Manuscripts and translations
There is only one complete Coptic manuscript on parchment, now Pierpont Morgan M.583. It is a dated hagiographic miscellany that was completed on 8 February 848. [4] There are a further four fragmentary manuscript copies, three on parchment and one on papyrus. One fragment contains a shorter version of the story, but it does not appear to be an older version. All the surviving Coptic manuscripts are in the Sahidic dialect.
During the Middle Ages, the Legend was translated into Syriac, Arabic and Ethiopic. The Syriac translation is the earliest, dating to the 9th century. There are six manuscripts of the Syriac text, showing little variation. The earliest surviving copy of an Arabic version is from the 13th or 14th century. There are four different Arabic versions. The long Arabic script version, from the Copto-Arabic Synaxary , is a translation of the Coptic. There is a short version that is an abridgement of this, although it also diverges in some details. There is also a short translation from the Coptic that is known from a single manuscript copied in Garshuni (that is, Arabic in Syriac script). This was the earliest version known in Europe. A longer Garshuni version translated from the Syriac is known from at least five manuscripts, in one of which it is titled History of the Emperor Zeno. The Ethiopic version is a translation of the long Arabic and preserved in the Ethiopian Synaxary .
No Greek version is known.
Genre and sources
The Legend is a work of fiction, usually considered a romance or novel. Although it refers to historical figures, the Legend is "demonstrably ahistorical". Zeno is not known to have had a daughter. From the prologue, it appears that the author was "aware of the literary genre that he [was] tackling", that "God had provided believers not only with preachers but also with authors, intended for their guidance."
Oscar Lemm first proposed that the Legend of Hilaria was based on the Neo-Middle Egyptian Tale of Bentresh, which dates from perhaps as early as the Kushite 25th Dynasty in the 8th century BC or as late as the Ptolemaic Dynasty. There are, however, major differences between the two stories. Parallels exist between Hilaria and figures known from Greek hagiography, such as Eugenia Pelagia, Euphrosyne and Apolinaria.
Synopsis
Coptic text
In the Legend, Hilaria—whose name means "joy" and is a rendering of Bentresh, "daughter of joy"—is the eldest daughter of the Roman emperor Zeno. At eighteen years of age, disguising herself as a cavalryman and without her father's permission, she travels to Alexandria in Egypt, from where she is led first to the monastery of Saint Mina and then to the desert of Scetis by a deacon named Theodore. There she meets Pambo, who advises her to go the Enaton, where life is less harsh. Hilaria stays at Scetis and is accepted as a monk with the name Hilarion. She discusses the scriptures with the philosopher Anba Martyrius. After three years, God reveals to Pambo that Hilarion is in fact a woman. He tells her not to reveal this to the other monks, who take her for a beardless eunuch. The text explains that her breasts were underdeveloped because of her ascetic practices and that she did not menstruate.
Nine years later, her seriously ill sister Theopiste is sent by Zeno to the stratelates of Alexandria, who brings her to Scetis to be healed or exorcised of a demon. Hilaria weeps uncontrollably upon seeing her. She kisses her and sleeps next to her in her cell or grotto until she is healed. After a week, Theopiste returns to Constantinople and reveals the monk's unusual behaviour to her father, Zeno is scandalized. He summons the monk to Constantinople, where Hilaria reveals her identity. There is a tender family reunion before she returns to Scetis to continue living as a monk. Twelve years later, she dies and is buried fully clothed.
Only after her death does it become widely known that Hilarion was in fact a woman. Zeno sends a large annual gift to the monastery.
Variations
The long Arabic version does not contain the revelation to Pambo (Arabic Bamfu), while in the short version Hilaria (not God) reveals herself to Pambo. In the short Arabic version, Pambo meets her in Alexandria, the role of Theodore is nixed and Hilaria confirms her identity to her parents by showing them distinguishing marks on her body.
In the short Arabic and Syriac versions, the role of the strateletes of Alexandria is nixed. The Syriac version contains a formulaic exordium on the value of hearing of the great deeds of the saints, the unworthiness of the author and his refusal to be silent. It also gives Hilaria traits common to heroes: her birth was an answer to prayer and she is of fair complexion. At Scetis, she identifies herself as "John the eunuch, a slave freed by my master". Theopiste stays at Scetis for five years. Finally, the Syriac version has a different ending. After the monks realize she is related to Zeno, she leaves the monastery to live in isolation in a grotto, to avoid becoming conceited. She dies there.
Anthony the Great was a Christian monk from Egypt, revered since his death as a saint. He is distinguished from other saints named Anthony, such as Anthony of Padua, by various epithets: Anthony of Egypt, Anthony the Abbot, Anthony of the Desert, Anthony the Anchorite, Anthony the Hermit, and Anthony of Thebes. For his importance among the Desert Fathers and to all later Christian monasticism, he is also known as the Father of All Monks. His feast day is celebrated on 17 January among the Eastern Orthodox and Catholic churches and on Tobi 22 in the Coptic calendar.
