Sacred Thresholds: The Door to the Sanctuary in Late Antiquity

390 Pages·2018·4 MB·English

by  Emilie M Opstall

Sacred Thresholds
Religions in the
Graeco-Roman World
Series Editors
David Frankfurter (Boston University)
Johannes Hahn (Universität Münster)
Frits G. Naerebout (University of Leiden)
Miguel John Versluys (University of Leiden)
VOLUME 185
The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/rgrw
Sacred Thresholds
The Door to the Sanctuary in Late Antiquity
Edited by
Emilie M. van Opstall
LEIDEN | BOSTON
Cover illustration: The Marble Door, 6th century, Hagia Sophia, photo by Emilie van Opstall.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Opstall, Emilie Marlène van, editor.
Title: Sacred thresholds : the door to the sanctuary in late antiquity /
 edited by Emilie M. van Opstall.
Description: Leiden ; Boston : Brill, 2018. | Series: Religions in the
 Graeco-Roman world, ISSN 0927-7633 ; VOLUME 185
Identifiers: LCCN 2018015943 (print) | LCCN 2018023519 (ebook) | ISBN
 9789004369009 (E-book) | ISBN 9789004368590 (hardback : alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Doors—Religious aspects. | Senses and sensation in
 architecture. | Architecture and religion—History—To 1500. |
 Boundaries—Miscellanea.
Classification: LCC NA3010 (ebook) | LCC NA3010 .S23 2018 (print) | DDC
 203/.7—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018015943
Typeface for the Latin, Greek, and Cyrillic scripts: “Brill”. See and download: brill.com/brill-typeface.
issn 0927-7633
isbn 978-90-04-36859-0 (hardback)
isbn 978-90-04-36900-9 (e-book)
