Works

Apart from his Letters, all known works by Metochites survive. He wrote 20 Poems in dactylic hexameter, 18 Orations (Logoi), and three voluminous works on philosophy, as defined by Metochites and his contemporaries: the Stoicheiosis astronomike (1316/1317); the Paraphrases of Aristotle’s Writings on Natural Philosophy (c. 1320); and a collection of “philosophical and historical” essays, the Semeioseis gnomikai (c. 1326).

The Stoicheiosis astronomike comprises two volumes. In the first, Metochites sets out the Handy Tables of Ptolemy and his commentator Theon and supplements them with theoretical accounts based on Ptolemy’s Almagest; in the second, he offers an arithmetical and geometrical propaedeutics to the study of astronomy as well as a summary of the whole of the Almagest. In the extensive preface, Metochites describes the current state of mathematical and, in particular, astronomical studies in Byzantium, and attempts to specify the place of astronomy within the framework of philosophy in general. Being the first serious Greek work in its field for hundreds of years, the Stoicheiosis astronomike was a major contribution to the revival of learning in early Palaeologan Byzantium.

The 39 books of Paraphrases of Aristotle’s Writings on Natural Philosophy were designed to facilitate the understanding of Aristotle’s doctrines by reporting them in a plain and straightforward manner and integrating explanatory material from the Greek commentators. They were translated into Latin in the sixteenth century by Gentian Hervet, and were then praised for their clarity and conciseness, but they made no discernible impact.

Finally, the Semeioseis gnomikai was described by Metochites in one of his poems as a picture (or statue) of his mind and a journal of his thoughts, i. e., as an intellectual self-portrait. It moves freely, but not randomly, from discussions of classical authors, notably Plato and Aristotle, over ethical, political, and epistemological questions, to meditations on different aspects of Greek and Roman history. Many of these themes are also found in Metochites’ oratory and poetry, but the internal structure of the Semeioseis gnomikai strongly indicates that it is no commonplace book but was conceived from the outset as a literary whole. Many of the themes are indeed also known from one or another of those late antique Platonic philosophers who cultivated a literary - if sometimes inaccessible - style, such as Philo of Alexandria, Plutarch, Maximus of Tyre, and Synesius.

Metochites himself is notorious for his thorny style, especially in his poems, and also in some of his prose. Even his own pupil, Gregoras, criticized him for this; he put it down to his teacher’s refusal to model himself on any ancient orator. In his Logos 13, Metochites defends the ideal of stylistic “forcefulness” (deinotes) which sometimes prescribes complexity rather than clarity. But in Semeioseis gnomikai 26, he heavily emphasizes the Platonic opposition between philosophy and rhetoric, contending that it is appropriate for philosophical thoughts to be couched in simple and unadorned language. It seems likely that he is pleading his own cause in both cases. Especially the prose of his Paraphrases is plain (and repetitive) to the point of monotony. In the Semeioseis gnomikai he attempted to bridge the dichotomy by combining a philosophical content with natural eloquence: in spite of Gregoras, he seems to have drawn inspiration particularly from Synesius and Plutarch.