DYCK, ANDREW R., The Taming of Digenes: The Plan of "Digenes Akrites", Grottaferrata 
Version, Book VI , Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, 35:3 (1994:Autumn) p.293 

The Taming of Digenes: 
The Plan of Digenes Akrites, 

Grottaferrata Version, Book IV 

Andrew R. Dyck 

D IGENES AKRlTES was known as early as the twelfth cen­
tury, when the narrator of one of the ptochoprodromic 
poems wished that a second Akrites might appear, firm­

ly plant his feet, take up his club, and smash a gluttonous abbot's 
feast to bits. 1 A long narrative poem on the hero's adventures 
survives in various versions, Greek and Russian. Its "episodic 
nature" and other peculiarities of its plot have long been 
recognized.2 What has been less fully appreciated is that a 
comparison of versions and literary models, aided by Trapp's 
synoptic edition,3 can help clarify problems in the surviving 
text.4 

Both in terms of plot and poetic technique the poem falls into 
two distinct parts, the so-called "Lay of the Emir" (Books I-III 
of the Grottaferrata version=G) and the "Lay of Digenes" (G, 

I Ptochoprodromos, Kritische Ausgabe der 'Vier Gedichte, ed. and tr. H. 
Eidenier (Cologne 1991) IV 189-92: ",Q n<; 'Al(pi't,,<; EtEpO<; EI(Et va EUPES" 
't6'tE, Kat 'to." 1tOOEa<; 'tou va £1!1t"~EV, va Enl1PEV 'to pa~oiv 'tou Kat 
I!ECm va Elm't6.~"K"EV EUSU" w<; ayoupi'tcr,,<; Kat va 'tOU<; EcrUVE'tpt\jlEV W<; 
1taAaI!Vato<; yiya<;; cf E. Jeffreys, "The Grottaferrata Version of Digenes 
Akrites: A Reassessment," in R. Beaton and D. Ricks, edd., Digenes Akrites: 
New Approaches to Byzantine Heroic Poetry (London 1993) 34. 

2 Cf e.g. R. Beaton, "'Digenes Akrites' and Modern Greek Folksong: a 
Reassessment," Byzantion 51 (1981) 27. 

3 Digenes Akrites: synoptische Ausgabe der d.itesten Versionen (Vienna 
1971). 

4 See A. R. Dyck, "On Digenes Akritas, Grottaferrata Version, Book 5," 
GRBS 24 (1983) 185-92, and "On Digenes Akrites, Grottaferrata Version, 
Book 6," GRBS 28 (1987) 349-69; D. Ricks, "Is the Escorial Akrites a Unitary 
Poem?" Byzantion 59 (1989) 184-207, and Byzantine Heroic Poetry (Bristol 
1990) passim. 

293 



DYCK, ANDREW R., The Taming of Digenes: The Plan of "Digenes Akrites", Grottaferrata 
Version, Book VI , Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, 35:3 (1994:Autumn) p.293 

294 THE TAMING OF DIGENES 

Books IV-VIII). 5 Book IV of the Grottaferrata version occupies 
an important point in the plot-the beginning of Digenes' own 
tale. At first glance this book appears to be highly episodic, 
comprising, as it does, the narrative of young Digenes' first 
exploits in hunting, his winning of his bride, and his encounter 
with the Emperor. But in spite of its composition from 
disparate elements, G-iv does, I shall argue, have a kind of inner 
unity, for here we see the process by which young Digenes 
becomes integrated in society. Although this study will focus 
on the earliest extant version, preserved in the Grottaferrata 
monastery (codex Cryptensis Zn 44=G, s. XIII ex./XIV in.), 6 

features of the other versions also need to be considered, 
especially the extant representative of the other main branch of 
the tradition, the codex Scorialensis'P IV.22 (=E, s. XV), and the 
hybrid version Z, reconstructed from three extant Mss. of the 
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries; the two eighteenth­
century Russian versions (their [hyp Jarchetype= p) will also be 
mentioned. The main relations are as follows: 7 

5 On the plot cf H.-G. Beck, "Formprobleme des Akritas-Epos," in Jdeen 
und Realitaten in Byzanz. Gesammelte AuJsatze (London 1972) XVIII, 139ff 
(=Beitrage zur Sudosteuropa-Forschung [Munich 1966]), and Geschichte der 
byzantinischen Volksliteratur (Munich 1971) 94 (though he should have 
characterized the "Lay of the Emir" as a romance, rather than a historical 
epic); on poetic technique cf V. Tiftixoglu, "Digenes, das 'Sophrosyne'­
Gedicht des Meliteniotes und der byzantinische Fiinfzehnsilber," B Z 67 
(1974) 44f; N. Oikonomides, "L' 'epopee' de Digenis et la frontiere orientale 
de Byzance aux X, et XI< siecles," Tra7JMem 7 (1979) 380f, presents further 
arguments for the independence of the two parts. 

6 Cf Father M. Petta ap. L. Politis, "L'epopee byzantine de Digenis Akritas. 
Problemes de la tradition du texte et des rapports avec les chansons 
akritiques," La poesia epica e La sua trasJormazione (=AttiLinc 367, Quad. 139 
[Rome 1970]) 554. 

