Mazaris ( el, Μάζαρις; fl. c. 1415) was a late Byzantine Greek writer known only for having authored a satirical text entitled ''Mazaris' Journey to Hades''. Although his identity and first name are unknown, Mazaris has been tentatively identified with at least two known historical personalities of the same name, one Manuel Mazaris, who was a hymnographer and served as ''

protonotarios The word prothonotary is recorded in English since 1447, as "principal clerk of a court," from L.L. ''prothonotarius'' ( c. 400), from Greek ''protonotarios'' "first scribe," originally the chief of the college of recorders of the court of the B ...

'' of

Thessaloniki Thessaloniki (; el, Θεσσαλονίκη, , also known as Thessalonica (), Saloniki, or Salonica (), is the second-largest city in Greece, with over one million inhabitants in its metropolitan area, and the capital of the geographic region of ...

, and one Maximus Mazaris, who was a monk and author of a text on grammatical rules. According to yet another hypothesis, however, these two were actually the same person. Because of this uncertainty, the author of the ''Journey'' is mostly referred to simply by his family name. The ''Journey to Hades'' is believed to have been written between January 1414 and October 1415. It contains elements of social satire targeting the Byzantine ruling elite, but also some information about the lower classes in the Peloponnese, including some remarks about the various ethnic groups that made up its population.

Footnotes

References

*Mazaris: ''Mazaris' Journey to Hades: or, Interviews with dead men about certain officials of the imperial court.'' Greek text with translation, notes, introduction and index. (Seminar Classics 609). Buffalo NY: Dept. of Classics, State University of New York at Buffalo, 1975. *R. Romano (ed.): ''La satira bizantina dei secoli XI-XV.'' Turino: Unione Tipografica, 1999. *E. Trapp: ''Prosopographisches Lexikon der Palaiologenzeit.'' Vienna, 1985. {{Authority control Byzantine writers 15th-century Byzantine writers Greek satirists Byzantine Thessalonian writers Year of birth unknown Year of death unknown 15th-century Greek writers