22 blocks generally each treat one episode or one aspect of the saint’s life. The epilogue concludes the narrative and often includes an invocation to the saint. It has often been observed that hagiographical texts display a great deal of overlap in the themes and particular episodes they narrate. Such ‘standard’ elements that are typical of the genre are called topoi.54 The authors of the texts discussed in this thesis employed many of these topoi, but as this thesis will demonstrate, also made their own narrative choices that distinguish each Life. Moreover, not all themes discussed in the Lives are topoi. For example, the high number of journeys and the prominence of the travel theme in the three Lives discussed is in fact not very typical for ninth- and tenth-century saints’ Lives.55 This is perhaps surprising, as travel did play an essential role in some of the most influential texts in the history of literary culture in the Eastern Roman Empire. These include, for example, the Odyssey, which continued to be read, commented on and alluded to,56 and Acts in the New Testament, which is structured by the missionary travels of Paul.57 Also in hagiographical and related genres there are several examples from late antiquity in which travel plays a prominent role, such as the Life of Barsauma, John Moschus’ Spiritual Meadow, the Life of Mary of Egypt and the Life of Matrona of Perge.58 However, these earlier examples and influential texts did not result in a prominent tradition of frequent travelling protagonists in ninth- and tenth-century hagiography. Although a degree of travel is common in most hagiographies, the number and geographical extent of journeys narrated in the Lives of Elias the Younger, Euthymius the Younger and Gregory of Decapolis are exceptional. Each narrative includes about 15 to 20 journeys made by the respective saint, which does not find a parallel or approximation in other Lives of new saints written in the ninth or tenth century.59 In other words, the prevalence of travel in a hagiographical text written in the ninth and tenth centuries does not reflect a literary topos. Nevertheless, certain types of journeys are topoi. For example, at the start of a monastic Life, the monk-to-be usually removes himself from his familiar surroundings. This can take the form of a journey to a monastery or to a spiritual father in a different place. This initial journey is the first step of taking up a monastic life. It not only serves the purpose of finding a monastery or a spiritual father in order to receive instruction, it also removes the saint 54 For an overview of topoi in middle-Byzantine hagiography, see Pratsch (2005). 55 Also observed in Kaplan (2002), p. 127. 56 Homer was essential reading in Byzantine education and was appreciated highly, at least in intellectual literary circles. Robert Browning e.g., identified various citations and references to the Odyssey in Byzantine texts (e.g., by John Cameniates in the tenth century, by Eustathius of Thessaloniki (1115-1198), who wrote a commentary on the Odyssey, and by Nicetas Choniates (c.1155-c.1216)); a search on the Thesaurus Linguae Graecae for the lemma ‘Ὀδυσσεύς, ‑έως, ὁ’ learns that numerous well-known Eastern Roman authors referred to the hero of the Odyssey (e.g., Gregory of Nazianzus (329-390) and Basil of Caesarea (330-379), monastic authors such as Theodore the Studite (759-826) and many entries in the late tenth or early eleventh-century Byzantine lexicon the Suda). Browning (1975). 57 For the reception and transmissions of the New Testament in Byzantium see Krueger and Nelson (2016). 58 See e.g., Talbot (1996), pp. 13–93; Flusin (2011), pp. 212–214; Drijvers (2018), pp. 368–369; Hahn and Menze (2020). 59 A total of 119 surviving Byzantine hagiographies of new saints from the eight until the tenth century are listed in the Dumbarton Oaks Hagiography Database.
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