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134 Kostas P. Kyrris 2

dom of Demons under their leader, the Misokalos, who are waging an eter-nal struggle against God and his believers, whom they incessantly try to remove from their Father and his teachings and religion by destroying their faith in Him and His Almightiness. After the fali of Adam, the Devil pushed humanity to idolatry and caused the persecution of the martyrs by the pagan emperors, tried to revive idolatry, and after the triumph of Chris-tianity he has identified himself with all non-Christian nations and states. The ruined pagan temples and the deserts are the usual residences of demons, with whom are bravely confronted, like Jesus, all ascetics and saints from the time of the Historia Monachorum in Aegypto, the Pratum Spirituale, Pal-ladios' Lausaic History, Leontios of Neapolis’ Lives of saints such as John the Almsgiver and Symeon Salos down to the middle Byzantine period Vitae of saints like St. Nicephoros the founder of the monastery of Medikion, St. Athanasios the Athonite, the mid-fourteenth century Lives of St. Gregory the Sinaite and Theodosios of Timovo by the Ecumenic Patriarch Callistos and the Encomium of Euthymios Patriarch of Tirnovo by Gregory Camblak, and the Martyrion of the St. Megalomartyr John of Trebizond (d.c. 1330) by Meletios Syrigos in 1649 based on a Bulgarian original, etc.

3. Through the knowledge of God (theognosia) and the sign of the cross the martyr St. Theodore the Stratelates fortifies himself before attacking victoriously the symbolic dragon, the devil, thus excelling as an athlete and soldier of Christ, and by the same weapons he resists the tortures of Licinios who "was executing the devil’s will” (F. Halkin, Inedits d'Ochrida ..., 1963, pp. 71—85). The same concepts appear in the Passion of St. Paula (ibid., pp. 59—68), in that of St Procopios of Caesareia (ibid., pp. 96—130), in the Encomium of the Stylite St. Alypios who "fought against the devil” (ibid., pp. 170—208, esp. 172, 179, 196—199), in the Passion of St. Tarachos and his Companions (ibid., pp. 213—252), St. Johnin puteo (ibid., pp. 263—282, e.g. pp. 279—280: "the devil became a multiform devil; crying aloud he fell into the well and ... began eating his flesh ... but failed to distract him from praying ... by the power of the holy cross he held him and exorcised him”), in the Passion of St. Laurentios (ibid., pp. 286—300), in that of St. Kyriake (ibid., pp. 302—311), in that of Sts. Onesiphoros and Porphyrios (ibid., pp. 314—327), in that of St. Babylas and his pupils (pp. 330—339), in the several versions of the Passion of St. Euphemia (F. Halkin, Euphemie de Chalcedoine, 1965, passim), and in numerous other hagiographic texts whose stories are dated by their authors in the period of the persecutions. Obviously, much of the contents of such texts is fiction and many names in them seem to be symbolic: Kyriake, Eusebia in the former’s Passion, Eusebia of Euchaita in St. Theodore’s Passion, even Theodore’s own name and that of Euphemia, that of the "Seoffeji-Jję av»jp 0eóyvioę” who buried the "luminous relics” of Sts. Onesiphoros and Porphyrios; cf. the perhaps partly fictitious-symbolic names of Babylas’ students Eusebios, Theodoulos, Theosostos, Theodoros, Eleutherios, etc.: Inćdits, p. 339; cf. the legend of the "virtuous Sophia daughter of patrikios Theognostos and Theodora in the court of Honorios and Arcadios "connected during the reign of Anastasios (491—518) in Jerusalem as counterpart of St. Sophia of Constan-tinople; the latter was supposed to have been bom in Constantinople and to have been martyred during Hadrian’s reign together with her daughters Pistis, Elpis and Agape, in Slav Yera, Nadejda or Nadine and Liubova