Erotapokriseis (), singular erotapokrisis (), or question-and-answer literature, is a genre of

Byzantine literature Byzantine literature is the Greek literature of the Middle Ages, whether written in the Byzantine Empire or outside its borders. It was marked by a linguistic diglossy; two distinct forms of Byzantine Greek were used, a scholarly dialect based ...

. ''Erotapokriseis'' are a series of questions and answers in the form of a

dialogue Dialogue (sometimes spelled dialog in American and British English spelling differences, American English) is a written or spoken conversational exchange between two or more people, and a literature, literary and theatrical form that depicts suc ...

. Topics touched upon include

Christian dogma Dogma, in its broadest sense, is any belief held definitively and without the possibility of reform. It may be in the form of an official system of principles or doctrines of a religion, such as Judaism, Roman Catholicism, Protestantism, or Islam ...

biblical exegesis Biblical studies is the academic application of a set of diverse disciplines to the study of the Bible, with ''Bible'' referring to the books of the canonical Hebrew Bible in mainstream Jewish usage and the Christian Bible including the can ...

canon law Canon law (from , , a 'straight measuring rod, ruler') is a set of ordinances and regulations made by ecclesiastical jurisdiction, ecclesiastical authority (church leadership) for the government of a Christian organization or church and its membe ...

cosmology Cosmology () is a branch of physics and metaphysics dealing with the nature of the universe, the cosmos. The term ''cosmology'' was first used in English in 1656 in Thomas Blount's ''Glossographia'', with the meaning of "a speaking of the wo ...

, and

riddles A riddle is a :wikt:statement, statement, question, or phrase having a double or veiled meaning, put forth as a puzzle to be solved. Riddles are of two types: ''enigmas'', which are problems generally expressed in metaphorical or Allegory, alleg ...

. The interlocutors are typically anonymous or at least not fully characterized. One is a teacher and the other a pupil. The answers are generally presented as '' gnomai'', dogmatic truths. The genre originated around 400, but was at its most popular between the seventh and ninth centuries. It declined thereafter, but experienced a revival in the fifteenth century. Among the Greek authors of the genre are

Maximus the Confessor Maximus the Confessor (), also spelled Maximos, otherwise known as Maximus the Theologian and Maximus of Constantinople ( – 13 August 662), was a Christianity, Christian monk, theologian, and scholar. In his early life, Maximus was a civil se ...

John of Damascus John of Damascus or John Damascene, born Yūḥana ibn Manṣūr ibn Sarjūn, was an Arab Christian monk, priest, hymnographer, and apologist. He was born and raised in Damascus or AD 676; the precise date and place of his death is not know ...

Anastasius of Sinai Anastasius Sinaita (; died after 700), also called Anastasius of Sinai or Anastasius the Sinaite, was a Greek writer, priest and abbot of Saint Catherine's Monastery on Mount Sinai. Life What little is known about his life is gathered from his o ...

, Nicholas of Methone,

Nicetas of Heraclea Nicetas () was an 11th-century Greek clergyman. A deacon of St. Sophia, Constantinople, he was a nephew of the bishop of Serres or Serrae in Macedonia Macedonia (, , , ), most commonly refers to: * North Macedonia, a country in southeastern ...

Symeon of Thessalonica Saint Symeon of Thessalonica () was a monk, bishop and theologian in Greece. He is venerated in the Eastern Orthodox Church, and was canonized in 1981. He served as the archbishop of Thessalonica, for some time before his death. Biography Symeon ...

and

Mark of Ephesus Mark of Ephesus ( Greek: , born Manuel Eugenikos) was a hesychast theologian of the late Palaiologan period of the Byzantine Empire who became famous for his rejection of the Council of Ferrara–Florence (1438–1439). As a monk in Constantinop ...

. The pinnacle of the genre was reached in the ''Amphilochia'' of

Photius Photius I of Constantinople (, ''Phōtios''; 815 – 6 February 893), also spelled ''Photius''Fr. Justin Taylor, essay "Canon Law in the Age of the Fathers" (published in Jordan Hite, T.O.R., and Daniel J. Ward, O.S.B., "Readings, Cases, Mate ...

. Many ''erotapokriseis'' were translated and a few composed in Slavonic. The earliest translations were made in the

First Bulgarian Empire The First Bulgarian Empire (; was a medieval state that existed in Southeastern Europe between the 7th and 11th centuries AD. It was founded in 680–681 after part of the Bulgars, led by Asparuh of Bulgaria, Asparuh, moved south to the northe ...

, the most important being that of Anastasius of Sinai's ''Interrogationes et responsiones''.

References

Further reading