This recent volume from the Translated Texts for Byzantinists series (hereafter, TTB) is a welcome addition to the growing number of Greek hagiographical texts available in English. It includes accounts of the torture and executions of three early Christian female martyrs, Ia of Persia (4th c.), Horaiozele of Constantinople (3rd c.) and Tatiana of Rome (3rd c.) These texts are not, however, the original passiones, but rewritings (metaphraseis) by later Byzantine authors. The revised account of Tatiana's martyrdom is by an anonymous 8th/9th-c. hagiographer, while the revised works on Ia and Horaiozele date to the early Palaiologan period and were respectively authored by Makarios, monk of the Mangana monastery (otherwise unknown), and Constantine Akropolites, the most prolific metaphrast of the late Byzantine period.
In keeping with the very flexible format of the TTB series, Alwis's translated texts take up only 70 pages, while the bulk of the volume is devoted to an extensive monographic introduction that analyzes the texts from the perspective of narratology and focalization and offers valuable insights into the three authors’ techniques of rewriting their model texts. Included are such topics as the use of Atticizing vocabulary and rhetorical devices to elevate the style. She also discusses the reception of these works by their respective audiences, in view of the political climate and religious controversies at the time of their composition.
Spot checking of the translation shows that Alwis has produced a reasonably accurate rendering of the texts, with sufficient modifications to make complex sentences more intelligible for modern readers. The translations are accompanied by numerous footnotes that explicate historical references and, where applicable, provide different manuscript readings, comments on unusual vocabulary, references to biblical citations, and the like. In accordance with the TTB format, no Greek text is provided, but many notes helpfully give the Greek text of the original or offer a more literal translation of a phrase Alwis has modified.
