Talking Skulls On Some Personal Accounts PDF

ZAC 2016; 20(1): 109126
Emmanouela Grypeou
Talking Skulls: On Some Personal Accounts
of Hell and Their Place in Apocalyptic
Literature
DOI 10.1515/zac-2016-0006
Abstract: Established definitions of apocalypticism and apocalyptic literature

in Late Antiquity often disregard a variety of apocalyptic visions and ideas that
are included in a variety of genres of the Christian literature of Late Antiquity.
The present paper discusses personal afterlife accounts and more specifically,
personal hell visions, as found in various Christian texts and sources, such as
monastic and hagiographical or martyrological literature. These visions and their
special features are analysed in the context of related apocalyptic literature and
traditions, as well as in their relationship with pagan local traditions and necro-
mantic rituals. As will be argued, personal accounts of afterlife present a specific
literary phenomenon in the history of ancient Christian apocalyptic literature and
tradition, but they also demonstrate a significant diachronic popularity in other
religious communities and their literatures.
Keywords: hell visions, Egypt, necromancy
Texts relating afterlife visions abounded in the Christian literature of Late Anti-
quity. However, some of these writings present a methodological conundrum. In
spite of their apocalyptic character and/or eschatological content, they may not
wholly fit in the established categories and definitions of apocalyptic literature.
The writings in question belong to a special category of revelatory discourses.
They mainly deal with descriptions of the afterlife and most prominently with
descriptions of hell. In these texts the agent of the revelation or the narrator of
the secrets of hell is a figure with a direct experience of the torments of hell. The
agent of revelation may be a skull, a mummy, or at times a resurrected person,
i.e. a dead person fully bodily restored. The richness, variety and particular cha-
Emmanouela Grypeou: Berliner Antike Kolleg, Fabeckstr. 2325, 14195 Berlin,

e-mail: egrypeou@zedat.fu-berlin.de
Bereitgestellt von | De Gruyter / TCS

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Heruntergeladen am | 18.02.16 14:14
110 Emmanouela Grypeou
racteristic of this material stresses the need for a fresh investigation of this genre
and for a re-thinking of established categories and definitions.1
1Apa Makarius and the Talking Skull

One of the best known stories featuring a talking skull is the story of Apa Makarius
and the skull, which is preserved in the Apophthegmata Patrum.2 The narrative is
brief. As part of the apophthegmata literature, it uses a concise narrative technique
to tell the story of a chance meeting of the renowned hermit, Apa Macarius, with
the skull of a pagan priest.
According to this narrative, Apa Macarius was walking in the desert, when he
found a skull on earth. Curious, he stirred it with his stock and the skull began
conversing with Macarius. The skull explained that, when alive, he used to be a
high-priest of the idols and of the remaining pagans (Greeks) at that place. He
recognizes Macarius as a spirit-bearer and pleads with him to have mercy with the
people in hell. He proceeds with a brief description of hell. He explains that the
fire beneath the earth covers a distance as long as the distance between heaven
and earth. The inhabitants of hell stand in the middle of the fire, covered from feet
to head, and they do not face each other, but each face is stuck to the backside of
the other person. Thus, the inhumanity and impersonality of the inhabitants of
hell is stressed. Macarius weeps when he hears that and laments the day when
man is born. Then Macarius asks who is there in hell, and the skull responds
1As Matthias Henze notes: The clearest definition remains that of John Collins as found in
his much celebrated and often quoted Semeia volume.... Collins definition is based on apo-
calypses which were composed... during the Second Temple period and in the first centuries
of the Common Era (Matthias Henze, The Syriac Daniel Apocalypse [STAC 11; Tbingen: Mohr
Siebeck, 2001], 6). Thus, as Matthias Henze also observes in the context of his analysis of a
later Christian apocalyptic text, the above mentioned definition albeit illuminating and useful
for the understanding and study of a specific era of apocalyptic literature, fails to address the
phenomenon of Christian apocalypticism in its dynamic development.
2Apophthegmata Patrum (PG 38:257C260D; PG 65:280AC Appendix ad Palladium). The
story of Macarius and the skull was well known in Christian late Antiquity, see De his qui in fide
dormierunt, attributed to John of Damascus (PG 95:256). There exists also a Coptic translation of
the original Greek text, see Arnold van Lantschoot, Rvlation de Macaire et de Marc de Tamar-
qa sur le sort de lme aprs la mort, Le Muson 63 (1956): (159189) 188189. Van Lantschoot
edited the Sahidic text preserved in Ms Copte I.B. 17 no. 484, Biblioteca Nazionale of Naples; the
Bohairic recension was edited by mile Amlineau, Histoire des monastres de la Basse-gypte
(Annales du Muse Guimet 25; Paris: Leroux, 1894), 225227.

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Talking Skulls 111
that those who have not known (or acknowledged) God, or have refuted God,
are all underneath. After that explanation, Macarius takes the skull and digs it
even deeper into the earth.
2The Story of the King Arsanis

