International congress of byzantine studies belgrade, 22 27 august 2016

Natela Vachnadze
Georgian National Committee of Byzantine Studies, Tbilisi, Georgia; 
[e-mail] 
Kartvelology in the Service of History of Byzantine Literature: 
Old Georgian Translation of Athenagenes ‘Life’
The Georgian hagiography comprises a lot of compositions, which are translated mostly from 
Greek and also Armenian, Arabian, Syrian and the other Oriental languages as well.
The object of our interest is presented in those Georgian translations of the compositions, the 
origins of which are either lost or have not been found yet. There are such cases, when two editions 
of a Greek text are preserved, but the Georgian translation does not coincide with either of them. 
So, it appears that we have the third edition of the so far unknown Georgian translation, which, by 
the internationally accepted rule acquires the importance of the origin.
One of such texts has been preserved by the Georgian translation hagiography. It is Athenagene’s 
‘Torture’ by the Bishop of Sebastia (+311), the translation of which has reached us in two editions: 
I-A-95, 988-995. Bodl. 265-267, II-A-382, 59-62... Both of the Georgian edition texts have not 
been published either as the majority of the samples of the Georgian translation hagiography. 
Whereas two Greek texts are published (A. Papandopulo-Keramevs: Ἀνάλεκτα..., IV, 252-257, V. 
Latishev, Menologii, II, 176-179) and neither of them is the origin of the Georgian translation (E. 
Gabidzashvili, Works, Volume II, the philological-textual studies essay, Tbilisi, 2010, 175). Thus it 
appears that we have got the Georgian translation of the Greek edition, which has been unknown 
up to now. The task of the authors of the presented work is to state critically, to prepare for the 
publication and to study it from the historical, philological and ethnographic viewpoints.
As the ethnographic material, collected on the field tells us, the greater part of which is unpublished 
and kept in the Ivane Javakhishvili Institute of History and Ethnography, ‘Atengenoba’ – this folk-
Christian holiday – must have been very popular on East Georgian mountainous regions (Tusheri, 
Khevsureti, Khevi...). As the research work showed, certain families had prayer houses dedicated to 
saints. One of them was Ghudushauri Niche. It is by the introduction of the Georgian material into 
the scientific circulation and presenting it to the wide scientific communities, by the translation of the 
critically stated text into the attainable language, with the attached commentaries, the role and the 
significance of Kartvelology in the research of the history of Byzantine literature is clearly seen.

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