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3. History, Narrative, and Miracle in Late Antique Seleukeia

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

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4. Greek Wonders

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

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Conclusion

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

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Appendix 1

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

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Appendix 2

Appendix 2: The Reception of the Acts of Paul and Thekla in Late Antique Sermons (Pseudo-Chrysostom and Severus of Antioch) The close reading of the Life offered in Chapter One above is designed to illustrate the literary activity of one writer on one text. The Life is a literary paraphrase of the ATh that exhibits certain choices in language and technique unique to its author and setting. Read more

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Appendix 3

Appendix 3: Early Byzantine Miracle Collections: A Select Catalogue The list below comprises a select (alphabetical) catalogue of miracle collections in Greek from early Byzantium, fifth to eighth centuries. [1] While I have included the Miracles of Thekla as part of this catalogue, I would at the same time seek to distinguish the Miracles from these other collections on the basis of… Read more

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References

References Accorinti, D., ed. 1996. Nonno di Panopoli—Parafrasi del Vangelo di S. Giovanni, Canto XX: Introduzione, testo critico, traduzione e commento. Pisa. Achtemeier, P. 1970. “Towards the Isolation of Pre-Markan Miracle Catenae.” JBL 89:265–291. Adler, W. 1989. Time Immemorial: Archaic History and its Sources in Christian Chronography from Julius Africanus to George Syncellus. Washington, DC. … Read more

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Preface

To the memory of C. J. Ruijgh and C. M. J. Sicking Preface Epic is concerned with the past. It depicts heroes that are larger than life and accomplish their exploits in a bygone age outside the reach of ordinary mortals. Often, and certainly in the case of the Homeric tradition, epic’s very language is a representation of the past, in the form of vocabulary, syntax,… Read more

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Chapter 1. Peripheral and Nuclear Semantics

Chapter 1. Peripheral and Nuclear Semantics In recent years a number of studies on Homeric versification have appeared which aim to show a way out of the deadlock at which the study of the Homeric formula ended in the ’60s and ’70s. [1] Milman Parry’s analysis of the systematic precision in the use of noun-epithet formulas, as presented in his 1928 dissertation,… Read more

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Chapter 2. Formula, Context, and Synonymy

Chapter 2. Formula, Context, and Synonymy Milman Parry’s 1928 dissertation, [1] insofar as it drew upon and continued the work of earlier scholars, provided a functional dimension to the findings of such earlier scholars as Düntzer, Ellendt, Witte, and Meister. Parry pointed out that the coexistence of semantically equivalent but metrically different forms in the Homeric diction was not only the creation… Read more