PALAEOBULGARICA / ÑÒÀÐÎÁÚËÃÀÐÈÑÒÈÊÀ, ÕLIV (2020), 1

ПРЕГЛЕД / ОБЗОРЫ И РЕЦЕНЗИИ / SURVEY AND BOOK REVIEWS

Maya Petrova (Sofia, Bulgaria)

AN IN-DEBT STUDY OF THE DRAGON-SLAYING MOTIF IN BYZANTINE AND SOUTH SLAVIC HAGIOGRAPHIC TRADITION Ана Стойкова. Светци-змееборци: Теодор Тирон, Теодор Стратилат, Георги Победо­ носец в южнославянската средновековна традиция / Ana Stoykova. Dragon-Slayer Saints: Theodore Tiron, Theodore Stratelates and George the Victory-Bearer. South Slavic Medieval Tradition. София, 2019. 319 с. ISBN 978-619-01-0465-0.

The topic of the dragon-slayer saints has saints with dragons. Тhe stories of these long been in the focus of Prof. Ana Stoy­ fights are representative for their veneration. kova’s attention. She has dedicated to it more They had a significant influence on the -ex than ten articles and a monograph. Her study pansion of their cult, their iconography and St. George the Victory-Bearer. The South the popular beliefs about them. The presence Slavic Medieval Hagiographic Tradition and the development of the dragon-slaying (Sofia: Iztok‒Zapad, 2016)* is an exhaustive motif in the mediaeval South Slavic literary research into the cult and the hagiographic sources have previously not been systemati- accounts of perhaps the most popular Chris- cally examined. tian warrior-saint; the book is equipped with The book consists of a Preface (p. 11‒14), a critical edition of the Slavonic transla- followed by three identically structured chap- tions of St. George’s Passions as found in ters dedicated to the three holy martyrs re- medieval­ South Slavic manuscripts. In her spectively ‒ Chapter 1: The Miracle of Theo­ new book, Dragon-Slayer Saints: Theodore dore Tiron with His Mother and the Dragon Tiron, Theodore Stratelates and George the (p. 15‒54), Chapter 2: Theodor Stratelates Victory-Bearer. The South Slavic Medieval and the Dragon (p. 55‒103), and Chap- Tradition, Stoykova is interested mainly in ter 3: The Miracle of George the Victory- the episodes depicting the battles of these bearer with the Dragon (105‒176), and a Conclusion (p. 177‒180). The chapters are divided into numerous subchapters descri­ * Стойкова, А. Свети Георги Победоносец. bing the history of the cults of these saints, Агиографски произведения в южнославянска­ the known Byzantine literary works relating та средновековна традиция. София: Изток‒ their fight with the monsters, and the recep- Запад, 2016. tion of the texts (or of some of them) among

137 Southern Slavs. The study is based on rich However, as Ana Stoykova suggests, the archival material – more than 45 Bulgarian content of the episode and the meaning of and Serbian manuscripts (dating from the the dragon-slaying motif gradually develops end of the 13th to the 17th centuries), as well in hagiography and only at a later stage be- as a great number of Greek written sources comes a metaphor of the triumph of Chris- (dating from the end of the 9th to the 17th tianity over paganism. The image of the centuries). The second part of the book (p. dragon also changes: initially the creature is 183‒288) is a critical edition of all the exam- depicted as a minor nuisance, more similar ined Slavonic texts, some of which are pa­ to a wild animal hiding in thick bushes in ralleled with their Greek versions. The book the vicinity of a water spring, than to an evil also provides a full list of the Slavic and mythological beast. Yet, in time it gradually Greek manuscripts studied (p. 291‒296), transforms into a serious adversary. In ear- an extensive Bibliography (p. 297‒308), an lier sources, in order to exterminate it, it is Index (p. 309‒311), and an exciting set of sufficient for the saint to make the sign of illustrations witnessing to the representa- the cross and say a prayer, so the encounter tion of these saints’ battles with a dragon on is depicted only by means of hagiographic icons and mural paintings. topoi. Later narratives are more detailed and In the Preface, Stoykova presents the his- dramatic. It should also be noted that there tory of the dragon-slaying myth. She points is always a female character involved in the out that the victory over an enormous ser- legends, notwithstanding that the role of the pent is a common motif not only in medi- lady varies in the stories of the three saints, eval hagiography, but also in biblical and as well as in the different versions of these classical literature, as well as in folklore. stories. Thus, some Passions of St. Theodore Stoykova starts her survey by outlining the Tiron mention certain Eusebia (initially with mythological roots of the theme, emphasiz­ ­ no connection to the dragon-slaying episode) ing that in mythology the constant conflict as the saint’s mistress, to whom he leaves between the hero / the god and the monster his testament and the instructions to bury his / the dragon aims to preserve cosmic order. body in the land that she owns; alternatively, From this mythological monster, the dragon she is the woman who buys his relics and of the Christian legends inherits its ambigu- builds a church dedicated to him. A Mira- ous nature of a creature that, on the one hand, cle of the same martyr tells of his mother, causes destruction, but, on the other, is the beautiful “as a virgin”, who is abducted by guardian of water springs that ensure ferti­ a dragon and subsequently saved by her son. lity. In Christian hagiography, the motif is of- As Ana Stoykova emphasizes, the Miracle ten part of the saint’s vita (be it as an episode of Theodore Tiron with His Mother and the of the saint’s Passion or as an independent Dragon (BHG 1766‒1767) is clearly influ- miracle) and is adjusted to fit the purposes enced by folklore and is most probably a of Christian propaganda. As a rule, the fight legend reworked as mediaeval popular lite­ with the monster precedes the martyrdom of rature. In her opinion, it is quite possible that the hero and is symbolically interpreted as the initial (oral?) narrative about the fight of a prognostication of his future triumph over the saint with the serpent followed the folk- the “spiritual” dragon Satan, a victory that lore (mythological) motif of the hero who results in the conversion of many pagans to defeats a monster and, in reward, is wed- the Christian religion. The story stands as ded to the ruler’s daughter. Along with the proof of the saint’s strength, courage, and, Christianization of the legend, the bond be- above all, of the power of his faith. tween the hero and the maiden is modified