7 This the earliest portion of Trapp's stemma (supra n.3: 46), modified by 
omission of Y, by which he assumed Z to have gained direct access to the 
archetype. Trapp has isolated (29-33) elements in Z that lack correspondence 
in G or E; one wonders, however, whether, taken together, these divergences 
are so significant as to require positing for Z a more direct line to the 
archetype; some could have been included in gore, though omitted from the 
extant G and E; others could represent borrowings by Z, which dates to the 
fifteenth century (Trapp 29), from folksongs (see the parallel to the song Tau 
V£lCpOU ao£A.cpou: Trapp 30); cf also M. Jeffreys, "Digenis Akritas Manuscript 
Z," Dodone 4 (1975) 200 with n.3; L. Politis, "Digenis Akritas. A propos de 
la nouvelle edition de l' epopee byzantine," Scriptorium 27 (1973) 335f. 



DYCK, ANDREW R., The Taming of Digenes: The Plan of "Digenes Akrites", Grottaferrata 
Version, Book VI , Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, 35:3 (1994:Autumn) p.293 

ANDREW R. DYCK 295 

x ~ =archetype) 

At the beginning of G-iv Digenes, aged twelve, is a young 
animal, or rather, is swifter and stronger than any animal, as he 
demonstrates by squeezing a she-bear to death, catching a deer 
and killing a lion (G 1053ff, E 664ff [omitting the incident with 
the deer], Z 1381ff).8 Upon completion of these rites de passage, 
his father declares him henceforth independent (G 1160ff, Z 
1494ff). The remainder of G-iv shows how this child of nature 
becomes a part of culture. One ancient analysis of the formation 
of human society found that prima societas in ipso coniugio est 
(Cic. Off 1.54).9 This phrase nearly hts Digenes, for the hrst 
step in his 'taming' is his willing enrollment as a 'slave of love' 
for the General's daughter. Here Digenes displays his prowess 
once again: he steals his bride and defeats an entire army in 
order to keep her. lo 

8 A number of cultures present folktale traditions of a hero's precocious 
exploits; cf Stith Thompson, Motif-Index of Folk-Literature, I-VI (rev. edn. 
Bloomington 1955-58) F611.3.2, Z231. 

9 Arius Didymus ap. Stob. Eel. 2.7=II 148.5 W.-H. offers a more politically 
oriented Greek counterpart: 1tOAl't£la OE 1tPW'tll cruvooo<; o.vopo<; Kat yuvalKO<; 
lW'ta VOf.lOV E1tt 'tEK:VWV YEvVl]crn Kat ~iou KOlVwvi~. 

10 For the slave of love motif cf G 1293f: OOUAot yap 'tex <ppovl]f.la'ta EPW<; 00<; 
roy OEO"1tO'tll<;, t)1to'tacrO"n 'tOY AoYtO"j.10V 00<; ~vioxo<; t1t1tov; and for its use else­
where in the poem, cf Dyck (supra n.4 [1983])189, and 185ff on bride-theft 
and its variations as an element in the plot of the poem; for bride-theft in E 
and related texts cf P. Mackridge, "'None but the Brave Deserve the Fair': 
Abduction, Elopement, Seduction and Marriage in the Escorial Digenes 
Akrites and Modern Greek Heroic Songs," in Beaton and Ricks (supra n.1) 
150--60. 



DYCK, ANDREW R., The Taming of Digenes: The Plan of "Digenes Akrites", Grottaferrata 
Version, Book VI , Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, 35:3 (1994:Autumn) p.293 

296 THE TAMING OF DIGENES 

The question arises, as often in the study of this poem, 
whether this organization of the material was the conception of 
the G-redactor or goes further back in the poem's history. 
MacAlister sees G-iv as a combination of two books of its 
model y, the reconstructed common source of G and g, the 
manuscript from which Z is assumed to have drawn for this 
branch of the tradition. Hence, for her, G-iv as we have it is the 
creation of the G-redactor. 11 She argues that the brief summary 
at the beginning of G-iv was "almost certainly [the G­
redactor's] own contribution" (568). Comparing the hrst verse 
of G-vi (2334: EK'tO<; A.6yo<; 0 1tUpWV 1tA.£lcr't(ilV av8puyu8[wv) 
with the corresponding verse in Z (2743: "E~80Jlo<; A.6yo<; 0 
1tUpWV 1tA.dcr'tu<; av8puyu8[u<;), MacAlister concludes that "the 
only explanation" for the fourteen- rather than hfteen-syllable 
line in G "seems to be that [the G-redactor] substituted EK'tO<; 
for E~8oJlo<;" (568f); but this state of affairs would imply that the 
G-redactor was, in fact, following a summary in his model, y, 
from which, via g, Z presumably received the verse quoted (see 
stemma supra 297). Moreover, her hypothesis is hardly "the 
only explanation" for G's text: its hrst editor, Legrand, had 
already effected the easy and obvious correction by inserting 0 
before EK'tO<; at G 2334. On the other hand, MacAlister argues 
that the summary at the beginning of G-vi was based on y, 
which the G-redactor found "indispensable, as it contained the 
reason for the hrst-person narration" (568). The hrst-person 
narrative of G-vi, however, is a continuation of that to the 
Cappadocian begun at G 2062ff, not a narration to some 
unnamed friends, as the summary (perhaps after a version 
similar to Z 2425ff; cf also Z 3655) suggests. 