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Contents
List of Figures vii
List of Contributors xi
General Introduction 1
Emilie M. van Opstall
Part 1
Experiencing Sacred Thresholds
1 On the Threshold
Paul the Silentiary’s Ekphrasis of Hagia Sophia 31
Emilie M. van Opstall
2 Entering the Baptistery
Spatial, Identity and Salvific Transitions in Fourth- and Fifth-Century
Baptismal Liturgies 66
Juliette Day
3 From Taboo to Icon
The Entrance to and the Exit from the Church in the First Three Greek
Liturgical Commentaries (ca 500–730 CE) 91
Christian Boudignon
4 Bonus Intra, Melior Exi!
‘Inside’ and ‘Outside’ at Greek Incubation Sanctuaries 110
Ildikó Csepregi
Part 2
Symbolism and Allegory 0f Sanctuary Doors
5 Sanctuary Doors, Vestibules and Adyta in the Works of Neoplatonic
Philosophers 139
Lucia M. Tissi
vi Contents
6 The Paradise of Saint Peter’s 160
Sible L. de Blaauw
7 Imagining the Entrance to the Afterlife
Peter as the Gatekeeper of Heaven in Early Christianity 187
Roald Dijkstra
Part 3
Messages in Stone
8 The Queen of Inscriptions Contextualized
The Presence of Civic Inscriptions in the pronaos
of Ancient Temples in Hellenistic and Roman Asia Minor
(Fourth Century BCE—Second Century CE) 221
Evelien J.J. Roels
9 Versus De Limine and In Limine
Displaying Greek paideia at the Entrance of Early Christian
Churches 254
Gianfranco Agosti
10 The Door to the Sanctuary from Paulinus of Nola to
Gregory of Tours
Enduring Characteristics and Evolutions from the Theodosian
to the Merovingian Period  282
Gaëlle Herbert de la Portbarré-Viard
Part 4
The Presence of the Divine
11 Filters of Light
Greek Temple Doors as Portals of Epiphany 309
Christina G. Williamson
12 The Other Door to the Sanctuary
The Apse and Divine Entry in the Early Byzantine Church 341
Brooke Shilling
General Index 371
List of Figures
1.1 The entrance to Hagia Sophia: view to the naos through the central
door of the esonarthex and the central Imperial Door. Photo: Emilie
van Opstall 43
1.2 Floor plan of Hagia Sophia. Source: Jaap Fokkema, Vrije Universiteit
Amsterdam 47
1.3–4 The bronze decoration of the doors to the esonarthex. The upper
part of the leaves of the doors show a cross beneath an arch (3),
the lower part a cross on top of Mount Golgotha with the four rivers
of Paradise flowing down (4). Photo’s: Emilie van Opstall 50–51
1.5 The central Imperial Door to Hagia Sophia: the threshold.
Photo: Emilie van Opstall 53
1.6 The bronze relief above the central Imperial Door. Photo:
Emilie van Opstall 54
2.1 Plan of the Basilica of St Tecla (the Basilica Nova) indicating the
position of the baptistery. Source: Mirabella Roberti (1984) 107,
fig. 103; used with permission from the Soprintendenza Archeologia
della Lombardia 69
2.2 Plan of the baptistery of the Basilica Nova indicating the position
of the font in relation to the entrances. Source: Mirabella Roberti
(1984) 116, fig. 112; used with permission from the Soprintendenza
Archeologia della Lombardia 71
2.3 Plan of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre according to Charles
Coüasnon. Before the scientific archaeology of Tinelli and Corbo
the baptistery was thought to have been located in the three chapels
to the south of the Rotunda (marked as number 7). Source: Coüasnon
(1974) Plate VIII; used with permission from Oxford University
Press 78
2.4 Plan of the Constantinian structures of the Church of the Holy
Sepulchre, the Anastasis. Here detail of the Anastasis (Rotunda)
and Patriarchion. The cistern is no. 103 in the plan; the font was
found in sector 100 and the traces of a threshold at 116 may be
related to the baptistery. Source: Corbo (1981) vol. 2, tavola 3;
courtesy of the Studium Biblicum Franciscanum, Jerusalem 81
4.1 Hypothetical plan of the Martyrium of St Artemius, Constantinople.
Source: Mango (1993) 9, fig. 1 123
viii List of Figures
6.1 Rome, St Peter’s, Constantinian nave and atrium, and new basilica
under construction, seen from the East. Source: G.A. Dosio, drawing,
1575 ca. Formerly: Uffizi UA 2555, Firenze (now lost) 162
6.2 Rome, St Peter’s, ground plan of atrium as of 500 / 1300 ca.
Hypothetical reconstruction by Thomas Barth, 1986, after CBCR
1977 164
6.3a–b Rome, St Peter’s, cantharus with pigna (pinecone); reconstruction
of plan and elevation by Huelsen (1904) 167
6.4 Pigna (pinecone) from St Peter’s atrium, h. ca 3,70m. Vatican
Museums, Cortile della Pigna 170
6.5 The funerals of Gregory the Great in the atrium of St Peter’s. Codex
of Farfa, John the Deacon, Vita Gregorii Magni, Eton College Ms. S.11,
fol. 122r; by kind permission of Eton College, Windsor 172
6.6 Bronze pinecone, h. 0,91m., ca 1000. Aachen, Hohe Domkirche 180
6.7 Adoration of the Lamb, Gospelbook from St Médard in Soissons,
ca 825, Bibliothèque Nationale Paris, Ms. Lat. 8850 fol. 1v. Photo:
Centre for Art Historical Documentation, Radboud University 182
6.8 Fountain of Life, Godescalc Gospels, 781/783, Bibliothèque Nationale
Paris, Ms. nouv. acq. Lat. 1203, fol. 3v. Photo: Centre for Art Historical
Documentation, Radboud University 183
7.1 Fragment of a sarcophagus front (Rep3 154) with the traditio
clavium (on the right), ca 370–400, Musée lapidaire, Avignon.
Photo: R. Dijkstra 198
7.2 Detail of a sarcophagus (Rep2 138) with the traditio clavium and
witnessing apostle, ca 370–400, Rijksmuseum voor Oudheden,
Leiden. Photo: R. Dijkstra 200
7.3 Detail of a sarcophagus front (Rep2 297) with a possible depiction
of the Good Shepherd as the central scene, beginning of the fourth
century, Arheološki Muzej u Splitu, Split. Photo: R. Dijkstra 202
8.1a The pronaos of the temple of Roma and Augustus in Ancyra, seen
from the south-west. Parts of the Latin version of the Res gestae are
visible on the northern (left) anta. Photo: E.J.J. Roels 222
8.1b Plan of the temple of Roma and Augustus in Ancyra with the distri-
bution of the inscriptions on the temple walls. Source: Krencker and
Schede (1936) 15, fig. 10. Reproduced by the courtesy of the Deutsches
Archäologisches Institut 222
8.2 Plan of the sanctuary of Athena Polias at the turn of the eras, Priene.
Source: Hennemeyer (2013) Taf. 2. Reproduced by the courtesy of
Arnd Hennemeyer 229
List of Figures ix
8.3 The temple of Athena Latmia in Herakleia, seen from the north-east.
Photo: E.J.J. Roels 232
8.4 Plan of the sanctuary of Hecate in Lagina; the temple is situated
near the centre. Source: Tırpan (2012) 182, fig. 1. Reproduced by the
courtesy of Ahmet Tırpan 235
8.5 The remains of the cella of the temple of Zeus in Aizanoi, seen from
the East: the horizontally outlined framework on the northern wall
of the pronaos with the dossier of letters is clearly visible on the right.
