What was the true nature of Eudocia, the Byzantine empress and poet of the 5th century AD, whose work seems forgotten through the ages?

How is her enigmatic life and actions connected to her unique poetic work?

How can the study of her work contribute to the understanding of a complex and contradictory era that marks the transition from the ancient to the medieval world?

The Life of Cyprian, which is being translated into modern Greek for the first time, is not only a rare and captivating example of early Byzantine literature but also a document of the complex intellectual processes of an entire historical period during which different religions, rituals, philosophical traditions, mystical contemplations, and magical practices coexist.

In Eudocia's work, we follow the inner journey and the successive initiations of the magician Cyprian (later Saint Cyprian of Antioch) through a traversal of sacred places and unknown mysteries of antiquity.

Nightmarish and grotesque images, conversations with malevolent demons, and dark mysterious environments create a world that seems to foreshadow the rich tradition of later medieval demonologies as well as Faustian compositions and Gothic literature.