The voice of the author and the voice of the metaphrastes: the case of Theodore of Paphos' Life of Spyridon

Abstract

Van den Ven has published, in 1953, four texts about the life of saint Spyridon. The "Life I" is a work from Theodore, bishop of Paphos, in Cyprus, who employed the same sources that Leontius of Neapolis did ("Life II", as we think); and he added another personal sources. The "Life III" is a metaphrasis on the Theodore' text.             We propose to confront "Life I" and "Life III" focalizing here in the author's voice.             Theodore has an evident and stable presence throughout the work, with theological and moral commentaries and with meta-literary and local details; on the contrary, the metaphrastes reduces his voice to some interventions (mostly in the prologue), which comment about the text and leave out the more personal testimonies of the original author.             We think that the metaphrastes' intention was to place at the forefront the saint and his miracles; and to erase the evident presence of the author and of the witness, in order to put Spyridon (and God) as the preeminent figure of the didactic story. He made then a shorter text (μετρίως πως καὶ ἀμυδρῶς 129: 20) but also more readable to a timeless and less local audience.