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PHILES, MANUEL (c. 1275–1345)

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Originally appearing in Volume V21, Page 375 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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PHILES, See also:MANUEL (c. 1275–1345) , of See also:Ephesus, See also:Byzantine poet. At an See also:early See also:age he removed to See also:Constantinople, where he was the See also:pupil of Georgius See also:Pachymeres, in whose See also:honour he composed a memorial poem. Philes appears to have travelled extensively, and his writings contain much See also:information concerning the imperial See also:court and distinguished Byzantines. Having offended one of the emperors by indiscreet remarks published in a chronography, he was thrown into See also:prison and only released after an abject See also:apology. Philes is the counterpart of See also:Theodorus Prodromus in the See also:time of the Comneni; his See also:character, as shown in his poems, is that of a begging poet, always See also:pleading poverty, and ready to descend to the grossest flattery to obtain the favour-able See also:notice of the See also:great. With one unimportant exception, his productions are in See also:verse, the greater See also:part in dodecasyllabic See also:iambic trimeters, the See also:remainder in the fifteen-syllable " See also:political " measure. Philes was the author of poems on a great variety of subjects: on the characteristics of animals, chiefly based upon See also:Aelian and See also:Oppian, a didactic poem of some 2000 lines, dedicated to See also:Michael See also:Palaeologus; on the See also:elephant; on See also:plants; a necrological poem, probably written on the See also:death of one of the sons of the imperial See also:house; a See also:panegyric on See also:John Cantacuzene, in the See also:form of a See also:dialogue; a conversation between a See also:man and his soul; on ecclesiastical subjects, such as See also:church festivals, See also:Christian beliefs, the See also:saints and fathers of the church; on See also:works of See also:art, perhaps the most valuable of all his pieces for their bearing on Byzantine iconography, since the writer had before him the works he describes, and also the most successful from a See also:literary point of view; occasional poems, many of which are simply begging letters in verse. See also:Editions: the natural See also:history poems in F. See also:Lehrs and F. See also:Dubner, Poetae bucolici et didactici (See also:Didot See also:series, 1846) ; Manuelis See also:Philae Carmina inedita, ed. A.

See also:

Martini (1900) ; Manuelis Philae Carmina ed. E. See also:Miller (1855-1857). See also C. See also:Krumbacher, Geschichte der byzantinischen Litteratur (1897).

End of Article: PHILES, MANUEL (c. 1275–1345)

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