After Constantine

Issue 3
(June 2023)

Orthodox Academy of Crete

After Constantine
Stories from the Late Antique and
Early Byzantine Era

ISSN 2732-8260

After Constantine issue 3 (June 2023)

Published by the Orthodox Academy of Crete (www.oac.gr)
All papers copyright are held by the authors and became available by the Creative Commons
Attribution License
CC-BY creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Editorial Board

Andreas Kuelzer (Austrian Academy of Sciences)

Vanya Lozanova (Bulgarian Academy of Sciences)
Panagiotis Manafis (University of Patras)
Efi Ragia (University of Thessaly)
Zoe Tsiami (University of Thessaly)
Sercan Yandim Aydin (Hacettepe University)
Yannis Varalis (University of Thessaly)
Luca Zavagno (Bilkent University)
Constantine Zorbas (Director of Orthodox Academy of Crete)

Editors

Zoe Tsiami
Philippos Vlahoulis (University of Thessaly)

Graphic sketch

Byzantine tales - History in comics

Find out more at: byzantinetales.com

Chrysa Sakel
Spyros Theocharis
 Table of Contents

Coptic Letters from the Brooklyn Museum

Sohair Ahmed p. 1

Easter recycling. Thanatological Motifs in the texts of the

Christians of the North
Nadiezhda Gayevskaya p. 8

The Metaphors of Motion in Athanasius’ Account of

Idolatry
Viacheslav V. Lytvynenko p. 22

Book Review

Zeuxippos or Byzantion:The City of the Sun.

Valeria Fol p. 35
Constantine the Great by Chrysa Sakel
 COPTIC LETTERS FROM THE
BROOKLYN MUSEUM
Sohair Ahmed*

This paper presents publishing five Coptic ostraca, one is a limestone chip and the others are potsherds.
These ostraca represent uncompleted letters including a request which is missed partly or completely in
the texts here. There is a suggestion of reading and translating the texts made by Professor
Wintermute a long time ago, but he didn’t publish them and agreed to be published by me. The
museum sent me permission to publish in 2019 and I took photos of the ostraca in 2022.
Keywords: Coptic, Letter, Ostraca, Request.

The Coptic letters were official, ecclesiastical, Title: Coptic Ostracon

personal, or practical.[1] Their topics are request, Date: 332 B.C.E.-642 C.E.
Period: Ptolemaic Period to Late Antique Period
order, instructions, blaming, complaint,
Geography: Place made: Egypt
information, or just greeting. The texts here Medium: Limestone, pigment
represent letters including a request (not complete Dimensions: 4 15/16 x 3 9/16 x 11/16 in. (12.5 x 9
in texts). x 1.7 cm)
The Coptic letters of request are numerous and Description: From X2003 Egyptian, Classical,
contain either asking for a loan, favor, meeting, Ancient Middle Eastern Art
visit, prayer, advice, payment, Conservation Survey Form, 1/4/00: Condition:
division(something),[2] or settlement (between Good
two persons).[3] The favor asked in these letters Content by me: Beginning of a letter, the sender
was often sending or bringing something (like addressed the letter to his mother and his brothers,
money)[4] or someone, with or without fees (e.g. it included a request, but it is erased completely.
asking for bringing someone as a servant for a
sick woman).[5]
...
Signs for publishing used in this case:
[ⲁⲃⲅ] Letters missing from the original text due to
lacuna, restored by the editor.
ⲁ(ⲃⲅ) Abbreviation /symbol in the text, expanded by
the editor.
ⲁⲃ ⲅ Letters not clear entirely in the text.

Ostracon 1
Potsherd X2004.148
Collection: Egyptian, Classical, Ancient Near
Eastern Art
Object Number: 16.580.460
Culture: Unknown Egyptian artist
Ostracon 1

AFTER CONSTANTINE 3 (2023) 1-7 1

1.ⲁ̣ⲛ[ⲟ]ⲕ̣ ⲙⲏ̣[ⲛⲁ] Dimensions: 1 9/16 x 3/8 x 1 13/16 in. (4 x 1 x 4.6
2.ⲉⲓϣⲓⲛⲉ ⲉⲧ̣[ⲁ] cm)
3.ⲙⲁⲁⲩ ⲙ︦[ⲛ ⲛ-] Description: Receipt of two taxes paid at the bank
.
4.ⲁⲥⲛⲏⲩ ⲧⲏ̣[ⲣⲟⲩ] of Diospolis (Thebes)
.
5.ϩⲛⲟⲩϊⲣⲏⲛ̣[ⲓ]
6.ⲁⲣⲓ ⲧ(ⲁⲅⲁⲡ)ⲏ ⲛ︦[ⲅ︦] Content by me: It seems to be an official letter
7.………… inscribed on both sides (not tax receipt), the
sender was a scribe (or steward) and he writes to a
man who seems to be headman, and part of his
1. I am Me[na?]
name is broken (because of a lacuna), the sender
2. I greet m[y]
asked sending something missed also in the text
3. Mother a[nd]
(on the back) to be delivered by the man who
4. A[ll] my brothers
brings this letter.
5. In a pea[ce]
6. Do charity a[nd]
7. ……………….[6]

l.1 The name of the sender starts with the letter ⲙ

and according to the space of missed letters here, I
suggest it to be “Mena” which is a familiar
Christian name relating to Saint Mena who was
depicted on flasks of water (used for healing) in
Byzantine Egypt.[7]

l.5 ⲓⲣⲏⲛⲉ, ⲓⲣⲏⲛⲏ: A Greek loan word means “peace”

mentioned in these forms in Sahidic and Fayyumic
dialects.[8] Ostracon 2
(Recto)
l.6 ⲁⲣⲓ ⲧⲏ: I suggest it as an uncommon abbreviation
(Nomina Sacra) for ⲁⲣⲓ ⲧⲁⲅⲁⲡⲏ “do charity” which
is a polite formula written before requests in letters,
abbreviate to ⲧⲁⲡⲏ or ⲧⲁⲅⲏ (the Coptic equivalent is
ⲁⲣⲓ ⲡⲛⲁ “do favor”[9] and replaced sometimes by
ⲁⲣⲓ ⲧⲙⲛⲧⲥⲟⲛ “do brotherhood”.[10]

Ostracon 2
Potsherd X2004.185
Collection: Egyptian, Classical, Ancient Near
Eastern Art
ObjectNumber: 16.580.468
Culture: Unknown Egyptian artist
Title: Coptic Ostracon
Date: late 2nd century B.C.
Geography: Place made: Thebes Egypt
Ostracon 2
Medium: Terracotta, pigment (Verso)

AFTER CONSTANTINE 3 (2023) 1-7

2
Recto Period: Ptolemaic Period to Late Antique Period
1.+ⲡⲥⲁϩ [NN] Geography: Place made: Egypt
2.ⲉϥϣⲓⲛ[ⲉ ⲉⲡⲡ-?] Medium: Terracotta, pigment
3.ⲣⲟⲥⲧⲉⲧ̣[ⲏⲥ?…] Dimensions: 2 11/16 x 3/16 x 3 3/8 in. (6.9 x 0.4 x
4.ⲓ̣ⲟ̣ⲥ̣[…..] 8.5 cm)
Description: From X2003 Egyptian, Classical,
Verso Ancient Middle Eastern Art
1.[ϯ... ⲛⲁ]ⲡ̣ⲣⲱⲙⲉ Conservation Survey Form, 1/7/00: Condition: Good
2.[ⲉⲧⲛⲁⲛ̄ ϯⲉ]ⲡ̣ⲓⲥⲧⲟⲗⲏ
3.[ⲛⲁⲕ ⲟⲩϫⲁⲓ ]ϩ̣ⲙ︦ⲡ̣ϫ̣[ⲟⲉⲓⲥ] Content by me: Beginning of letter, including
greeting and a missing request.
Recto 1.+̣ Ϩⲁⲑⲏ ⲙⲉⲛ ⲛ [ϩⲱⲃ ⲛⲓⲙ…]
1.+The scribe/ master[NN] 2. ⲙⲟⲩⲣⲅⲓⲣⲓⲁ ϣⲓⲛ[ⲉ ⲉⲣⲟⲕ….]
2.he greets [the] 3.[ⲁ]ⲣⲓ ̣ⲧⲁⲕⲁⲡ[ⲏ ⲛⲅ…..]
3.Manager/headman?[ ]
4.NN[do favor and? ] 1. first of [all matters…]
2. Mourgiria greets [you..]
Verso 3. Do chari[ty and ….]
1.[Give… to] the man
2.[who will bring this] letter
3.[to you, be well] in the L[ -ord ]

