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The Poem Conquest of Constantinople Vicky Panayotopoulou-Doulavera Lamenting the Fall or Disguising a Manifesto? The Poem Conquest of Constantinople lronically, among the best-known events in Byzantine history are those associated with the fall of the capita!, the city of Constantinople, to the Ottoman Turks in 1453. The most authoritative contemporary Greek narratives are by four historians: Georgios Sphrantzes, who was also an eyewitness, Doukas, Laonikos Chalkokondyles and Michael Kritovoulos of lmbros.' On the literary side, there are numerous archaising and vernacular compositions in prose and in verse, which began to appear immediately after the fall, echoing the shock, despair and disillusion of the Greek people. All these are threnodies or lamentations - a popular genre with a very long tradition in Greek literature.2 They are emotionally charged texts, and in their majority relatively short and anonymous.3 One of these texts is an anonymous poem entitled in the manuscript Conquest of Constantinople {"AÀtOOLS'KtuvarnvnvourrÓÀHu<;). 4 This is the first known 1. For Sphrantzes: Georgios Sphrantzes, Memorii /401-1477 ed. V. Grecu (Bucharest 1966): tr. M. Carroll, A Contemporary Greek Source/or the Siege ofConstantinople /453: The Sphrantzes Chronicle (Amsterdam 1985). For Doukas: Ducas, lstoria Turco-Bi::antinii (1341-/462) ed. V. Grecu (Bucharest 1958): tr. H.J. Magoulias, Decline and Fall of Byzantium to the Ottoman Turks (Detroit 1975). For Chalkokondyles: laonici Chalcocandylae historiarum demonstrationes ed. E. Darkó (2 vols Bucharest 1922-7). For Kritovoulos: Critobuli lmbriotae Historiae ed. D.R. Reinsch (Berlin 1983): tr. C.T. Riggs, History of Mehmed the Conqueror by Kritovoulos (Princeton 1954 ). One other witness account of equal importance is that by the Venetian Nicolo Barbaro: Nico/à Barbara, Giornale dell'assedio di Costantinopoli. 1453 ed. E. Cornet (Vienna 1856): tr. J.R. Melville Jones, Diary of the Siege of Constantinople 1453 (New York 1969). 2. See M. Alexiou, The Ritual lament in Greek Tradition (2nd rev. ed. by D. Yatromanolakis & P. Roilos, Lanham MD 2002) 83-101. For an outline oftexts of this kind in learned Byzantine literature see H. Hunger, Die hochsprachliche profane literatur der Byzantiner (Munich 1978) 132-45: tr. I.V. Anastasiou et al., Bv{al'Tlt'TJ AoyoTéxl'/a: H Aóyia Koaµ1Krf ypaµµarda rw1., Bv(al'Tt//lvv (2nd ed. 2 vols Athens 1991) 1:213-29. 3. See S. Lambros, 'Movwfüm Kal 0p~vot Èîîl T~ áÀ.u)(JEL T~ç KwvarnVTtvouîTÓÀEwç' Nlo,:; 1:'AA. 5 ( 1908) 190-269 and G.T. Zoras, ed., Bv(mm v,) rro[1w1S'(Athens 1956) 37-42, 117-221. On editions of individual texts see E. Kriaras, 'AmKáA17µa TIJS'A'w1,aral'T1llourr0A17S' (2nd ed. Thessalonica 1965): D. Michailidis, 'Un lamento inedito sulla caduta di Constantinopoli' BZ 65 ( 1972) 303-26; F. Dimitrakopoulos, '"KaTEÀoyáfa v ÀUîTT]póv":0 ovoµa(óµEvoç 0p~voç rn( AÀu)(JEl,><;TT]Ç TIÓÀEuJç TOU 8~0Ev Paris. Gr. 1238' Diptycha 6 (1994-5) 137- 46. 4. The exact title in the ms (Pari sinus gr. 2909, fols 41 r-68r, dated to the beginning of the sixteenth century) is 'A>..watç KovarnVTt vouTIÓÀEç.1 would like to thank my colleague Tina Lentari for providing me with a reproduction of the manuscript. The poem was published with German translation by A. Ellissen, Analekten der mittel­ und neugriechischen literatur (3 vols Leipzig 1857) 3 :97-249 and edited by É. Byzantine Narrative. Papers in Honour of Roger Scott. Edited by J. Burke et al. (Melbourne 2006). 