That the summaries prefaced to G-iv and G-vi are secondary 
is clear from the fact that, while each book of G begins with a 
decorated initial letter, in Books 4 and 6 this occurs only after 
the summaries (Sc. G 952ff and 2334ff respectively: so Trapp, 
per litt.). The two summaries will surely have arisen at the same 
stage of redaction. The phenomena can be accounted for by 
either of two hypotheses: (1) the redactor/scribe of G 
composed the summaries; this would explain his having 
accorded them special status in the process of rubrication; (2) 
the scribe of G simply copied what he found in his exemplar (y), 
i.e., both the summaries and the method of rubrication 

11 s. MacAlister, "Digenis Akritas: The First Scene with the Apelatai," 
Byzantion 54 (1984) 551-74 (hereafter cited in the text by page number). 



DYCK, ANDREW R., The Taming of Digenes: The Plan of "Digenes Akrites", Grottaferrata 
Version, Book VI , Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, 35:3 (1994:Autumn) p.293 

ANDREW R. DYCK 297 

originated at the previous stage of redaction. In either case the 
summaries are likely to have been motivated by the fact that 
their author, whether the scribe of G or 'Y. found in his 
exemplar two exceedingly long books corresponding in content 
to G-iv and G-vi. 

Where the book-divisions of G and Z fail to coincide, the 
presumption is that G, rather than Z, stands closer to the 
original (ef again the stemma supra 297). Thus, Trapp (supra n.3: 
27f) has shown that Z has added its Book 1 and combined into 
one two books of its model corresponding to G's Books 2 and 
3. MacAlister proposes that in G's model, 'Y. Book 4 concluded 
with Digenes' return from the hunt and Book 5 began with his 
first meeting with the General's daughter. But note that Z, 
although it joins E in inserting the first encounter with the 
a1t£A.a:tUl after the hunt, places the first meeting with the 
General's daughter, as in G (1205), immediately after and on the 
way back from the hunt: 'Y1tTlPX£ WtVUV Ku8' 680v 'tau 
KUVllYlOU 'AKptW'U (1109). This, then, must also have been its 
position in 'Y as the common source of G and g. There is, then, 
no reason to posit for 'Y the return home that in Z forms part of 
the prelude to the first meeting with the a1tEAa'tUl (1539f).12 In 
light of these facts, as well as our observations about the 
summaries, it is likely that 'Y already had a separate book roughly 
corresponding to G-iv. 

The scene in which Digenes abducts his lady is perhaps the 
finest in the poem. The action is carefully prepared by 
ekphraseis of both Digenes (G 1172ff [not in EJ) and the girl 
who wins his heart (G 1300ff). Her magnificent home, too, 
receives its own ekphrasis (G 1218ff), even though the 
Borderer professes no interest in augmenting his property 
through the match (G 1489ff [without counterpart in EJ). The 
psychology of budding love is delicately sketched on both 
sides: we are shown Digenes' symptoms-inability to eat or 
drink-and his vacillation between hope and despair (G 1331£f); 
the young woman, too, is powerfully smitten by love at first 
sight (G 1223ff): we see her wakefulness the entire night of the 
planned elopement (G 1360 [not in EJ), her awareness that she 

12 C[. R. Beaton, The Medieval Greek Romance (Cambridge 1989) 38, and 
"An Epic in the Making? The Early Versions of Digenes Akrites" in Beaton 
and Ricks (supra n.1) 6of, who argues convincingly that no lacuna need be 
posited since, in literary terms, the narrative in G is complete and satisfying in 
itself. 



DYCK, ANDREW R., The Taming of Digenes: The Plan of "Digenes Akrites", Grottaferrata 
Version, Book VI , Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, 35:3 (1994:Autumn) p.293 

298 THE TAMING OF DIGENES 

has, for the first time, cast aside modesty in meeting clandes­
tinely with her lover (G 1451ff [not in E]), and her prudence in 
making Digenes swear an oath of fidelity (G 1521ff; cf E 893ff). 

The General's implacable opposition to the union transforms 
what was initially a straightforward suit into a bride-theft 
operation with military complications. The old folktale type that 
underlies this plot is also reflected in the saga in which Pelops 
wins the hand of Hippodamia in a chariot race in spite of the 
opposition of her father, Oenomaus; in several versions the 
father's incestuous attraction to his daughter leads him to raise 
the stakes for her hand (he spears any suitor he can catch).13 In 
line with the general tenor of our poem, however, the hero 
prevails by prowess, rather than craft, as in the most famous 
version of the Pelops saga, where the groom Myrtilus (in some 
accounts, bribed by a promise of Hippodamia's favors) replaces 
the lynch-pin of his master's chariot-wheel with a dummy of 
wax. 

Even this generally effective narrative is not, however, 
altogether free of anomalies. Digenes' first encounter with his 
future wife is, as we have seen, represented as taking place on 
the way home from his first hunting expedition, set when 
Digenes was aged twelve (G 1036 [not in E]). When Digenes 
and the rest of the hunting party (which includes his father and 
uncle) reach the General's house, he begins to serenade (G 
1207££), but only after the serenade does he ask whose house 
this is (G 1239 [not in E]). At this point Digenes' father proves a 
convenient source of information about the girl, her father, and 
his measures to dispose of her previous suitors (G 1242ff [not in 
E]). When Digenes asks his father to present his proposal of 
marriage to the General, his father replies that he has already 
done so and been rebuffed (G 1259f [not in E]). For the 
following scene, however, in which Digenes speaks to the girl 
at her window, his father, no longer wanted, simply disappears. 