l.1ⲥⲁϩ is a title that means “master” for some jobs

like “steward” and as a title for the skilled workmen
or sellers, now as meallam, it means also scribe or
teacher.[11]
l.2 ⲉⲡⲓⲥⲧⲟⲗⲏ “letter” was replaced usually with ⲃⲗ︦ϫⲉ
“potsherd/ostracon”.[12]
l.3-4 ⲡⲣⲟⲥⲧⲉⲧ[ⲏⲥ]perhaps as ⲡⲣⲟⲥⲧⲁⲧⲏⲥ “manager,
Ostracon 3
abbot, headman”, [13] perhaps followed here by a
proper name in the Greek masculine form like ⲙⲟⲩⲣⲅⲓⲣⲓⲁ: I suggest it as a variation of the
Makarios, Georgios, Dios and so on. feminine proper name ⲙⲉⲣⲕⲟⲩⲣⲓⲁ,[15]the
Usually sending some objects with the courier masculine forms of this name as ⲙⲉⲣⲕⲟⲩⲣⲓⲟⲥ and
who delivered the letter (either man or woman) ⲙⲉⲣⲅⲟⲩⲣⲓⲟⲥ[16](Arabic as Merqura).
such as coins, wine, clothes, tools, and medicine.
[14] Ostracon4
Potsherd NO. X2004-201
Ostracon 3 Object number: X1189.8
Potsherd NO. X2004-199 Culture: Egyptian, Classical, Ancient Near
ObjectNumber: 16.580.479 Eastern Art
Culture: Unknown Egyptian artist Title: CopticOstracon
Title: Coptic Ostracon Date: 332 B.C.E.-642 C.E.
Date: 332 B.C.E.-642 C.E. Period: Ptolemaic Period to Late Antique Period

AFTER CONSTANTINE 3 (2023) 1-7

3

Ostracon 4
Geography: Place made: Egypt
Medium: Terracotta, pigment
Dimensions: 1 15/16 x 5/16 x 2 7/16 in. (5 x 0.8 x
6.2 cm)
1 15/16 x 1/4 x 2 1/2 in. (4.9 x 0.7 x 6.3 cm)
Provenance: Ancient provenance not known;
modern provenance. not recorded, but the object has
been in the Museum for many decades.
Historical Attributions: Unpublished book 11,
Wintermute's Notes: no number E,p.14-15
Published References: Permission to publish
granted to Dr. Sohair Ahmed – YB 6/2019
Ostracon 5
Potsherd X2004-283
Collection: Egyptian, Classical, Ancient Near
Eastern Art
ObjectNumber: 16.580.502
Culture: Unknown Demotic artist
Title: Coptic Ostracon
Date: 332 B.C.E.-642 C.E.
Period: Ptolemaic Period to Late Antique Period
Geography: Place made: Egypt
Medium: Terracotta, pigment
Dimensions: 2 5/8 x 7/16 x 4 3/8 in. (6.7 x 1.1 x
11.1 cm)
Content by me: A part from letter mentioned a
number of fruits and dry measure perhaps for
sending, buying, selling, or paying them.

Content by me: A letter from John to Apa Moses

(monks) mentions a person builds something
missing in the text, then the sender asked the
recipient a favor that giving this builder something Ostracon 5
(perhaps a tool or wage), which will be sent to the
11. ⲡⲉⲕⲥⲟⲛ ⲛⲉ
recipient by the master builder.
12. ⲗⲁⲭϛ .

1.ϯϣⲓⲛⲉ ⲉ[ⲧⲉⲕⲙⲛⲧⲥⲟⲛ]
1.I greet [your] good[17][brotherhood]
2.[ⲉⲧ]ⲛⲁⲛⲟⲩⲥ ⲉⲓⲥ[ϩⲏⲧⲉ? ]
2.Behold!
3.[…]Ϫⲁ ⲕⲱⲧ[…..]
3.[NN] builds [something]
4.ⲁⲣⲓ ⲡⲛⲁ ⲛⲅ︦[ …. ]
4.Do favor and [give him…[18]]
5.[ⲡϫⲟⲉⲓⲥ] ⲉϥⲁⲥⲙⲟⲩ ⲉⲣ[ⲟⲕ]
5.[May Lord] bless [you]
6.ⲉⲓⲥ ⲧⲕ︦ⲧⲟ︦ⲛ︦ [NN]
6.Look,(the) master builder [NN?]
7.[ⲉϥⲛⲁⲧⲛ]ⲛⲟⲟⲩⲥ ⲛⲁⲕ ⲙⲧ [ⲟⲟⲧϥ?]
7.[he will se-]nd it to you [by?][19]
8.[ⲛ…]ⲟⲗⲉ ⲧⲁⲁ[ⲥ] ⲙ
8.[…]ole, give [ it] to
9.ⲁⲡⲁ ⲙⲱⲩⲥⲏ[ⲥ]
9.Apa Moses
10. ϩⲓⲧⲛ ⲓⲱϩⲁ[ⲛⲏⲥ]
10. From John

AFTER CONSTANTINE 3 (2023) 1-7

4
11. Your brother the (something) to the letter carrier (no.2) or giving
12. humble (something) to a builder on behalf of the master
builder (no.4), and the last letter here mentioned
l.3 perhaps a proper name ends with ϫⲁ(compare doum fruits and a dry measure –which will be
ⲕⲟⲩϫⲁ).[20] probably paid or sent to someone (no.5).
- The polite formula before the request is: do
l.6 ⲧⲕ︦ⲧⲟ︦ⲛ︦ from Greek origin refers to “master charity (nos. 1, 3) and do a favor (no.4).
builder, architect”.[21] -Using the invocation “May Lord bless you” after
requesting a favor (no.4) and it is written usually
l.8 […]ⲟⲗⲉ I think it is as proper name, there are after the greeting formula in Coptic
many Coptic personal names ended with ole, such as correspondences.
Paole, Peloole, and Stole.[22] -The verb used for the greeting formula here is
1. ……………………. “ϣⲓⲛⲉ” to express the simple greeting formula
+2. Ϫⲉ ⲕⲛⲁⲃⲱⲕ[ⲉ…..] (nos.1-4).
3. ⲙ[ⲙⲁ]ⲁⲃ ⲛⲕⲟⲩⲕ [ ⲛ︦…. ] - The woman called Mourgiria (no.3) was not the
4. ⲥⲛⲁⲩ ⲙⲙⲁⲁⲃ [ⲛ︦…] sender of the letter but she may be the wife,
5. ϣ[…] ⲙⲁϫⲉ[ ] daughter or sister of the sender.
6-9.….traces….. - The titles prostates and tekton (from Greek
origin), they are not familiar in the Coptic letters
1. ……………………. (nos.2,4 here).
+2. Because you will go[to (a place name/ a - The texts here can be dated from the 6th –the
monastery name)] 8th centuries CE (according to the dating of the
3. The thirty of doum-fruits [to NN?] Coptic ostraca).
4. Thirty two [of (fruits /measure)]
5. [three? of] Matia[ of… ] Notes
6-9. …..traces…… *Egyptian Assistant Professor in Coptic language,
l.2 ⲕⲟⲩⲕ means fruit/nut of the doum palm. The Faculty of Archaeology, in Shams University,
ancient Egyptians made bread from it, mentioned in Cairo-Egypt, published many Coptic
Coptic also as a proper name.[23] This word means documentary texts written on ostraca and papyri,
also in Coptic “safflower” but I translate it as doum prepared dictionaries about Professions and Titles,
because there is no measure written after the number Arabic Terms, and Food and Drink in
here, so it is a countable thing as “doum”. Coptic.Winner of the papyrology fellowship
award from the USA in
l.4 ⲙⲁϫⲉ or ⲙⲁⲁϫⲉ (rarely as ⲙⲁⲁⲧⲥⲉ or ⲙⲁⲧⲓ) is a dry 2021(https://classicalstudies.org/awards-and-
measure for grain, seeds, salt, and fruits, known fellowships/ludwig-koenen-fellowship).
from ancient Egypt as medja, and in Latin as [1] Ahmed 2020, p.7.
mation (pl. as matia), its capacity is 12 to one [2] Ahmed 2008, no.6.
artaba.[24] [3] Ibid. 2008, p.2.
[4] Ahmed 2022, no.1.
Conclusions [5] Ahmed 2009, no.1.
-The request in letters nos.1 and 3 are now [6] The request is erased entirely from here.
completely missed, while in the other letters here [7] Ahmed 2020, no. 4, p. 48.
a part of the request is still appearing like giving

