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Ethopoeia

An ethopoeia of the imperial secretary, lord John Kinnamos: What words might a painter say, painting Apollo on a laurel

panel, when the panel would not allow it?

O art and hands and colors. What a marvel I see; how greatly the panel has waged war against the painting. The panel is from laurel, the laurel from a maiden. And in her, even after her human form, the hatred is seated; and though she changed her nature, she did not also change her disposition. Against a god she rages with immortal madness, and a prophetic plant does not accept a prophetic god. As on a bridal-chamber I set Apollo on the panel, and I become a bridal attendant for a god through colors and for a maiden through a plant, and I give the colors to the maiden as a wedding gift, and from the laurel I weave the nuptial crown. I kindle for this bridal chamber a light, too, having received it from nearby; and the light is as from a prophetic god, which the Pythian kindled for many who inquired. But she pushes away her lover. And she does not hear the paint and is not moved by the colors. Daphne is the daughter of the river Ladon, offspring of the waters, a child from Earth thus gleaming, she who gleams in beauty, and from a sweet stream draws down her sweet bloom. Perhaps from there, from her father, she learned not to accept the colors? From there does she learn her unresponsiveness towards the one who paints her? Does she draw her lessons from the nearby river? I hear of the moon, when she has her conjunction with the star-ruling, light-bearing giant, emptying herself of light and, as it were, dying. And I have Daphne as beautiful as the moon, because Daphne in her lineage is close to the earth, as is the moon in another, newer way. Am I not then contriving a conjunction with the sun, with Apollo? But she rather fails at the meeting, and is altogether diminished, and does not venture the painting. Should I say this marvel is from the mind of Daphne, or from the Pythian's aversion concerning the maiden? He who is being painted is not taking form; she does not accept the paints. So then, she refers her colorlessness to her fear of the one from the earth, and alone of all she boasts against love. I once painted Theias on wood from a myrrh tree, and it accepted the father, just as long ago it accepted Adonis in its womb. And I saw the art of painting imitating the things of nature, and as there the infant little by little, so here the image being formed was gradually set upright and shaped. O Zeus and gods, but Daphne has kept her madness even to the point of colors and has chambered her anger even to an inanimate state. And yet upon both Theias and Apollo not dissimilar intoxications were laid; the one was drunk with love, the other with wine, the helper of the body. But Daphne does not consent to the mixing of the colors, because she did not previously consent to the union with Apollo. She was ignorant that even in heaven Eros arched his wing, and suddenly fashioned wings for the highest of the gods, and taught swans to make music, and with the drug of love, having dyed his heart within, he whitened him on the outside like a swan. Eros kindled the fire, and like gold Zeus was set on fire, and as a hot lover poured himself around his beloved. He showed to Zeus also a symbol of beauty in a maiden; and Zeus lowed like a bull, so that not only might honey be crafted from a bull, but conversely, a bull from Zeus and from honey. And the child brandished the ox-goad at his father, and made sport of the bull, of Zeus, his own creation. And from Zeus the plowman so sweet a summer harvest bloomed. She did not know how he stirred up fire over the sea, and roused sweet love over the waters of a salty nature, and sowing upon the wet element was not ashamed of the impossibility. He went so far as to send his arrow over the earth, and all are captives of love, prisoners of affection. And moist embraces

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Ethopoeia

Τοῦ βασιλικοῦ γραμματικοῦ κυροῦ Ἰωάννου τοῦ Κιννάμου ἠθοποιία· Ποίους ἂν εἶπε λόγους ζωγράφος ζωγραφῶν τὸν Ἀπόλλωνα ἐν δαφνίνῳ

πίνακι, καὶ μὴ συγχωροῦντος τοῦ πίνακος;