A much more detailed version of this story is preserved in Syriac, as the Story of
King Arsanis. The full title of the story is: The Narrative of the Father Arsanis (Ar-
sanius), King of Egypt, and how our Lord, to whom be Glory, raised him to Life.3
The text narrates the story of Arsanis, king of Egypt, who was raised to life
by Jesus. The chronological point of the story is identified as taking place on a
Sunday and even more precisely as a new Sunday () ,4 probably
the Sunday after Easter. The story takes place during the lifetime of Jesus. It de-
scribes how the Lord arose to go to the land of Judaea that is to the land of Je-
3De rege Arsanio (ed. and trans. Isaac H. Hall, The Story of Arsanis, Hebraica 6 [1890], [8188]
82): . The text is from a late
Syriac manuscript from Urmia; the same manuscript contains similar pseudepigraphical writings,
such as the Colloquy of Moses with God, the Letter from Heaven, the Martyrdom of Mar George, and
shorter compositions, prayers, and exorcisms. Probably, this is the only Syriac witness, although
there is also a number of versions of the text preserved in Garshuni, see Georg Graf, Geschichte
der christlichen arabischen Literatur 1: Die bersetzungen (Vatican City: Biblioteca Apostolica
Vaticana, 1944), 552; Eduard Sachau, Verzeichnis der syrischen Handschriften (Die Handschriften-
Verzeichnisse der kniglichen Bibliothek zu Berlin 23; Berlin: Asher & Co., 1899), 201; cf. Rubens
Duval, La littrature syriaque (Anciennes Littratures Chrtiennes 2; Paris: Lecoffre, 1907), 111.
The Christian Arabic and Syriac versions are all preserved in prose, but there exist also poetical
renditions in neo-Aramaic, see Fabrizio A. Pennacchietti, La leggenda islamica del teschio
redivivo in una versione neoaramaica, in Semitic and Cushitic Studies (ed. Gideon Goldenberg
and Shlomo Raz; Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1994), 103132. Pennacchietti claims that the name
is linked to the popular traditions about Arsenius the Great, one of the most renowned Egyptian
Fathers of the Desert (354?450?), see idem, Gli antecedenti cristiani de Il racconto di Giomgio-
m, un poemetto escatologico di Faridoddn Attr (11191230), Islam i Chrzescijanstwo: Al-Islam
wa-al-Masihiya: Materialy sympozjum Krakow 1214 IV 1994 (ed. Andrzeij Zaborski; Papieska
Akademia Teologiczna w Krakowie, Biblioteka Ekumenii i Dialogu Tom 1; Krakow, 1995), 261286;
cf. similarly, Sachau, Verzeichnis (see above), 201: frher Knig von gypten lebt er nun als
frommer Einsiedler Abba Arsenius noch 80 Jahre. Isaac Hall remarks: Though I know nothing
of the origin or transmission of the legend, it has Graeco-Egyptian odor, and I suspect an Arabic
transmission, and consequently a superior age for the Karshuni documents (Hall, The Story
of Arsanis, [see above], 82). As there is no original or established Latin title for this particular
work, a Latin version of the original title as suggested by the ZAC editorial team is quoted here.
4De rege Arsanio (82 H.).

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rusalem ( .) ,5 where, on his way, he encountered

a huge dry skull. The skull makes Jesus curious, who asks for the help of God in
revealing its identity by talking with the skull. The reference to the supplication
to and permission of God is telling for the intention of Jesus. God permits the dry
skull to talk. Accordingly, there is no space for mistaking the interlocution between
Jesus and the skull as some form of necromancy.
The skull opens its mouth indeed and promptly addresses Jesus as redeemer
)6 and confirms that he received a commandment
of the creatures (
from heaven to talk with Jesus. Jesus asks about his identity, gender, and social
status. The tribe of the skull is stated as the tribe of Judah of the house of Israel.
The skull explains that he was a worshipper of idols made of gold and silver. The
name of his god was the Bull. The skull further explains how this idol led men
astray on account of Satans agency. Moreover, he describes how, as a king of
Egypt, he was king over all the kings of the earth and possessed mythical wealth,
being, however, merciful and generous with the needy. Upon hearing this, Jesus
reassures him that the Father in Heaven will reward him.
Following the description of the conduct of the skull, when alive, Jesus asks
about the fate of the soul on the day of death. The skull relates in quite some
detail what happens at the moment when the breath is taken away from the soul,
using well-known mythological motifs about the king Death and his frightening-
looking angels. After that a scene of intermediary judgment takes place, when
two angels with iron rods and long teeth come, open the grave with their teeth
and question the dead about his god. If he answers that his god is the God in
Heaven, then he is deemed as righteous, otherwise he is smitten by the angels
with their rods downwards, until he reaches the seven chambers of Gehenna.
The skull describes the tortures of the soul in the Gehenna. The seven chambers
in the Gehenna are organized hierarchically, corresponding to various categories
of sinners. However, they mostly contain different sorts of idolaters, such as wor-
shippers of the sun and the fire, et al. The ruler of the Gehenna is an old man
called Michael. The various chambers also contain different torture equipment,
such as scorpions and serpents, several kinds of fire punishment, hot spits of iron,
darkness, blackness and weeping, and gnashing of the teeth. There is not a direct
analogy of the sins to the tortures assigned to them. Moreover, the tortures are not
described in much detail either. The skull briefly describes also the contrasting
world of the beati in heaven.


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Talking Skulls 113
The skull of the king Arsanis remarks that it was because of his great phil-
anthropy that his head was allowed to remain on earth or near it. Finally, the
skull asks Jesus to save him from the tortures of the Gehenna. Jesus then prays
to God and asks for permission to resurrect the skull and make it whole again.
Indeed, the skull arises in body and in soul, in perfect physical completeness and
praises Jesus, as the raiser of the dead () 7 as the only son ()8
who has come for the sake of the deliverance of men. Jesus blesses him with the
sign of the Cross and orders him to spend the next eight years in the mountains,
living a strictly ascetic life. What follows is a radical transformation and final
salvation of the soul of the dead king in his reinstated body and in Christian faith.
After this time period of fasting, praying, and partaking to no food or drink other
than the Sunday Eucharist, his body and soul became perfect and he was ready
to receive the delight of the kingdom.
3Bishop Pisentius and the Mummy

A similar story of Egyptian provenance names as its two protagonists Bishop
Pisentius and a mummy. The story of Pisentius conversation with the mummy
is preserved in the Bohairic version of his Vita.9 Pisentius was Bishop of Coptos.
During the time of the Persian invasion of Egypt (619629 C.E.) Pisentius took
refuge in Luxor praying and fasting. Pisentius would ask his disciple, John, to
visit him every Sabbath and supply him with some food and a little water. In that

9Vita Pisentii bohairica (ed. mile Amlineau, Un vque de Keft au VIIe sicle, Mmoires
prsentes et lus lInstitut gyptien 2 [1889]: [261332; 333423] 397411). The Vita of Pisentius
was traditionally attributed to his disciple John the Elder; other versions bear the name of Bishop
Moses of Coptos, the successor of Pisentius in the same see. The Vita is preserved in Sahidic,
Arabic, and Ethiopic. The Bohairic (Memphitic) version was edited by mile Amlineau. Ernest
A. W. Budge prepared an English translation of the episode with the mummy and included it as
an appendix to his edition and English translation of the Sahidic version, see Ernest A. W. Budge,
ed. and trans., Coptic Apocrypha in the Dialect of Upper Egypt(London: British Museum, 1913),
75127; 258334.DeLacy E. OLeary published the Arabic version on the basis of two manuscripts
in theBibliothque nationalede France (Arabe4785 andArabe4794). Both Arabic manuscripts
contain the encounter and conversation of Pisentius with the mummy. DeLacy E. OLeary, ed.,
The Arabic Life of S[aint] Pisentius: According to the Text of the 2 Ms. Paris Bib. Nat. Arabe 4785
and Arabe 4794 (PO 22,3; Turnhout: Brepols, 1930), introd., 317321; text and trans., 322488. The
story is included as one (the thirty-second one) of the fifty-six wonders of Pisentius in this book.