AFTER CONSTANTINE 3 (2023) 1-7

5
[8] Coptic Dictionary.org [last access 10/11/2022].
[9] Förster 2007,WB, 3-5.
[10] Ahmed 2009, no.1.
[11] For more information, see: Crum 1939,383b-384a & Ahmed 2011, p.196.
[12] Ahmed 2022, no.1.
[13] Förster 2007,WB, 693; Cherix 2016-2019,165 b; Ahmed 2010, p.139.
[14] For examples: Crum 1939, ST no. 337; Hasitzka 2007, nos. 151,161; P. Kellis 1, no.25; Crum
1902,no.68 and Ahmed 2022, no.1.
[15] Wintermute didn’t consider it as proper name
and translated it as “bundle of bandages”.
[16] Hasitzka 2007, p.60b,61a.
[17] Written in the next line.
[18] Perhaps a tool for building or wage?
[19] Another weak suggestion by me as: ⲙ[ⲛⲛⲉⲗⲟ]ⲟⲗⲉ “with the grapes”, perhaps as wage.
[20] Hasitzka 2007, p. 52b.
[21] Förster 2007,WB, 799, Cherix 2016-2019, 174b.
[22] Hasitzka 2007, p. 70a; Cherix 2016-2019, 75a, 95b.
[23] Crum 1939 100b; Cherix 2016-2019, 16b; Ahmed 2020-21, 26,5.
[24] Alcock 1996, p.3; Crum 1939, 213a.

Bibliography

1. Ahmed, S. (2008). A Group of Unpublished Coptic Ostraca from the Cairo Museum, Vol. 1. Cairo: al-
Zaīm publishing house.
2. Ahmed, S. (2009).Four Coptic Ostraca from Kharga Museum. BAPCI (26), pp. 163-187.
3. Ahmed, S. (2010 & 2011). Professions, Trades, Occupations and Titles in Coptic –Alphabetically I,
II. J CoptS (12&13) [online], pp. 115-148, pp. 183-212. Available at:
https://shams.academia.edu/SohairAhmed and https://coptica.ch/indices [Last access 12 November
2022]
4. Ahmed, S. (2020). Eleven Coptic Papyri from Beinecke Library- Yale University with Glossary of
Currency in Coptic. BACS [Online] (1). Available at: https://shams.academia.edu/SohairAhmed [Last
access 12 November 2022].
5. Ahmed, S. (2020-2021). Food and Drink in Coptic Texts- an Alphabetical List, BACS [Online] (2).
Available at: https://shams.academia.edu/SohairAhmed and https://coptica.ch/indices [Last access 12
November 2022].
6. Ahmed, S. (2022). Coptic Ostraca Mentioning Money. After Constantine: Stories from the Late
Antique and Early Byzantine Era [online] (2), pp. 1-22. Available at www.afterconstantine.com/issues
[Last access 12 November 2022].
7. Alcock, A. (1996). Coptic Terms for Containers and Measures. Enchoria (23), pp. 1-7.
8. Cherix, P. (2016-2019). Lexique Copte–dialects ahidique, PDF, V .19.1 [Online]. Available at:
https://coptica.ch/indices [Last Access 12 November 2022].
9. Crum, W. (1902). Coptic Ostraca from the Collections of the Egypt Exploration Fund the Cairo Museum
and Others. London: The Egypt Exploration Fund.

AFTER CONSTANTINE 3 (2023) 1-7

6
10. Crum, W. (1921). Short Texts from Coptic Ostraca and Papyri. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
11. Crum, W. (1939). A Coptic Dictionary. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
12. Förster, H. (2002). Wörterbuch der Griechischen Wörter inden Koptische Dokumentarischen Texten.
Berlin, New York.: Walter de Gruyter.
13. Gardner, I. et al. (1999). Coptic Documentary Texts from Kellis, vol. 1. Oxbow: Oxbow Books
Limited.
14. Hasitzka, M. (2007). Namen in Koptischen Dokumentarischen Texten, [Online]. Available at:
www.onb.ac.at.& https://coptica.ch/indices [Last access 12 November 2022].
15. Stefanski, E., Lichtheim, M. (1952). Coptic Ostraca from Medinet Habu. Chicago: The University of
Chicago Press.

Websites

1. Coptic Dictionary Online. Available at: Coptic-Dictionary.org [Last access 12 November 2022].
2. Checklist of Editions Coptic Ostraca. Available at https://papyri.info/docs/checklist [Last access 12
November 2022].

AFTER CONSTANTINE 3 (2023) 1-7

7
 EASTER RECYCLING
THANATOLOGICAL MOTIVES OF THE TEXTS OF CHRISTIANS OF THE NORTH

Nadezhda Gayevskaya*

The topic of the study is Easter recycling, as it is understood in anthropological discourse. The topic
deals with the preparation for the Easter holiday in the daily life of Christian communities of the north,
and the understanding of cultural memory and its symbolic expression in phenomenological discourse.
Τhe definition of recycling as symbolic processing and its definitions in culture are promising for the
study of northern hagiography and culture. The analysis of the texts of the northern religious literature
from the regions of Karelia and Ingermanland makes it possible to see the differences in the types of
recycling, depending on the type of religious holiday, and the peculiarities of the religious life of the
region.
Keywords: Easter, Christian community, recycling, inhumation, hagiography, thanatological motives,
codification.

Cultural tradition finds its expression in the life of
ethnic communities. In the interaction of
communities, tradition is comprehended and a
system is created that synthesizes norms of
behavior, prohibitions and incentives. One of the
traditions of Christians in the Νorth is the
celebration of the main Christian holiday of Easter.
Easter occupies a central place in the topology of
the Christian holidays in the north. The life of a
man in the north since the X century has been
focused on Easter, on the pathos of the memory of
the sufferings of Christ. Easter is the main religious
experience in likening to Christ, which a person is
called to imitate. Easter is a testimony of the
Passion and Resurrection, a remembrance of the
history of salvation and a deep personal history of
communion with God. The theological dimension
of Easter is determined by the basic concept – the
concept of memory. Memory for a Christian is the
memory of Christ, the memory of deceased
ancestors, and the memory as a hope for eternal
life.
The central subject of experiencing feelings
associated with the Easter event is the inner
and existential experience of communion with
God. The creative power of experiencing
Easter is a spiritual aspiration to overcome the
finiteness of existence because human
consciousness has an inherent rejection of
death, a fundamental desire to overcome it.
The potential of the creative experience of
Easter is represented in the idea of
overcoming. In the creative energy of the
holiday, penitential meanings are born: crying
and mourning for sins, the fear of God and the
memory of death. The memory of death, the
so-called "mortal memory", as a form of God's
grace, gives the experience of mortal
experiences of the highest tension and opens
up another dimension in the hope of a future
life in eternity. Mortal memory in everyday
life, in profane, for life in another world,
becomes a condition for preparing for the
experience of Easter. Mortal memory finds

