边境混血英雄传——从真主之剑到曼齐刻尔特战役Heroes of Mixed Blood on the Frontier: From the Sword of God to Manzikert

This session introduces the Byzantine heroic epic Διγενῆς Ἀκρίτας (Digenes Akritas), considered the only Byzantine epic to survive. It belongs to the Akritic songs (Akritika Tragoudia), and its title is variously rendered in Chinese as "Tale of the Mixed-Blood Hero of the Frontier", "Legend of the Mixed-Blood Borderer", "The Mixed-Blood King of the Frontier", or simply transliterated as Digenis Akritis. Questions to spark interest: - Have you heard of the Eastern Roman Empire? - In what guise did the Eastern Roman Empire of legend present itself to the world? - What is the landscape of Cappadocia like? Why were the locals called "troglodytes"? - How were the origins of Western culture shaped? Questions for discussion: - "Mixed-blood" and "borderer" each emphasise a different identity of the hero; what story does this epic tell? - Where did the story's prototype draw its inspiration from? - How did the Eastern Roman Empire change from Heraclius to Romanos IV? - How many wars did the Byzantine Empire and the Arab Empire fight? - How should we view the development of the theme system in this period?