Beauty, Knowledge, and Gain in the Life of Theoktiste

The tenth-century Byzantine hagiographical Life of Theoktiste, written by Niketas Magistros, has been read in various ways, not in the least intertextually and as the life of a non-existing saint. The present article further investigates the motives of the author, the social and cultural vision, as well as generic notions, embedded in the text, and offers a new date of composition for the Life, viz. in the middle of (rather than in the early decades of) the tenth century, connecting its composition to the literary tastes of the court of Constantine VII Porphyrogennitos.