AFTER CONSTANTINE 3 (2023) 8-21 8

expression in Christian rites, in the otherness of the
religious. According to the Christian canon in the
profane, the funeral rite opens up the opportunity
to observe ritual death in the sacred space. Sacrifice
unites these two principles. A sacrifice
thanksgiving and a sacrifice of forgiveness. In the
space from worldly sacrifice as a behavioral
characteristic to redemption through the sacrifice
of Christ on the cross, the process
transformation of the memory of death as a
psychophysiological characteristic into a religious
strategy of mortal memory takes place.[1] Death is
obvious to a Christian as a consequence of falling
into sins and the finiteness of personal existence.
In the likeness of the feat of Christ, the space of
thanatological meanings is revealed. Meanings find
expression in the thematic motivic sphere of the
hagiographic text, the main source for researchers
of the life of medieval society in the North. The
Easter period of society's life can be divided into
three stages: the stage of preparation, the stage of
the sacred cult and religious holiday, and the stage
of blessing for subsequent events. Hagiographic
texts convey information about pagan
Christian influences at the Easter preparation stage.
Recycling is the main element of the first stage of
preparation and the central meaning of all stages of
the Easter holiday: recycling of the memory of all
the events of the year, renewal, and consecration of
a new period of society's life. Religious rites and
everyday practices function in culture as ways and
options for recycling. Cultural and anthropological
recycling processes are reflected in the texts, in the
theme of life and death in the hagiographic
narrative. The texts of the hagiography of
Christians of the north make it possible to visualize
the historical tradition and the evolution of forms
of imprinting people's memory, knowledge, and
information about local culture, one of the forms of
which is Easter recycling.
Recycling is a term that means cultural processing
in global civilizational and local processes. Ideas,
meanings in the field of the phenomenal, rituals,
AFTER CONSTANTINE 3 (2023) 8-21
practices, behavior, attitudes, and values in the
field of the real are subject to recycling. In
order to study the prospects of using the
theory of cultural recycling for understanding
of and substantiating the patterns of cultural
transformations of the funeral rite of Christians
of the north, recorded in hagiographic texts,
we turn to the research of William Hendricks's
of “Three Models for the Description of Poetry”
in 1969, Мichael Thompson's “Rubbish
Theory: the Creation and Destruction of
Value” in 2017, and David Mills's “Recycling
the Cycle: The City of Chester and Its
Whitsun Plays” in 1998.
Hendricks writes "about recycling required in
the interpretation of literary texts".[2] The
lives created according to the principle of the
hagiographic canon underwent artistic
recycling in the process of multiplying the
lists. Considering the possibility of recycling in
the field of religious culture, Mills notes that
"tradition" and "recycling" entered into
synonymous relations explicitly and formed a
and single space of religious meanings, with the
criterion of achieving a special religious
experience and connection with the
transcendent. In this, he argues with Jean
Baudrillard, who justified the inconsistency of
recycling and tradition but did not take into
account the phenomenal properties of religious
experience and the ability of religious tradition
to renew. The model of three-phase cultural
recycling by Thompson, which includes the
phase of the initial relevance of the topic, the
phase of its displacement to the periphery, and
the phase of its re-return to the center, will
also be in demand for analyzing the problem
of recycling religious culture. Thompson
divided all the subject cultural objects into
several value categories. The first included
those with devaluing, over time, ("transient")
value, and, accordingly, a short life span, the
second – endowed with "enduring"
9
("durable") value, that is only strengthening over
time, the third, the median, were things of the
"elastic region" ("region of flexibility"), not tied to
the previous ones, but ready to move into them.
Thompson proceeded from the fact that value
qualities are not immanent to events, but are
superimposed on them by society. Religious
meanings are in the group of enduring value, as
they are associated with the main cognitive
mechanism of human consciousness in a certain
period of cultural evolution, which connects them
with tradition in the processes of cultural recycling.
In addition, "recycling" is understood in a
metaphorical sense, and it is seen as a concept with
great heuristic potential. The meaning of this term
metaphor is largely determined by the context, and
the concept itself forms a discourse as a space of
possible development.
Easter in philosophical and theological discourse
can be understood as a religious phenomenon
expressing the meanings of life and death,
salvation, and resurrection. In the theological
understanding, Easter is the memory of the
sufferings of Christ. It would be more accurate to
say that suffering is in the patience of the memory
of Christ, which is a testimony. Easter as a holiday
can be considered in anthropological discourse and
expressed in material culture and the everyday life
of the community. The anthropological dimension
of Easter is connected with the problem of time.
Time for a Christian in the middle ages was
measured by the church calendar. The main dates
in a person's life are the dates of the main Christian
holidays. Thus, the theological and anthropological
discourses of Easter unite memory and time, which
are considered as symbolic concepts and are subject
to cultural processing in the space of Christian
meanings.
The study of cultural recycling in the life of
communities in the north defines several issues.
What kind of preparation for Easter did a person
have in the Middle Ages, in the period from the XI
to the XVI centuries? What was he doing on
AFTER CONSTANTINE 3 (2023) 8-21
holiday? What daily activities did he have at
Easter and what cult activities did he do? How did
Easter affect life after the holiday, and what
anthropological coordinates did Easter form for
the future? These questions are important for
understanding the patterns of material and
religious life of the inhabitants of the north.
The main source of research is the texts of
Christian hagiography, i.e., the lives of saints and
liturgical hymnography. Cultural and
anthropological recycling processes are reflected in
the texts, in the theme of life and death in the
hagiographic narrative. The texts of Christian
hagiography of the north make it possible to
visualize the historical tradition and the evolution
of forms of imprinting people's memory,
knowledge, and information about local culture.
[3]The analysis of the texts of the northern
religious literature of the Karelia and
Ingermanland regions makes it possible to see the
differences in the types of recycling depending on
the type of religious holiday. Phenomenological
and semiotic methods allow us to study the texts of
northern hagiography and identify religious
meanings and the function of recycling during
Easter in the region of the Christian north.
The main object of Easter recycling in the region
of the north is funeral rites. To answer the
question about the religious meanings of funeral
rites and the recycling function in relation to
them, it is necessary to consider the Christian ideas
at the heart of the funeral rite.
Christian funeral rites originated in the culture of
the north and developed in the period from the XI
to the XVI century as a result of waves of
colonization of the region and organized
missionary activity: the first wave of colonization –
monastic from the XI to the XIV century and the
second wave – economic from the XIV century to
the XVIII century. The monks, singly or in small
groups, traveled huge distances through the
regions of the north, in winter, without roads, dug
dugouts, found caves and settled in a
10
completely uninhabited area. Monasticism carried
out missionary work with the pagan population,
founded monasteries, both cenobitic and hermit,
and spiritually nurtured the vast territories around
the monastery by preserving and transmitting the
religious tradition. The activity of monasticism in
the north received the status of a Christian feat.
Thanatological Christian meanings were brought
to the north by Christians who mastered the
region and Christian monasticism. History knows
of two variants of the spread of monasticism in this
region: monastic cenobitic and ascetic. Asceticism
in theological and philosophical discourse can be
considered a phenomenon that preserves a unique
spiritual experience, the experience of personal
transformation and spiritual ascent. Thanatological
meanings are central to the religious movement of
the ascetics of the north and are reflected in the
texts of northern hagiography. In defining the
concept of thanatological meanings, we turn to the
