Paschalis M. Kitromilides, Religion and Politics in the Orthodox World: The Ecumenical Patriarchate and the Challenges of Modernity, Abingdon/New York: Routledge, 2019. Pp. xiv, 130 + 10 b/w illustrations.

Abstract

καὶ ζωή μου could very easily be remedied by inverting the order of ll. 558 and 557. This surely is a typesetting error that slipped into the tradition early and was not corrected in subsequent reprints; compare the same passage in the unrhymed version of Imperios: Ἐσέναν ἔχω ἀπὸ τοῦ νῦν πατέραν καὶ μητέραν || καὶ ἀδελφοὺς καὶ ἀδελφὰς καὶ φῶς μου καὶ ζωή μου (ll. 502-03). Very occasionally Y. seems to misinterpret the text. In his Commentary (at l. 189) he explains the second line of the following: τὰ τῆς γραφῆς φιλόσοφοι καὶ γνῆσοι συγγενεῖς μου, || οὐκ ἔχετε τὸ μάθημα, ἀλλά ̓ναι φυσικό σας, || εὐχαριστῶ σας ἅπαντας, ... as: ‘You do not know [what happened between me and the king], but this is natural [you being outside the immediate family]’. But this is simply a clumsy rendering of what is perfectly clear in the unrhymed version (ll. 171 στὰ τῆς Γραφῆς φιλόσοφοι, ἄριστοι ἐν τοῖς βίβλοις, || καὶ οὐκ ἔχετέ το μάθημα, ἀλλά ̓ναι φυσικόν σας || εὐχαριστῶ σας ἅπαντας, ...). ‘You, philosophers in scripture, experts in learning – [and] it is not something you have acquired, but it comes naturally to you –, I thank all of you’. At l. 427 (εἶχεν τοῦ παγωνιοῦ πτερόν ...||) βαμμένον κιτρινόχρυσον· τοῦτό ̓χε τὸ σημάδι (|| Ἱμπέριος ει̕ς τ ̓ ἄρματα ...) Y. proposes as an alternative reading τοῦ τό ̓χε τὸ σημάδι, without explaining what that might mean. A better reading would be τοῦτό ̓χε το σημάδι (‘this he had as a distinguishing mark’). But these are minor quibbles, which do not in any way diminish the value of this new edition.