Psellos and the Patriarchs
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© 2015 UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME
Michael Psellos in Translation
Miniature portrait of Michael Psellos and his pupil Michael Doukas, MS Pantokrator, fol. (th century). © Holy Monastery of Pantokrator, Mount Athos. Used with permission.
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© 2015 UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME
Psellos and the PatriarchsLetters and Funeral Orations for
Keroullarios, Leichoudes, and Xiphilinos
translated by
ANTHONY KALDELLIS
and IOANNIS POLEMIS
University of Notre Dame Press
Notre Dame, Indiana
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© 2015 UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME
Copyright © 2015 by University of Notre Dame
Notre Dame, Indiana 46556
undpress.nd.edu
All Rights Reserved
Manufactured in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Psellus, Michael.
Psellos and the patriarchs : letters and funeral orations for Keroullarios, Leichoudes, and
Xiphilinos / [Michael Psellos] ; translated by Anthony Kaldellis and Ioannis Polemis.
pages cm. — (Michael Psellos in translation)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-268-03328-6 (paper : alk. paper) —
ISBN 0-268-03328-5 (paper : alk. paper)
1. Psellus, Michael. 2. Authors, Greek (Modern)—Biography. 3. Patriarchs and
patriarchate—Biography. 4. Political customs and rites—Byzantine Empire—History.
5. Funeral orations—Translations into English. 6. Byzantine Empire—Officials
and employees. 7. Byzantine Empire—Politics and government. 8. Byzantine
literature—History and criticism. 9. Byzantine Empire—Social life and customs.
I. Kaldellis, Anthony. II. Polemis, I. III. Title.
PA5355.Z5P73 2015
189—dc23
2015017672
∞ The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence and
durability of the Committee on Production Guidelines for Book Longevity
of the Council on Library Resources.
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© 2015 UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME
Contents
Preface vii
General Introduction 1
A Brief, Revised Biography of Michael Psellos 3
Psellos and the Patriarchs: A Historical and Interpretive Essay 10
Reading between the Lines in the Funeral Orations 32
Letter to the Patriarch Kyr Michael Keroullarios 37
Anthony Kaldellis
Funeral Oration for the Most Blessed Patriarch Kyr Michael
Keroullarios 49
Ioannis Polemis
Funeral Oration for the Most Holy Patriarch Kyr Konstantinos
Leichoudes 129
Anthony Kaldellis
Letters to Ioannes Xiphilinos 163
Anthony Kaldellis
Funeral Oration for the Most Blessed Patriarch Kyr Ioannes
Xiphilinos 177
Ioannis Polemis
Bibliography 229
Index 239
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Preface
This volume was created fortuitously. In 1998, Anthony Kaldellis translated
the long letters to Keroullarios and Xiphilinos and part of the funeral oration
for Leichoudes. More recently, Ioannis Polemis translated the funeral orations
for Keroullarios and Xiphilinos in the course of preparing a new edition of
Psellos’ funeral orations, now published in the series Bibliotheca Teubneriana.
A volume containing all of these texts suggested itself naturally to us. Each of
us has written the introductions to the texts that he has translated. In addi-
tion, Anthony Kaldellis wrote the first two sections of the general introduction
to the volume, and Ioannis Polemis the third section. We have read and com-
mented on each other’s translations. But this is Psellos, so some passages re-
main baffling.
The translators thank the two reviewers for the University of Notre Dame
Press, Stratis Papaioannou and an anonymous reviewer, for their useful cor-
rections and advice, as well as Michael Jeffreys for making useful comments
after reading the volume. We are also grateful to the press and our editor,
Stephen Little, for continuing their support for this project.
Note on Translations. Biblical references are to the Septuagint version of the
Bible (LXX). Biblical quotations in English are the authors’ own translations,
following the wording of Psellos, which is based on the Septuagint and the
Greek New Testament. In the translations, ellipses in brackets mean that
words are missing from the manuscript text or that the text has been cor-
rupted and cannot be properly translated; ellipses without brackets are used
to convey the sense of what Psellos is doing in an equivalent way in Greek,
vii
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usually the deliberate introduction of a kind of caesura or syntactical break
to mark a pause, stark contrast, or reformulation of his argument.
For the sake of consistency, we are naming all three orations Funeral Ora-
tions, even though the first two (for Keroullarios and Leichoudes) are called
Encomia (i.e., orations of praise) in the original manuscript. In substance,
they are encomia and so can be referred to in either way. But for their formal
titles we have opted for Funeral Oration.
viii Preface
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