Surely the clumsiness in the handling of Digenes' father and 
the rest of the retinue during the tete-a.-tete with the General's 
daughter points to the secondary character of this material (note 
that this first encounter with the General's daughter is 

13 Nic. Dam., FGrRist 90F10.19f; [Luc.] Charid. 19; Tztetz. ad Lycoph. 
Alex. 157=L Eur. Or. 990; only Hyginus (Fab. 253) states that the relationship 
was actually consummated. 



DYCK, ANDREW R., The Taming of Digenes: The Plan of "Digenes Akrites", Grottaferrata 
Version, Book VI , Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, 35:3 (1994:Autumn) p.293 

ANDREW R. DYCK 299 

altogether absent from E).14 The motive for the addition is 
transparent: the y-redactor wishes Digenes to make a formal 
offer of marriage in order to satisfy convention. By foreshor­
tening, the offer has already been tendered-and rejected-at 
the paternal level before Digenes ever makes his request. Our 
redactor carries foreshortening beyond his powers of artistic 
integration, however, in combining Digenes' return from 
hunting accompanied by a retinue with the lovers' first 
rendezvous. Here, as elsewhere, the y-redactor shows strain in 
his attempt to combine incidents, probably known to him from 
individual songs, into a large-scale plot.1s 

In addition to these problems with the plot, there are also 
some minor infelicities. The moralizing elements in G are the 
work either of the y- or the G-redactor; that they have the 
character of an afterthought clumsily "pasted on" has long been 
recognized. 16 The yvroJ.lat in the narrative provide a particularly 
blatant example. When Digenes proposes that they should shun 
the narrow roads before daylight, he reinforces the suggestion 
with an appropriate maxim about the dangers of being caught in 
such places,l? but by adding line 1425 (EL; O£ 'toue; KUf..t1tOUe; 
avuvopot 'tO/qlTlPOt EKTCOtouV'tUt; cf Z 1888) he would seem to 
place himself among the avavopol who become bold in open 
fields. It is likewise odd when in G 1469 the girl tells Digenes 
that it is reason (AoytCiJl0C;), rather than love (ayu1tll), twice 
subject in the previous line, that urges him to die for her 
(without counterpart in Z). So too the metaphor applied at the 
very moment of elopement (G 1538; not paralleled in Z) is 
inept: to equate Digenes with a hawk and the girl with a 
partridge is to ignore the feminine psychology so carefully 
developed in the preceding scene. None of these passages, it 
need hardly be said, has a counterpart in E.18 Finally, for some 
tastes the narrator goes on at excessive length about the power 

14 Note also that the insertion in E of an encounter with the anEAa'tat 
between hunt and romance is secondary, as MacAlister (supra n.11) has 
demonstrated; cf Trapp (supra n.3) 56. 

15 See the studies cited supra nnA, 5. 
16 Beck, "Formprobleme" (supra n.5) 96. 

17 G 1423f: w~ UV OI)ou~ E~OJ)ffi~EV 'tou~ (nEVffinou~. nptv <p£~n' pu~at yap 
Kat a'tEvw~a'ta anoK'tElvOUV avbpEio'Ut.;; cf, however, line 1361, which states 
that the girl stayed up all night waiting for Digenes but fell asleep at dawn. 

18 For the different principles on which G and E generally expand the 
"core" text cf Beaton, "An Epic in the Making?" (n.12 above) 63. 



DYCK, ANDREW R., The Taming of Digenes: The Plan of "Digenes Akrites", Grottaferrata 
Version, Book VI , Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, 35:3 (1994:Autumn) p.293 

300 THE TAMING OF DIGENES 

of passion (to extenuate the girl's willing participation in the 
elopement: G 955ff and 1476£f, the latter without counterpart in 
E). 

After the narrative of the battle, the dialogue of Digenes with 
his prospective father-in-law and the description of the 
wedding, the final episode of Book IV is his encounter with the 
Emperor (not in E). 

In order to motivate the Emperor's desire to meet with 
Digenes, the y-redactor has added some connective tissue that 
narrates, in summary form, the hero's decision to live on the 
border (G 1197) and his slaying of the (bn:Au'tal who had 
plotted to abduct his wife; in the aftermath his reputation is said 
to have been widespread (G 1916ff). (It is doubtful, however, 
whether the defeat of the a1tEAu'tat would have earned the 
hero so vast a reputation that the Emperor would want to meet 
and honor him [see below]). This is, in any case, ground that 
will be traversed later in the poem (resolve to move to the 
Euphrates at G 3137-38 [without counterpart in E or ZJ; the 
abduction plot in Book VI of G and corresponding parts of E 
and Z). In placing the meeting with the Emperor at this point in 
the poem, at some cost in narrative consistency, the y -redactor 
aimed, I suspect, to provide the final act in the process of 
Digenes' 'taming' and integration into Byzantine society. 

