing directed or sent to a person or group of people, usually an elegant and formal didactic letter. The epistle genre of letter-writing was common in ancient Egypt as par ...

s and many other writings.

Ptochoprodromos

One collection of four poems, written in the vernacular, has passed down to us under the name of "''Ptōchopródromos''", however it has still not been established with certainty whether these poems were written by him or by someone who was imitating, or possibly even parodying, the true Theodore Prodromos. An attempt was made at resolving the problem of authorship by putting forward a hypothesis that there had actually been two poets of the same name. The evidence was found in one verse among the Ptochoprodromic writings, where the author praises the ''"famous writer, harmonious swallow"'', who was his ''"friend and predecessor"''. However, in distinguishing which poems belong to whom of the two poets, one comes across the unsurpassable obstacles. It was also suggested, without much evidence, that one Prodromos died in 1152, and the other in 1166. The basic part of the Ptochoprodromic writings consists of five laments and begging poems, which are marked as ABCDE. The poem A laments over the poet's garrulous wife and calls for help from emperor John II Komnenos (r. 1118–1143). The poem B is addressed to a '' sebastokrator'' and begs for charity to improve the menu. The poem C, addressed to emperor

(r. 1143–1180), relates a young monk's complaint over scandalous living circumstances in his monastery. The poem D is only a parallel of the poem C. The poem E describes a Byzantine writer. The

manuscripts A manuscript (abbreviated MS for singular and MSS for plural) was, traditionally, any document written by hand – or, once practical typewriters became available, typewritten – as opposed to mechanically printed or reproduced in ...

signify that the author of these poems is a Prodromos, Theodore Prodromos etc. with further variations. One manuscript of the monastic satire (C) signifies that the author is Hilarion (Ptocho)prodromos, and this name is found again in the poem D. This name has always been identified with the famous novelist, poet and writer Theodore Prodromos, who wrote in purist Byzantine Greek. The

bilingualism Multilingualism is the use of more than one language, either by an individual speaker or by a group of speakers. It is believed that multilingual speakers outnumber monolingual speakers in the world's population. More than half of all E ...

is not all that surprising, as it is already found in the writings of Michael Glykas. However, many scholars think that neither the monastic satire (C) nor the satire on the writer (E) can be reconciled with the life of Theodore Prodromos. Others suggest that Hilarion was Theodore's son, ascribing the wrong authorship references in the manuscripts to the later

copyist A copyist is a person that makes duplications of the same thing. The term is sometimes used for artists who make copies of other artists' paintings. However, the modern use of the term is almost entirely confined to music copyists, who are emplo ...

s. However, no evidence has been found to support this hypothesis.

External links

Greek Opera Omnia by Migne Patrologia Graeca with analytical indexes
* Sophia Antoniadis {{DEFAULTSORT:Prodromos, Theodore 12th-century deaths 12th-century Byzantine people 12th-century Byzantine writers Byzantine writers Byzantine poets Year of birth uncertain Byzantine letter writers Occasional poets