Storyworld in Nicephorus Basilakes' <i>Progymnasmata</i>

Abstract

In this contribution I try to show that the ethopoeias of the Byzantine rhetor Nicephorus Basilakes (12th c.) feature a novel narrativity, based upon mimesis of an artificial and antinatural storyworld that is counterfactual and fabulous, though not in the way of traditional mythic or rhetorical literature. He thus propounds an intermediate discursive genre that, despite all appearances, is not properly that of progymnasmata. This new narrativity is visible through a number of differential elements of the narrated world, which include a peculiar position of the woman; a novel perspective on Eros, sexuality, and more in general on love; a pagan religiosity different from any historical religiosity; a spatiality and temporality non-homogeneous to that of the author and the reader.