1937/10/01 by Robert L. Wolff · 1 citation
Arts and Humanities · Social Sciences · #Byzantine Studies and History #Medieval Literature and History #Historical and Linguistic Studies #SAINT #Legend #HERO #Literature #Classics #History #Sanskrit #Incarnation #Middle Ages #Art #Ancient history #Philosophy #Art history #Theology
paper · doi:10.1017/s0017816000021453
openalex publication_date 1937/10/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/05/21
The legend of Barlaam and Ioasaph, one of the most popular and influential of medieval romances, entered the western world by way of a Greek version, which fathered, directly or indirectly, translations into almost every European language, and inspired an entire cycle of literary influences. This Greek version was itself descended from a long line of Asiatic redactions, harking back through Georgian and Arabic to Pehlevi and to the Sanskrit prototype (now lost). Thus the Greek version occupies, so to speak, a focal position. It is at once the source of the European, and the culmination of the Asiatic, traditions. Its hero, Prince Ioasaph, can look backward to his earliest incarnation as the Buddha of the Lalita Vistara , and forward to his latest — as a saint of Rome and Byzantium; while many of the tales told him by the monk Barlaam to convert him to Christianity change little on their long journey from some such work as the Pantchatantra , via the Greek Barlaam , to the Exempla of Jacques de Vitry, or the Gesta Romanorum .