138 into a subordinated “(spiritual) mother-son” probably modelled after St. Theodore Tiron relationship (p. 30‒31). The “pious Eusebia” (p. 55‒62). Acquiring deeper symbolism is also present in the Passion of Theodore and more dramatic dimensions, the episode Stratelates by Augarus (BHG 1750), where becomes central to St. Theodore Stratelates’ she warns the sleeping saint of the dragon’s Passion by Augarus (an alleged disciple of presence. A princess offered in sacrifice to the martyr who witnessed his sufferings) and feed and conciliate the monster has an im- to his cult. The Miracle of St. George with portant function in the Common and in the the Dragon appears rather late, only in the Extended Greek recensions of the Miracle 11th‒12th centuries, and is shaped after the of St. George with the Dragon (BHG 687, stories about Theodore Tiron and/or Theo- BHG 687b). dore Stratelates (p. 105‒114). Although traditionally associated with In order to extract this information, Stoy­ the narrative cycle of St. George (as Ana kova, after scrutinizing various historical, Stoykova convincingly shows by a meticu- archaeological and iconographic sources, lous study of the preserved visual and writ- summarizes the data about the cult of each ten sources), in Byzantium the episode about of these three early Christian martyrs pay- the slaying of a monster is attested for the ing special attention to the interrelationships first time in the miracles of St. Theodore between their cults and texts and the ways Tiron (p. 15‒34). It has proven difficult to in which these intertwine. She makes a very trace the origin of this motif, because the en- concise overview of the emergence and in- counter with the dragon is absent from the terpretation of the dragon-slaying motif in earliest literary works about this saint; hence the respective Greek hagiographic, homi- the legend of their confrontation obviously letic and hymnographic works, outlining its postdates the appearance of his Passion. time of occurrence, its enrichment with new The dragon-slaying scene is first attested elements, and the dissemination of the texts in the famous MS Par. gr. 1470 from the 9th containing it in various types of manuscripts century, in the so-called Early Passion of (both as independent miracles and in the Theodore Tiron (BHG 1761) – a text dated frameworks of saints’ Passions). Тhe num- by various authors to between the 4th and 7th ber of Greek manuscripts consulted is im- centuries. Notwithstanding that, according pressive – approximately 40 (some of them to some scholars, the story of the struggle unpublished). In addition, the presentation with the beast in this Passion might have of the Byzantine literary sources is accom- been a later interpolation, it soon penetrated panied by occasional glimpses at the Latin into other hagiographic and hymnographic and Georgian traditions. works related to this saint, where it was Against this wide background, the author further developed. Stoykova explains the introduces the South Slavic manuscript ma- attachment of this motif to the deeds of St. terial that is the real core of her analysis. Theodore Tiron by the influence of local It should be emphasized that the search, in tradition and histories about his fight with various manuscript collections, libraries and a dragon narrated in the area of Euchaita archives, for the extant manuscript copies (the main centre of Theodore Tiron’s cult). of the texts containing dragon-slaying nar- Although usually preserved in a few manu- ratives about St. Theodore Tiron, St. Theo- script copies, the versions of the accounts dore Stratelates and St. George the Victory-­ about St. Theodore Tiron’s victory over the bearer, the thorough examination of the texts, dragon strongly influenced the hagiography and their division into groups based on their of St. Theodore Stratelates, who himself was versions, is in itself a contribution, since

139 many of the manuscripts do not fall within closest to the supposed Byzantine text, to the scope of Klimentina Ivanova’s catalogue draw the stemma of the copies, to suggest the Bibliotheca Hagiographica Balcano-Slavi­ sequence of the appearance of their versions ca. Moreover, Ana Stoykova’s discoveries and to outline their possible interrelations. in the field of archaeography are not limited One gets some idea as to how complicated to drawing up a detailed list of the preserved the problem is by tracing Ana Stoykova’s South Slavic copies of each of the works investigations of the history of the Old Bul- studied, or to introducing many of them for garian translation of the Passion of St. Theo- the first time into the scholarly discourse. For dore Stratelates by Augarus, initially meant instance, she succeeds in identifying the Ser- to be read on the First Saturday of Lent (p. bian codex used (without referring to it) in 64‒102). Stoykova examines in detail its 1886 by Vatroslav Jagić in his publication of language (which is very archaic, especially the Miracle of St. George with the Dragon. in its lexis) and concludes that the transla- Jagić’s text has proved crucial for studying tion was made in Preslav in the 10th century. the history of this work in Slavic literatures. The Preslav translation of this Passion be- Furthermore, Ana Stoykova has succeeded came widespread as part of the early liturgi- in finding an earlier South Slavic copy of the cal books; it was brought to the territory of same text, correcting A. V. Rystenko’s claim the Archbishopric of Ohrid (thus finding its that it has no Byzantine parallel, proving way to codices written in Western Bulgaria, that it corresponds to the so-called Extended Serbia, and Russia), and was copied in both Greek recension (BHG 678b), and tracing its liturgical and non-liturgical manuscripts. By presence in the damaskini collections related studying their linguistic peculiarities, Stoy­ to the Bulgarian Adjar literary centre in the kova classifies the South Slavic manuscript 17th century (p. 148‒164). copies into two main groups, each of which The examination of the manuscript copies has three subgroups. However, as Stoykova of the texts describing the dragon-slaying has found, the Miracle with the Dragon was miracles of St. Theodore Tiron, St. Theo- a later interpolation not originally included dore Stratelates and St. George in South in the translation. Moreover, she convinc- Slavic medieval literatures confronts Ana ingly demonstrates that its inclusion in the Stoykova with a very difficult task. Firstly, Passion of St. Theodore Stratelates by Au- some of the texts (especially those referred garus was not done on a single occasion to as староизводни, that is, found in Read- ‒ the episode itself has three independent ing Menaia belonging to the so-called Old translations (which go back to three different redaction) display a large number of vari- types of books in Byzantium), each of which ations. This fact is due to constant changes was incorporated in copies of the already ex- resulting from editorial interventions over isting Slavonic text of the Passion at differ- time ‒ changes not only in language and vo- ent stages of its transmission. Along with the cabulary, but also in terms of frequent addi- Preslav translation of St. Theodore Strate- tions to, or elimination of elements from, the lates’ Passion by Augarus, South Slavic plot. Secondly, as no critical editions of the manuscripts preserve a great number of co­ Greek texts about St. Theodore Tiron and St. pies of its later, Middle Bulgarian, trans- Theodore Stratelates have been published, lation, made, in Stoykova’s opinion, in there is no solid basis for comparison with Tărnovo in the end of the 13th or the first half the Slavonic translations. All this makes it of the 14th century. very difficult, if not impossible, to determine The Miracle of St. Theodore Tiron, with which of the extant South Slavic copies is His Mother and the Dragon, the only ex-