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place, it is narrated, Pisentius found a majestic tomb in an impressively spacious

hall, which was apparently used as a common burial place for mummies. John
and Pisentius, curious about these mummies, started wondering about their origin
and identity as well as their time of death. In one of the pilasters they found a
small parchment roll, in which the names of all people buried in that place were
recorded. Pisentius sends John away with some good advice on prayer, fasting,
and mercy and concludes with a brief description of the afterlife reality of these
mummies. As he explains, the most sinful of the dead would be in Amenti, which
is below, others in the outer darkness, or in pits and basins filled with fire, or in
the river of fire. Others, however, would be in a place of rest on account of their
good works. This short account on afterlife but mainly on the compartments of
hell serves as an introduction to what follows, namely a more personal and more
detailed description of hell, its tortures and inhabitants.
When John visits Pisentius on the next Sabbath, he overhears a voice plea-
ding for mercy and for deliverance from the punishments and that place of dark-
ness. He realizes then that Pisentius is conversing with a mummy, interrogating
him about his former life. The mummy explains that his parents were Hellenes,
known by the names of Agrikolaos and Eustathia. They used to worship the god
Poseidon. Due to his pagan origin, he never had the chance to hear that Christ
had come into the world. At the time of his death, certain angelic beings, called
Kosmokrator (kocmokratwr),10 came and declared all the evil things that he
had done. Similar to the story narrated by the skull of king Arsanis, the mummy
describes with horrifying detail the fearful moments when the soul is taken out
from the body by angels of cruelty (niaggeloc nA;nai).11 They would then drag
the soul to Amente, where a large number of tormentors, wild beasts, and powers
await. The soul is cast in the outer darkness, a huge deep pit filled with mon
strous reptile-like beings.12 In the outer darkness, the mummy also encounters the
terrifying looking worm that never sleeps, and never stops devouring the souls.
Pisentius asks the mummy then if the dead ever receive any respite from the
suffering. The mummy affirms that there is mercy shown on every Sabbath and
Lords Day. When the Lords Day comes to an end, the souls are thrown again into
the tortures, in order to forget the years which they lived in the world (mpenry]
ntener pwbs nnenrompi etanaitou qen pikocmoc).13 Then they receive ad-
10Vita Pisentii bohairica (407 A.).

12The various hell compartments were already listed by Pisentius (Vita Pisentii bohairica [404405
A.]). Accordingly, the mummy is thrown in that particular compartment.

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Talking Skulls 115
ditional tortures. The conversation with Pisentius allows for a temporary release
from the torture for the mummy. Pisentius asks for mercy for that soul and orders
it to go back and lie down until the Day of General Resurrection (pehoou n]
anactacic nkoinon),14 when he along with the others will rise. At the end of
the story, Pisentius notices John overhearing and forbids him from repeating the
story during Pisentius lifetime.
4Islamic and Jewish Reception History

Although the story of Pisentius and the mummy would be dated at the earliest
in the seventh century, if not later, it presents a variation of the story of Apa Ma-
carius and the skull. The story of Jesus and the skull of king Arsanis is also an
adaptation of the narrative tradition attested to the aforementioned apophthegma
on Apa Macarius. Interestingly, the legend of the encounter and conversation of
Jesus with a skull was very widespread in the Islamic literature as well. The origin
and dating of the latter story remains uncertain. According to the Italian scholar
Fabrizio Pennachietti, who has studied the Islamic reception of the story, there
are various traditions preserved in numerous manuscript witnesses, usually under
the heading: Qissat or hikayat al-gurguma = story or narrative of the skull both
in prose and in poetry. As Pennacchietti observes: The bulk of it is, indeed, the
description of the torments of the tomb and of hell by the skull.15

15Fabrizio Pennacchietti, Versioni cristiane e giudaiche di una leggenda islamica, in Redefin
ing Christian Identity: Cultural Interaction in the Middle East since the Rise of Islam (ed. Jan Van
Ginkel, Hendrika L. Murre-Van den Berg, and Theo M. Van Lint; Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta
134; Leuven: Peeters, 2005), (291299) 291. Pennacchietti further explains: the first mention of
the legend goes back to Ishaq bin Bishr (d. 821 in Bukhara) who attributed it to Kab al-Ahbar
(7th cent.). It was known by al-Ghazzali (d. 1111) and Galal ad-Din Rumi (d. 1273); whereas the
Persian mystical poet Farid ad-Din Attar (d. ca. 1220) put it into verse ... it was translated into
almost every Muslim language, including Malay, Javanese, Sundanese, and Chinese. Moreover, it
was later also popular in Turkish and other languages, such as Kazakish, Kurdish (Pennacchi-
etti, Versioni cristiane e giudaiche di una leggenda islamica [see above], 291); there is also a
Georgian version that demonstrates Persian and Neo-Aramaic recensions, as well; see Fabrizio A.
Pennacchietti, La Storia del teschio e del re e il racconto biblico di Susanna, Vedute sullEgitto
antico: Annuario 6 (19951996) (ed. Giorgio Noberasco; Torino: Associazione Amici Collaboratori
del Museo Egizio di Torino, 1997), 5662; Fabrizio A. Pennacchietti, La leggenda islamica del
cranio redivivo, Vedute sullEgitto antico: Annuario 4 (1989/901993/94): 150155; Fabrizio A.
Pennacchietti , Il racconto di Giomgiom di Faridoddn Attr e le sue fonti cristiane, Orien-
talia Christiana Periodica 62 (1996): (89112). For a comprehensive study of this story in Arabic