The encounter with the Emperor is perhaps the oddest 
incident in this odd poem. The reader's difficulties begin with 
several unexplained references in the correspondence leading 
up to the meeting. In both G and Z the Emperor dispatches a 
letter inviting the Borderer to his presence. G, but not Z, adds 
to it a clause assuring the recipient that he need not expect foul 
play (G 1937: ~i) im01t'tEurov AU1tllPov 1tap' iwwv imO(J'tTtval); 
but there is no indication why Digenes might be inclined to 
expect such. Again, despite its conventionally obsequious 
beginning, Digenes' answer to the Emperor concludes, in both 
G and Z, with a directive as to where they should meet and 
how many troops the Emperor may bring (viz., few: JlE't' 
OAlyrov, G 1945; cf Z 2324). The obvious interpretation is that 
Digenes is taking seriously the possibility of an ambush; yet he 
claims, oddly, that this reduction in the number of the 
Emperor's forces is to lessen the possibility of the Emperor's 
"inexperienced soldiers" saying something offensive and thus 
casusing Digenes to engage them. 

Moreover, this strange reversal of roles of Emperor and 
subject continues at the meeting: the Emperor's arrival is 



DYCK, ANDREW R., The Taming of Digenes: The Plan of "Digenes Akrites", Grottaferrata 
Version, Book VI , Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, 35:3 (1994:Autumn) p.293 

ANDREW R. DYCK 301 

announced to Digenes; instead of remaining seated on his 
throne, the Emperor approaches, embraces, and kisses the 
Borderer, as he might a brother monarch, rather than a subject. 
The Emperor allows Digenes to name his gift, but the Borderer 
refuses (G 1979, E 2344ff). Then, with remarkable self­
possession, the Borderer proceeds to read the Emperor a 
lecture on his imperial duties (G 1983ff).19 Following this 
Fiirstenspiegel, Digenes turns the tables by granting the 
Emperor double the tribute he formerly paid to Iconium (G 
1993-97).20 

Such, then, are the problems with Digenes' meeting with the 
Emperor-the unexplained references to the possibility of foul 
play or of the Emreror's troops committing some indiscretion 
and the reversal 0 roles of Emperor and subject. Here, more­
over, we cannot fill in the ellipses or explicate the oddities in 
G's narrative, as we can elsewhere, from E, which lacks this 
episode altogether. 

Trapp has demonstrated that the episode with the Emperor 
presents striking parallels with the Lives of Sts Theodore Tiro 
and Theodore Stratelates, who, in spite of the difference in rank, 
were in origin one. 21 The defective integration of this incident in 
the overall plot and a number of its other peculiarities can, I 
think, be explained on the basis of this provenance. The y-

19 On the relation of this passage to other Byzantine Furstenspiegel, cf G. 
Prinzig, "Beobachtungen zu 'integrierten' Fiirstenspiegeln der Byzantiner," 
IOBG 38 (1988) 23: "Digenes bringt nicht ... spezielle Anliegen vor, sondern 
beschrankt sich auf Standard-Formulierungen: daher wirkt der ganze Passus 
allzu harmonisiernd und blaB." 

20 We hear of Digenes' conquests in this sector only much later in the poem 
(G 3341£; cf E 4153ff); the reference need not postdate the twelfth century: cf 
P. Magdalino, "Digenes Akrites and Byzantine Literature: The Twelfth­
Century Background to the Grottaferrata Version," in Beaton and Ricks 
(supra n.1) 7. 

21 E. Trapp, "Hagiographische Elemente im Digenes-Epos," Ana/Boll 94 
(1976) 275-87; the Lives in question were printed in H. Delehaye, Les legendes 
grecques des saints militaires (Paris 1909) 151-82 (Appendices III-IV); on the 
single origin of both cf H.-G. Beck, Kirche und theologische Literatur im 
byzantinischen Reich (Munich 1959) 405; the plots are alike in essentials; I cite 
only III (by page and line in parentheses in the text) as the more vivid and 
circumstantial version. The discovery of these parallels renders the previous 
literature on this episode of Digenes Akrites largely obsolete; also, in light of 
Jeffreys (supra n.7), it is unlikely that anyone will revive the view that, on the 
whole, the manuscripts of the Z-tradition stand closer to the original in this 
sector than G. 



DYCK, ANDREW R., The Taming of Digenes: The Plan of "Digenes Akrites", Grottaferrata 
Version, Book VI , Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, 35:3 (1994:Autumn) p.293 

302 THE TAMING OF DIGENES 

redactor wanted Digenes to confront the Emperor and found 
in the Lives of the Theodores (referred to elsewhere in the 
poem 22 and involving the saint's meeting with the Emperor 
Licinius, in his phase of persecuting Christians), what he 
thought a suitable model; after all, Digenes shares several 
characteristics of Theodore, who is described as 'to YEVOe;, 
E1nq>avEcHawe;" 'ti1v llAlKlav V E cJYC awe;" Kat 'tate;, XEpO'tV ciTt't'tT]'toe;, 
(p.152, 21£). 