Ammon, Amun, Ammonas, Amoun (Ἀμοῦν), or Ammonius the Hermit was a 4th-century Christian ascetic and the founder of one of the most celebrated monastic communities in Egypt. He was subsequently declared a saint. He was one of the most venerated ascetics of the Nitrian Desert, and Athanasius of Alexandria mentions him in his life of Anthony the Great.
The History of Joseph the Carpenter is a compilation of traditions concerning Mary, Joseph, and the Holy Family, probably composed in Byzantine Egypt in Greek in the late sixth or early seventh centuries, but surviving only in Coptic and Arabic language translation. The text bears witness to the belief in the perpetual virginity of Mary.
Saint Anastasia the Patrician was a Byzantine courtier and later saint. She was a lady-in-waiting to the Byzantine empress Theodora. Justinian I, Theodora's husband, may have pursued her, as Theodora grew jealous of her. Anastasia, to avoid any trouble, left for Alexandria in Egypt. She arrived at a place called Pempton, near Alexandria, where she founded a monastery which would later be named after her. She lived with monastic discipline and wove cloth to support herself.
Pambo was a Coptic Desert Father of the fourth century and disciple of Anthony the Great. His feast day is July 18 among the Oriental Orthodox, Eastern Orthodox, and Catholic churches.
Marina, distinguished as Marina the Monk and also known as Marinos, Pelagia and Mary of Alexandria, was a Christian saint from part of Asian Byzantium, generally said to be Lebanon. Details of the saint's life vary.
The Monastery of Saint Mary El-Sourian is a Coptic Orthodox monastery located in Wadi El Natrun in the Nitrian Desert, Beheira Governorate, Egypt. It is located about 500 meters northwest of the Monastery of Saint Pishoy.
Coptic literature is the body of writings in the Coptic language of Egypt, the last stage of the indigenous Egyptian language. It is written in the Coptic alphabet. The study of the Coptic language and literature is called Coptology.
The Lausiac History is a seminal work archiving the Desert Fathers written in 419-420 by Palladius of Galatia, at the request of Lausus, chamberlain at the court of the Byzantine Emperor Theodosius II.
The Sayings of the Desert Fathers is the name given to various textual collections consisting of stories and sayings attributed to the Desert Fathers and Desert Mothers from approximately the 5th century AD.
Saint Cyrus the Anchorite, also known as Anba Karas, was a saint of the Coptic Orthodox Church who lived during the late fifth and early sixth centuries.
Bishoy of Scetis, known in the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria as the Star of the Desert and the Beloved of our Good Savior, was a Coptic Desert Father. He is said to have seen Jesus, and been bodily preserved to the present day via incorruptibility at the Monastery of Saint Bishoy in the Nitrian Desert, Egypt. He is venerated by the Oriental Orthodox Churches and the Eastern Orthodox Churches, and is known in the latter under the Greek version of his name, Paisios.
The Bentresh Stela or Bakhtan Stela is an ancient Egyptian sandstone stela with a hieroglyphic text telling the story of Bentresh, daughter of the prince of Bakhtan, who fell ill and was healed by the Egyptian god Khonsu.
Athanasius I Gammolo was the Patriarch of Antioch and head of the Syriac Orthodox Church from 594/595 or 603 until his death in 631. He is commemorated as a saint by the Syriac Orthodox Church in the Martyrology of Rabban Sliba, and his feast day is 3 January.
Tim Vivian is an American scholar of Early Christianity and professor emeritus (retired) of Religious Studies at California State University, Bakersfield.
The Enaton was a monastic district in Egypt during the Middle Ages. It lasted into the 15th century, but it was at its height between the 5th and 7th centuries. It takes its name, which means "ninth", from its location at the ninth milestone southwest of Alexandria along the coastal road.
The Forty-Nine Martyrs of Scetis were Christian monks of the monasteries of Scetis in Roman Egypt who were massacred by Berbers during a raid in 444. Two laymen were martyred along with them. Their relics lie in the Monastery of Saint Macarius the Great. They are venerated in the Coptic Orthodox Church, but not in the Eastern Orthodox or Roman Catholic churches.
The Life of Saint Apolinaria is a legendary Greek saint's life. It is about a transvestite virgin girl living as a monk in the desert of Scetis in Egypt. It is the Greek counterpart to the Coptic Legend of Hilaria.
Isaiah the Solitary, also known as Isaiah of Gaza, Isaias or Isaiah the Solitary, Abba Isaiah, or possibly also Isaiah of Scetis, was a Christian ascetic and monastic writer known from the Sayings of the Desert Fathers and various Palestinian Miaphysite sources. He is canonized as a saint by the Coptic Orthodox Church, with his feast day on the 11th day of the month Abib (Epip) in the Coptic calendar.
Copto-Arabic literature is the literature of the Copts written in Arabic. It is distinct from Coptic literature, which is literature written in the Coptic language.
![The Legend in Ethiopic. Hilaria's name ([?]laareyaa) appears in red in the second line. From a manuscript of 1655. Ethiopic Hilaria.png](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/3/31/Ethiopic_Hilaria.png/220px-Ethiopic_Hilaria.png)