By Denison B. Hull
Translation by Denison B. Hull
Introduction by Denison B. Hull
“This work will be welcomed by those who want to enjoy this epic in a clear and enjoyable translation.”
Library Journal
Among the epic romances of post–Barbarian Europe, such as Roland and El Cid, Digenis Akritas has been the least known in the West—outside Greece. It is the story of a half-breed prince who guarded the eastern border of the Roman Empire of Byzantium on the Euphrates in the tenth century. His name and cognomen, Basil, the Two–Blood Border Lord, sum up the curious richness of his heritage: Roman by politics, Arab and Cappadocian by birth, Greek in language, and orthodox by faith.
On an incursion into Byzantine territory, an Arab Emir captures a Christian woman. Her relatives, in raiding to rescue her, convert the Emir and his people to Christianity and bring them back to the empire. Basil is born of this union. A prodigy of valor, his miraculous strength in hunting and in battle win him an Arab bride and the loyalty of her family. He settles in a splendid garden palace by the Euphrates, pacifies the Border, fights dragons and bandits only to die young at the same instant as his wife.
The poem in English verse translation is full of humor, fairytale, and a moving religious devotion. It recaptures an urbane vanished civilization.
The translator has collated all the known texts and supports the translation with commentary, a bibliography, and a map.
Denison Bingham Hull is a graduate of Harvard College and the Harvard School of Architecture. He is a trustee of the American Farm School in Thessaloniki, Greece, and has received numerous honors, including the Gold Cross and the Order of the Phoenix from the Greek government. He is the translator of Homer’s Illiad and Homer’s Odyssey, also published by Ohio University Press. More info →
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Paperback
978-0-8214-0833-9
Retail price: $17.95,
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Release date: January 1986
1 illus.
·
196 pages
·
6 × 9 in.
Rights: World
Hardcover
978-0-8214-0097-5
Out-of-print
Electronic
978-0-8214-4251-7
Release date: January 1986
1 illus.
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196 pages
Rights: World
The Unknowable
An Ontological Introduction to the Philosophy of Religion
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Translation by Boris Jakim
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Preface by Boris Jakim
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Translation by Theodora Vasils and Themi Vasils
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