194 Vicky Panayotopou/ou-Doulavera work written shortly after the fall, most likely within the first two years (see e.g. line 688). 5 In comparison to other texts of its kind, th is is surprisingly a very lengthy one ( 1045 lines). Is this work really a lament or is it a politica! document in disguise? It is true that the poem has scholars puzzled; the date of its composition, its historica! references and especially its author's identity have been the subject of serious discussion. 6 Hans-Georg Beek has touched upon the nature of the text and has described it as a kind of 'proclamation' aimed at mobilising the West against the Sultan Mehmet 11.7 1 would like to contribute to this dialogue by placing more weight on its poetical form, hoping to demonstrate that its author uses a popular genre to deliver his messages to the West and to cover his clandestine activity from the Turkish authorities. The practice of camoutlaging the content of a manuscript is known. Often, scribes would arrange the order of the texts by placing those with religious content before secular literature (i.e. love and satirica! poetry). For the same purpose, they would also manipulate the titles of secular texts by offering genera! and vague descriptions. 8 But I am not aware of this practice in an individual text by the author himself. The poem's title suggests that its content is associated with the events of the fall. We are not sure who was responsible for formulating its title. In the manuscript it appears as a later addition, written as an afterthought in the top margin of the folio, above a simpte decorative band. Hence we assume that it was written by the scribe or even a reader, who was perhaps intluenced by the poem's opening line. However, the title and all the other references to the text as a 'lament' by the poet himself (mis)led scholars to believe that this is what he was trying to write. For example, Voutieridis wrote: 'Although the poet wants to lam ent the great national calamity of the Greeks, he is not successful; the greater part of the poem is composed of pleas to the powerful of Europe to rise and fight the Turk so as to liberate the City and all the Greek places ... ' .Q Legrand. •'E µ µavou~À r Etüpy1Hà, "A ÀliJ<JLS' KtiJVCTTCTVTL vouTTÓÀEl,JS'' Bihliothèque grecque vulgaire ( 10 vols, Paris 1880-1913) 1:169-202. 5. See also 461. 6. See S. Lambros, ·Der Codex des Gcdichtes übcr die Erobcrung von Konstantinopcl' BZ 9 (1900) 161-9; B. Knös, ·Autour du poèmc appclé La prise de Constantinoplc ("AÀt,ims-T~ç Kt,ivarnVTLvouTTÓÀEliJS') · Hellenika 20 ( 1967) 311-37; C. Mcrronc, ·11 problcma dclla patcmità dclla "AÀuimç T~S' KluvarnvT1vouTTÓÀEWS'· Annali delta Facoltà di lettere e Filosofia dell'Università di Napoli 21.9 (1978-9) 199-217. For the most recent discussion on the poet and the pocm sec R. Garcia Ortcga & A.I. Femández Galv[n, Trenos por C'onstantinopla (Granada 2003) 45-59. 7. Sec H.-G. Beek. Geschichte der By=antinischen J'olksliteratur (Munich 1971) 164; tr. N. Eidcncicr, /arnp(a TIJ<; Bv{m'T11 11f<; 81]p1u8ou<; Aoyonx1 1(a<; (Athcns 1988) 260. 8. Sec H.-G. Beek, By=antinisches Erotikon (2nd cd. Munich 1986). tr. I. Dimitroukas, Bv{m 1 Tll'Ó11 EpwT1Kó11 (Athcns 1999) 245--6; also my forthcoming articlc: 'Aóya<; rrá11v 1o<piA1p0<; Kat rrEp1xap1f<;: The Titlc in Early Modem Grcck Litcraturc' AXION EST/ to timema: Homenaje a la profesora Olga Oma/os cd. J. Alonso Aldama (in press). 9. "AyKaÀá Kl, ó TTOLT]TT)S' 0ÉÀEl và KÀá4JT]T~ µEyáÀT] È8v1K~ au4>opà TüJV '[ÀÀT)VllJV,&v TO KCTTop0l,JVELöµ1,)Ç" TO TTEptaCTÓTEpOµÉpO<;' TOÜ TTOl r\µaTOS' fi vw .
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