A "Tale for All Seasons"? The Passio (BHG 1249) of Meletios Stratēlatēs at the Crossroads Between Iconoclasm and Iconophilia

This paper offers a re-examination of the Passio of Meletios Stratēlatēs (BHG 1249), a complex hagiographical narrative associated with the city of Tabia in Galatia. After briefly reconstructing the historical, urban, and religious background of Tabia, the study analyses the literary composition of the Passio, its manuscript tradition, and its dependence on earlier martyrial texts, particularly those of Egyptian derivation. Particular attention is devoted to the representation of Tabia’s sacred landscape as conveyed by the Passio, including temples, cult statues, churches, and rural settings, as well as to episodes describing the destruction, transformation, and reuse of pagan cult images. Equally complex, however, is the question of the text’s chronology. Although framed within a conventional Antonine persecution, the Passio displays internal features—rhetorical, theological, and narrative—that preclude a secure late antique dating. A closer reading of the Passio and of its religious vocabulary instead suggests situating the text within the broader context of early Byzantine hagiography between the 7th and 8th centuries, highlighting its layered character and the flexibility of its reception.