section_path: Arts/Literature
section_name: Literature
paragraph_text: Literature
  
  Byzantine literature concerns all Greek literature from the Middle Ages. Although the Empire was linguistically diverse, the vast majority of extant texts are in medieval Greek, albeit in two diglossic variants: a scholarly form based on Attic Greek, and a vernacular based on Koine Greek. Most contemporary scholars consider all medieval Greek texts to be literature, but some offer varying constraints. The literature's early period (c. 330–650) was dominated by the competing cultures of Hellenism, Christianity and Paganism. The Greek Church Fathers —educated in an Ancient Greek rhetoric tradition—sought to synthesize these influences. Important early writers include John Chrysostom, Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite and Procopius, all of whom aimed to reinvent older forms to fit the empire. Theological miracle stories were particularly innovative and popular; the Sayings of the Desert Fathers (Apophthegmata Patrum) were copied in practically every Byzantine monastery. During the Byzantine Dark Ages (c. 650–800), production of literature mostly stopped, although some important theologians were active, such as Maximus the Confessor, Germanus I of Constantinople and John of Damascus.
  
  The subsequent Encyclopedism period (c. 800–1000) saw a renewed proliferation of literature and revived the earlier Hellenic-Christian synthesis. Works by Homer, Ancient Greek philosophers and tragedians were translated, while hagiography was heavily reorganized. After this early flowering of monastic literature, there was a dearth until Symeon the New Theologian in the late 10th-century. A new generation (c. 1000–1250), including Symeon, Michael Psellos and Theodore Prodromos, rejected the Encyclopedist emphasis on order, and were interested in individual-focused ideals variously concerning mysticism, authorial voice, heroism, humor and love. This included the Hellenistic-inspired Byzantine romance and Chivalric approaches in rhetoric, historiography and the influential epic Digenes Akritas. The empire's final centuries saw a renewal of hagiography and increased Western influence, leading to mass Greek to Latin translations. Authors such as Gemistos Plethon and Bessarion exemplified a new focus on human vices alongside the preservation of classical traditions, which greatly influenced the Italian Renaissance.