From Mimesis to Myth

From Mimesis to Myth traces the transformation of a Greek account of the life of Cyprian of Carthage into the legendary tale of Cyprian of Antioch as a means of exploring how late antique Christian authors and audiences interpreted the fictional qualities of hagiographic narratives. Through close readings of texts from the fourth and fifth centuries, including works by Gregory of Nazianzus and the Theodosian empress Aelia Eudocia, the book uncovers how Cyprian's legend evolved and how Christian authors embraced and transformed Greek literary traditions. George F. Rambow suggests that Christian writers consciously engaged in mythmaking and crafted a new heroic universe to rival the mythology of pagan antiquity. The book introduces the concept of "noncontractual, protreptic representation" to describe a uniquely Christian adaptation of Aristotelian mimesis, offering a new framework for interpreting fictional hagiographic narratives. Bridging history, religion, classics, and literary theory, Rambow fundamentally reassesses important assumptions in the ongoing debate on late antique narrative traditions.