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The huge popularity and dissemination of the story of Jesus and the skull
in the Islamic lore has led to the hypothesis of an Islamic origin of the story of
king Arsanis. However, the actual Christian provenance of the Islamic story itself
has also been argued by a number of scholars, who had noticed that the story
of Apa Macarius and the skull must have served as a prototype for the Islamic
variations.16 Moreover, even if the story of king Arsanis is a variation of a well-
known Islamic tradition, still it testifies to the popularity of the legend among
Christian communities of the East even until modern times. Furthermore, this
story demonstrates certain characteristics that are peculiar to Christianity and
can be found in other earlier Christian writings discussed below. Accordingly, if
the Arsanis story is a late Christian adaptation of a recycled Islamic tradition, it
still preserves a number of important Christian afterlife beliefs that may be dated
to pre-Islamic times.
Interestingly, versions of the story circulated in the Jewish lore as well. In
a Jewish-Persian medieval manuscript, described by Wilhelm Bacher, a text is
preserved in verse, under the title: The Story of King Skull.17 Bacher argues
that this Jewish legend is close to the poem of the famous Persian poet Farid-
addin Attar ( 1230), which was very popular among Persian Jews, as indicated
by this Judaeo-Persian version of this legend.18 In this version, it is Moses who
finds a skull at the bank of the river Tigris and asks God for permission to talk
with it. His request is granted and the skull narrates that he was a powerful king
of Egypt and his name was Gurguma. Moses asks about his death, burial, and
his fate after death. Finally, Moses asks God to raise the skull. Gurguma comes
literature and a study of the approximately thirty manuscript versions, see also Roberto Tottoli,
The Story of Jesus and the Skull in Arabic Literature: the Emergence and Growth of a Religious
Tradition, Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam 28 (2003): 225259.
16See Miguel Asn Palacios, Logia et Agrapha Domini Jesu apud moslemicos scriptores, asceticos
praesertim, usitata (PO 13,3; Paris: Firmin-Didot, 1919), (331431) 431; Giorgio Levi della Vida,
Ges e il teschio, Bilychnis 22 (1923): (196201) 196. Pennacchietti, Gli antecedenti cristiani
(see note 3), 283.
17See Wilhelm Bacher, Zur jdisch-persischen Litteratur, Jewish Quarterly Review 16 (1904):
(525558) 538.
18Cf. Pirkei Avoth 2,6 (ed. and trans. Hermann L. Strack: Pirq Aboth: Mina Pirq vt = Die
Sprche der Vter [Institutum Judaicum Berlin, Schriften 6: Ausgewhlte Minatraktate; Leip-
zig: Hinrichs, 1915], 13): , ,] [
He [Hillel] further saw a skull floating on the water. He said to it: Because you drowned
you were drowned, and in the end those who drowned you will be drowned. This story might
be an indication that the Persian poet was inspired by an old Jewish legend, according to which
Hillel talks with a skull (presumably Pharaoh who is assumed drowned as he also drowned the
children of the Israelites).

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Talking Skulls 117
back to life and endorses the faith of Moses. He becomes a very pious believer
and dies later as such.
Similar stories are included in medieval Aboth commentaries.19 According to
this version, included in a commentary of a probable Egyptian origin and written
in Arabic, it is a wanderer who finds a skull, white like snow. The story is nearly
identical with the Syriac story of the king Arsanis. In this version, the skull is
also granted a short tour of heaven, where he encounters Abraham and Moses
seated on thrones. A third throne was prepared for the proselytes and a fourth
one for the God fearers. However, a voice prevented the king from coming close
but ordered for it to be thrown in to hell. Then he describes hell that has seven
compartments designed for various categories of sinners.20 The skull describes
the tortures of hell in frightening detail. The wanderer faints and when he regains
consciousness, the skull advises him to follow a good life conduct, in order to
avoid the punishments of hell.
5Tours of Hell in Christian Hagiographical Texts

Personal afterlife accounts are also attested in the hagiographical and martyrolog
ical literature of a mainly Egyptian provenance. There is a set pattern narrative
here that includes the revival of one or more dead persons by a saintoften a
martyr-to-be, the confession of the revived person, who states his name and his
idolatrous past, the report about the hell torments in varying detail and length
and their after-death conversion to Christianity. The conversion to Christianity is
a special characteristic of these texts that usually conclude with the baptism of
the previously tormented soul.
A quite detailed version of this set of narratives can be found in the recently
edited Coptic Martyrdom of Philotheus of Antioch.21 In this text, the wealthy pa-
19Wilhelm Bacher, Zwei alte Abothkommentare, Monatsschrift fr Geschichte und Wissenschaft

des Judentums, N.F. 13 (1905): (641666) 657.
20The list here is similar to the list of the Christian texts with only a few variations: the god
deniers, the unruly ones (the rebels?), the ones who dispute the resurrection, the astrologers,
the polytheists (actually, those who attribute to God associates, that is the Christians), the
idolaters, and those who do not follow the divine will (Bacher, Zwei alte Abothkommentare
[see note 19], 662).
21Martyrium Philotei (ed. Nikolas Kouremenos, La passione copta di San Filoteo di Antiochia
secondo il Codice M 583 di Pierpont Morgan Library a New York [Ph.D. Thesis, Pontificio Istituto
Orientale, Dipartimento di Scienze Ecclesiastiche Orientali, Rome, 2014], 1928, 4452); see
Anna Rogozhina, And From His Side Came Blood and Milk: The Martyrdom of St. Philotheus of

