341-356

The Dream of the Monk Neilos Maliassenos and the Theotokos Makrinitissa Oxeia Episkepsis Monastery.

• Λουκάκη, Μαρίνα

The Theotokos Makrinitissa Oxeia Episkepsis and the Ioannes Prodromos Nea Petra monasteries on Mt. Pelion were founded in the 13th century by the Maliassenos family. The history of both the monasteries and the members of this family has so far been known mainly from the monastic register of documents (diplomatarium) and archaeological remains. Codex Atheniensis 258 provides further evidence for the Theotokos Makrinitissa monastery: (a) the text of the dream of the monk Neilos Maliassenos, second founder of the monastery; and (b) a subscription in which we are told that Neilos donated this manuscript to the monastery posthumously. In the dream the author announces, through allegory, the restoration, unattested by other sources, of the church of the Theotokos. In this paper the author offers an edition of the text of the dream, and then identifies and discusses the allegorical and historical elements present in it. In recounting his dream, Neilos Maliassenos seems to borrow elements from satirical stories current in his time, but re-shapes them into allegorical symbols, even though in the end the story he creates is not entirely appropriate to the sanctity of theme and persons allegorized. In the last part of the work, the author re-assesses the evidence concerning the Makrinitissa monastery and its founders, among whom she tries to identify Neilos Maliassenos.

• History and Archaeology

• Ιστορία