Elementi partici e toni iranizzanti nell'Inno della Perla

The composition known as the Hymn of the Pearl, included in the apocryphal New Testament work Acts of Thomas, is a unique 3rd-century text attributable not only to Christian readers but also to interconfessional readers from Gnostic and Manichean circles, due to the story it describes of the drama of the soul's fall into the material world and its redemption, organised by the divine powers that intervene to save it. The interesting thing about this Hymn is the frequent reference to a courtly imagery, of the Parthian type, modelled on historical and institutional references from Iranian culture (royal, administrative and bureaucratic) filtered through the terminology included in the Syriac version (“King of kings”, “viceroy”, 'prince', “treasurers”, “guardians”, “letter”, “door”). The result is a Gnostic fiction, where metaphors of fall, redemption and triumphant salvation compose a Hymn on the origin and destiny of all existence. And with the tones of a royal and courtly epic, extending well beyond the geography of Iran, in that widespread Iranism (or in the Iranianising aspects of manner and imitation) that touched the neighbouring cultures of the late Hellenistic Middle East, and of the biblical, intertestamental and Christian writings. Keywords Iran, Parthians, royal imagery, gnosis, cultural interference, Christian literatur