Philip's Mirror - part I

In volume 101 of the Corpus Christianorum. Series Graeca Eirini Afentoulidou offers Byzantinists a special treat: the first volume of her monumental edition of the Dioptra by the monk Philip or Philippos Monotropos. Written in 1095 and adapted two years later, this fictional dialogue between the body and the soul in more than 7000 political verses enjoyed considerable popularity among both Greek and Slavonic readers. The present first volume contains the general and text-critical introductions, a complete bibliography, and the critical edition of the introductory Greek texts and the Lamentationes.

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The Dioptra was composed in the year 1095 by a monk named Philippos, who is sometimes referred to by the epithet "Monotropos", an archaising term meaning "monk". Two years after its initial composition, a second redaction appeared, featuring changes in language and meter, as well as textual transpositions.

The main body of the Dioptra consists of four books comprising 7131 "political" verses (or 7217 in the second redaction). These verses take the form of a dialogue between the Soul and the Body, personified respectively as Mistress and Maid. The Mistress poses questions on theological and anthropological issues, which the Maid answers primarily by paraphrasing patristic and biblical passages. A catanyctic poem focused on contrition and penitence serves as either a prologue or an epilogue, depending on the redaction. This section, addressed to the soul, is known as Klauthmoi or Lamentationes. In addition, patristic excerpts collected by Philippos but not versified are transmitted as inserts, appendices or marginal scholia.

The use of “political” verse, the fictional personification of the interlocutors, and the text’s subtle sense of humor set the dialogue apart from the traditional Erotapokriseis genre. These distinctive features, combined with the topics addressed and the clarity of its language, contributed to the exceptional popularity of the Dioptra: no fewer than 80 Byzantine and post-Byzantine manuscripts transmit the work either in its entirety or in excerpts, while an additional nine manuscripts preserve Greek paraphrases.

Eirini Afentoulidou forscht an der Abteilung Byzanzforschung des Instituts für Mittelalter-forschung der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften.