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Death, Memory and the Archiving of Monastic Culture in Late Antique Religious Tales

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Death, Memory and the Archiving of Monastic Culture in Late Antique Religious Tales The Great Mystery: Death, Memory and the Archiving of Monastic Culture in Late Antique Religious Tales The Harvard community has made this article openly available. Please share how this access benefits you. Your story matters Citation Dirkse, Saskia. 2015. The Great Mystery: Death, Memory and the Archiving of Monastic Culture in Late Antique Religious Tales. Doctoral dissertation, Harvard University, Graduate School of Arts & Sciences. Citable link http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:17463121 Terms of Use This article was downloaded from Harvard University’s DASH repository, and is made available under the terms and conditions applicable to Other Posted Material, as set forth at http:// nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:dash.current.terms-of- use#LAA The Great Mystery: Death, Memory and the Archiving of Monastic Culture in Late Antique Religious Tales A dissertation presented by Saskia Caroline Dirkse to The Department of the Classics in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the subject of Byzantine Greek Harvard University Cambridge, Massachusetts May 2015 © 2015 Saskia Caroline Dirkse All rights reserved. Dissertation Advisor: Professor John Duffy Saskia Caroline Dirkse The Great Mystery: Death, Memory and the Archiving of Monastic Culture in Late Antique Religious Tales Abstract The present study investigates attitudes towards and teachings about the end of life and the soul’s passage to the next world, as expressed in late antique religious tales in Greek, particularly from Egypt and the Sinai. The intellectual setting is that of Chalcedonian Christianity, but within those strictures there was scope for a range of creative treatments and imaginings of a topic which canonical Scripture touched upon in mostly vague terms or glancing allusions. While there was much speculation and discussion in what we may call formal theology, the use of arresting narrative, some of it with an almost dramatic character, gave exponents of doctrine the ability to reach a wider audience in a more penetrating and persuasive way. And, as the number of scriptural allusions here will make clear, it was possible to develop ideas and images within the large gaps left by Holy Writ which were nevertheless not inconsonant with the same. Coupled with the relative freedom allowed for presentations of a universal (death) was an urgency to do so which was particular to the time (one of sweeping social and political changes within, and threats to, the empire). We consider here the connection between the universal and the particular, and some of the most important approaches taken to the subject. iii This work builds upon that of a number of scholars, including Derek Krueger, John Wortley, Phil Booth, André Binggeli, Elizabeth Castelli and Aron Gurevich. The first and last chapters of the dissertation are given to thematic treatment of the moments immediately before and immediately after death. The second, third and fourth chapters are each dedicated to one of the three most influential ascetic writers of the period: John Klimakos, John Moschos, and Anastasios of Sinai. We look at how their presentations of death not only frame the ideals of monastic life but to record for posterity the fading ways of a changing world. iv Contents Abstract ....................................................................................................................................................... iii Table of Contents ....................................................................................................................................... v Acknowledgements .................................................................................................................................. vi Introduction ................................................................................................................................................ 1 Chapter 1: Τελωνεῖα: The Tollgates of the Air as an Egyptian Motif in Patristic Sources and Early Byzantine Hagiography ................................................. 10 Chapter 2: A Ladder Over the Wall, or, Klimakos and A Prison of One’s Own Making ............. 30 Chapter 3: Moschos: “In prison hast thou spent a pilgrimage and like a hermit overpass’d thy days.” ........................................................................... 66 Part I: The Recovery of Anchorites’ Bodies ....................................................................................... 75 Part II: Variations on the Script ........................................................................................................... 93 Chapter 4: Anastasios and the Spirit of the Place .............................................................................. 103 Chapter 5: The Final Conversation ..................................................................................................... 143 Conclusion .............................................................................................................................................. 167 Bibliography ............................................................................................................................................ 170 v Acknowledgements It is a great pleasure for me to acknowledge and thank some of the people who, through their guidance, friendship and support, have made this dissertation possible. First, I wish to thank my supervisor, John Duffy, who in the seven years that we have known each other has been unstintingly kind and generous with his time and his deep fund of knowledge. Like his namesake John, who figures so frequently in this dissertation, Professor Duffy has been to me a model teacher, whose academic rigor is seamlessly paired with a gentle sense of humor and a sincere appreciation of a good story. It is a paradox appropriate to this genre that one feels so humble in the presence of a man so uplifting. My sincere gratitude and appreciation also go once again to the two other members of my thesis committee: to Panagiotis Roilos, whose advice, support and teaching have been crucial to my development as a scholar; and to Jan Ziolkowski, who has shown me great kindness both professionally and personally, along with his wife Liz, in making me feel welcome at Dumbarton Oaks. Of the many people in the Harvard Classics Department who have helped make my time there such a rewarding experience, special thanks go to Greg Nagy, David Elmer, Emma Dench, Vassiliki Rapti and Sarah Insley – inspiring teachers all. Teresa Wu and Alyson Lynch have been ideal friends and have filled my sails on countless occasions. Vladimir Bošković has always been eager to share his many insights. Julian Yolles and Deniz Turker make everything sweeter. And without Julia Scarborough – one flinches to think how much one would have missed without her. Dumbarton Oaks has played an essential role in my formation as scholar and it is with pleasure that I thank Margaret Mullett for her wisdom and generosity and Alice-Mary and Bill Talbot for their kindness, hospitality and acute scholarly eyes. The fellows and staff have been an absolute delight. And Deb Stewart has done so much that I can’t even begin here to thank her properly. Since January I’ve had the pleasure of finding a new professional home at the University of Basel, where I have the extraordinarily good fortune to work for and with an exceptional group of scholars. Martin Wallraff, Patrick Andrist and Cristina Ricci have given a warm welcome and helpful guidance to my colleagues and me; they have also been gracious and accommodating to my schedule while I was finishing writing up these last few months. A particular word of thanks to Nick Marinides, who is kind and with whom discussion is always fruitful. Without my father, Jan-Paul Dirkse, I might never had made it to Harvard in the first place. He saw to my early education and then supported me through six years at St. Andrews and Oxford. A scholar himself, he taught me to love books and learning; he and his wife Daphne Bergsma have encouraged me throughout. My dear brother Maarten Dirkse generously opened his home up to me for over a month when I was staying in Leiden. Aunt Olga Smulders-Meyer’s house in Watertown was always open and welcoming. And in writing on what they have left us who have gone on before us, I remember my mother, Maria Smulders, with whom I first saw the lands of Egypt and Greece and the city of Constantinople, and whose levenslust has stayed with me still. Finally, I wish to thank my husband, Roderick Saxey, for his love and support. For our past and for our future. It is to him that I dedicate this work. vi Exegi monumentum ære perennius regalique situ pyramidum altius… —Ode 3.30 So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, So long lives this and this gives life to thee. —Sonnet 18 General Introduction In the Christian thought of Late Antiquity, death presented the ultimate transition: a separation of body and soul; a time of joy and peace for the righteous and of grief and penance for the wicked. Although for most, death was the inexorable conclusion to life in the flesh, a fact which the pious Christian was instructed always to bear carefully in mind, a number of Byzantine text collections belonging to the genre of the religious tales include narratives which show the act of dying not as an immovable absolute in a fixed order but as a variable process that could sometimes be anticipated, delayed, temporarily reversed or even permanently undone. The living could
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