Ὦ τέχνη καὶ χεῖρες καὶ χρώματα. Οἷον τοῦτο τέρας ὁρῶ· ἡλίκον κατὰ τῆς γραφῆς ὁ πίναξ ἐκπεπολέμωται. Ἀπὸ δάφνης ὁ πίναξ, ἀπὸ κόρης ἡ δάφνη. Τῇ δὲ καὶ μετὰ τὴν ἄνθρωπον τὸ μῖσος ἐγκάθηται· καὶ τὴν φύσιν μεταβαλοῦσα τὸν τρόπον οὐ ξυμμετέβαλε. Κατὰ θεοῦ ἀθάνατα μέμηνε, καὶ μαντικὸν φυτὸν οὐ δέχεται θεὸν μαντικόν. Ὡς ἐπὶ παστάδος τοῦ πίνακος καθίζω Ἀπόλλωνα, καὶ γίνομαι νυμφοστόλος θεοῦ ἀπὸ χρωμάτων καὶ κόρης ἀπὸ φυτοῦ, καὶ ὡς ἕδνα τῇ κόρῃ τὰ χρώματα δίδωμι, καὶ ἀπὸ δάφνης πλέκω τὸν ἐπινύμφιον στέφανον. Ἀνάπτω τῷ νυμφῶνι τούτῳ καὶ φῶς ἐγγύθεν μεταλαβών· καὶ ὡς ἀπὸ θεοῦ μαντικοῦ τὸ φῶς, ὃ πολλοῖς πυθομένοις ἀνῆψεν ὁ Πύθιος. Ἡ δὲ ἀλλ' ἀπωθεῖται τὸν ἐραστήν. Καὶ τῆς βαφῆς οὐκ ἀΐει καὶ τῶν χρωμάτων οὐκ ἐπιστρέφεται. Λάδωνος ἡ ∆άφνη θυγάτηρ τοῦ ποταμοῦ, ὑδάτων ἀπόγονος, παῖς ἀπὸ Γῆς οὕτω στιλβούσης τὸ κάλλος στίλβουσα, καὶ ἀπὸ γλυκέος ῥεύματος γλυκεῖαν καὶ τὴν ὥραν καθέλκουσα. Ἤ που ἐκεῖθεν ἀπὸ πατρὸς ἔγνω τὸ μὴ τὰ χρώματα δέχεσθαι; Ἐκεῖθεν μανθάνει τὸ πρὸς τὸν γράφοντα ἀνεπίστροφον; Ἐγγύθεν ἐκ ποταμοῦ τὰ τῆς διδασκαλίας ἀρύεται; Ἀκούω τὴν σελήνην, ὅτε τὴν σύνοδον ἔχει μετὰ τοῦ ἀστεράρχου φωσφόρου τοῦ γίγαντος, ἀποκενουμένην τὰ φῶτα καὶ οἷον θνήσκουσαν. Ἔχω καὶ τὴν ∆άφνην καλὴν ὡς σελήνην, ὅτι καὶ τῇ γῇ πλησιάζει τὸ γένος ἡ ∆άφνη, ὡς καὶ ἡ σελήνη τρόπον καινότερον ἕτερον. Οὐκοῦν τὴν σύνοδον ἡλίου σοφίζομαι τοῦ Ἀπόλλωνος; Ὁ δὲ μᾶλλον περὶ τὴν συνέλευσιν ἐκλείπει, καὶ ὅλως ἀπομειοῦται, καὶ τὴν γραφὴν οὐ θαρρεῖ. Τοῦ τῆς ∆άφνης νοήματος εἴπω τοῦτο τὸ τέρας, ἢ τοῦ Πυθίου περὶ τὴν κόρην ἀποστροφῆς; Ὁ μὲν γραφόμενος οὐ μορφάζεται· ἡ δὲ οὐ δέχεται τὰς βαφάς. Ὡς ἄρα εἰς τὸν ἐκ τῆς γῆς φόβον ἀναφέρει τὸ ἀχρωμάτιστον, καὶ κατὰ τοῦ ἔρωτος μόνη τῶν ἁπάντων ἀλαζονεύεται. Ἔγραψά ποτε καὶ ἐν ξύλῳ ἀπὸ μύρρας τὸν Θείαντα, ἡ δὲ τὸν πατέρα ἐδέχετο, ὡς κατὰ γαστρὸς πάλαι τὸν Ἄδωνιν. Καὶ τὴν γραφικὴν μιμουμένην τὰ τῆς φύσεως ἔβλεπον, καὶ ὡς ἐκεῖ τὸ βρέφος κατὰ μικρόν, κἀνταῦθα τὸ μορφαζόμενον κατ' ὀλίγον ὠρθοῦτο καὶ ἀνεπλάττετο. Ὦ Ζεῦ καὶ θεοί, ἡ δὲ ∆άφνη μέχρι καὶ χρωμάτων τὴν μανίαν ἐτήρησε καὶ μέχρι ἀψύχου τὴν ὀργὴν ἐθαλάμευσε. Καίτοι καὶ Θείαντι καὶ Ἀπόλλωνι οὐκ ἀνόμοιοι μέθαι ἐπέθεντο· ὁ μὲν ἐμέθυεν ἔρωτι, ὁ δὲ οἴνῳ, τῷ ἐπικούρῳ τοῦ σώματος. ∆άφνη δὲ περὶ τὴν μίξιν τῶν χρωμάτων οὐκ ἐπινεύει, ὅτι μηδὲ πρῴην τὴν μετ' Ἀπόλλωνος. Ἠγνόει, ὡς καὶ ἐν οὐρανῷ Ἔρως τὸ πτερὸν ἐπεκύρτωσε, καὶ πτερὸν αἴφνης τὸν θεῶν ὕπατον ἐσχεδίαζε, καὶ τὰ κύκνων μουσουργεῖν ἐξεπαίδευσε, καὶ τῷ τοῦ ἔρωτος φαρμάκῳ τὴν καρδίαν ἔνδον βαφέντα ἔξωθεν ὡς κύκνον ἐλεύκανεν. Ἀνῆψε τὸ πῦρ Ἔρως, καὶ ὡς χρυσὸς ὁ Ζεὺς ἐπυροῦτο, καὶ θερμὸς ἐραστὴς τὴν ἐρωμένην περιεκέχυτο. Ἐδείκνυ τῷ ∆ιὶ καὶ σύμβολον κάλλους εἰς κόρην· καὶ ὁ Ζεὺς ὡς βοῦς ἐμυκήσατο, ἵνα μὴ μόνον ἀπὸ βοὸς μέλι τεχνάζοιτο, ἀλλ' ἀντιστρόφως, ἀπὸ ∆ιὸς καὶ ἀπὸ μέλιτος βοῦς. Καὶ τὸν βουπλῆγα τῷ πατρὶ τὸ παιδίον ἐπέσειεν, καὶ εἰς τὸ οἰκεῖον πλάσμα τὸν βοῦν, τὸν ∆ία, διέπαιξε. Καὶ ἀπὸ ∆ιὸς ἀροτῆρος θέρος ὥρας οὕτω γλυκὺ ἀνεφύετο. Οὐκ ᾔδει, ὡς κατὰ θαλάττης τὸ πῦρ ἀνεσάλευσε, καὶ γλυκὺν ἔρωτα καθ' ὑδάτων ἁλμυρᾶς φύσεως ἀνετάραξε, καὶ καθ' ὑγρῶν σπείρων οὐκ ἐπῃσχύνετο τὸ ἀδύνατον. Ἔφθασε καὶ κατὰ γῆς ἐκπέμψας τὸ βέλος, καὶ πάντες αἰχμάλωτοι ἔρωτος, φιλότητος δέσμιοι. Καὶ περιπλοκὰς ὑγρὰς