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
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
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
A Note on Terminology and Transliteration By way of explanation rather than apology, I should clarify what I mean by the term “literary” in the title of this book. I do not mean to claim that the Life and Miracles is high literature on the level of Homer, the tragedians, or the ideal Greek Romances. However, I would suggest that the difference between the Life and Miracles… Read more
Abbreviations ABD Anchor Bible Dictionary, 6 vols. (New York, 1992) ABzF Acta Byzantina Fennica ACW Ancient Christian Writers: The Works of the Fathers in Translation (New York) AJP American Journal of Philology AnBoll Analecta Bollandiana ANRW J. Vogt et al., eds. Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt (Berlin and New York, 1972–) ATh Acts of Paul and Thekla (for critical text,… Read more
Acknowledgments While a number of scholars have had a defining role in this book coming to fruition, certainly the most influential of all is my Oxford supervisor, Professor Averil Cameron. Her gentle yet directed guidance has been invaluable to me along the road of learning how to do scholarship. Although it goes without saying that any errors of fact or interpretation in this book are my own,… Read more
Bibliography Alexanderson, Bengt. 1970. “Homeric Formulae for Ships.” Eranos 68: 1–46. Auerbach, Erich. 1953. Mimesis: The Representation of Reality in Western Literature, trans. W. R. Trask. Princeton: Princeton University Press. Austin, Norman. 1966. “The Function of Digressions in the Iliad.” Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies 7: 295–312. Repr. 1978. Essays on the Iliad: Selected Modern Criticism, ed. J. Read more
Chapter 9. Mohammed and the Mountain In Chapter Fifteen of the treatise On the Sublime we find a discussion of the imagination and of visualization as sources of grandeur and dignity in literature. The key term is phantasia. This term applies “when by an effect of enthusiasm and passion you seem actually to see what you are saying, so placing it before your listeners’ eyes.” [… Read more
Chapter 8. Remembering the God’s Arrival “What’s remembered goes on living and can happen again.” Mario Vargas Llosa, The Storyteller The Homeric Hymn to Apollo is commonly believed by scholars to consist of two parts, one Delian, dealing with the god’s birth and his cult at Delos, and one Pythian, describing the foundation of his shrine at Delphi. Read more
Chapter 7. Similes, Augment, and the Language of Immediacy Any function we assign to the Homeric simile has to take into account the fact that similes evoke a reality that is different from that of narrative proper. As many commentators have noted, similes are “close” to the audience, in evoking a domestic, rather than heroic, reality. [1] Yet instead of exploring the… Read more
