Several Observations on the Georgian Translations of Xiphilinos’ Metaphraseis

The observations provided in the paper have been gathered from the Georgian translations of the metaphrastic martyrdom accounts of the following saints: George; Panteleimon; Theodore Stratelates; Cyril of Alexandria; Cosmas and Damianos; Seven Sleepers of Ephesus; Eusignios; Eupraxia; Adrianos and Natalia; Dadus, Maximus, and Quintilian; Orentius and Six Brothers; Emilianus; and Floros and Lauros. In few cases, the Greek sources have survived, however in most cases we are left solely with their Georgian translations. The Georgian translations offer numerous unusual grammatical, stylistic and morphological idiosyncrasies suggesting that the translations were produced at the Gelati monastic school probably in the thirteenth century. The paper identifies several of such idiosyncrasies along with an attempt to trace their Greek origins and thereby suggest a more concrete time and context of the production of these translations.