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rents of Philotheus, noble Antiochene pagans, are killed by a calf that they used
to worship as their god. The future martyr after his conversion performs a miracle
and brings his parents, Valentios and Theodote, back to life after three days. They
narrate their sojourn in hell and their torments therein. Their hell narrative in
cludes their condemnation on account of their idolatry by the Judge of Truth, the
immersion on the River of Fire, the suffering in the pit full of snakes, worms and
Decans, goring by the iron horns of the calf, plucking of their eyes and tongues,
great cold and tempest, and other punishments.22 After their confession, they
become baptised and live for another two years as pious Christians.
A similar story may be found in the hagiographical literature on St. George.
In a writing preserved in Sahidic Coptic, which is entitled The Encomium Upon
Saint George by Theodotus Bishop of Ancyra (ouengwmion eaftaouof nje
pimakarioc nepickopoc abba :eodotoc piepickopoc nte ankyra)23 George
himself is first resurrected by the Lord from ashes kept in a cauldron.24 Similarly,
George with the help of God revives the rotten bones in a stone tomb of five men,
Antioch and Coptic Egypt (University of Oxford, Hilary Term, 2015). I am deeply indebted to both Dr.
Kouremenos and Dr. Rogozhina, who have kindly shared with me their unpublished dissertations.
22Rogozhina, And From His Side Came Blood and Milk (see note 21), 108.
23Encomium S. Georgii (ed. Ernest A. W. Budge, The Martyrdom and Miracles of Saint George
of Cappadocia [Oriental Text Series 1; London: Nutt, 1888], [107117, 128130] 83); see also Karl
Krumbacher, Der heilige Georg in der griechischen berlieferung, Abhandlungen der kniglich-
bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, philosophisch-philologische und historische Klasse 25,3
(1911): (I-XLIII; 1332); as well as Encomium S. Georgii graece (ed. Johannes Bolland and Godefridus
Henschenius, Acta Sanctorum 12 [Apr. III, Antwerp, 1675], [120212] 129); Encomium S. Georgii
armenice (ed. Paul Peeters, Une passion armnienne de S. Georges, Analecta Bollandiana 28
[1909]: 261262); there are also Arabic, Ethiopic, and Syriac versions, see Paul Peeters, Biblio-
theca hagiographica orientalis (Subsidia hagiographica 10; Brussels: Societ des Bollandistes,
1910), 7274; Ernst W. Brooks, Acts of S. George, Le Muson 38 (1925): 67115. This particular
episode of the martyrdom was also popularised in the Latin West through its inclusion in the
marginal notes of one of the manuscripts of the Legenda Aurea (Bibblioteca de la Universitat de
Barcelona, cod. 587), see Wilhelm Arndt, Passio Sancti Georgi, Berichte ber die Verhandlun-
gen der kniglich-schsischen Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften zu Leipzig, Philologisch-historische
Klasse 26 (1874): (4970) 5759. An iconographic representation of the resurrection of the dead
pagans and St. Georges conversation with them can be found in a 15th-century wall-painting
in a chapel in Italy, see S. Marco Piccat, Per lesegesi delle storie di San Giorgio a Villar San
Costanzo: Segnalazione di un inconsueto motivo iconografico, Studi Piemontesi 9 (1980): 108115;
Fabrizio A. Pennacchietti, Il parallelo islamico di un singolare episodio della passione di San
Giorgio, Bollettino della Societ per gli Studi Storici, Archeologici ed Artistici della Provincia di
Cuneo 107 (1992): 101110.
24Encomium S. Georgii (124 B.).

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Talking Skulls 119
nine women, and a little baby,25 who have been dead for four hundred years.
The interesting new element in the story is that the dead appear here as a group
that even includes families. One man of the group explains that as an idolater
he used to worship the god Apollo, so when he died, he was thrown into a river
of fire in the depths of hell.26 Apollo functioned in hell as his punishing demon.
As in the martyrdom of Philotheus, the god, that is, the worshipped idol of the
dead pagans (the Bull in the one case and god Apollo in the other), turns into a
personal tormentor in hell and accordingly into an unmistaken demonic force.
This narrative presents in an abridged form the tradition found in the Mar-
tyrdom of Philotheus. Interestingly, the revived dead includes in his account a
description of the harrowing of Hell by Jesus. He further confirms that the souls
that remained in hell are granted a respite on the Lords Day, except for the idola-
ters. Thus, he prays not to return to that place but to receive baptism. After their
group baptism, they all return into their sepulchre and enter Paradise.
A variation of this motif may also be found in the Martyrdom of Macarius of
Antioch, who revives a recently dead man in the town of Pchati in order to testify
his experience of hell.27 The man blesses Macarius for having saved a soul from
hell and begins with the narration of his brief but rich experience in the under-
world. The narrative shares standard motifs with the accounts discussed above.
A typical common motif in these stories is the expressed gratitude of the dead
man saved from the hell torments. Furthermore, it includes a description of the
moments when demonic forces with animal faces tear the soul out of the body
in order to throw it in a huge and deep river of fire. According to this testimony,
he had to suffer tremendously in the river of fire on account of his idolatry before
he is brought to the Judge of Truth, who accuses him of adoring demons, instead
of God who created him. Then he is brought to a place of absolute darkness and
of cold and gnashing of teeth, followed by an encounter with the never-sleeping
worm. This worm has a crocodile-head and is surrounded by all reptiles that
would throw souls to it. The worm would eat them but they would not die. After
that the soul is brought to the hell for eternity. The revived dead in this account is
saved by Apa Macarius in that precise moment of entering eternal hell and after
concluding his account, asks to be baptised.
25In the various versions of the Martyrdom of St. George the details about and number of the
resurrected persons vary.
26Encomium S. Georgii (129 B.).
27Martyrium Macarii (ed. Henri Hyvernat, Les actes des martyrs de lgypte [Paris: Leroux 1886],
4077). On Macarius of Antioch and this martyrdom account, see Tito Orlandi, Saint Macarius,
in Coptic Encyclopedia 5 (ed. Aziz Atiya; New York: Macmillan, 1991), 1489.

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An additional variation of this narrative pattern is included in the Encomium

of St. Elias by bishop Stephen of Hnes (Heracleopolis) that may be dated in the
late sixth century C.E.28 In this story the mighty magician, Theokletos (sic!), vi-
sits a tomb and invokes Tartarouchos (the apparent ruler of the underworld), in
order that he brings to Theokletos a spirit of a dead man, to help the magician
demonstrate to the king that he is a more powerful magician than the Christians
(in this case Elias). Indeed, Tartarouchos brings a number of chained souls, but
when one of the souls starts speaking, he curses the magician and the king and
all those who refute the name of Jesus. As the soul explains, they have suffered
in hell exceedingly due to their previous ignorance of Christs existence. However,
they know that he is a merciful God, who forgives those who repent with a pure
heart. This narrative presents a summarised form of the relevant stories known
from the texts discussed above.
6Personal Accounts of Hell in Late Antiquity

