Michael Italikos’ ‚Monodie auf ein totes Steinhuhn‘

• Verfasst von: Schneider, Horst Philipp [VerfasserIn]
• Titel: Michael Italikos’ ‚Monodie auf ein totes Steinhuhn‘
• Titelzusatz: ein byzantinischer Text im Fokus moderner ‚Human-Animal Studies‘
• Verf.angabe: Horst Schneider
• E-Jahr: 2023
• Jahr: 2023-12-14
• Umfang: 19 S.
• Fussnoten: Gesehen am 14.02.2024
• Titel Quelle: Enthalten in: Das Mittelalter
• Ort Quelle: Heidelberg : Heidelberg University Publishing, 1996
• Jahr Quelle: 2023
• Band/Heft Quelle: 28(2023), 2, Seite 429-447
• ISSN Quelle: 2196-6869
• DOI: doi:10.17885/heiup.mial.2023.2.24857
• Datenträger: Online-Ressource
• Sprache: ger
• Sach-SW: Human-Animal Studies
• K10plus-PPN: 1880753782
• K10plus-PPN:
  Universitätsbibliothek
• Lokale URL UB: Zum Volltext

Abstract

If we consider Michael Italikos’ monody of his beloved rock partridge with regard to the anthropological difference between humans and animals, we can observe a constant oscillation: the author gives arguments for the rationality of the rock partridge, but this is only an exception to the rule; he tries to question the anthropo­logical difference, as far as life after death is concerned, on the basis of a biblical passage, only to retract this interpretation again, probably so that he would not be suspected of spreading a heresy. Furthermore, the animal in the human-animal relationship is seen as a ‘companion species’ with a social ‘agency’. The author’s lamenting the absence of a cure for the apparently fatal disease is, in modern terms, about animal welfare and protection. In the end, there is a plea for an empathetic relationship between humans and animals, again based on a biblical foundation: grief and compassion for the animal’s suffering form a moral community between humans and animals. In a certain way, the text thus reflects on a ‘limitrophe ambiguity’ with regard to the human-animal relation­ship. In the process, genuine love for animals is shown in the guise of sophisticated rhetorical art aimed at an educated audience.