The Christian Parthenon: Classicism and Pilgrimage in Byzantine Athens by Anthony Kaldellis


The Christian Parthenon: Classicism and Pilgrimage in Byzantine Athens
Title : The Christian Parthenon: Classicism and Pilgrimage in Byzantine Athens
Author :
Rating :
ISBN : 0521882281
ISBN-10 : 9780521882286
Language : English
Format Type : Hardcover
Number of Pages : 268
Publication : First published January 1, 2009

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 re-evaluates 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.

The Christian Parthenon: Classicism and Pilgrimage in Byzantine Athens Reviews

  • Ραδάμανθυς Φωτόπουλος

    Ένα ευκολοδιάβαστο βιβλίο που ρίχνει φως σε μια περίοδο από την οποία αποστειρώθηκε η εικόνα της σημερινής Ακρόπολης. Επικεντρώνεται ειδικά στον Παρθενώνα και την πρόσληψή του από τους Αθηναίους από την Ύστερη Αρχαιότητα έως την Λατινοκρατία με ένα μικρό και ενδιαφέρον παράρτημα για τη "μικρή μητρόπολη" ή "Γοργοεπήκοο".
    Εν πολλοίς ισχυρίζεται πως ο μοναδικός τρόπος που ξεχωρίζει ως κτήριο και στην δική μας νεωτερική αντίληψη ίσως δεν ήταν γνώρισμα των κλασικών χρόνων αλλά τελικά των μεσαιωνικών, ως ναός της Παναγίας της Αθηνιώτισσας. Σε κάθε περίπτωση ακόμα και όταν φτάνει σε αδύναμες εικασίες (που συνήθως αναγνωρίζει και ο ίδιος ως τέτοιες) αξίζει για την πλούσια παράθεση βιβλιογραφίας και πηγών τις οποίες ο Καλδέλης φαίνεται πως έχει μελετήσει σε βάθος.

  • Phil

    Yes, I know, yet another Kaldellis book. This one caught my attention as I was browsing my local university library Byzantine history shelves. After visiting the Athenian acropolis for the first time in 2014 and realizing that the site is pretty cleaned up of non-classical elements, I was intrigued at the premise of examining the history of the building after the end of the Classical era. I already knew the Parthenon had been converted into a church in Late Antiquity, but next to nothing after that. So, I was looking forward to seeing what Kaldellis would do with the topic.

    In taking on this topic, Kaldellis also takes on a task which is complicated by the lack of Byzantine sources outside of Constantinople for much of its history. Even Athens was considered a cultural backwater, even by the bishops who were assigned to it. So, there is precious little evidence for how this church/landmark. Kaldellis does as much as anyone could with the evidence, but his conclusions are hampered by the thinness of the sources. I think I can accept that this was a famous church and even that it might have been an object of local pilgrimate, but I do think that Kaldellis' argument that it was a major pilgrimage sit is straining the scraps of evidence has. It is not implausible- just not very provable.

    This book is a bit on the speculative side (the state of the evidence demands that), but it remains an excellent examination of provincial life and is worth reading on that basis alone.

  • Anatolikon

    As is typical with Kaldellis, this book is a thrill to read and finally brings some much needed historiographical sophistication to Byzantine history.