163 Representations of travel motivation […] ἔχαιρον ἐπὶ τῇ ἀνακωχῇ κακῶν καὶ τῇ κατὰ Θεὸν προκοπῇ τοῦ υἱοῦ· ἐφανέρου γὰρ ὁ Κύριος αὐτῷ τῶν γενησομένων τὴν ἔκβασιν καὶ βλέπειν χάριν ἐδίδου τὰ μακράν, ὡς πάλαι τῷ Σαμουήλ, προγνοὺς ἐκ μήτρας αὐτὸν καὶ ἁγιάσας ἐκ βρέφους, Ἱερεμίαν ὡς ὕστερον.558 […] after the child already became eight years, they [his parents] rejoiced in the cessation of grave events [i.e. Aghlabid attacks] and the advance of their son towards God; for the Lord revealed to him the fulfilment of future events and granted him the grace to see faraway things, like to Samuel before, because he [God] had known him [Elias] from the womb and he sanctified him since infancy, like later Jeremia. In this passage the hagiographer stresses that God had chosen Elias as an extraordinary individual and bestowed sanctity (ἁγιάσας) on Elias even before he was born. Elias’ ability of prophecy is the result of God’s special interest in him. Moreover, as we have also seen in the Life of Gregory of Decapolis, the hagiographer associates Elias, and his supernatural gifts, with Old Testament prophets, thereby placing Elias in a tradition of biblical exemplars. An example of Elias’ prophetic power is found in a passage situated in Taormina. There, Elias predicts an Arab attack and he and his disciple subsequently depart to Greece: Πολὺν οὖν χρόνον ἐνδιατρίψας ἐκεῖ· «Μεταβῶμεν ἐντεῦθεν—ἔφη τῷ μαθητῇ—· θεωρῶ γὰρ ὡς μεγίστοις μέλλει περιπίπτειν κακοῖς ὑπὸ τῶν Ἀγαρηνῶν ἡ πόλις αὕτη καὶ ὁ στρατηγὸς Βαρσάκιος ὑπ’ αὐτῶν ἡττηθήσεται». Καὶ ἀπάρας ἐκεῖθεν μετὰ τοῦ μαθητοῦ Δανιήλ, ἀπέπλευσεν ἐν Πελοποννήσῳ.559 After spending much time there [at Taormina], he said to his disciple: ‘let us move from here, for I see that this city will fall into a bad state through the Agarens and the general Barsakios will be defeated by them’. And departing from there with his disciple Daniel, he sailed away to the Peloponnese. Elias’ knowledge of future events is presented as his motivation to travel away from Taormina. Although this is not narrated explicitly, the audience is probably to understand that Elias and Daniel leave Taormina to avoid the danger inherent in such an attack. The memory of such incursions must still be alive for the southern Italian audience, assuming that the text was indeed read or listened to in the Salinas monastery in the early tenth century, as Aghlabid attacks on Reggio, Taormina, and Cosenza, narrated in the Life, were 558 Life of Elias the Younger 3, lines 60-64. 559 Life of Elias the Younger 26; Barsakios was defeated by the Aghlabids at Taormina in 881. 3
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