Personal accounts of hell torments as experienced by dead or, actually, nearly
dead persons may also be found in near-death experience accounts. Similar sto-
ries were fairly popular in the Egyptian and Graeco-Roman literature.29 Christian
accounts of temporary death that included a vision or tour of hell are known from
a number of anecdotes included in patristic literature.30 These stories, however,
became popular in the Christian world in the narrative context of apocryphal
Apostle Acts, such as the Acts of Thomas 5160, that probably preserves the best
28Martyrium S. Eliae (ed. Gurgi P. G. Subhi, Le martyre de Saint Hlias et Lencomium de lvque
Stphanos de Hns sur Saint Hlias [Institut franais darchologie orientale; Cairo: Institut Fran-
ais dArcheologie Orientale, 1919]); Mark Sheridan notes that nothing is known of this martyr
but for a shrine in his memory and miracles that were performed there that must have been the
motivation for the composition of the encomium. According to the encomium, the martyr was
a soldier and a physician, who was probably martyred during the Diocletian persecution, see
Mark Sheridan, The Encomium in Coptic Sermons of the Late Sixth Century, Christianity in
Egypt: Literary Production and Intellectual Trends: Studies in Honor of Tito Orlandi (ed. Paola
Buzi and Alberto Camplani; Studia Ephemeridis Augustinianum 125; Rome: Istituto Patristico
Augustinianum, 2011), (443464) 457459.
29See Jan Bremmer, Near Death Experiences: Ancient, Medieval and Modern, in idem, ed.,
The Rise and Fall of the Afterlife: The 1995 Reed-Tuckwell Lectures at the University of Bristol
(London: Routledge, 2002), 87103.
30See Gregorius Magnus, Dialogus 4,36 (PL 77:381383) and Augustinus, De cura pro mortuis
12,15 (CSEL 41, 644647 Zycha).

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Talking Skulls 121
known version.31 In these texts, the protagonists narrate their own tours of hell
but, in contrast to the accounts discussed above, they hardly ever get tormented
themselves. Accordingly, these stories maintain a touristic character, since at the
end of the story it turns out that the narrator is not really dead and would return
to earthly life soon. This same visiting role is ascertained in tours of hell found
in apocalyptic texts such as the Apocalypse of Peter and the Apocalypse of Paul.
As Anna Rogozhina also notes with regard to the hagiographical accounts, the
narrators here are not visitors; they do not receive any explanations about the
punishment of hell, but describe only their own, rather physical, experience of
the torments which they had to suffer according to the sins they had committed.
Rogozhina maintains that these personal accounts aimed at making the tale
sound less invented because of the narrative technique based on real witnesses
and their personal experience.32 However, as it will be argued here, the function
and purpose of these afterlife visions was more complex.
By being personally tormented, the narrators in the writings in question bear
evidence to a considerable and sustained experience with the secrets of hell.
In other words, these texts present rare glimpses in the world of hell from the
perspective of the tormented souls. Their primary failing is theireven if unin-
tentionallack of faith in Jesus.
In afterlife accounts, such as the Apocalypse of Peter or in the Apocalypse of
Paul, the focus is on concerns of the Christian communities. These are concerns
that address the definition of a moral code for common believers and apply to
general social norms, such as theft, murder, adultery, and in addition female
chastity, provision for orphans and widows, etc.33
In the story of Apa Macarius and the skull, which is probably the earliest
specimen of this text group, specific local tensions in late antique Egypt are re-
flected; namely the antagonism and conflict of Coptic Christianity and especially
its monks with remnants of the pagan culture of the environments. Significantly,
31Acta Thomae (ed. William Wright, The Apocryphal Acts of the Apostles 1 [London: William
and Norgate, 1871], 219231); cf. Albertus F. J. Klijn, The Acts of Thomas: Introduction, Texts,
and Commentary (Novum Testamentum, Supplements 5/108; rev. ed; Leiden: Brill, 2003); see
also the History of John the Son of Zebedee: Acta Ioannis (ed. Wright, The Apocryphal Acts of the
Apostles 1 [see above], 2326).
33See Emmanouela Grypeou, Hllenreisen und engelgleiches Leben: Die Rezeption von apo-
kalyptischen Traditionen in der koptisch-monastischen Literatur, in Christliches gypten in der
sptantiken Zeit: Akten der 2. tbinger Tagung zum christlichen Orient (ed. Dmitrij F. Bumazhnov;
STAC 79; Tbingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2013), 4354.

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the skull in the story of Apa Macarius happens to be a high-priest of the idols and
thus, a person of local counter-authority.
Our texts clearly deal with their non-Christian environment and the question:
what happens to the souls of the non-Christians in a Christian afterlife context?
What or where is their place in hell? Accordingly, idolatry here is considered as
a specific form of sin, especially after the coming of Jesus. The punishment of
the idolaters in hell is clearly the main objective of these accounts. Thus, these
texts are mainly concerned with categories of people that do not belong into the
immediate sphere of ecclesiastical control.
In the course of time, the story becomes standardised and follows a set nar-
rative pattern. According to this pattern, found later mainly in the hagiographical
literature, the saintmost often a martyrwhile demonstrating the power of the
Lord in front of an inimical audience (i.e. often a governor or king and his powerful
and vicious magician[s]) revives dead pagans, and asks about their experience
in hell. The resurrected people that miraculously obtain their previous physical
appearance narrate their frightful experience in hell using a long established
standard imagery (river of fire, never sleeping worm) and ask to be baptised. Thus,
they also confirm in a triumphant way the power of the true faith. Furthermore, in
later martyrologies the focus is on the power of the martyr-to-be to bring back to
life the dead persons and to demonstrate in this way the importance and meaning
of his own martyrdom. Martyrological texts are, of course, based on accounts
of competition between Christian believers and structures and figures of power
utterly hostile to Christianity. Accordingly, the inclusion of hell reports as first-
hand experiences of tormented pagans would render an even more compelling
message on the profound significance of Christian martyrdom.
A basic feature of these texts is the total absence of the figure of the angelus
interpres. Although angels do not totally disappear from these texts, their function
is almost never benevolent and they never act as guides or interpreters of the other
world. When spiritual beings are mentioned, their function is punitive. One of
their main roles is to fetch the soul of the dead and deliver it to the other world.
Mostly, they are described with monstrous, frightening features. These descrip-
tions probably preserve many elements from local folklore and popular beliefs.34
34Cf. beliefs around the demonic force of death and his agents in texts such as the Apocryphon
Josephi fabri tignarii (trans. Siegfried Morenz, Die Geschichte von Joseph dem Zimmermann [TU
56; Berlin: Akademie Verlag, 1951]) and Timothy of Alexandria, Sermo de Abbatone (ed. Ernest
A. W. Budge, Coptic Martyrdoms etc. in the Dialect of Upper Egypt [vol. 4 of Coptic Texts; London:
British Museum, 1914], 241243). As there is no original or established Latin title for this particular
work, a Latin version of the original title as suggested by the ZAC-editorial team is quoted here.

