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Article

French

ID: <

10.3406/bec.2014.465035

>

·

DOI: <

10.3406/bec.2014.465035

>

Where these data come from
The first Greek translations: anonymous Passion (BHG 554) and Methodology Passion (554d)

Abstract

The Byzantine East became acquainted with the ‘‘ Parisian’’ legend of Denis, already identified as Dionysius the Areopagite, in the latter half of the eighth century, after the first phase of the iconoclastic crisis and before the reestablishment of the cult of images. At that time an anonymous author first translated into Greek (as μετὰ τὴν μακαρίαν καὶ ἐνδοξοτάτην [ BHG 554]), the Latin Passion Post beatam et gloriosam (BHL 2178). Shortly afterwards, the translation was discovered in Rome by the SicilianMethodius, the future patriarch of Constantinople, who produced a revised version (BHG554d). Acomparison of the Latin version with the two earliest Greek versions sheds new light on the circumstances, the probable dates and the reasons for their composition, suggesting that BHG 554 was translated from Latin into Greek at the monastery of St. Sabas in Rome before the end of the eighth century, and thatMethodius produced BHG 554d while in Rome in 817-821. Whereas the anonymous author followed the Latin original closely (while giving it a slight Byzantine twist), Methodius composed a more scholarly text, adopting an even more clearly Byzantine ecclesiastical and political perspective that was tinged with contempt for the primacy of Peter and for the inhabitants of Paris.

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