The festival of Saint Demetrios, the Timarion, and the Aithiopika*. (4th April 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: MacDougall, Byron
• Is Part Of: Byzantine and modern Greek studies. Volume 40:Number 1(2016)
• Page Start: 136
• Page End: 150
• Publication Date: 2016-04-04
• Subjects: Byzantine Empire -- Study and teaching -- Periodicals; Greece -- History -- 323-1453 -- Periodicals; Greece -- Periodicals; Byzantine Empire -- Civilization -- Periodicals; 949.5005
• DOI: 10.1017/byz.2015.14
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0307-0131

Abstract

Abstract : The description of the festival for Saint Demetrios in Thessaloniki in the Timarion has long been used as a source for regional and liturgical history. It is in fact a literary rewriting of a festival at Delphi in Heliodoros' Aithiopika. This paper demonstrates how the description of the Demetria represents a moment in Byzantine humanism as well as a reflection on the process of literary composition itself. An explanation is also proposed here for why Heliodoros' festival at Delphi in particular, out of all descriptions of festivals in ancient literature, appealed to the author of the Timarion.