Writing and Reading Byzantine Secular Poetry, 1025-1081

In the mid-eleventh century, secular Byzantine poetry attained a hitherto unseen degree of wit, vividness, and personal involvement, chiefly exemplified in the poetry of Christophoros Mitylenaios, Ioannes Mauropous, and Michael Psellos. This is the first volume to consider this poetic activity as a whole, critically reconsidering modern assumptions about Byzantine poetry, and focusing on Byzantine conceptions of the role of poetry in society. It examines the various forms in which poetry reached its audience, paying attention to the visual and acoustic aspects of poetry, and exploring the ways in which poets presented themselves through their poetry and defended their interests towards critics, patrons, and friends. Ambition, education, and competition are for the first time seen as important aspects of the social background to Byzantine poetry.