I am Anna Comnena

1. - Read the following summary of the evolution of the Greek language and assign the writings below to each stage: The Iliad, the poems of Corinna of Tanagra, the hymns with musical notations of Cassia, the Antigone of Sophocles, the speeches of Lysias, the Alexiad of Anna Comnena, the poems of Constantine P. Cavafy, the tablets of Cnossos, the poems of Kiki Dimoula, the Parallel Lives of Plutarch, the poems of Telesilla of Argos, the Dialogues of the Gods of Lucian of Samosata.

 The earliest evidence of the Greek language can be found in the Mycenaean tablets, dated around the 14th century BC, written in the syllabary known as Linear B. Literature begins with the poems attributed to Homer, composed in the 8th century BC, at the same time that the Phoenician alphabet was adopted in Greece. 

The ancient Greeks did not all speak exactly the same language; each region had its own dialect. The Greek dialects comprise four main groups: Ionian-Attic, Aeolian, Arcadian-Cypriot and Dorian.

Classical Greek was the Attic of the 5th and 4th centuries BC, the language of Athenian prose and theatre.

Greek 'common' or koine was the Attic dialect with especially Ionian modifications that spread throughout the Empire of Alexander the Great and in Roman times was the language of culture.

Medieval (Byzantine) Greek was the literary language of the Byzantine Empire which was used until its fall in the 15th century AD.

Modern Greek is derived from Ancient Greek through Medieval or Byzantine Greek and is the official language of Greece and Cyprus, as well as being one of the official languages of the European Union.

Below is an excerpt from the historical work (12th century) Alexiad by Anna Comnena, the Byzantine princess of great culture, who fought all her life to become empress, a right she was entitled to as the first-born.

Ταῦτα δὲ διεγνωκυῖα ἐγὼ Ἄννα, θυγάτηρ μὲν τῶν βασιλέων Ἀλεξίου καὶ Εἰρήνης, πορφύρας τιθήνημά τε καὶ γέννημα, οὐ γραμμάτων οὐκ ἄμοιρος, ἀλλὰ καὶ τὸ Ἑλληνίζειν ἐς ἄκρον ἐσπουδακυῖα καὶ ῥητορικῆς οὐκ ἀμελετήτως ἔχουσα καὶ τὰς Ἀριστοτελικὰς τέχνας εὖ ἀναλεξαμένη καὶ τοὺς Πλάτωνος διαλόγους καὶ τὸν νοῦν ἀπὸ τῆς τετρακτύος τῶν μαθημάτων πυκάσασα […] βούλομαι διὰ τῆσδέ μου τῆς γραφῆς τὰς πράξεις ἀφηγήσασθαι τοὐμοῦ πατρὸς οὐκ ἀξίας σιγῇ παραδοθῆναι οὐδὲ τῷ ῥεύματι τοῦ χρόνου παρασυρῆναι.

Comnena,  Anna. “Alexias”,  Wayback Machine (retrieved on 19/11/2022), <https://web.archive.org/web/20100803130117/http://faculty.txwes.edu/csmeller/Human-Experience/ExpData09/03Biee/BieeWRTs/1ByzWRTs/Komnene1083/Alexiad1148/Alexias.pdf>

Now, I recognized this fact. I, Anna, the daughter of two royal personages, Alexius and Irene, born and bred in the purple. I was not ignorant of letters, for I carried my study of Greek to the highest pitch, and was also not unpractised in rhetoric; I perused the works of Aristotle and the dialogues of Plato carefully, and enriched my mind by the "quaternion" of learning. […] I intend in this writing of mine to recount the deeds done by my father so they should certainly not be lost in silence, or swept away, as it were, on the current of time.

Comnena, Anna (1928). “The Alexiad” (Elizabeth A. S. Dawes, Trans.), Medieval Sourcebook. Fordham, (retrieved on 20/07/2023), <https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/basis/AnnaComnena-Alexiad00.asp>

a.- Read the translation of fragment of the Alexiad.

b.- Copy the Greek text in bold in your notebook, change it to capital letters and try to read it aloud, using an alphabet.

González, Isa (2015). “Alfabeto griego”,  Clásicos Griegos y Latinos, (retrieved on 20/07/2023), <https://clasicosgriegosylatinos.files.wordpress.com/2015/01/alfabeto-griego.jpg>

c.- Look for information and write a short review of this work.

3.- Read the translation of the poem that Cavafis dedicated to Anna Comnena, make a brief comment on the poet's opinion about the power aspirations of this historian princess and add your opinion about it, which you will then discuss in a large group.

In the prologue to her Alexiad,

Anna Comnena laments her widowhood.

Her soul is dizzy. "And with rivers

of tears," she tells us "I wet

my eyes… Alas for the waves" in her life,

"alas for the revolts." Pain burns her

"to the the bones and the marrow and the cleaving of the soul."

But it seems the truth is, that this ambitious woman

knew only one great sorrow;

she only had one deep longing

(though she does not admit it) this haughty Greek woman,

that she was never able, despite all her dexterity,

to acquire the Kingship; but it was taken

almost out of her hands by the insolent John.        

Cavafy, Constantine. "Anna Comnena"  (George Barbanis, Trans.), All Poetry (retrieved on 20/07/2023), <https://allpoetry.com/Anna-Comnena>