interpretation of Bishop Kallistos Ware,
Archimandrite Sophrony Sakharov, and Professor
Sergei Khoruzhego. The actions and lifestyle of a
Christian are aimed at achieving Christian
perfections: abstinence, humility, self-denial,
spiritual struggle, and dispassion.
The Christian feat is a certain existential strategy,
ontological in essence, aimed at
autotransformation, salvation, and achievement of
personal being.[4] In the experience of the feat in
the antinomy of death and life, the space of
thanatological meanings is revealed. In the creative
energy of the feat, penitential meanings are born:
repentance, the fear of God and the memory of
death. Thus, in the process of cultural
transformation, the concept of death under the
influence of Christianization, firstly, loses the
character of a total doom and changes the
temporality in commemoration and remembrance.
Secondly, a new Christian axiology is being built
concerning the concept of death: death becomes
not an ordinary event, which is characteristic of
pagan consciousness but obliges one to evaluate
AFTER CONSTANTINE 3 (2023) 8-21
one's own thoughts and actions.
Archimandrite Sophrony Sakharov writes that
"being in the memory of a mortal contributes to
the formation of asceticism as a cultural feat, non-
possessiveness and obedience, wonderful
manifestations of our love for God, chastity, and
overcoming passions".[5]
Because of this, remembrance comes down to the
search for the fusion of our will with the will and
life of God himself. Archimandrite Sophrony
distinguishes such types of memory in
remembrance as mortal memory, the memory of
sins, and remembrance of God. Christian
thanatology is the concept of death in life, which is
then transformed into mortal memory. Death
becomes the essence of the Christian feat. We have
to fight a lot with ourselves to achieve a complete
victory over our pride. It means becoming dead to
yourself.[6] In the sacred space, in parallel, we
observe a ritual death, a funeral rite according to
the Christian canon.
Death is necessary to the extent that it hides the
everyday life in a person and reveals something
else. It becomes a condition for the achievement
of the feat and is thematized in life. This is a radical
departure from the real, a state beyond time.
Having accepted Christianity and plunged into the
world of the new time, and at the same time value,
mental and behavioral attitudes, the man of the
north comprehended new ways to calculate time
and to know themselves in time. The cultures of
the north accepted the earthly time as the time of
history and Eternity as a given, recognized the
existence of another world, the world of the
unknown, the world of the end, the world of a
new being, the world of rebirth.
Space and time in the culture of the north began
to be perceived and comprehended in the context
of Eternity, filled with new meaning and new
significance. All these processes were reflected in
hagiography when in all spheres of creativity and
creation, the assimilation and creation of authentic
forms themselves very soon came to replace
11
mastering, which was reflected in the compilation
of the lives of Christian saints. The problem of
time becomes significant in understanding the
hagiographic plot.
Episodes of the plot associated with miraculous
events, with a miracle, dreams, a delusion, and
prophecies can be interpreted in a temporal aspect.
In the further development of the hagiography of
the north, reflecting the problems of time and
movement in the texts of the life, there was an
increase in psychologism and aesthetic experiences,
which was combined with a change in the
figurative system, which was caused by the shift of
the archetypal dominant: from the numinous to the
human, from the sacred to the profane.
Thus, the phenomenon of the miracle found
expression in visualization and the appearance of
the so-called "blind spot", which is a unique
modality of the phenomenal, in which the
eschatological mode of the invisible is revealed.
The emotional plane accompanying the sensory
experiences of the heroes of the lives of the saints is
also represented by "blind spots", a special kind of
subjective state expressed in a frustrated reaction
resulting from anxiety, fear, and horror. This is
how a person in the vision of God experiences a
way out of himself. The invisible as a manifestation
of a miracle refers to a certain form of temporality
beyond time.
Cultural models, for example the dream model sets
the criteria for the aestheticization of the depicted:
all the actions, thoughts and deeds of a medieval
man are evaluated from the standpoint of the
Christian aesthetic ideal. A prophetic dream, which
also has a temporal aspect: dream images are
perceived symbolically in a temporal and
kinesthetic vector: as a progress through the sea of
life, full of sorrows and suffering.
The experience of mortal memory and the time of
being are united in the fear of God. St. Ignatius
Bryanchaninov says about this: "The fear of God
allows us to understand the brevity of our earthly
life and the vanity of earthly acquisitions".[7]
AFTER CONSTANTINE 3 (2023) 8-21
The semantic space of "fear" is based on the
opposition of the divine and the earthly. Fear is an
earthly, and therefore base feeling correlated with
the carnal passions of man. This is a purely
physical feeling that arises in a person in moments
of danger, a collision with the unknown, unclear,
which struck and terrified by the power of its
manifestation (perceived as fear-horror-threat).
The fear of God is the fear to "offend God, to
violate his holy will, the fear to lose the love of
God."
Having perceived the fear of God, a person tried
to live in accordance with Christian
commandments. It was this desire to live
according to the commandments that caused the
transformation of the funeral rite, ontological
meanings, and hagiographic narrative in the
culture of the north. And if the earthly feeling of
fear was situationally conditioned, then the feeling
of fear of God was constantly present in the soul,
influencing life and determining all actions in
which a person relied on the fear of God as a kind
of staff, because the fear of God is the beginning of
all good.[8] The tense semantic space of "fear",
like many other abstractions, is based on
opposition and contributes to the fixation of
emotional imprinting and memorization. It should
be noted that the fear of God is a sure road to
repentance, and mortal memory served as a means
of conversion from sin. Thus, the thanatological
theme, expressed in anthropological practices and
theological ideas, has become the subject of
cultural recycling in the region of the north. The
motives of death and fear, which are part of
repentance, become concepts of religious
psychology: the memory of death and the fear of
God. There is a development of the idea of the
finiteness of existence in the Christian paradigm.
All these processes were reflected in hagiography
when in all spheres of creativity and creation,
assimilation and creation of Slavic forms proper
very soon came to replace mastering, which was
reflected in the compilation of the lives of Eastern
Slavic saints.
12
 The sphere of thanatological motifs in northern
hagiography is influenced not only by the
Christian tradition but also by the cultural
representations of indigenous peoples. In the
folklore legends of this region, particularly in the
legends of Chudis, the theme of death is one of the
main ones. The problem of landless burials and
non-burials originates in the rituals of the
indigenous peoples of the north: Sami, Chudis, and
Izhorians. Anthropological studies of burials in the
form of grave pits in the area of ancient Chud
settlements allow us to conclude that Chud buried
the dead in spring and summer since in winter the
earth was hidden under snow. One of the groups
of rituals testifies that in winter the body of the
deceased was simply left in the snow, in an open
space.
It was believed that if the body was torn apart by
animals, it means that a person was kind and
behaved well, if the animal did not touch the body,
it spoke of his unworthy life on earth. The use of
log cabins and small houses of the deceased
partially solved the problem of winter burials. It
should be noted that the Slavs, who moved away
from Christianization and mastered the territories
of Karelia and Ingermanland, Zavolochye, Dvina
lands in the X-XII centuries, were strongly
influenced by the customs of indigenous peoples in
the field of funeral rites, which was fixed in the
minds of Slavic settlers in their pagan religious
beliefs. Pagan ideas about burial and refusal of
burial in the ground became the subject of
subsequent cultural Christian processing.
The legends of Chudi's self-burial have received a
special interpretation in Christian culture. The
transformation of funeral rites took place in
inhumation – re-giving to the earth the funeral
rite. But the process of cultural translation also took
place and the form of the Chudsky "houses of the
dead", as well as forms derived from them, were
borrowed during burials and were found in the
Vazhsky district up to the XX century. It is
