Outline of the Life and Miracles of Thekla (chapter numbers based on the critical text, Dagron 1978:168–412) Life Preface 1–13at Iconium 14outside Iconium 15–24at Antioch 25–26at Myra 27–28from Myra to Iconium, then Seleukeia 29disappearance into the ground; spiritual activities Miracles Preface 1–4 Thekla fights against daimones 5–11various miracles of defending, helping, and healing locals 12two… Read more
Epigraph Et sic proficiscens de Anthiocia faciens iter per mansiones aliquot perueni ad prouinciam, quae Cilicia appellatur, quae habet ciuitatem metropolim Tharso, ubi quidem Tharso et eundo Ierusolimam iam fueram. Sed quoniam de Tharso tertia mansione, id est in Hisauria, est martyrium sanctae Teclae, gratum fuit satis ut etiam illuc ac-cedere, presertim cum tam in proximo esset. Nam proficiscens de Tharso perueni ad quandam ciuitatem… Read more
Preface The appearance of Scott Johnson’s The Life and Miracles of Thekla, A Literary Study in the series “Hellenic Studies” marks an important new direction for the publications program of the Center for Hellenic Studies. The field of study represented by this book is Late Antiquity, a vital era of transition from the Classical to the Byzantine and the Modern Greek eras. The world of Late Antiquity,… Read more
Introduction [In this on-line version, the page-numbers of the printed version are indicated within braces (“{” and “}”). For example, “{69|70}” indicates where p. 69 of the printed version ends and p. 70 begins. These indications will be useful to readers who need to look up references made elsewhere to the printed version of this book.] The extended epigraph printed on the previous pages comprises the… Read more
Chapter 1. Paraphrase in Practice: The Life of Thekla and Literary Inheritance in Late Antiquity The Ever-Present Past in the Life and Miracles The form of the literary paraphrase says a great deal about what the author of the Life of Thekla is attempting to do in literary historical terms: by choosing to write a saint’s Life through the lens of a second-century apocryphon, the author… Read more
Chapter 2. Biblical Rewriting and the Metaphrastic Habit: The Life of Thekla within the History of Ancient Paraphrase Prologue: Erasmus and the Conflict over his Paraphrases on the New Testament For a paraphrase is a plain setting foorth of a texte or sentence more at large, with such circumstance of mo [i.e. more] and other wordes as maie make the sentence open, clere, plain,… Read more
Chapter 3. History, Narrative, and Miracle in Late Antique Seleukeia: Thekla’s θαύµατα and their Collector Introduction: Herodotean Precedent and the Autobiographical Rhetoric of Miracle-Collecting The short history of paraphrase presented in the last chapter was not designed to be comprehensive but only to point to the widespread use of the form in early Christian and late antique literature. The issue of form is central, I argue,… Read more
Chapter 4. Greek Wonders: Classical Models for Christian Miracle Collections [1] Introduction: Mistaking Content for Form The question of whether classical literature had a formative influence on the genre of the Christian miracle collection in late antiquity was left unaddressed by André-Jean Festugière’s well known selection of translations, Collections grecques de miracles: Sainte Thècle, Saints Côme et Damien, Saints Cyr et… Read more
Conclusion A reader of this study will note that I have only at a few points highlighted the implications of Thekla’s female gender for the LM. [1] This is because I do not feel that this work is a “gendered” text in the way that word is used in scholarship on antiquity and the middle ages. [2]… Read more
Appendix 1: A Variant Ending to Thekla’s Apostolic Career The overall significance of the changed ending in the Life can be brought into greater relief by comparing a near-contemporary version of these events, which also attempts to wrest control away from the ATh, though in different ways. This version is a Greek extension (and not a paraphrase) of the ATh and was written probably in the fifth… Read more