Angemeldet
Talking Skulls 123
In this sense, they form a special category of supernatural beings. Theabsence

of the angelic guide may be also explained due to the complete exclusionof the
narrators from the Christian context. In other words, the pagans cannot be viewed
as visionaries who deserve the angelic intervention and assistance in order to visit
and to comprehend the afterlife world.
The dead narrators confirm the possibility of respite in hell and also stress
in the same context the power of prayer of the holy person for the salvation or
at least temporary relief of the sinners in hell.35 However, the inclusion of this
idea in this text also indicates that among the purposes of this text was not a
comprehensive or detailed tour of hell but a general overview and apparently also
the response to specific questions about the fate of the soul in the afterlife. Thus,
a common assumption in these texts is that the punishment of the sinners starts
immediately upon death. Bodily resurrection is also often presupposed. Moreover,
graphic details of the departure of the soul from the dead body are also included
as first-hand experiences of the dead person.
The Egyptian background of the stories is indeed compelling. Hell account
narratives were particularly popular in Coptic literature.36 Fitting for an Egyptian
context, in the life of Pisentius, the skull becomes a mummy. In spite of the huge
chronological gap, we might perceive echoes of ancient Egyptian practices and
lore in Christian texts tackling eschatological questions.37
35On the motif of the respite from the torments of hell for the damned in hell on the eve of
Sunday and on Sunday, see Visio Pauli 44 (ed. Theodore Silverstein, Visio Sancti Pauli: The
History of the Apocalypse in Latin [Studies and Documents 5; London: Christophers, 1935], 146);
the Ethiopic Liber Requiei Mariae (CSCO 7, 68 Chane): rest from Friday evening until Monday
morning; Vita Apa Cyri coptica (ed. Budge, Coptic Martyrdoms [see note 35], 133): rest on the
Lords Day and on the Day of the Resurrection of the Lord; probably an originally Jewish motif,
see Israel Lvi, Le repos sabbatique des mes damnes, Revue des tudes Juives 25 (1892):
(113) 13; idem, Notes complmentaires sur le repos sabbatique des mes damnes, Revue des
tudes Juives 26 (1893): (131135) 131132.
36Depiction of hell visions is also attested in Coptic iconography and must have certainly been
influenced by the above discussed textual tradition, see for example the very graphic depiction of
hell punishments preserved in the Christian mural paintings of Tebtunis, see Clifford C. Walter,
Paintings from Tebtunis, The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 45 (1989): 191208.
37Significantly, we know of a classical work of Middle Kingdom literature known as The
Teaching of King Amenhemhat I for His Son Sesostris, attested in over 70 school copies, in which
the deceased king Amenhemhat speaks from the underworld to inform about past and current
turbulent events of the kingdom, see William K. Simpson, The Literature of Ancient Egypt (New
Haven: Yale University Press, 2003), 166171. Moreover, mouth-opening ceremonies were perfor-
med on Egyptian mummies, as described in funerary texts. The ceremony involved a symbolic
animation of a statue of a mummy by magically opening its mouth so that it could breathe and
speak; see Jan Assmann, Tod und Jenseits im alten gypten (Mnchen: Beck, 2001), 408418;

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The main question asked in these texts is: what would the dead have to tell us,
if they could talk? Conversations with the spirits of the dead were very widespread
in Late Antiquity and remains were widely used and carefully and meticulously
manipulated in the context of necromancy. Necromantic practices were widely
attested and very popular in Egypt and beyond.38 The summoning of the spirits
of the dead for divination purposes is well attested in the biblical and ancient
world as well.39 What is new in our texts is that the revived dead spirits here are
not needed for the revelation of mundane secrets or the divination of the future,
but for the revelation of the secrets of the afterlife.
In spite of the similarities to necromancy, the dead are not summoned by
means of a necromantic ritual. Instead, the coincidence and accidental character
of the encounter is often stressed. In the Christian context of the narrative, there
is an effort to disassociate the story from necromantic practices. However, the
origin of these stories must be related to exactly these practices.
An apocryphon dealing with the life adventures of the notorious magicians
Jannes and Jambres appears to be the earliest text to transgress the boundaries
between magical practices, divination, and apocalyptic narrative.40 According to
the editor of the apocryphon, Albert Pietersma, this is a text of most probably
Jewish origin and Egyptian provenance, dating to the second century C.E. or
even earlier. In this text, Jannes, using necromantic practices that involve the
consultation of magical books, summons the soul of his dead brother, Jambres,
from the underworld. The soul of Jambres explains that his death was justified,
because the two magicians challenged Moses and Aaron. Furthermore, the soul
dwells now in the underworld, the place of great burning and the sea of corruption.
The text is very corrupt and fragmentary, but it is clear that the soul of Jambres
describes a version of hell that is full of darkness and sadness, where the limbs of
the sinners are bound and are being punished by fire. The soul of Jambres warns
his brother to perform good deeds in the world, in order to avoid this place and
Eberhard Otto, Das gyptische Mundffnungsritual (gyptologische Abhandlungen 3,12; Har-

rassowitz: Wiesbaden, 1960).
38See also pseudo-Clements testimony in Recognitiones 1,5 (PG 2:1210), who before his conver-
sion to Christianity decides to go to Egypt, pay a magician to perform some sort of necromancy
and bring a soul from the infernal regions allegedly for divination purposes, whereas his real
intention was to find out about the immortality of the soul. In this example, we can already ob-
serve how the division between necromancy and afterlife concerns become blurred in Christian
Late Antique literature.
39Daniel Ogden, Greek and RomanNecromancy (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001).
40Historia de Janne et Jambre (ed. Albert Pietersma, The Apocryphon of Jannes and Jambres the
Magicians:P. Chester Beatty XVI [Leiden: Brill, 1993], 1622).

