Parallelen zur antiken Literatur in der byzantinischen Betteldichtung

The article deals with 12th-century Byzantine begging poetiy. Its goal is to map the parallels between this poetry and Classical Greek literature. Parallels were searched for between the texts of the Ptochoprodromika, the begging poems of Theodore Prodromos and Manganeios Prodromos, and the works of Homer, Hipponax of Ephesus, Aristophanes and Luc ian. Real intertextual dialogue can be ascertained only in case of the Homeric texts, while each of the three examined Byzantine texts makes allusions to them in a different way. As far as Hipponax, Aristophanes and Luc ian are concemed, similar motives and literary techniques could be traced, and to a certain extent also a similar view of life represented by the heroes of their poems. These similarities account for the typological relationship of the analyzed texts and also for literary continuity, nevertheless, they can by no means be understood as a direct proof of the influence of the above mentioned Classical authors on the Byzantine begging poets. Therefore, such analogies do not represent a relevant contribution to the discussion about the educational background of the author, or authors, of the Ptochoprodromika.