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Narrating Martyrdom: Rewriting Late-Antique Virgin Martyrs in Byzantium

Narrating Martyrdom: Rewriting Late-Antique Virgin Martyrs in Byzantium

Hardcover

Series: Translated Texts for Byzantinists, Book 9

Medieval & Renaissance HistoryLiterary CriticismGeneral World History

ISBN10: 1789621550
ISBN13: 9781789621556
Publisher: Liverpool University Press
Published: Jul 2 2020
Pages: 224
Weight: 1.23
Height: 0.80 Width: 6.10 Depth: 8.30
Language: English
This book reconceives the rewriting of Byzantine hagiography between the eighth and fourteenth centuries as a skilful initiative in communication and creative freedom, and as a form of authorship. Three men - Makarios (late C13th-C14th), a monk; Constantine Akropolites (d.c.1324), a statesman; and an Anonymous educated wordsmith (c. C9th) - each opted to rewrite the martyrdom of a female virgin saint who suffered and died centuries earlier. Their adaptations, respectively, were of St. Ia of Persia (modern-day Iran), St. Horaiozele of Constantinople, and St. Tatiana of Rome. Ia is described as a victim of the persecutions of the Persian Shahanshah, Shapur II (309-79 C.E), Horaiozele was allegedly a disciple of St Andrew and killed anachronistically under the emperor Decius (249-51 C.E), and Tatiana, we are told, was a deaconess, martyred during the reign of emperor Alexander Severus (222-35 C.E). Makarios, Akropolites, and the Anonymous knowingly tailored their compositions to influence an audience and to foster their individual interests. The implications arising from these studies are far-reaching: this monograph considers the agency of the hagiographer, the instrumental use of the authorial persona and its impact on the audience, and hagiography as a layered discourse. The book also provides the first translations and commentaries of the martyrdoms of these virgin martyrs.

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