A Phantom
In an early medieval Constantinople filled with pagan artifacts and dark histories, one man's writings would reveal a world in which sorcery, religion, and politics were inextricably intertwined. This episode brings you the story of a scholar, bishop, and savvy political survivor in an era of iconoclasm: the story of Ignatios the Deacon.Illumination of Byzantine iconoclasm
Researched, written, and produced by Corinne Wieben with original music by Purple Planet.
Cover image: Illumination depicting Byzantine iconoclasm from the Chludov Psalter, 9th century. Public domain.
Music
Purple Planet - Daybreak
Purple Planet - Alone
Purple Planet - Red Mist
Purple Planet - Atmospheric Piano Backing
Purple Planet - Sense of Loss
Purple Planet - Shadowlands
Sources
Primary
Ignatios the Deacon. The Correspondence of Ignatios the Deacon, edited and translated by Cyril Mango. Dumbarton Oaks Texts XI. Washington, D.C.: Dumbarton Oaks, 1997.
Ignatios the Deacon. The Life of the Patriarch Tarasios, edited and translated by Sephanos Efthymiadis. Birmingham Byzantine and Ottoman Monographs 4. Brookfield: Ashgate, 1998.
The Life of Saint Basil the Younger: Critical Edition and Annotated Translation of the Moscow Version, edited and translated by Denis F. Sullivan, Alice-Mary Talbot, and Stamatina McGrath. Dumbarton Oaks Studies 45. Washington, D.C.: Dumbarton Oaks, 2014.
Secondary
Codoñer, Juan Signes. The Emperor Theophilos and the East, 829-842: Court and Frontier in Byzantium During the Last Phase of Iconoclasm Oxford: Taylor & Francis Group, 2014.
Constas, Nicholas. “‘To Sleep, Perchance to Dream’: The Middle State of Souls in Patristic and Byzantine Literature.” Dumbarton Oaks Papers 55 (2001): 91–124.
Curta, Florin. The Edinburgh History of the Greeks, c. 500 to 1050: The Early Middle Ages. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2011.
Efthymiadis, Stephanos. “The Biography of Ignatios the Deacon: A Reassessment of the Evidence.” Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies 26 (2002): 276–283.
Giakoumis, Konstantinos. “Iconoclastic Disputes in Byzantium.” In The Palgrave Handbook of Image Studies, edited by , 51–74. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2021.
Kazhdan, Alexander. “Ignatios the Deacon.” In The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium, edited by Alexander Kazhdan, 984. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991.
Pratsch, Thomas. “Ignatios the Deacon — Cleric of the Constantinopolitan Patriarchate, Metropolitan Bishop of Nicaea, Private Scholar, Teacher and Writer (A Life Reconsidered).” Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies 24 (2000): 82–101.
