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Gluttons, Drunkards and Lechers : the Discourses of Food in 12Th-Century Byzantine Literature : Ancient Themes and Byzantine Innovations

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Gluttons, Drunkards and Lechers : the Discourses of Food in 12Th-Century Byzantine Literature : Ancient Themes and Byzantine Innovations Title: Gluttons, drunkards and lechers : the discourses of food in 12th-century Byzantine literature : ancient themes and Byzantine innovations Author: Tomasz Labuk Citation style: Labuk Tomasz. (2019). Gluttons, drunkards and lechers : the discourses of food in 12th-century Byzantine literature : ancient themes and Byzantine innovations. Praca doktorska. Katowice : Uniwersytet Śląski Uniwersytet Śląski w Katowicach Wydział Filologiczny Tomasz Labuk GLUTTONS, DRUNKARDS AND LECHERS. THE DISCOURSES OF FOOD IN 12TH- CENTURY BYZANTINE LITERATURE: ANCIENT THEMES AND BYZANTINE INNOVATIONS Praca doktorska napisana pod kierunkiem Prof. dr. hab. Przemysława Marciniaka Katowice 2019 In loving memory of my Mom. … nunc tamen interea haec, prisco quae more parentum tradita sunt tristi munere ad inferias, accipe … multum manantia fletu atque in perpetuum … ave atque vale. (Catullus, 101) 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements 4 1. Introduction 5 1.1. Byzantium in the “Long Twelfth Century” – a ‘Consumptive’ Society? 7 1.2. Consumption in Byzantium – an Overview of the Field 11 1.3. ‘Aristophanic ‘Boom’ in the ‘Long Twelfth Century’ 15 1.4. Consumptive Discourse in Twelfth-century Byzantine Literature 19 1.5. The Argument: The Byzantine Language of Iambos 20 1.6. Overview of the Argument 22 2. The Language of Byzantine Iambic Insult: Psellos’ In Sabbaitam and In Iacobum 25 2.1. Iambos and the Iambic Body in the In Sabbaitam 26 2.2. In Iacobum: Subverting the Kanon with Γαστήρ 32 2.3. An Interlude: Some Reflections on Γαστήρ 33 2.4. The Γαστήρ-motif in In Iacobum 38 2.5. The Non-ascetic Asceticism: Γαστήρ Transformed into an ‘Aσκός 42 2.6. Jacob-Wineskin and Poetic Contest 44 2.7. Biblical and Iambic Discourses Meet Together 47 2.8. Conclusion 53 2.9. Appendix 54 3. Consumptive and Verbal Excesses of the Komnenian Era 59 3.1. Literary Cuisines of The Komnenian Era 60 3.2. The Timarion and the Dangerous Charms of Rhetoric, or the Pitfalls of the Mouth 67 3.3. “The Loud-mouthed Consumers.” Gluttonous Prattle in Hades 76 3.4. Conclusion 87 4. Eating up the State: Comic/Iambic Gluttons in Niketas Choniates’ History 88 4.1. ‘Iambic Ethos’ and Historical Discourse 90 4.2. Consuming the Empire 91 4.3. John Kamateros: An Iambic Yapper 96 4.4. The Monstrous Δημοβορία: The Cyclopean Feasts of Andronikos I Komnenos 101 4.5. Constantinople as a Second Sybaris Under the Angeloi: The Passive, Consumptive and Dissolving Body 110 4.6. Conclusion 121 5. The Monstrous Consumptive Body on the Imperial Throne: The Case of the Coup of John Komnenos ‘The Fat’ 123 5.1. Some Context: The Historical Background of the Coup 126 5.2. Staging the Comedy: The Comic Body on the Σκήνη 127 5.3. The Iambic Discourse Unfolded: Fatness and the Social Scum 133 5.4. The Iambic and the Grotesque: The Transmogrified Fat Body 136 5.5. The Sickly and Degenerating Iambic Body 139 5.6. The Dismembered Iambic Body: Chopping up the Monster 141 5.7. Popping out the Swollen Balloon of Meat 146 5.8. The Meat of the Texts: The Function of the Iambic and the Grotesque 150 6. Foreword 155 7. Summaries 158 8. Bibliography 8.1. Primary Sources 160 8.2. Secondary Literature 163 3 Acknowledgements It is only at the finishing stages of a project that one realizes how important are the people whom one meets and interacts with throughout its duration. Lively discussions with Baukje van den Berg, who has always believed in me more than she probably should have, allowed me to build the final argument of this thesis. Baukje’s scholarly expertise, energy and enthusiasm were definitely an important inspiration for my work. My dear colleague Divna Manolova was immensely supportive during her two-years stay in Katowice. Long and animated conversation with Divna largely influenced my analysis of Psellos’ invectives. On a more personal level, Divna has been an important guide through the not-so-easy journey of a young researcher. I could not omit Larisa Vilimonovic and thank her for the hours we have spent discussing the matters of gender, the reception of classics in Byzantium and the theoretical approaches to Byzantine historiographic discourse. Larisa’s belief in the value of my scholarship has been immense and for that I owe her great many thanks. Nikos Zagklas has offered me his help and guidance so many times that I do not know how to thank him sufficiently. Vast philological knowledge and good cheer of Lorenzo Ciolfi allowed me to add many insights to my argument, for which I am greatly thankful. Moreover, I would like to thank the National Science Centre Poland whose financial support sponsored my research and allowed me to visit many places all over the world and meet gifted academics. Two brilliant women have been of utmost importance during writing of this thesis. Without the constant support and understanding of my beloved Ania, I would not be able to finish it. She was the good spirit who drove this project forward, she has shown an immense level of understanding and support and withstood all my irritation and grumpiness whenever I felt at a loss. Our heated talks that have spanned from the sense of humanities, through psychology to the meaning of life put a stamp on everything I did as a scholar. A million thank you would not be enough to express my gratitude. Last but not least, I would like to dedicate this thesis to the memory of my late mom. It was her who shaped my interests and pushed me first towards Latin and philosophy and encouraged me to pursue the academic career. It was her who instilled intellectual curiosity in me, who taught me how to think critically and to appreciate constructive discussion. She showed me how to be persistent and stubborn even in the hardest times, which have been many through the last five years. This thesis would not exist if it had not been for her: it is for you, Mom. 4 1. INTRODUCTION It is a trivial yet undeniable fact that food intake is one of the most essential needs of every living creature. From the simplest unicellular structures, to the most complex organisms, it is a sine qua non condition of life and existence. Abraham Maslow’s theory of hierarchy of needs is probably the most exact illustration of this banal truth.1 Researching motivational drives and personal development of humans, Maslow created a theoretical model which sought to explain people’s behavioral patterns. It is represented in the form of a pyramid, where the physiological needs, including the triad of hunger, thirst and sexual lust (among others), are placed at its bottom, while the drive of self-actualization forms its pinnacle. According to the model, the higher needs can be satisfied if and only if the most basic ones are fulfilled. Once these essential urges are deficient, the complete realization of human potential is simply impossible. Certainly, there exists an extremely thin line between necessity and luxury. Satisfaction of one’s hunger can easily lead to gluttony, quenching one’s thirst might result in over- drinking, while subjecting oneself to lust may by followed by uncontrolled lasciviousness. Those who focus only on satisfying their fundamental bodily needs remain at the very bottom of Maslow’s pyramid, unable to reach its higher levels. This dialectic of sheer necessity and unwanted excess is one of the most curious paradoxes of human condition. Mark Forsythe has recently argued that as a species we have evolved to be attracted to the smell of alcohol: We evolved to drink. Ten million years ago our ancestors came down from the trees. Why they did this is not entirely clear, but it may well be that they were after the lovely overripe fruit that you find on the forest floor. That fruit has more sugar in it and more alcohol. So, we developed noses that could smell the alcohol at a distance. The alcohol was a marker that could lead us to the sugar.2 As Forsythe half-jokingly adds, the urge to drink alcoholic substance was even prior to the human species itself and occurred already in the earliest stages of evolution.3 It should come as no surprise that broadly understood consumption has been morally problematized since the earliest phases of our civilization.4 After all, gluttony was the original sin in the Old Testament and the sole reason for the expulsion of Adam and Eve from Paradise. By the same token, overindulgence receives a special attention in the three opera magna of archaic Greek literary production: Hesiod’s Theogony as well as Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey. In the widely-discussed proem to Hesiod’s poem, the Muses abusively address the poet who shepherds his flock on the slopes of Helicon as a ‘mere belly.’5 As a matter of fact, in the Iliad *This thesis is a part of a project funded by the National Science Centre Poland within the scheme of the programme “Sonata-Bis 3,” project title: “Intellectual History of 12th-Century Byzantium – Adaptation and Appropriation of Ancient Literature,” grant number: UMO-2013/10/E/HS2/00170. 1 A. H. MASLOW, “A Theory of Human Motivation” Psychological Review 50 (1943) 370–396, IDEM Motivation and Personality, Oxford 1954. 2 M. FORSYTHE, A Short History of Drunkenness. How Why and When Humankind Has Got Merry from the Stone Age to the Present. London 2017, 13. Forsythe is most probably right that writing a full-scale/global history of drunkenness will be equal to composing the history of the entire humankind. 3 Ibid.: “Before we were human, we were drinkers.
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