Mazaris
Encyclopedia
Mazaris (fl. c. 1415) was a late Byzantine
Byzantine Empire
The Byzantine Empire was the Eastern Roman Empire during the periods of Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, centred on the capital of Constantinople. Known simply as the Roman Empire or Romania to its inhabitants and neighbours, the Empire was the direct continuation of the Ancient Roman State...

 Greek writer. He is only known as the author of a satirical text, Mazaris' Journey to Hades. His identity and first name are unknown. He 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 Protonotarius of Thessaloniki
Thessaloniki
Thessaloniki , historically also known as Thessalonica, Salonika or Salonica, is the second-largest city in Greece and the capital of the region of Central Macedonia as well as the capital of the Decentralized Administration of Macedonia and Thrace...

, and one Maximus Mazaris, who was a monk and author of a text of 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 of 1414 and October of 1415. It contains elements of social satire targeting the Byzantine ruling elite, but also some information about the lower classes in the Peloponnese
Peloponnese
The Peloponnese, Peloponnesos or Peloponnesus , is a large peninsula , located in a region of southern Greece, forming the part of the country south of the Gulf of Corinth...

, including some remarks about the various ethnic groups that made up its population. In a fictional letter, Mazaris lists "Lacedaemonians, Italians, Peloponnesians, Slavs, Illyrians, Egyptians, and Jews" as inhabiting the region of Mystras
Mystras
Mystras is a fortified town and a former municipality in Laconia, Peloponnese, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Sparti, of which it is a municipal unit. Situated on Mt...

. Each of these groups is then described with (mostly negative) ethnic characteristics. Of these groups, the "Lacedaemonians" can easily be identified as Tsakonians
Tsakonians
Tsakonians ; are a native Greek population group, speakers of the Tsakonian dialect, or more broadly, inhabitants of Tsakonia in the eastern Peloponnese and followers of certain Tsakonian cultural traditions, such as the Tsakonian dance....

, the "Italians" as members of various Western colonial groups, particularly Venetian and Genovese; the "Peloponnesians" as Greeks, the "Illyrians" as Albanians (i.e. modern Arvanites
Arvanites
Arvanites are a population group in Greece who traditionally speak Arvanitika, a dialect of the Albanian language. They settled in Greece during the late Middle Ages and were the dominant population element of some regions of the Peloponnese and Attica until the 19th century...

), and the "Egyptians" as Roma (Gypsies).

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