Photo: E.J.J. Roels 238
8.6 Plan of the temple of Zeus in Aizanoi. A–D are the documents of
the temple land dossier. Naumann (1979) Taf. 9. Reproduced by the
courtesy of the Deutsches Archäologisches Institut 238
9.1a–b SGO 21/23/03 (a) left part and (b) right part. Photo’s by Julien Aliquot
2013 © Programme IGLS, CNRS/HiSoMA 265
9.2 SGO 21/23/04. Photo by Julien Aliquot 2010 © Programme IGLS, CNRS/
HiSoMA 267
9.3 SGO 22/14/04 = IGLS XV 186. Photo by Jean Starcky © Programme
IGLS, CNRS/HiSoMA 269
9.4 SGO 22/14/03 = IGLS XV 177. Photo de Julien Aliquot 2009
© Programme IGLS, CNRS/HiSoMA 272
10.1 Map of the sanctuary of St Felix at Nola at the time of the extensive
construction work supervised by Paulinus in the years 401–403.
Reproduces by the courtesy of T. Lehman, with adaptations 286
11.1 North door of the Erechtheion in Athens. Photo: Chr. Williamson
2016, with permission of the Athens Ephorate of Antiquities 315
11.2 Reverse of a Hadrianic silver tetradrachm showing the temple
of Artemis in Ephesus, with the cult image visible in the temple
and the door-like aperture in the pediment, SNG UK Vol. VI .2 1310.
Photo: © The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge 324
11.3 Reconstruction of the entrance to the temple of Apollo at Didyma,
showing the great ‘Erscheinungstür’, Apollontempel in Didyma bei
Milet, print by Georg Niemann (1841–1912), 1912. Photo: Johannes
Laurentius, Antikensammlung, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin-
Preussischer Kulturbesitz 329
11.4 Students gathered in the pronaos of the Didymaion, with one on the
threshold of the ‘Erscheinungstür’ showing the difference in height.
Photo: Chr. Williamson 2012 329
x List of Figures
11.5 The ‘Erscheinungstür’ from the temple of Apollo Delion at Palatia
on Naxos. Photo: Mark Cartwright of Ancient History Encyclopedia
(www.ancient.eu) 331
11.6 Plan and cross-section of the temple of Apollo at Didyma, show-
ing the sunlight from the west at an elevation of 36° (summer),
illuminating the adyton and mid-chamber (after H. Knackfuß and
T. Wiegand (1941) Didyma I. Die Baubeschreibung, Berlin, p. 8, z.146).
Elevation: Jan Köster, Dai Istanbul 331
12.1 Mount Sinai, Monastery of St Catherine, apse mosaic. Reproduced
through the courtesy of the Michigan-Princeton-Alexandria
Expedition to Mount Sinai 343
12.2 Lythrankomi, Church of the Panagia Kanakariá, apse mosaic. Source:
Image Collections and Fieldwork Archives, Dumbarton Oaks,
Trustees for Harvard University, Washington, DC 344
12.3 Kiti, Church of the Panagia Angeloktistos, apse mosaic. Source: Image
Collections and Fieldwork Archives, Dumbarton Oaks, Trustees for
Harvard University, Washington, DC 346
12.4 Kiti, Church of the Panagia Angeloktistos, apse mosaic. Source: Image
Collections and Fieldwork Archives, Dumbarton Oaks, Trustees for
Harvard University, Washington, DC 347
12.5a Livadia, Church of the Panagia tes Kyras, apse mosaic. Source: Image
Collections and Fieldwork Archives, Dumbarton Oaks, Trustees for
Harvard University, Washington, DC 349
12.5b Line drawing of the mosaic at Livadia. From: A.H.S. Megaw and
E.J.W. Hawkins (1976) ‘A fragmentary mosaic of the orant Virgin in
Cyprus,’ in M. Berza and E. Stănecsü (eds) Actes du XIVe Congrès
International des Études Byzantines, Bucarest, 6–12 septembre 1971,
vol. 3: 363–66, fig. 2 349
12.6 Missorium of Theodosius I, Real Academia de la Historia, Madrid.
Source: Manuel Parada López de Corselas, 2015 351
12.7 Bawit, Monastery of Apa Apollo, chapel 17, watercolor reconstruc-
tion. After J. Clédat (1906) Le monastère et la nécropole de Baouit, pl.
41 355
12.8 Ravenna, Orthodox Baptistery, vault mosaic. Source: Alyson
Wharton 360
12.9 Syria, floor mosaic: Holy Sepulchre. Source: National Museum
of Denmark 362
12.10 Paphos, Basilica of Chrysopolitissa, atrium, floor mosaic.
Source: B. Shilling 363