Tales from Another Byzantium: Celestial Journey and Local Community in the Medieval Greek Apocrypha

by Jane Baun

• ISBN13: 9780521823951
• ISBN10: 0521823951
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2007-12-17
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• More Book Details

Summary

The rich corpus of medieval Greek apocryphal religious literature has been little used by historians. This book is the first full-length study of two medieval Greek visionary journeys to heaven and hell: the Apocalypse of the Theotokos and the Apocalypse of Anastasia. Composed anonymously sometime between the ninth and eleventh centuries, both enjoyed a lively circulation in the Byzantine Empire and far beyond. Functioning on the fringes of the official church, they transmit both traditional and novel theological ideas, and shed new light on the reception of church doctrine and imperial governance by ordinary Byzantine Christians. Though their heroines tour the Other World, their true concern is this world, and the reinforcement of social, moral, and ritual norms within local communities. Providing original translations of both texts, the book probes the tales as manifestations of non-elite religious and moral culture in the medieval Orthodox Church.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. viii
List of abbreviations	p. x
List of illustrations	p. xi
List of tables	p. xii
Introduction: Tales from another Byzantium	p. 1
Texts and Contexts
What is an apocalypse? Responses medieval and modern	p. 9
Apocryphal biology: the texts and their mutations	p. 34
Transformations from Late Antiquity to Byzantium	p. 76
The Middle Byzantine textual environment	p. 110
Other Worlds
Passages through the apocalyptic imagination	p. 133
The inhabitants of Heaven	p. 175
This world and the next	p. 215
Morals
Intercession, judgment, and the Mother of God	p. 267
Morality, culture, and community	p. 319
Appendices
Introduction to the translations	p. 386
The Apocalypse of the Theotokos, Oxford version	p. 391
The Apocalypse of Anastasia, Paris and Milan versions	p. 401
The Apocalypse of Anastasia, Palermo version	p. 415
Bibliography	p. 425
Index	p. 448
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