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The Patriarch Sergius and the Theotokos

    Mary Whitby

Jahrbuch der Österreichischen Byzantinistik 70, pp. 403-425, 2021/05/05

doi: 10.1553/joeb70s403


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doi:10.1553/joeb70s403



doi:10.1553/joeb70s403

Abstract

This paper examines, in four overlapping sections, George of Pisidia’s presentation of the relationship between hispatron, the patriarch Sergius, and the Theotokos or Virgin Mary. It first shows how the imagery of childbirth, articulated in theprologue of George’s Avar War, is part of a larger nexus of fertility imagery that the poet regularly associates with Sergius.The main narrative of the Avar War is next considered. The third section discusses three epigrams by George on Constantinopolitanchurches dedicated to the Virgin that connect her with the Avar victory, two of which explicitly mention Sergius. Thefourth analyses a sequence of epigrams composed by George in honour of a chapel of the Theotokos in the patriarchate built orrestored by Sergius. In a coda, I interrogate the epigram that follows this sequence, considering its relationship to the precedingpoems. The study highlights key aspects of George’s technique and suggests that his epigrams benefit from study alongside thepanegyrical works. In these poems the Theotokos is presented both as saviour and as intercessor.

Keywords: George of Pisidia, Sergius, Theotokos, Virgin Mary, Patriarchate, Avar, Paris suppl. gr. 690