interesting that until the end of the XX century
AFTER CONSTANTINE 3 (2023) 8-21
(expeditions of 1967, 1972 of the Ethnographic
museum), when studying burials, preserved
variability of ancient forms were found: tombs, log
cabins, small houses of the dead, columns, cabbage
rolls, shovels, roundels. Thus, ties were maintained
with the culture of indigenous peoples and the
traditions of Old Believers' burials. People of the
old faith "Old Believers" claim that this is how the
graves of those who did not receive a cross during
their lifetime are marked.
The question of determining the regularities of
the northern rites is a question of the geographical
conditions of the area. The region to the north,
from Norway, Finland, Ingermanland, Karelia to
Alaska along the coast of the Arctic Ocean has
unique geographical characteristics. Difficult
natural conditions, cold climate, long winter, few
roads, inaccessible terrain. Especially important
characteristics are the beginning and end of snow
melting and the opening of ice on rivers, which
are the cause of very large floods in this region.
The end time of snowmelt is the period from April
20 to May 15. The time of ice movement on rivers
is from April 1 to May 15. This is a time of great
floods.
The territory of the north is known for extensive
and prolonged spring floods, which flooded vast
expanses of the coasts of northern rivers.
Settlements also arose in coastal areas due to the
necessary proximity to water transport arteries, so
floods became traditional tests for the inhabitants
of the region and also influenced the formation of
local culture. In particular, funeral rites and burial
culture were also influenced by natural factors. So
death on the road in winter, freezing in the snow,
on ice, and the river became a common
phenomenon, and in the spring there were many
drowned during the flood of rivers.
It also washed away old cemeteries and burials,
water washed out, and opened coffins that floated
along rivers, moved to an unexpected place. These
variants of thanatological events were subject to
recycling in the form of a new Christian rite and
13
practice. The result of recycling is the search for
the unburied and giving them to the ground,
reconstruction of cemeteries and re-burials. But
there are variants of mixing traditions, folk
Christianity, combining pagan and Christian. One
of the problems in understanding the recycling of
funeral rites in northern communities is
determining the function of recycling in the
variant of mixing traditions.
Those who suffered a landless death, unburied
according to the Christian rite, were considered
taboo figures. The image of death finds its
expression in the image of the deceased, which
combines the sacred and the ordinary. As a result of
the transformation of the previous semantic level,
the deceased acquires strength and superpowers.
But at the same time, it is perceived as a forbidden
figure. She inspired fear in the people around her,
as an unclean, dangerous phenomenon. And to
bury the body in this case was forbidden by folk
beliefs and traditions. Therefore, landless burials
continued to arise in the region. They were the
source of folk legends, fantasies, and new beliefs.
Are such options a form of recycling? What is the
function of the folklore and Christian component
in the general mechanism of disposal?
Natural factors have influenced funeral rites and
burial culture. So the stable phraseology "water has
opened" and "opened with water" is used to
describe the search for pilgrims, wanderers and
"dashing people", "highwaymen" who died on the
roads in winter frosts. The peculiarities of the
northern climate determine the type of activity of
the inhabitants in the region. Work on the
restoration of roads, territories, and buildings
destroyed by the flood is an annual practice of
residents. The search and burial of those who died
in winter and froze on the way, the restoration of
cemeteries, inhumation, and reburial in accordance
with a religious vow became the goal of pre-Easter
waste recycling. Thus, the features of the harsh
northern climate influenced the formation of
funeral rites of both the indigenous peoples of the
AFTER CONSTANTINE 3 (2023) 8-21
Ugro-Finnish and Baltic-Finnish groups, and the
Slavic colonization of the first "trade" (XI-XIII
centuries) and the second "monastic" (XIV-XVI
centuries) waves. They also influenced the
formation of the practice of religious holidays, the
Easter holiday. We can say that the most
important thing for a person of the culture of the
north is the period of preparation for Easter and
the period of subsequent actions on a religious
vow. The period consists of actions that have
symbolic and ritual significance and are aimed at
purification. This is the cleaning of the territory
near the settlement and the cleaning of forest
roads. Purification becomes a symbol of cleansing
the soul of a Christian before the holiday.
The narrative contains information about the
features of the harsh northern climate, which
influenced the formation of the funeral rites of
both indigenous peoples and Christian
colonization. The legends about "not burial in the
ground" and self-burial underwent a special
interpretation in line with the Christian tradition.
In the northern cultural code, the mythologeme of
the road stands out, a sign of alienation, otherness
in the pagan consciousness and wandering
pilgrimage in the Christian. Death on the road
became a common occurrence in the northern
regions. The burial of unknown pilgrims,
especially for Christian settlers, was a problem and
a religious duty during the preparation for Easter.
All these circumstances are reflected in
hagiographic plots and the instructions of
Christian bishops. One of the first instructions of
Bishop Nifont: "If the bones of the dead are lying
around somewhere, then it is a great merit for that
person when they bury them" (1147 years).[9]
This paper presents an analysis of the texts of the
hagiography of the Dvina region (the Northern
Dvina River): texts about Athanasius of
Navolotsky of Shenkursky (XV century), Prokopy
of Ustyansk (1692), Varlaam of Vazhsky (1462),
Cyril of Velsky (1450), Jacob of Borovichi (1540),
John and Login of Yarengsky (1544).
14
 The source of information about Athanasius of
Shenkursky is an oral legend recorded according to
the story of unknown residents: "The legend of the
miracles of the revealed Saint Athanasius of
Navolotsky".[10] It is known that Athanasius came
to the Vaga River in the settlement
"Verkhneledskoe", in the upper reaches of the Leda
River, from the city of Kargopol and died three
kilometers from this city on the road in the forest.
The body remained unburied until it appeared in a
dream to four sick people in different parts of the
region, in a subtle dream they miraculously
recovered, received healing, and pledged to bury
Athanasius in the forest, where he died. They sang
the funeral of Athanasius according to the
Christian vow. They built a small wooden chapel
at the burial site (1647). Miracles and healings
began in this place. This place in the forest has
become a center of pilgrimage. It should be noted
that the nearest settlements are located 15
kilometers from the Chapel of Athanasius. In 1725,
the relics were examined. It was found that the
relics are intact and incorruptible.
They lie on the ground, not in a coffin. The
fragrance of the relics is everywhere. Local priests
opened the coffin, saw the relics intact and the
funeral vestments did not decay. The name of
Athanasius is included in the Cathedral of Karelian
Saints, the celebration of which was resumed in
1974. The stone Church of St. Athanasius was
preserved until 1950, the place where the relics lay
was a place of pilgrimage for residents of the
region.
The narrative of Christian hagiography is the
story before Easter, the finding of the unburied
body of a Christian by the inhabitants of the
northern lands, the miracles and prophecies, the
burial according to the Christian rite, the
construction of a church on this site.
A whole group of hagiographic plots refers to the
"exits from the coffin" during the spring flood. The
wonderful journey became the center of the story
about Kirill from the city of Velsk.[11]
AFTER CONSTANTINE 3 (2023) 8-21
The relics were kept in the church of St. Nicholas
the Wonderworker in the city of Velsk. On the
icons, he is depicted as a young man in white
clothes standing on the bank of the Vaga River. In
1450, a rich boyar governor lived in the city. His
name was Kirill. The servant drowned from the
anger of the boyar. The boyar, having repented,
ordered to find the body and bury it with honors
in the temple. The story of finding the relics of
Cyril is interesting. A young man appeared to a
woman named Evlampia and said: "I was lifted up
by water from the grave, and now my body lies on
the bank of the Vaga. Ask them to move him to
the temple and put a chapel over him." The
veneration of Cyril of Velsky was widespread in
the region. This caused concern of the diocesan
authorities. In 1783, a meeting of the Holy Synod
was held, at which Bishop Benjamin's report was