The Vitae model their depiction of Theodore and Licinius 
ultimately on Dionysus and Pentheus in Euripides' Bacchae. 
Theodore, the apparent subject, is, in fact, steering events 
toward his own goal, which, however, is not the dismember­
ment of his opponent but his own martyrdom (and ultimate 
victory). In the Vitae the incidents thus form a sequence with a 
clear inner logic leading to a climax. The saint's slaying of a 
dragon and other exploits reach the Emperor's ears, and he 
sends messengers asking Theodore to come to him at 
Nicomedia; the Emperor's intent is hostile from the outset 
(JlEya 'tou'tcp AOl1tOV Eo6Kfl eTtpaJla 'to 'tov avopa £AEtV: p.156, 
29f). Theodore replies by letter that public business requires his 
continued presence in Heraclea but invites the Emperor to 
meet him here instead so that he can offer Licinius a public 
display of his piety by sacrificing to the gods (p.157, 27ff). This 
latter is, of course, a piece of deception; we have already been 
told his real motive: he wishes to be martyred in his native place 
(p .157, 1 Off); and the sequel likewise requires an environment 
friendly to Theodore. Licinius is characterized as lacking in self­
control; he is pictured as so thrilled at the prospect raised by 
Theodore's letter that he hastens to Heraclea as if to a lovers' 
tryst (p.158, 8: read (we;,) E1tt 'tov EPWJlEVOV 'tPEXWV EUe\> 'tile;, 
'HpaKAE~a<; TlAauvE); hence his willing abandonment of imperial 
prerogatIVe. 

Upon his arrival, Licinius and Theodore greet each other 
warml y; Licini us asks Theodore to sacrifice to the pagan 
divinities; Theodore asks for two days' grace in which to engage 
in a private devotional exercise; for this purpose Licinius 

22 Trapp (supra n.21 278) has collected the references-four in G, of which 
only one has a correspondence in E, in addition to an allusion in the prologue 
added later to G. One wonders whether the addition of this episode in G was 
suggested by that single allusion in the" core" ; the reference at E 883 (flU 'tOY 
armv flO'\) SEoOropov, 'tOY flEya U1tEAa'tl1V) already assimilates Theodore to the 
Borderer's milieu. 



DYCK, ANDREW R., The Taming of Digenes: The Plan of "Digenes Akrites", Grottaferrata 
Version, Book VI , Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, 35:3 (1994:Autumn) p.293 

ANDREW R. DYCK 303 

entrusts the saint with splendid divine statues in gold and silver. 
When Licinius summons him two days later and asks Theodore 
to join him in pouring libations, the saint replies ambiguously, 
and a centurion named Maxentius steps forward to accuse 
Theodore of having reduced the head of Artemis' statue to 
numerous tiny fragments, a charge that Theodore confirms. 
The saint is then subjected to the most grisly tortures and 
crucified. By night an angel removes the body from the cross. 
Hence on the following day, when Licinius asks for the corpse 
to be brought to him so that he can mutilate it and cast it into 
the sea, it cannot be recovered. Theodore appears to and 
converts those who go in search of the corpse. When rioting 
between pagans and Christians ensues at Heraclea, Theodore 
intervenes, admonishing the Christians to offer no resistance. 

The y-redactor's idea of adapting Digenes' encounter with the 
Emperor from Theodore's meeting with Licinius was 
problematical. Confronted with this overall scheme (arrange­
ment of the meeting, encounter with the emperor, martyrdom, 
display of the martyr's posthumous powers), the y-redactor had 
to part with the central element of the martyrdom; hence his 
plot comprises only the arrangement of the meeting, the 
encounter with the Emperor, and a display of the subject's (no 
longer posthumous) prowess. Though he could include such an 
accidental feature as the subject's insistence that the Emperor 
come to him, he could not use the motivation in his model for 
the subject to make such a request (Theodore's wish for 
martyrdom in his native city) or for the Emperor to give way 
(his desire to entrap Theodore and loss of self-control when a 
method for doing so appears). 

Instead the y-redactor had to supply a different motive for the 
subject's dictation of terms; hence in his letter Digenes alludes 
to the Emperor's "inexperienced soldiers" in explaining why he 
wishes the Emperor to appear escorted by only a few troops (G 
1945ff; already in y in view of Z 2326£f); in fact, Digenes here 
sketches an entire scenario in which he reacts to provocative 
words of these (hypothetical) tirones by killing them. Now, an 
incident that precisely follows this pattern does occur in G, 
namely Digenes' encounter with soldiers at Trosis (G 2448ff): 
Digenes responds to their taunts (G 2464f) by taking up his club 
and killing all forty-five of them (G 2462, 2477ff). Note, how­
ever, that in E and Z this encounter is not with soldiers but with 
the U1tEA.a:tcH (E 1142, Z 2889); doubtless this was also the case 
in G's source (y), for otherwise it is very difficult to explain the 



DYCK, ANDREW R., The Taming of Digenes: The Plan of "Digenes Akrites", Grottaferrata 
Version, Book VI , Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, 35:3 (1994:Autumn) p.293 

304 THE TAMING OF DIGENES 

allusion to the three Cx.nEA(x-rat at G 2453ff CYnllPXOV D£, WC:; 
U(f'tEPOV nap' al)'trov 'tOt)'tQ EYVrov, 'IrovvaKTlC:; 8aullacr'toc:; Kat 
V£OC:; Cx.nEAa'tTlC:;, <I>tAOnannouc:; 0 y£prov 'tE Kat 0 Kivvalloc:; 
'tphoc:;). In this sector, then, G's text confuses or conflates two 
incidents, one corresponding to the battle with the Cx.nEAa'tat as 
in E and Z, the other the encounter with imperial soldiers 
mooted as a possibility at G 1947ff. Moreover, as a hypothetical 
possibility motivating Digenes' dictation of terms for meeting 
the Emperor, the encounter with arrogant tirones is nonsen­
sical. What would make sense would be for Digenes to have 
killed a number of imperial troops prior to the scene with the 
Emperor. Such an incident would explain both the Emperor's 
desire to meet the Borderer and the latter's wariness. I suspect 
that the y-redactor, squeamish about so direct a confrontation 
with imperial power, transposed the incident into a conditional 
clause. 

