ΠΡΟΦΟΡΙΚΕΣ ΠΑΡΑΔΟΣΕΙΣ ΓΙΑ ΤΟΝ ΒΕΝΙΑΜΙΝ ΛΕΣΒΙΟ ΚΑΙ Η ΧΡΗΣΗ ΤΟΥΣ ΣΤΙΣ ΒΙΟΓΡΑΦΙΕΣ ΤΟΥ

Abstract

Gostas Lappas, Oral traditions concerning Benjamin Lesbios and their use in his biographies

Based on the correspondence between Sophocles Oikonomos and Manuel Gedeon, this paper examines a series of oral traditions concerning the scholar Benjamin Lesbios (1759-1824), which were related to Gedeon in 1868 by Neophytos Lesbios, a priest in the Metochion of Panaghios Taphos at Constantinople; this paper also treats various biographies of Benjamin that were composed during the same period, or slightly later, by Sophocles Oikonomos, Eleutherios Thomas and others. From the study of these texts in turns out that most traditions concerning Benjamin Lesbios were concealed or incorporated in his biographies in an altered form, either because they were considered unreliable, or because it was judged that they did not venerate Benjamin's memory. A decisive role in all these was played by the conservative scholar Sophocles Oikonomos to whom Gedeon sent the traditions about Benjamin in 1869. According to Oikonomos, the biographer of such a distinguished person as Benjamin, for the sake of the latter's memory and reputation, ought to put under critical control and even conceal evidence on his life and conduct, when these transgressed the limits of what was considered socially and morally acceptable. From this point of view, a biography is not a neutral historical text, but a reading-story which should contribute to the moral education of the readers. This paper also deals with the relations between Oikonomos and Gedeon and comments on certain factual issues raised by the oral traditions relating to Benjamin Lesbios.