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Document Details :

Title: 'The Children of Putrefaction'
Subtitle: A Phoenician Mythological Allusion in Patriarch Photios' Homily IX on the Birth of the Virgin (Ch. 6)
Author(s): EFTHYMIADIS, Stephanos , LÓPEZ-RUIZ, Carolina
Journal: Byzantion
Volume: 84    Date: 2014   
Pages: 165-169
DOI: 10.2143/BYZ.84.0.3049178

Abstract :
This note argues that the obscure reference to the 'children of putrefaction' in Photios’ ninth Homily draws not from Greek mythology but from Phoenician cosmogony. The idea is attested in Philon of Byblos’ Phoenician History, quoted by Eusebios in his Praeparatio Evangelica, which in turn proves that Photios was a careful reader of works that he only mentions in passing.

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