International congress of byzantine studies belgrade, 22 27 august 2016

Zorica Vitić
University of Belgrade, Faculty of Philology, Belgrade, Serbia; 
[e-mail]
The Mediterranean World in the 
Vita of St. Pancratios of Taormina
The
 Vita of St. Pancratios of Taormina
, written by Pseudo-Evagrios, is usually dated into the 
second half of the 8
th
century, and it seems to be an important document of Iconodulic propaganda. 
A new edition (based on 6 mss. 10
th
–14
th
century), provided by C. J. Stallman-Pacitti, is available 
only in electronic form in the Oxford Text Archive (1039, University of Oxford, 1986, VP).
John the Presbyter’s Slavic translation of the 
Vita
has been long known in mediaevalist literature, 
thanks to his another translation: important and influential work of St. Athanasios of Alexandria 
– the 
Life of St. Antony
. Except the translator’s name, everything else about these translations is 
uncertain, even the time they were made (10
th
century or the first decades of the 11
th
century). Apart 
from the data in the preserved John the Presbyter’s epilogue, the antiquity of the Slavic translation is 
confirmed by characteristics of the text itself: lexis, translator’s technique, typical errors in copying 
from Glagolitic into Cyrillic etc. The 
Vita of St. Pancratios
has only been preserved in three Slavic 
manuscripts, the older two of which are Serbian (from 13
th
and 14
th
century, ed. Z. Vitić, Belgrade, 
2014, ŽP), whereas the third is a considerably more recent Russian one (17
th
century).
This novelistic hagiography, verbose and iterative, contains many anachronisms, but it also 
reveals a dynamic and complex 
panoramic view
of the Mediterranean world at the time: important 
cities, harbours, islands, shores, as well as their inhabitants – local rulers, pagan philosophers, newly 
baptized Christians, martyrs, heretics, sailors, traders etc. No matter whether the author of the 
Vita
creates authentical, realistic scenes situated in various local places, showing his first hand knowledge 
of Taormina and Sicily, or whether he applies the usual topoi in his descriptions (Antioch, Pontos), 
the Slavic translator must have had a difficult task to find an appropriate mode of transcribing rare 
and specific toponyms and anthroponyms.
The shore of the bay below Taormina:
priplouhomq na mysto. naricaEmoE, fak‘lonq
(Φάλκονι VP17)
, ne ou/e bya[e pristani{e na 
mysty tomq, nq malq izlazq. bya[e bo mysto koumirqsko, wt%q& byswvq wdrq/imo. i byswvq 
mno/qstvo bya[e na nEmq. ne bo, nq to bya[e gradq zeli]nQi, fal‘koniliinq. matere fal‘konE. 
vqnouka menJina.
(ŽP215)

---

242
The shrine of idol Lysson in the “Tetrahipion”:
vqzido[e na tetraiponq
(Τετραιϊππίω
̣
VP74).
i raspousti[e propovydqnikQ po gradou. i snide 
se nesvydomo mno/qstvo l}dii. i vqskliknou[e glas(o)mq ]ko/e zylo slQ[ati. i vqzido[e 
vq prytorq. imou{e skroboti;qnQE vyiE. i mursinQ vq roukahq svoihq. i E[e vonifanti]. i 
privedq[e i prydq lus‘sonomq postavi[e.
(ŽP256)
Epaphroditus’ mission to the South:
proide /e slouhq vq vsa wkrougn]] mysta taa. wt%q& melefora
(Μελαμφόρου VP140)
mystqnaago staryi[inQ. do petronikiE paladiEvQ
(Πετρονίκης Παλλαδίου)
. razmla/denaago 
prImori]. ishode{aa do alqsa. platamqskago
(τη
̃
ς ά
̉
λσοτης Πλατάμου)
potoka. 
(ŽP277)
Calabria in 
The life of Tauros
(the self-contained episode within VP):
akulinq /e pride vq taurovQ domQ. i ne wbryte ni;eso/e. nadya[e /e se ]ko vq Edinoi wt%q& 
doubravqnQhq gorq Es(tq). i proide vsa mysta kalavriiska] i{e taura m(y)s(e)cq Edinq. wt%q& primori] 
salinqskaago
(Σαλινω
̃
ν VP169)
. do houlqskaago
(Κογχύλου)
potoka. i termona
(τέρμονος)
. i do gorq 
turopolqskQhq
(Τυροπόλεως)
.
(ŽP378)