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Talking Skulls 125
he lists among the sins that need to be avoided: slander, usury, perjury, and of
course the practice of magic. To my knowledge, this is the earliest text that attests
to an afterlife narrative by a protagonist who is currently in the underworld and
gives a personal account of his actual hellish experience in real-time.41
As observed, this type of hell account was recurrent in monastic literature,
in hagiography (especially in writings of Egyptian provenance), and more speci-
ficallyin martyrology. These stories are often brief or survive only in an abridged
form. Accordingly, they do not offer comprehensive tours of hell. Still, they are
witnesses to the survival and popularity of these traditions in the monastic world
of late antique Egypt and beyond. References to hellcommonly fierypunish-
ments were widespread in monastic literature of Late Antiquity. Some of the stories
offer just passing references to revived dead persons and their coming out of hell
or their glimpses of eternal life.42 Occasionally, these would also include short
descriptions of single hell torments. Although this information is not particular-
ly conclusive in terms of a comprehensive understanding of hell as a separate
entity in afterlife, they certainly testify to the internalisation and a meanwhile
standardised perception and depiction of hell. Thus, a detailed description could
occasionally be omitted.
Rogozhina speaks of a sub-type of the apocalyptic tour of hell, a hagio-
graphic tour of hell.43 However, the personal accounts encountered in the ha-
giography probably present an independent literary development with regard
to the apocalyptic literature of Late Antiquity. Significantly detailed accounts of
afterlife tours as related by visiting visionaries continue also in later Christian
literature. Original afterlife visions are attested up to the late Middle Ages in
41As evidenced in the above mentioned Encomium on St. Elias of Hnes, the story of the two
brother magicians was well known in Christian Egypt. The magician in this narrative admits his
defeat in front of St. Elias power and compares himself to the famous magician siblings, Jannes
and Jambres who could not fight a man called Moses (ourwme je mwucyc) (Martyrium S.
Eliae [106 S.]). Accordingly, this story served as a model for the victory of the right faith against
common magic. Furthermore, a variant of the apocryphon of Jannes and Jambres appears to
have survived in aprobably lateArabic apocryphon about the Life of St. Stephen (see Maurits
Geerard, Clavis Apocryphorum Novi Testamenti [CChr; Turnhout: Brepols, 1992], 300303). In
this story, St. Stephen, following the wish of a former magician called Aristodemus, revives his
dead friend magician, Yuas, on the third day after his death. Yuas then briefly describes his hell
torments and the demons that he used to worship. Yuas receives then the baptism by St. Stephen
and after burning his magical books, he becomes a pious Christian, see Yassa Abd al-Mash
and Antoine Khater, An Arabic Apocryphon of St. Stephen the Archdeacon, Studia Orientalia
Christiana 13 (19681969): 161198.
42See Ps.-Besa, Vita Sinuthii (CSCO 41, 6668 Leipoldt).

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Greek Byzantine, Slavonic, and other languages of the Christian world.44 These
writings either relate personal visions of monks who are granted a heavenly tour
or occasionally near-death experiences. Thus, obviously, the texts that present a
dead (pagan) person speaking do not replace the genre as such but constitute a
parallel albeit possibly less popular development.
Accordingly, the personal accounts on afterlife might be considered as a speci-
fic literary phenomenon, possibly a special category of apocalyptic narrative that
circulated among various religious communities of the East from Late Antiquity
until late Middle Ages (or even modern times). These writings stress the impor-
tance of re-thinking traditional categories and definitions of apocalypticism and
eschatology in the history of ancient Christianity in view of an in-depth analysis
of the rich relevant literary evidence.
Acknowledgement: I would like to thank Professor Michael Stone for reading

an earlier draft of this paper and for his valuable and most helpful comments.
44See, for example, Christina Angelidi, La version longue de la Vision du Moine Cosmas,
Analecta Bollandiana 101 (1983): 7399; Richard Bauckham, The Four Apocalypses of the Virgin
Mary, in idem, The Fate of the Dead (Studies on the Jewish and Christian Apocalypses/Novum
Testamentum Supplements 93; Leiden: Brill, 1998), 332362; Jane Baun, Tales from Another By-
zantium: Celestial Journey and Local Community in the Medieval Greek Apocrypha (Cambridge:
CUP, 2007); Lennart Ryden, The Life of St. Andrew the Fool (Studia Byzantina Upsaliensia
4,1.2; Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell, 1995); Alice-Mary Talbot, Denis Sullivan, and Stamatina
McGrath, The Life of Saint Basil the Younger: Critical Edition and Annotated Translation of the
Moscow Version (Dumbarton Oaks Studies 45; Washington, D.C.: Dumbarton Oaks Research
Library and Collection,2014).

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 ZAC 2016; 20(1): 109126

Abstract: Established definitions of apocalypticism and apocalyptic literature

Keywords: hell visions, Egypt, necromancy

Emmanouela Grypeou: Berliner Antike Kolleg, Fabeckstr. 2325, 14195 Berlin,

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1Apa Makarius and the Talking Skull

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2The Story of the King Arsanis

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rusalem ( .) ,5 where, on his way, he encountered

5De rege Arsanio (82 H.).

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3Bishop Pisentius and the Mummy

7De rege Arsanio (85 H.).

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place, it is narrated, Pisentius found a majestic tomb in an impressively spacious

10Vita Pisentii bohairica (407 A.).

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4Islamic and Jewish Reception History

14Vita Pisentii bohairica (410 A.).

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5Tours of Hell in Christian Hagiographical Texts

19Wilhelm Bacher, Zwei alte Abothkommentare, Monatsschrift fr Geschichte und Wissenschaft

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An additional variation of this narrative pattern is included in the Encomium

6Personal Accounts of Hell in Late Antiquity

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In this sense, they form a special category of supernatural beings. Theabsence

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Eberhard Otto, Das gyptische Mundffnungsritual (gyptologische Abhandlungen 3,12; Har-

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Acknowledgement: I would like to thank Professor Michael Stone for reading

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ZAC 2016; 20(1): 109126