Misopogon
Misopogon ( Greek for "Barthasser") is the title of a satire that the Roman Emperor Julian (361-363) wrote between mid-January and mid-February 363 in Antioch on the Orontes in response to mocking verses at the New Year celebrations of 363. The script is written in Greek. The satire consists on the one hand of parts that are characterized by self-ironic detachment, on the other hand of spiteful attacks on the citizens of Antioch, whose moral depravity scourges Julian. The ironically distant sections and the directly aggressive sections cannot, however, be neatly separated from one another; thus speculations about a genesis from two texts or a subsequent edition are unfounded.
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content
The work Misopogon (German: the Barthasser or Bartfeind ) was written as Julian's reaction to the behavior of the people of Antioch towards the emperor. The relationship between the people of Antioch and Julian was tense from the start. Antioch was already strongly Christianized, yet the population was very fond of public entertainment. The emperor, in turn, adhered to the old cults of gods, but at the same time appeared almost ascetic and with a philosopher's beard. When the emperor hastily called Christians to account after a fire in the shrine of Apollo in the suburb of Daphne, an open rupture occurred.
The Antiochenes literally doused the emperor with mockery, whereupon he reacted irritably and in the work Misopogon accused himself of hating his beard. Bugs romped about in it and he always had to be careful not to bite off his beard while eating. With the satire, which is partly characterized by fine self-irony, but partly also by biting mockery, Julian intends to despise the, in his opinion, morally depraved population of Antioch, whom he had previously tried in vain to win for himself. The work was apparently shortly after the signature Caesars written in a hurry, the reasoning is often disorganized. Julian then set out on the Persian campaign and died on June 26, 363 from being wounded in battle.
See also: Julian and Famine in Antioch 362–363 for historical context
reception
Reception in ancient times
The misopogon was judged differently in ancient times. Nothing is known about its distribution during Julian's lifetime (the work was - according to Johannes Malalas - publicly posted in front of the palace on the elephant island in Orontes). From the time after Julian's death we find general rejection by Gregor von Nazianz , a tendency towards rejection by Libanios and enthusiastic approval by Zosimos ; The church historians Socrates and Sozomenos are also positive about the work.
Modern reception
The quality of Julian’s writing, including Misopogon , is judged differently. “Especially in his letters, every page reveals that Julian's nature did not tolerate the restrictive costume of an [...] artificial language. [… S] an impulsive temperament […] makes many of his letters true models of an individual style. ” Marion Giebel only deals superficially with the misopogon and the emperor's satire and does not make a quality judgment. Bernhard Kytzler believes that Julian “as a man of great standing is just as entitled to interest as a historical figure or a character in a novel […]. His sentences are [...] the literary legacy of an emperor, who to know as an author is no less valuable than as the figure of a turning point ”. Joseph Bidez claims, “laborieux et appliqué, Julien voulut briller in the genre pour lesquels il n'était pas doué. La nature ne l'avait fait ni philosophe, ni poète, ni vulgarisateur. Il s'évertua cependant à faire croire que les Muses ne lui avaient rien refusé ”.
The target audience and intention of the text were unclear for a long time - and not yet clearly clarified in today's research. The answer to both questions is closely related. The intention is simply stated by the French philologists Christian Lacombrade and Jacques Fontaine , who both edited Julian's works: The text is the “psychogram of its author” and expresses the frustration that befell Julian after his seven-month stay in Antioch. This answer seems obvious, as the satire is a strange text - such self-reproaches by an emperor were and are unique. Naturally, the audience is not relevant for the representatives of this interpretation. However, Hans-Ulrich Wiemer is critical of this: This interpretation misunderstands that it is a public letter from an emperor. So the first thing to ask is the political function. Wiemer calls a second type of interpretation "propagandistic": The representatives of this reading (including Glanville Downey ) claim that the satire is evidence of an advertising campaign by the emperor who wants to attribute the failure in Antioch to the depravity of the local population. This also makes the intended audience clear: everyone else except the Antioches, who are to be made contemptuous.
A third reading (represented by Maud W. Gleason) sees the text primarily as a "means of communication": With the help of satire, the emperor exchanges views with the people of Antioch, responds appropriately to their mocking verses and can still respond with greater severity at a suitable time react to the mockery or let the whole thing rest. Thus the audience is mainly the citizenship of Antioch, but with the intended "readership" of other cities (such as those hostile to Antioch). Wiemer sees this reading as a great advance over the two previously described, but criticizes Gleason's lack of discussion with the representatives of the “propagandistic” mode of interpretation. Wiemer himself refrains from being assigned to one of the three groups (although with clear sympathy for Gleason), but after a lengthy analysis of the structure of the work continues some of the thoughts previously expressed and comes to the view that the writing is just a failed communication of the population because it is far too complex, full of literary allusions and therefore incomprehensible. This makes a propagandistic point of view completely impossible, and the variant “psychogram of the author” has been brought closer again, but not in the original sense, but to the effect that Julian failed to achieve literary ambition while at the same time maintaining the dignity of an emperor.
Lore history
When V is the most important and best handwriting, the Leyden codex Vossianus from 12-13. Century. Pc is the manuscript Parisinus 2964 from the 15th century. In Mb is manuscripts from the 15th century, when F to those from the 16th century. E and F are copies of the same Codex, but not from Mb . Aug comes from the 12./13. Century, M from the 15th century, Bav from the 16th century.
expenditure
- Christian Lacombrade: Julianus, empereur romain, dit l'apostate: Œuvres complètes . Les Belles Lettres, Paris 1964.
- Friedhelm L. Müller (translator and editor): The two satires of the emperor Julian Apostata . Franz Steiner, Stuttgart 1998, ISBN 3-515-07394-9 ( Palingenesia. Monographs and texts on classical antiquity , volume 66).
- Carlo Prato, Dina Micalella: Misopogon / Giuliano Imperatore. Edizione critica, traduzione e commento. Edizioni dell'Ateneo & Bizzarri, Rome 1979.
- Carlo Prato, Jacques Fontaine, Arnaldo Marcone (eds.): Alla madre degli dei e altri discorsi / Giuliano Apostata . 3rd edition Fondazione Lorenzo Valla, Mondadori, Rome-Milan 1987, ISBN 88-04-28801-9 .
literature
- Marion Giebel : Emperor Julian Apostate. The return of the old gods . Artemis and Winkler, Zurich 2002.
- Maud W. Gleason: Festive Satire: Julian's Misopogon and the New Year at Antioch . In: The Journal of Roman Studies . Vol. 76, 1986, pp. 106-119.
- Bernhard Kytzler et al .: Small encyclopedia of ancient authors . Insel, Frankfurt am Main and Leipzig 1992.
- Arnoldo Marcone: Un panegirico rovesciato . In: Revue d'Études Augustiniennes et Patristiques . Vol. 30, 1984, pp. 226-239.
- Hans-Ulrich Wiemer : An emperor mocks himself: literary form and historical significance of Emperor Julian's “Misopogon” . In: Peter Kneissl , Volker Losemann (ed.): Imperium Romanum. Festschrift Karl Christ . Franz Steiner, Stuttgart 1998, ISBN 3-515-06929-1 , pp. 733-755.
Web links
- The Emperor Julian's two ridiculous writings; the Caesars and Misopogon ; Greek, with a German translation and annotated by Hermann Jacob Lasius. Greifswald, AF Röse, 1770. ( googlebooks )
- The emperor Julianus Caesaren, and Bartfeind translated by Christian Nathanael von Osiander and H. Reichardt, Stuttgart, JB Metzler'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung , 1856.
- English translation of the Misopogon from the Loeb Classical Library
