Απόκρυφα και Συναξάρια

by Emmanuel Rhoides, Εμμανουήλ Ροΐδης

Όσο ψάχνει κανείς στα κείμενα του Εμμανουήλ Ροΐδη, τόσο ανακαλύπτει μοναδικούς λογοτεχνικούς θησαυρούς, όπου ο μεγάλος Συριανός συγγραφέας γνώριζε πολύ καλά να συνδυάζει την προσφορά της σπάνιας ιστορικής πληροφορίας με την κριτική σκέψη και τον βαθύ στοχασμό.
Το δοκίμιο αυτό δεν αναφέρεται μόνον στο ζήτημα των Απόκρυφων ευαγγελίων και των άλλων πρωτοχριστιανικών κειμένων που εξαιρέθηκαν από τις Οικουμενικές Συνόδους και δεν απέκτησαν ποτέ τον τιμητικό τίτλο του "κανονικού", αλλά προχωρά ακόμη βαθύτερα στην περιγραφή της ψυχολογίας των πρώτων χριστιανών και αναδεικνύει κατά πρωτοφανή τρόπο την αξιοθαύμαστη συμμετοχή των γυναικών στους αγώνες για την διάδοση της νέας θρησκείας.
Ωστόσο ο Ροΐδης υπογραμμίζει ότι το χριστιανικό δόγμα ήταν εξαρχής και παραμένει μισογυνικό, παρά τα πλήθη των γυναικών που με αυτοθυσία μαρτύρησαν για χάρη του, διότι ενώ... "η θρησκεία των αρχαίων δεν ήταν άλλο παρά η αποθέωση της ανθρώπινης φύσης, η ουσία του χριστιανισμού έγκειται στην καταδίκη αυτής της φύσης..."

Paperback

Published June 1, 2020

About the author

Emmanuel Rhoides (Greek: Εμμανουήλ Ροΐδης) was a Greek writer and journalist. He is considered one of the most illustrious and reviving spirits of the Greek letters of his time.

Born in Hermoupolis, the capital of the island of Syros, to a family of rich aristocrats from Chios — who had fled the island after the massacre of its population by the Ottomans in 1822 — he spent much of his youth abroad. Rhoides was erudite and at a young age had mastered not only the languages of continental Europe, but also, ancient Greek and Latin. His early youth years he spent in Genoa, Italy in the times of the revolutions, which were a far reaching repercussion of the French revolution.

He studied history, literature and philosophy in Berlin, and later in Iasio, Romania where his merchant father had transferred the centre of his business activities. Obeying to the parental wish, he moved to Athens, where he printed the translation of Chateaubriand's Itinéraires.

In 1860, after a brief sojourn in Egypt, he decided to live and stay permanently in Athens. Later in his life, he would become very poor, especially with the bankruptcy of the family business, and the subsequent suicide of his beloved brother Nicholas. He eked out his last years by working as a curator for the national library of Greece. But, even from this position he was dismissed in 1902, when he got into a political dispute with the government. Rhoides suffered all through his life from a serious hearing problem, which eventually rendered him almost totally deafness.

In 1866 Rhoides published his notorious novel The Papess Joanne, an exploration of the legend of Pope Joan, a supposed female pope who reigned some time in the Middle Ages. Though a romantic novel, Rhoides asserted it contained conclusive evidence that Pope Joan truly existed and that the Catholic Church had been attempting to cover up the fact for centuries. The book was controversial, and led to his ex-communication from the Greek Orthodox Church.

Rhoides often adopted a clear-cut critical stance against the romanticism in literature and poetry and often was poignant and sarcastic to the romance writers and poets of his time. Rhoides, amongst his numerous translations, became the first to translate the works of Edgar Allan Poe into Greek.