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This study focuses on the apocryphal Acts of Andrew (c. 200 CE), which purports to tell the story of the travels, miracles, and martyrdom of the apostle Andrew. Traditional scholarship has looked for the background of such writings in Jewish and Christian scriptures. MacDonald, however, breaks with that model and looks to classic literature for the sources of this story. Specifically, he argues that the Acts represent an attempt to transform Greco-Roman myth into Christian narrative categories by telling the story of Andrew in terms of Homeric epic, in particular the Odyssey. MacDonald presents a point-by-point comparison of the two works, finding the resemblances so strong, numerous, and tendentious that they virtually compel the reader to consider the Acts a transformative "rewriting" of the epic. This discovery not only sheds valuable light on the uses of Homer in the early church but also significantly contributes to our understanding of the reception of Homer in the empire as a whole.
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Christianizing Homer
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Christianizing Homer The Odyssey, Plato, and The Acts of Andrew
Dennis Ronald MacDonald
New York Oxford OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS 1994
Oxford University Press Oxford New York Toronto Delhi Bombay Calcutta Madras Karachi Kuala Lumpur Singapore Hong Kong Tokyo Nairobi Dar es Salaam Cape Town Melbourne Auckland Madrid and associated companies in Berlin Ibadan
Copyright © 1994 by Dennis Ronald MacDonald Published by Oxford University Press, Inc. 200 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10016 Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of Oxford University Press. Since the copyright page cannot accommodate all the credit lines, the following page is to be considered an extension of the copyright page. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data MacDonald, Dennis Ronald, 1948Christianizing Homer : the Odyssey, Plato, and the Acts of Andrew Dennis Ronald MacDonald. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-19-508722-4 1. Acts of Andrew—Criticism, interpretation, etc. 2. Homer. Odyssey. 3. Plato-Influence. 4. Socrates—Influence. 5. Mythology, Greek—Controversial literature. 6. Apologetics-Early church, ca. 30-600. I. Title. BS2880.A372M34 1994 229'.92-dc20 93-5653
2 4 6 8 9 7 5 3 1 Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper
From Charlie and the Chocolate factory by Roald Dahl. Copyright © 1964 by Roald Dahl. Copyright renewed. Reprinted by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. From The Iliad by Homer, translated by Robert Fagles. Translation copyright © 1990 by Robert Fagles. Introduction and Notes Copyright © 1990 by Bernard Knox. Used by permission of Viking Penguin, a division of Penguin Books USA Inc. Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA. Used by permission. All rights reserved. The following are reprinted with the permission of Harvard University Press and the Loeb Classical Library: Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica, R. C. Seaton, 1912 Apuleius, Metamorphoses, J. Arthur Hanson, 1989 Callimachus, Hymns, C. A. Trypanis, 1958 Clement of Alexandria, Exhortation to the Greeks (Protrepticus), G. W. Butterworth, 1919 Euripides, Iphigenia at Autis, Arthur S. Way, 1912 Euripides, Madness of Heracles, Arthur S. Way, 1912 Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History, Kirsopp Lake, 1926, and J. E. L. Oulton, 1932 Homer, Iliad, A. T. Murray, 1924-25 Homer Odyssey, A. T. Murray, 1919 (Ps-) Lucian