140 tant account of the saint’s struggle with the the end of the 13th or early 14th century was monster in the medieval South Slavic tradi- transferred to the East Slavic lands. She also tion, has also been translated more than once examines a reworked version of the Miracle in the South Slavic environment – at least preserved in a single copy in the sixteenth- twice, as Ana Stoykova demonstrates, in a century apocryphal Tumanski Sbornik, relatively short time span during the Mid- which has no identified Greek original. By dle Bulgarian period (p. 34‒53). One of the analyzing their language, Ana Stoykova translations has survived in a unique copy, in highlights the specific grammatical and lexi- the well-known Germanov Sbornik (written cal characteristics of each South Slavonic in 1359‒1360). The other translation (which translation or textual recension; she lists and Stoykova believes to be of a slightly later explains some archaic and rare words, and date) is widely present in Bulgarian, Serbian, offers convincing hypotheses as to the time and Moldavian codices dating from the 14th and place of their occurrence. The South to the 16th centuries. Its distinctive feature Slavic manuscript tradition of St. George’s is the replacement of the name of the king Miracle with the Dragon is so complex that, ruling at the time when, according to the le­ in order to facilitate the comparison between gend, the story takes place – here he is called its different translations and versions, Stoy­ Constantine, while in all Greek sources, as kova introduces comparative tables indicat- well as in the Germanov Sbornik, he is Saul. ing the presence, change or absence of spe- Stoykova assumes that the second Slavonic cific elements in the plot. translation was based upon a reworked Byz- Among the undisputed merits of Ana antine version of the main text, which most Stoykova’s book are her observations on the probably originated at the periphery of the relationship between the texts examined and Empire and found no further echoes in the their manuscript context. She not only uses Greek manuscript tradition. The existence the manuscript content to confirm the - lo of significant discrepancies between the Sla- calization and dating of the translations, but vonic texts she ascribes to the influence of also draws the important conclusion that the the natural changes taking place in language Greek originals of dragon-slaying narratives over time, as well as to the numerous edito- and their Slavic correspondences are distri­ rial changes typical for the transmission of buted in codices of a similar type and pur- non-liturgical texts. pose. Regardless of whether they belonged The Miracle of St. George with the Dra­ to official literature, read in churches and gon has an equally complicated textual de- monasteries, or represented the low-level velopment (p. 105‒176). Ana Stoykova has type of writings strongly influenced by folk- discovered two South Slavonic translations lore and copied mainly by poorly educated of the so-called Common recension of the local priests and monks, these texts invari- Greek text (BHG 687), one of them pre- ably had a huge impact on the popular image served, again, as a unique copy in the Ger- and representation in art of three of the most manov Sbornik. Along with them, there is venerated Christian saints. also a translation of the Extended Greek re- The critical edition of all the South Slavic cension (BHG 687b), which was widespread texts discussed in the book has been care- in Russia ‒ it is not clear whether the text fully prepared in accordance with contem- entered South Slavic literatures with the me- porary editorial practices. The publication diation of a Russian source (as believed by of the Miracle of St. Theodore Tiron, His A. V. Rystenko) or, in reverse (as the author Mother and the Dragon is based on all the assumes), the Bulgarian translation made at 8 known manuscript copies (some of them

141 preserved in fragments) from the begin- Dragon are published according to the so- ning of the 14th to the 16th centuries. In or- called Dragolov Sbornik (MS 651 from the der to facilitate their detailed comparison, National library of Serbia, third quarter of Stoykova has divided the text into parallel the 13th century) and the Germanov Sbornik, segments, presenting all the variant readings respectively; the edition of the Extended as horizontal structures ‒ a method already recension is based upon the seventeenth- used by the author in her earlier monographs century Cod. Slav. 32 (No 1025/34) from the for publishing texts of floating tradition. In Bavarian State library, Munich, discovered selecting the main texts for the editions of by Jagić; the unique copy of St. George’s the rest of the works studied, Ana Stoykova Miracle with the Dragon from the apocry- has sought maximum proximity to the trans- phal Tumanski Sbornik (MS III.a.10, Croa- lation archetype, adhering to two principles – tian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Zagreb) the main text to belong to the older manuscript is added. The existing differing versions of tradition and to contain a minimal number of St. Theodore Stratelates’ Miracle with the innovations. The critical apparatus provides Dragon (interpolated in Augarus’ Passion) the substantive variant readings in the lexis, and St. George’s Miracle with the Demon grammar, word order and word formation. (closely related to his miracle with the drag- For representing the Old Bulgarian transla- on) are published separately, also with vari- tion of the Passion of Theodore Stratelates ant readings. by Augarus Stoykova has chosen as main The edition of the dragon-slaying narra- text its copy in the Jagić Zlatoust (MS tives about St. Theodore Tiron, St. Theodore Q.п.I.56, Russian National library, St. Pe- Stratelates, and St. George preserved in the tersburg, first half of the 14th century), and South Slavic hagiographic tradition provides for its Middle Bulgarian translation ‒ the invaluable source material for further studies Rila Pa­negyric (Rila Monastery, MS 4/8 in the history of medieval literature, culture, from 1479) of the well-known man-of letters language, and art history. Complemented by Vladislav the Grammarian. The two South Stoykova’s commentaries and conclusions, Slavic translations of the Common recen- it will serve as a sound basis for future schol- sion of the Miracle of St. George with the arly research.

Maya Petrova, Institute for Literature – BAS

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