TZETZES, JOANNES, a Greek grammarian of Constantinople, who flourished towards the latter end of the twelfth century, was the son of Michael Tzetzes, an unlettered man, and Eudocia, a person of Basque or Iberian extraction. This humble pair trained up their sons Joannes and Isaacus in the practice of wholesome precepts, preferring letters to riches and power to precedence. John Tzetzes, after having acquired a very good knowledge of Hebrew and Syriac, of the science of the day, and of the philosophy of his time, with which he gives signal proofs of his extensive acquaintance, took to writing his Iliaca, a very dull poem of 1676 hexameter lines, and the Chiliades, another equally flat production, consisting of 12,661 lines. Both of these poems are greatly disfigured by the immoderate self-conceit of the author, who is never done with boasting of his prodigious memory, of the "lightning" rapidity of his stylus, and of the Tzetzean method of investigation. It need not be wondered at that this swaggering braggart is now well nigh forgotten. His works bear no traces of originality, nor have they anything, except the exceeding miscellaneity of their knowledge, to recommend them to the attention of posterity. He dedicated his Homeric Allegories to Irene Augusta, wife of Michael Comnenus, who died A.D. 1158; and from this we would infer, that she had shown him some patronage. This is all we have gathered respecting Joannes Tzetzes.
Various fragments of the Iliaca had been discovered, from the time that the author wrote down to the eighteenth century, yet no person had succeeded in obtaining a complete copy of the MS. of that poem until 1793, when it was published entire by F. Jacobs, with a commentary. There is, besides, a good edition by E. Bekker, Berlin, 1816. The great mass of the poem known as Chiliades, was obtained almost entirely at second hand. It contains, however, valuable information on subjects of the most miscellaneous character. This poem was first published by Gerbelius in 1546, but the best edition of it is that by Kiessling, 1826. With the exception of a few miscellaneous poems and fragments, and the Commentary on Lycophron which he seems to share with his brother Isaac, this completes the list of the published writings of Joannes Tzetzes. The best edition of the Commentary on Lycophron is that by J. C. Müller, 1811. Besides the Homeric Allegories, referred to above, seven short prose works of Tzetzes remain still unpublished.
U, or u, the twenty-first letter and fifth vowel of the English alphabet, is formed in the voice by a round configuration of the lips, and a greater extrusion of the under one than in forming the letter o. The sound is short in curst, must, tun, tub; but is lengthened by a final e, as in tune, tube, &c. In some words it is rather acute than long; as in brute, flute, lute, &c. It is mostly long in polysyllables; as in union, curious, &c.; but in some words it is obscure, as in nature, venture, &c. See ABBREVIATIONS, under V.