ВИЗАНТИЈСКИ ЕП „ПРИЧА О ЧЕТВОРОНОЖНИМ ЖИВОТИЊАМА”: ИЗМЕЂУ ИСМЕВАЊА И ВРЕЂАЊА „СТРАНАЦА”
THE BYZANTINE EPIC „TALE OF THE FOUR-FOOTED BEASTS“: BETWEEN RIDICULING AND OFFENDING THE „ALIENS“

Summary/Abstract: The late Byzantine literature shows the blossoming of sorts of the so-called “animal epic,” otherwise widely popular in the literature of the Latin world of the medieval Western Europe. It is the literary genre that has as main characters representatives of flora and fauna assuming human features. These texts, and several of them have been preserved, have an educational value as they show the readiness of the Byzantines to ridicule certain negative phenomena in their society, but also to rather mercilessly ridicule other nations or ethnic communities. This text analyzes the intolerance or, it could even be said, contempt and hatred of the Byzantines towards the Jews, Gypsies and the Francs (Latins) in the epic “Tale of the Four-Footed Beasts” from the late 14th century, that consists of 1,082 political verses. This belittling of the “others” is sometimes metaphorical, sometimes harsh and bordering good taste, but always clear and undoubtedly offensive. Taken together as a whole, all the mentioned examples speak volumes about the well-known ostentation of the Byzantines, and their arrogance that considered all the other nations the contemptible barbarians.

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