In the Lives of the Theodores, as we have seen, the actual 
meetings of Emperor and subject, aside from social pleasantries, 
revolve around the religious issue; they provided, in other 
words, no usable model for the y -redactor. The original version 
of the encounter with the Emperor, as I have reconstructed it, 
is nevertheless markedly similar to Digenes' encounter with his 
prospective father-in-law, each preceded by a trial by arms 
between Digenes and the other's soldiers. In either case the 
dialogue of Digenes with the principal is polite, with any 
criticism reserved for the other's soldiers;23 and in both 
encounters Digenes refuses gifts 24 and instead confers them (in 
line with Aristotle's description of the behavior of the 
IlqaAo",uxoc:; at Eth.Nic. 1124b9ff). Of the two scenes, the 
meeting with the General is older (found in E, G, and Z and 
therefore part of the archetype), that with the Emperor 
modeled (loosely) on it. 

The episode concludes with a display of Digenes' powers, just 
as the Vitae concluded with a demonstration of the power of 

2J Deflecting criticism to a third party is of course a common means of 
defusing tension; cf R. W. Fogg, "Dealing with Conflict: A Repertoire of 
Creative, Peaceful Approaches," Journal of Conflict Resolution 29 (1985) 337; 
at G 1628 Digenes criticizes his soldiers in dialogue with his prospective father­
in-law, as he does the (potential) reckless behavior of the Emperor's raw 
recruits. 

24 For refusal of the dowry offered by his prospective father-in-law, cf G 
1694-98; E 2098-2102. 



DYCK, ANDREW R., The Taming of Digenes: The Plan of "Digenes Akrites", Grottaferrata 
Version, Book VI , Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, 35:3 (1994:Autumn) p.293 

ANDREW R. DYCK 305 

the resurrected Theodore. Again the y -redactor borrowed 
from elsewhere, this time the catching of a wild horse and 
killing of a wild animal from Theophanes Continuatus 230f (Vita 
Basili)25 but with some interesting differences. In the Vita Basili 
the horse escapes when the emperor leaps off and leaves it 
unattended in the heat of the hunt, whereas the release of the 
horse in the poem has no other motive than to allow Digenes to 
display his prowess. The capture is effected by Digenes on the 
run, whereas Basil rode up to the runaway horse on his own 
mount and leaped from one to the other (but only after he had 
received permission to ride the imperial horse). The killing of 
the wild animal is handled less realistically and more heroically 
in the poem. For the animal is now a lion, rather than the wolf 
of the Vita Basili; and Digenes kills it with his bare hands, not 
with the imperial mace. In Theophanes Continuatus the two 
incidents lead directly to the foreshadowing comment of 
Caesar Bardas that Basil would be the destruction of the 
imperial family. But without a religious conflict at its center, as 
in the Lives of the Theodores, or a rise to the throne in 
prospect, as in the Vita Basili, the scene in Digenes Akrites, 
lacking dramatic unity, fails to build to a climax; the hero's 
display of prowess in apprehending the horse and slaying the 
lion seems like an afterthought, for the essential transactions 
between ruler and subject were already complete, including the 
return of the estates of Digenes' grandfather and the grant of 
patrician status, the right to rule the borders and to wear 
imperial raiment (G 1999f). 

So far our concern has been exclusively with the Greek 
versions of Digenes Akrites. It is worth remembering that the 
hero's encounter with the Emperor occurs in one of the 
Russian versions as well (R 1).26 In fact, as Trapp has already 
noted (supra n.2l: 284), R I contains some surprising similari ties 
to the hagiographical source. Most striking is the anger of the 
Emperor when he hears of Devgenij's exploits and his resolve 
to capture him, so that his letter to Devgenij is, in fact, 
deceptive. Furthermore, in spite of Devgenij's precaution in 
warning the Emperor not to bring many troops, the meeting 

25 The incident was compared already by H. Gregoire, Autour de I' epopee 
byzantine (London 1975) II 491H and XII 163f; see also Genesius 127. 

26 Printed in B. D. Kuz'mina, De7Jgenie7Jo dejanie (Moscow 1962) 154ff; 
English tf. in D. B. Hull, Digenis Akritas: The Two-Blood Border Lord 
(Athens [Ohio] 1972) 131-34. 



DYCK, ANDREW R., The Taming of Digenes: The Plan of "Digenes Akrites", Grottaferrata 
Version, Book VI , Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, 35:3 (1994:Autumn) p.293 

306 THE TAMING OF DIGENES 

proves to be an ambush. Another similarity is that the setting 
for the action is not the frontier, but a city (the Russian version 
simply calls it "the city of the Emperor"), just as in the Lives of 
the Theodores the setting is Heraclea. As Heraclea is rent by 
civil disturbance, so Devgenij forcibly subdues "the city of the 
Emperor." At least in regard to the setting and the Emperor's 
motives it seems clear that the Russian version is closer to the 
hagiographical source than G. This situation is at odds with the 
conventional characterization of the Russian versions as be­
longing to the same branch of the tradition as G and represent­
ing an elaboration of that tradition that eschewed specific names 
of leo pie and places and added fantastic and folktale elements 
an was thus less helpful than G in reconstructing ~, the posited 
common souce of y and p (the [hyp]archetype of the Russian 
versions).27 Our episode gives further indication that, as 
Elizabeth Jeffreys recently remarked, "the place of the Russian 
versions in the line of descent still requires elucidation. "28 

