Byzantine novel

The byzantine novel, or pilgrim adventure books, is a narrative literary genre in prose that takes place in Spain during the 16th and 17th centuries in imitation of the authors Hellenistic aspects of the Greek novel, especially Heliodorus of Émesa.

Models

It is necessary to clearly distinguish what is an ancient Greek novel from what is a Byzantine Empire novel. In the latter we must mention Florio and Blancaflor; Rodante and Dosicles, by Teodoro Pródromo; Livistro and Rhodamna; Imberio and Margarona; Calimachus and Chrysorrhoea; Ismene and Ismenias and some more, all between the 12th and 14th centuries. The Greeks are much earlier.

Without a doubt the most influential models for the modern Byzantine novel, born in the Renaissance of the XVI century, are in the ancient greek novel. Above all, the Ethiopian History or The Love of Theagenes and Chariclea, by Heliodorus of Emesa, a Greek novel from the III d. C. which tells the story of an Ethiopian princess, Cariclea, abandoned in a strange land at birth. Years later, she is she meets the young Theagenes and they fall in love with her. They are then forced to embark on a journey fraught with danger and trials that, sometimes together, sometimes apart, they overcome. Finally, they are captured by the king of Ethiopia who, when he is about to sacrifice Cariclea to the Sun god, he recognizes her as her daughter. The play ends happily with the marriage of the protagonists.

The Love of Leucipa and Clitophon by Achilles Tatius, Greek novel of the II century d. C., where Clitophon recounts to a friend the various adventures that he and Leucipe had to overcome before being happily united.

Reception of the models in Spain

Cover of the first Spanish version of La Ethiopic History or The love of Teagenes and Cariclea, of Heliodoro de Émesa, published in Antwerp in 1554.

Already in the Middle Ages the influence of the Greek novel had been seen in the book of Apollonius from the XIII century d. C., However, this influence had not been direct, but through the History of Apollonius, King of Tire (Historia Apolonii Regis Tyrii) , attributed to Celio Symposio and written during the fifth and fifth centuries. VI d. C. which was in turn inspired by the Greek novel.

It is not until the Renaissance that the original Greek novel is rediscovered in Western Europe and widely disseminated. It is easy to establish a direct relationship between the rediscovery of these works and the birth of the Byzantine novel.

The Ethiopic History of Heliodoro de Émesa was found in 1526 among the ruins of the library of Matías Corvino, King of Hungary. From this codex the princeps edition was made in 1534 and it was soon translated into Latin and other European languages. In 1554 the first Spanish version appeared in Antwerp and in 1587 the successful version by Fernando de Mena, which was published three times during the XVII.

The adventures of Leucipa and Clitofonte by Aquiles Tacio was adapted into Spanish in 1552 by Alonso Núñez de Reinoso, a few years after the Italian translation by Lodovico Dolce (Venezia, Giolito de Ferraris, 1547) used by this little-known writer, who appropriated the text, significantly changing its title into Historia de los amores de Clareo y Florisea y de los trabajos de Ysea, with other works in verse, part in Spanish style and part in Italian, now brought to light again, but he published it not in Spain, but by the same Venetian printer who had published the Italian version, Gabriel Giolito de Ferraris. There was already a partial Latin translation, published in 1544 by Annibale della Croce. The first most faithful translation of the text in Spanish, although it is not clear which text was used, was that of Don Diego de Ágreda y Vargas, Los most faithful lovers Leucipe and Clitophon, Greek history by Achilles Tacio Alexandrino, translated, censored and part composed by d. DAV (Madrid, Juan de la Cuesta, 1617).

Features

Most of the Byzantine novels respond to a common scheme: two young lovers, who want to get married, encounter serious obstacles that prevent them from doing so (forced separation, dangerous journeys, shipwrecks, captivity, etc.) until, finally, they succeed. the realization of their desires when they meet and verify, with satisfaction, that their love has remained faithful and has strengthened in the midst of so many trials and risky setbacks.

The works assigned to this genre normally coincide in the following thematic points:

• The protagonists they are a couple of lovers forced to separate, promising first to keep the virginity and remain faithful.
• Castity. The love that the protagonists profess is a chaste and pure love according to the Neoplatonic tradition that had defined Hebrew Lion and Marsilio Ficcino. As an antithesis of this pure and chaste love, degraded characters appear, victims of their sexual desires and desires, which test the fidelity of lovers. This exaltation of chaste love and pure affections responds to a moralizing vision of life which makes these works the ideal model of moralizing reading in front of the cavalry literature.
• The argumental action is proposed in the form of travel. The sea symbolizes the idea of the instability of man's life and the fortuitous obstacles that he encounters throughout his existence and that he must overcome. A shipwreck, a storm or a random blow can cause the separation of the two lovers or their sudden encounter. The aim of the journey is, therefore, to show the strength of the love of the two lovers.
• The lie, the disguise and the deceptions they constitute the strategy used by the protagonists to achieve their ends. It is not considered as an example of negative conduct, but the only way to overcome the adversities presented to them throughout the journey.

Among the most relevant narrative techniques are:

• Start in media res, that is, the facts are not narrated in a linear way, but the narrative begins at a specific point of the plot, retreating when it is necessary to give answers that fill those voids created from the beginning of the novel.
• Byzantine novels are ordered about a journey, authentic thread of the works. This structure allows the introduction of numerous themes and secondary plots inside the main plot.
• Anagnosis. At the end of the novels there is recognition of lovers from some object or detail of childhood. This narrative procedure is called anagnórisis.
• Happy ending. The event concludes happily, as an award for the works or efforts of the protagonists.

This is a genre of classical lineage. The values discovered in terms of narrative technique: credibility of the action and description of spaces, psychological truth of the characters, ingenuity of the composition and, above all, in the content: moralizing vision of life, exaltation of chaste love and pure affections that promote happiness, punishment of illicit love, abundance of maxims and sentences, etc., make these works the ideal model for humanist reading in the face of the invasion of chivalric literature.

Representative works

The novels ascribed to the genre are few and are located in the second half of the XVI century and first half of the century XVII.

• History of the love of Clare and Florisea and the work of the unveiled Isea (1552), by Alonso Núñez de Reinoso. This first Byzantine Spanish novel The Loves of Leucipe and Clitophone of Achilles Tacio.
• Adventure Jungle (1565), Jerónimo de Contreras
• The pilgrim in his homeland (1604), from Lope de Vega, which is unique by nationalizing the genre by making almost all the trips and adventures happen within Spain itself and include poems and sacramental cars.
• The works of Persiles and Sigismunda (1617), by Miguel de Cervantes. The influence of the Byzantine novel is extended to one of its Number of copies: The liberal loverwhere features of the genre appear.
• Pilgrims Angelia and Lucenrique(composed between 1623 and 1625), anonymous work.
• History of Hippolyte and Aminta (1627), by Francisco de Quintana, who reached four editions.
• History of the fortunes of Semprilis and Genorodano (1629), by Juan Enríquez de Zúñiga,
• Eustorgio and Clorilene, Moscow history (1629), by Enrique Suárez de Mendoza and Figueroa,

Later, the Byzantine novel acquired a great allegorical and moral charge that promoted its crisis as a narrative genre. This stage is witnessed by works such as the Prodigious Lion (1634) and Entendimiento y verdad (1673) by Cosme Gómez Tejada de los Reyes, and El Criticón (1651, 1653 and 1657) by Baltasar Gracián.