heard. The Synod decided to stop worshipping the
relics and not to commemorate Kirill Velsky at
prayers. The canonization of Cyril should be
considered the inclusion of his name in the
Cathedral of All Saints, the composition of which
was determined in the mid-70s of the XX century
in preparation for the publication of liturgical
minas.
One of the main problems in connection with the
landless death of the blessed is the problem of
official canonization, which is often expressed in
the form of agreement with the fact of "popular
canonization" that occurred long before the
official procedure in the public consciousness.
Uspensky confirms that with regard to the
problem of canonization, "there is no need to talk
about any established canonization procedure like
that which takes place at a later time: it did not
exist during this period either in Byzantium or, of
course, in the Slavic lands."[12] Sainthood was
expressed in canonization, but it could also be
expressed in the appearance of life, the acquisition
of relics, and the construction of the church.
15
The miraculous swimming glorified John and
Longinus of Yareng.[13] Workers of the
Solovetsky monastery were caught in a strong
storm at sea and drowned. The sea waves washed
the bodies ashore. The holy bodies were found on
the Korel coast incorruptible, laid near the village
of Yarenga. In the legend, we read: "The old-
timers of the village of Yarenga on the shore found
the remains of a man who drowned in the sea and
buried him in a log cabin, in the house of the dead.
After that, the saint began to appear to the locals,
called himself John, and healed from serious
illnesses." Miracles began to happen around the
relics, which served as the basis for the construction
of the monastery. We find information in the brief
legend about the appearance and finding of miracles,
about the miracles and the relics of Saints John and
Loggin. The Legend is known in 4 editions
compiled in the XVI-XVII centuries.
In the text of the life, we read about an interesting
detail of the life of the north, namely about the
standing of swampy water in cemeteries, which
was common in the riverine lands. Swampy water
accompanied the construction on the lowlands.
This caused mass migration to higher places from
the 17th century.
The body of Prokopy Ustyansky was also found at
the end of the XVII century in 1692.[14] In the
Kholmogorsky diocese, on the bank of the Ust
River, an old coffin woven from willow twigs was
taken out of the ground. In the coffin lay a body
untouched by corruption, "with its head bent to
one side and its hands folded not according to
custom and without a shroud." No one knew what
kind of person it was, whose body it was. The
relics of the body revealed a miracle of healing.
Residents built a chapel and laid relics in it. It is
necessary to recall the tradition of building chapels,
which was called the "pominalnica". This tradition
of building a «pominalnica» dates back to the
pagan tradition of the Chudi people. There were
very few Christian traits in this tradition. The
AFTER CONSTANTINE 3 (2023) 8-21
archbishops in the XVIII century fought against
them, forbade them to build, and ordered the old
ones to be destroyed. Oral traditions speak of the
late Procopius as a peasant, by profession he was a
shepherd, at the age of 14. At first, this name was
unknown. He appeared in a dream to the villagers,
called himself Procopius, and ordered to make a
new coffin for himself. On August 11, 1695, by
the decree of Archbishop Athanasius, the relics of
Procopius of Ustyansk were examined. In the text
of the testimony we read: "He was middle-aged,
dressed in a shirt and trousers made of canvas." A
church service has been written and performed for
Prokopiy Ustyansky, a new church has been built,
and only a local memorial service is being held.
Death is an important archaic element in the
structure of the Christian feat. The motif of death
has an archetypal origin. He connects the
archetypal consciousness with the image of the
dead, with the otherworldly. Contact with him
can lead the communicator to fatal consequences,
to the rupture of his own ontology. This is one of
the reasons for the taboo of the figure of the
deceased by a landless death, expressed in the
prohibition of the burial of the body. A person
who died an unnatural death cannot be buried in a
natural tradition. The natural tradition is the
tradition of the Ascetic becoming an unauthorized
dead man, voluntarily dying in spiritual feats. So in
the image of the "bearer of death," there is a ritual
figure in which the sacred is manifested.
The image of death embodied in the text of the
life is endowed with great energy potential and has
a strong emotional impact. Emotional memory
captures fear as the main reaction to contact. The
perception of this feeling is especially acute, since a
person perceives himself as a sinful being, and
anxiety and fear are eternal companions of the idea
of the fall. Fear increases emotional tension. This
means that it creates conditions for imprinting and
activation of mental connections as conditions for
the formation of a cultural code and
memorization.
16
The group of texts of the northern lives includes
the life of Varlaam Vazhsky.[15] During the spring
flood, the relics of St. Barlaam were found. The
motive of overcoming the water barrier is present
as the main one contributing to the appearance of
the relics of the saint. The life of Varlaam Vazhsky
(Pinezhsky) relates the life of the monk to the
middle of the XV century (1462). The main source
of information about Barlaam was his life, written
in 1589 by the hieromonk of the Antoniev
Monastery, Jonah, at the request of the abbot of the
monastery of St. John the Theologian. The
Monastery of John the Theologian was founded by
Barlaam. The buildings of the monastery have
survived to our time. The Monk Varlaam was born
into a family of boyars and received the name,
Vasily. He received the title of tsar's posadnik -
governor of the province on the Vaga River and
built a monastery. It is important to note that the
northern monasteries were built by lot, and the
place for construction was chosen by sacred
predestination. In 1456, Vasily took monastic vows
with the name Varlaam and, after living in
monasticism for six years, was buried near the
monastery. In the oral traditions about Varlaam
Vazhsky, the myth is told that the saint sailed to
these lands on a raft or a stone. The place of the
Monk's solitary Christian prayers and exploits is
known - as Varlamyev Kolodchik, the spring
surfaced.
At the well, through the prayers of the saint, a
water stream appeared. In 1552 there was a great
flood of the Vaga River. The mountain on which
the monastery stood collapsed, and many coffins
were opened, which surfaced and were brought
ashore. Thus, the relics of St. Barlaam were found.
The Varlamov Monastery in the XV and XVI,
XVII (up to the XX century) was the central place
of pilgrimage by vow for the inhabitants of the
region.
Professor Olga Tuminskaya notes the central role
of the image of Barlaam in religious processions, in
processions to the well on the banks of the Vaga.
[16]
AFTER CONSTANTINE 3 (2023) 8-21
The well is consecrated together with the image of
the Sign of the Most Holy Theotokos, which goes
back in the cult to the Byzantine Blachernaic
tradition of the expiration of hagiasm (holy water).
Thus, a certain vector of the evolution of the
sacred motif is being built: from the spontaneity of
the natural northern land to the confirmation of
the trial of the water element by lot, from the
miraculous swimming of relics to the purification
of the soul.
Hagiographic life - the life of Yakov Borovichsky
refers to the hagiographic history of 1540.[17]
Brief information about the saint and the
beginning of his veneration is contained in the
Legend of the Miracles from the relics of Jacob,
presented in 3 editions. The legend of the miracles
from the relics of James is based on the act of
examination of the relics of the saint of July 2,
1544, on the certificate of the transfer of the relics
of James of October 6, 1544, and on the act of the
transfer of the relics of October 23, 1544, as well as
on records of miraculous healings from the relics
of the saint that took place earlier, during and after
examination of relics. Blessed Jacob was a simple,
diligent shipowner and fell into a cruel stupidity.
He died, killed by thunder, and he was put in a
wooden log «koloda» without burial. His age is
young, his body is naked, only in a thin,
dilapidated shirt, and his hands are folded not
according to the rules. It should be noted that the
naked body is a symbol of extreme poverty. The
naked body endures. This is a testimony of
contempt for the corruptible flesh and a sermon of
spiritual exposure in approaching the sufferings of
Christ. The incorruptible body was found near the
village of Borovichi in the spring on the third day
of Easter. The oak "koloda" stood on a huge ice
floe (nakre), which was rushing in a stormy spring
stream against the current of the Msta River at the
formidable Borovichi River rapids. This picture
goes back to the pagan rafting on the river
