The Christian Parthenon : classicism and pilgrimage in Byzantine Athens / Anthony Kaldellis.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Kaldellis, Anthony

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Parthenon (Athens, Greece)--History.

Parthenon (Athens, Greece).

Parthenon (Athens, Greece)--Influence.

Classicism--Greece--Athens--History.

Classicism.

Pilgrims and pilgrimages--Greece--Athens--History.

Pilgrims and pilgrimages.

Christianity.

History.

Athens (Greece)--History.

Athens (Greece).

Athens (Greece)--Religious life and customs.

Athens (Greece)--Church history.

Greece--History--323-1453.

Greece.

Christianity--Byzantine Empire.

Byzantine Empire--Church history.

Byzantine Empire.

Church history.

Greece--Athens.

Physical Description:

xvi, 252 pages : illustrations, maps, plans ; 26 cm

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, UK ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2009.

Summary:

Byzantine Athens was not a city without a history, as is commonly believed, but an important center about which much can now be said. Providing a wealth of new evidence, Professor Kaldellis argues that the Parthenon became a major site of Christian pilgrimage after its conversion into a church. Paradoxically, it was more important as a church than it had been as a temple: the Byzantine period was its true age of glory. He examines the idiosyncratic fusion of pagan and Christian culture that took place in Athens, where an attempt was made to replicate the classical past in Christian terms, affecting rhetoric, monuments, and miracles. He also reevaluates the reception of ancient ruins in Byzantine Greece and presents for the first time a form of pilgrimage that was directed not toward icons, Holy Lands, or holy men but toward a monument embodying a permanent cultural tension and religious dialectic.

Contents:

1 Conversions of the Parthenon 11

The Parthenon in antiquity: a reassessment 11

The pagan Parthenon in late antiquity 19

From temple to church 23

Triumph or continuity? 31

What happened at Athens? 40

The Theosophy oracle on the Parthenon 47

St. Paul in Athens 53

2 From students to pilgrims in medieval Athens (AD 532-848) 60

The collapse of the late Roman city 60

Traveling to Athens in the Dark Age 63

Athens and Constantinople 72

Inscriptions of the Christian Parthenon 74

3 Imperial recognition: Basileios II in Athens (AD 1018) 81

An emperor in Athens 81

Interpreting imperial pilgrimage 86

4 Pilgrims of the middle period (AD 900-1100) 92

Murder in the Parthenon 92

Loukas of Steiris 96

Nikon "Repent!" 97

Phantinos the Younger 101

Meletios the Younger and the rehabilitation of Athena 103

Saewulf, Guido, and the light of Athens 107

5 The apogee of the Atheniotissa in the twelfth century 112

Athens in the twelfth century 113

Georgios Bourtzes (1153-1160) 122

Nikolaos Hagiotheodorites (1160-1175) 125

Pilgrims and the piety of the Athenians 129

The festival of the Atheniotissa 133

Brand-naming and exporting the Atheniotissa 137

6 Michael Choniates: a classicist-bishop and his cathedral (AD 1182-1205) 145

The Parthenon as consolation 145

The Parthenon in the late twelfth century 149

Choniates between past and present 156

Leon Sgouros (1204) and the end of Byzantine Athens 162

7 Why the Parthenon? An attempt at interpretation 166

The mysterious success of Christian Athens 166

Athens' meager Christian credentials 168

Deconstructing the Christian Parthenon 173

Ancient ruins and the Byzantine beholder: a view of the "sights" in Greece 178

Conclusion: archaeology, polysemy, success 191

8 The light of the Christian Parthenon 196

Postscript: some Byzantine heresies 207.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [215]-248) and index.

ISBN:

9780521882286

0521882281

OCLC:

286433690