The emperor, who had heard of his wonderful exploits, paid him a visit in his palace on the Euphrates, and the description of this abode reflects the fashions of Byzantine luxury. The tone of their intercourse is significant. While Digenes formally professes himself a devoted servant, they meet far more as equals than as subject and servant. The warrior has a position of virtual independence, like that of a powerful Western baron.
Idyllic scenes—repose in pleasant shady meadows near waters—were a stereotyped feature in the Greek romances, and descriptions of such scenes were a conventional topic with Hellenistic rhetors. But they occur also in the epic. Digenes retired with his wife to a lovely meadow in which he pitched his tent. 'The ground,' he says, 'was embroidered with radiant flowers. There were trees and tall reeds. A fresh spring welled in the midst of the meadow, and near it were deep pools in which the flowers and trees were reflected. The wood was full of birds which sang more sweetly than sirens; there were parrots on the boughs, swans on the water; peacocks displayed their plumage in rivalry of the flowers; but the brilliant beauty of the lady outshone the flowers and the birds.'[1] We may suspect that the epic poet was influenced here by sophistic fiction, but he has succeeded in investing with freshness a conventional scene.
While the violence and brutalities of the frontier warfare are not veiled, Digenes is portrayed as an accomplished cavalier, not only invincible in combat and insatiably eager for adventure, but courteous to ladies, modest about his own exploits, and, as M. Diehl has observed, capable of delicate emotions. He is the
- ↑ The epic has come down in different recensions, and the descriptions of this scene differ in elaboration.