The meeting with the Emperor may well pose problems for 
the modern reader, insofar as the y-redactor was at pains to 
eliminate the tension between subject and Emperor found in 
his model (though he left behind such traces as the Emperor's 
assurance that Digenes need fear no harm or the Borderer's 
limitation on the number of the Emperor's troops). The 
medieval reader, however, may well have viewed the matter 
differently. Although the scene with the Emperor can no 
longer be viewed as the 'to."o~ of the poem as a whole,29 it is the 
'tEAo~ of Book IV as the y-redactor conceived it; indeed, he 
thought in terms of smaller, usually book-length units, rather 
than of the entire poem as an organic unity. The Lay of 
Digenes, comprising Books IV-VIII of the Grottaferrata 
version, is definitely its hero's poem. He is always at the center; 

27 E. Trapp, "Hatte das Digenisepos urspriinglich eine antikaiserliche 
Tendenz?" Byzantina 3 (1971) 203-11. 

28 Jeffreys (supra n.1) 33 n.9. In fact, the evidence linking G, or rather its 
source y, with the Russian versions was never very strong, the existence of a 
common source, I;, having been posited on the basis of a single element shared 
by G and the Russian versions against Z, viz., the Emperor's name (Basil at G 
1924 and p.154 Kuz'mina; Romanus at Z 2302). But this is, of course, not a 
conventional conjunctive error; the same name could have been introduced 
independently in several versions for different reasons (cf Gregoire [supra 
n.25] VI 425, although his general preference for the Russian version [XVIII] 
cannot be upheld in light of Trapp [supra n.27]). 

29 Cf Beck (supra n.5), "Formprobleme," 145, and Volksliteratur 94f. 



DYCK, ANDREW R., The Taming of Digenes: The Plan of "Digenes Akrites", Grottaferrata 
Version, Book VI , Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, 35:3 (1994:Autumn) p.293 

ANDREW R. DYCK 307 

all other characters, however fascinating or powerful, be they 
the General's daughter, the woman abandoned at the oasis, the 
u1t£A.a'tul, or the Amazon Maximo, merely exist as a foil before 
which Digenes can fulfill his potential for heroism. The same 
applies to the Emperor himself, who is marginalized in the 
presence of the hero. Indeed, the only standard that the poem 
knows is heroism; and the Emperor fails this test dismally in G 
when he thinks to flee the lion (G 2020). Only Digenes stands 
up to the beast. One can well imagine the satisfaction that 
Byzantine readers took in this scene-in seeing the Emperor 
humanized in the presence of the hero. 30 

At the same time, however, the encounter with the Emperor 
has another function, that of relativizing the hero and fixing him 
in his place in the hierarchy, at the head of which stands the 
Emperor. Underlying this episode is the problem of reconciling 
to their place in the hierarchy the local grandees, especially the 
military aristocracy of the Eastern provinces, who, in the 
Middle Byzantine period, concentrated great wealth and power 
in their hands and who could, and occasionally did, challenge 
the central authority.31 Our episode broaches the issue but 
defuses it by confining Digenes' threat to a purely hypothetical 
epistolographic exercise. In the presence of the Emperor 
himself Digenes, though allowed to exhibit his remarkable 
power, does so purely as a display-exercise (the catching of the 
runaway horse) or for the common defense (the slaying of the 
lion). The displacement of the meeting with the Emperor to this 
point in the narrative establishes early on that this potentially 
subversive warrior has been safely coopted into the imperial sys-

30 On the scene with the Emperor as an example of the point of view of the 
ordinary Byzantine, cf H.-G. Beck, Das byzantinische Jahrtausend (Munich 
1978) 85. 

31 Cf, e.g., J.-c. Cheynat, Pou'(Joir et contestations a Byzance (963-1210) 
(Paris 1990) 207ff, esp. 213ff ("Les families des pretendants a l'Empire"). 



DYCK, ANDREW R., The Taming of Digenes: The Plan of "Digenes Akrites", Grottaferrata 
Version, Book VI , Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, 35:3 (1994:Autumn) p.293 

308 THE TAMING OF DIGENES 

tern; so placed, the incident can serve to round out the hero's 
difficult process of acculturation to Byzantine society.32 

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT Los ANGELES 

March,1995 

32 The emphasis on the figure of Digenes as actually or potentially 
subversive of imperial authority was adumbrated by Gregoire (supra n.25, esp. 
II and XVIII), who posited that the earliest versions of the poem were likely 
to have been more anti-imperial in tendency than the extant ones (apart from 
the Russian). But where the surviving versions differ as greatly as do the 
Russian version and G in the handling of the transactions between Digenes 
and the Emperor, the reconstruction of an Ur-version becomes problematic. 
What can be said is that a certain tension was latent in the subject-matter, 
and the different redactors played up or played down this aspect as they saw 
fit (and according to their distance from or proximity to the capital?). 

I would like to thank Professors Roderick Beaton, Robert Browning, and 
Erich Trapp for reading a draft of this paper and giving me the benefit of their 
comments (though they should not be held responsible for the views 
expressed).