Tales from another Byzantium : celestial journey and local community in the medieval Greek apocrypha
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. The book provides an original translation of the tales and examines them as manifestations of religious and moral culture in the medieval Orthodox Church.
ix, 461 p. : il. ; 26 cm.
9780521823951, 0521823951
1025389850
Introduction: tales from another Byzantium; Part I. Texts and Contexts: 1. What is an apocalypse? Responses medieval and modern; 2. Apocryphal biology: the texts and their mutations; 3. Transformations from Late Antiquity to Byzantium; 4. The Middle Byzantine textual environment; Part II. Other Worlds: 5. Passages through the apocalyptic imagination; 6. The inhabitants of heaven; 7. This world and the next; Part III. Morals: 8. Intercession, judgement, and the Mother of God; 9. Morality, culture and community.