Aleksandar Andelović
University of Vienna
Whilst Byzantium was connected to ancient Greece through language, classical Greek heritage was not always perceived as “ours” by the Byzantines; ever since Late Antiquity, Greek education was predominantly viewed with a negative connotation in dogmatic Christian circles, where the term “Greek” (Ἕλλην) referred to “non-Christian,” or “pagan.” On the other hand, highly positioned intellectuals in Byzantine society were educated in Greek classics, and it is this particular mix of biblical/patristic scholarship and Greek classics, often referred to as paideia, that made these intellectuals extremely influential, especially starting with the eleventh century. In other words, ancient non-Christian Greek culture presented an ambiguous and internal other in Byzantium. While monastic and ascetic Byzantine voices usually renounced “Greek wisdom” and speak of the “Greeks” as something “not ours,” historically and spatially it was not alien to the Byzantines, especially in the intellectual profiles of highly educated members of the elite which often included figures coming from ecclesiastical establishments. The research focus of the present paper is the reception and perception of Greek, “non-Christian,” culture in the context of tumultuous relations between an eleventh-century Constantinopolitan intellectual Michael Psellos (1018-78) on the one hand and contemporary church officials and monastic circles on the other. More concretely, this paper will offer an analysis of the term “Greek” (Ἕλλην) and cognate grammatical forms (ἑλληνίζειν, ἑλληνικός) that occur around 50 times in Psellos’ letters and funeral orations addressed to patriarchs and monks. Psellos’ extensive usage of the term “Greek” when communicating with contemporary figures coming from more “rigorous” and “Orthodox” settings points to the presence and importance of “Greek” discourse not only in the educational profile of Psellos, but also in that of monks and patriarchs in the heart of the Orthodox Christian empire.