whirlpools of sacred sacrifices. The surrounding
peasants considered this mysterious appearance a
17
bad sign, a sign of stranger danger and pushed the
"koloda" back onto the water. Having wrapped the
"koloda" with ropes, they dragged the downstream
on the ice and took it two kilometers away from
Borovichi. Three times the "koloda" returned
against the current. Until the image of the boy
appeared to the elders in a dream and said
reproachfully: "Why, being Christians, do you
ruthlessly persecute me, a Christian?" It should be
noted that the phenomenon of the holiness of the
blessed is visualized as a result of dream states – acts
of thaumaturgy. The relics were removed from the
ice floe and placed in the chapel. Miraculous
healings began at the relics. They were transferred
by Patriarch Nikon to the Iversky Monastery on
Valdai in 1657 after the performance of the boy's
appearance in a dream to the patriarch.
The study of thanatological meanings suggests that
the motive of death is revealed in parallel discourses
of the sacred and the mundane. The image of death
finds its expression in the image of the deceased
blessed, which also combines the sacred and the
mundane. As a result of the transformation of the
previous semantic level, the ascetic acquires
strength and extra abilities. But at the same time, it
is perceived as a taboo figure. In the text of the life,
we observe many pagan sacred motifs. The relics
of the blessed one crossed the water barrier, which
can be considered as a sacred action. The number
three - Three Returns - is also associated with both
folklore consciousness and Christian symbolism.
The stages of sacralization prepare the appearance
of the sanctity of the newly found blessed one.
The righteous Artemy Verkolsky (1545), one of
the most amazing life figures, whose story served
to transform the pagan foundations of the views of
the inhabitants of the north about the impossibility
of burial as a sacred protective action.[18] Artemiy
was born in 1532 in the village of Verkola on
Pinega and his parents are Kosmas and Apollinaria.
Artemiy is a twelve-year-old peasant boy who was
killed during a thunderstorm by the sound of
thunder. It is important that the death followed
AFTER CONSTANTINE 3 (2023) 8-21
after working in the field on a holiday, which was
a violation of the church rule. Therefore, it was
regarded as a punishment and justification for the
impossibility of putting the body to the ground.
The father buried his son in the forest, putting him
in a log cabin, "little house of the dead". Srubchik
([srubchik]) is a form of burial based on the Chudi
pattern, common in the Dvinskom (rever Dvina)
region. The relics of the boy were found
incorruptible in 1577 and laid on the porch of the
St. Nicholas church. Miracles and healings began
around the relics.
Hagiographic texts convey information about
both pagan and Christian influences at the stage of
preparation for Easter. They allow us to conclude
about the synthesis of influences based on ideas
about life and death. Summing up, we can say that
the texts "about landless death" can be divided into
thematic groups: texts about missing on the road
and found in the spring, reports of drowned
people, a group of texts about those whose death
was tabooed in pagan forms, another group of
texts about those who are buried in aboveground
forms: small wooden houses of the "dead", and a
group of texts about "those who came out of the
coffins" during the flood.
Thus, the presented biographies of the Christian
northern lands, the Dvina region reveal the system
of sacralization of the region, according to T.
Shchepanskaya's research "crisis network" is based
on the peculiarities of the nature of the region and
the traditional way of life, dating back to the
customs of indigenous peoples - the Chudis,
Komi, and Sami.[19] The veneration of the saint
took place both openly and secretly, as a vow.
Based on the analysis of hagiographic texts, it can
be argued that recycling had both a religious and
an anthropological character. The religious
character of recycling is expressed in the form of
mastering, and accumulating the meanings of
mortal memory, moving towards eternal life in the
daily life of a Christian. The religious component
(pagan or Christian) sacralizes the parameters of
18
the cultural system and fixes them in cultural
memory. Sacralization takes place in a cult and
becomes a way of preserving tradition.
Sacralization takes place within the framework of
dual oppositions and is associated with the cult of
ancestors, burial sites and local cult centers, and
monuments of local hagiography.
The subject of cultural processing was the
phenomenon of abandonment of land burial,
which is associated in consciousness with the non-
fixation of place and memory and not fixing death
itself as an event and state. Time in the present, at
the same time, here and now determined everyday
life. Everything connected with the finiteness of
existence was in uncertainty. Subsequently, along
with Christianization, those not buried in the
ground became associated with a taboo, forbidden,
unclean departure from life, information about
which was also in an indefinite space. Such an
arrangement of information, an informative layer,
performed a protective function when the
knowledge of death was transferred from one
reality to another. The study reveals the
connection between the Byzantine tradition (acts
of thaumaturgy, the Blachernean tradition of the
expiration of hagiasm (sacred water)), the burial
rite of Northern Christians, and the thanatological
motifs of Northern hagiography, forming a single
unique semiosis.
Waste recycling takes on special importance before
the main Christian holidays. The concept of
recycling can be interpreted in a broad sense as an
everyday anthropological practice of pre-holiday
preparation, as well as the comprehension and
development of new meanings in religious spiritual
practice. Processing becomes a mechanism of
renewal in a new quality, reproduction of cultural
actions and meanings, thereby reproducing
culture. The ability of culture to recycle is an
important anthropological resource, that ensures
the preservation, continuity of tradition, and
reproduction of the mental code.
AFTER CONSTANTINE 3 (2023) 8-21
Christian codification used pagan codes and
changed their semantic core. Burials in the form of
burial in the ground, commemoration and
veneration of the deceased according to the
Christian rite before Easter, the appeal of residents
to the Christian tradition as a protective one served
the goals of economic and spiritual development of
the region. Modern research shows that there was
a process of cultural processing, and the existential
characteristics of the culture of the region
changed.
Today we can say that waste recycling is part of
the tradition of religious culture. The tradition of
Christian culture provides for the possibility of
processing both the pagan funeral rite and the
further development of the Christian rite itself,
capable of transformation and performativity. In
performativity, the processing mechanism is
transformed into a social one, society becomes
capable of cultural understanding and processing.
Notes
* Gayevskaya Nadezhda is a researcher, candidate
of the Department of Religious Studies RHGA,
Christian Academy Saint-Petersburg. Her research
topic is the phenomenon of Christian foolishness
as a type of religious asceticism. E-mail:
Pavlortodox@gmail.com. ORCID:
https://orcid.org 0000-0001-8422-4121.
[1] Tuminskaya, Gayevskaya 2021, p. 135.
[2] Hendricks, 1969, p. 1-22.
[3] Gayevskaya 2018, p. 11.
[4] Khoruzhiy 2012, p. 50.
[5] Sakharov 1956, p. 4.
[6] Svyashchennik Zabelin. Zhitiye svyatogo
pravednogo Feodora. Novgorod, 1896. P. 4 //
Svyatyye Novgorodskoy Zemli, ili istoriya svyatoy
severnoy Rusi v likakh X-XVIII v.: V 2 t. -
Velikiy Novgorod: TRIGON, 2006. / T.1. X- XV
vv. P. 1-735 // Prilozheniye: Svyashchennik
Zabelin. Zhitiye svyatogo pravednogo Feodora.
19
 [ № 447-4, 1599 g. GIM. Uvar. № 395; RNB.
[7] Bryanchaninov 1862, p. 142.
Pogod. № 1619.
[8] Vendina 2002, p. 334.
[18] Kaz. 1881, p 183-187; Dmitriyev L. A. 1973.
[9] M.: Izd. Krug 2011. p. 544; Voproshaniye
p. 249-261, 290-292; Savelyeva N. 1999, p. 365-
Kirikovo arkhiyepiskopu Nifontu. p. 413-437
376.
Available at:
[19] Shchepanskaya T. B. Krizisnaya set′ (traditsii
https://azbyka.ru/otechnik/Kirik_Novgorodskij/vo
dukhovnogo osvoyeniya prostranstva); Russkiy
proshanii-kirika/ [Last Access 10/04/2023].
Sever, 1995.
[10] Nikodim (Kononov) Arkhim 1901, P.22.
[11] Romanova A. A., Ryzhova E. A. Skazaniye o
Kirille Vel′skom. 2008, p. 390-442; Dmitriyev L.
A. Zhanr 1972, p.192.
[12] The canonization of saints in the Russian
Orthodox Church. Available at:
https://azbyka.ru/tserkov/
svyatye/trubachev_kanonizatsiya_svyatyh_10-
all.shtml [Last Access 10/04/2023]
[13] «Skazanii vkrattse o proyavlenii, i obretenii, i
o chyudesekh, i o prenesenii chestnykh moshchey
svyatykh i pravednykh Ioana i Loggina, izhe v
Yarengi novoyavlennykh chyudotvortsov».
«Skazaniye...» izvestno v 4 redaktsiyakh,
sostavlyavshikhsya v XVI-XVII vv. Pervaya
redaktsiya 1625 g. Spiski: RNB. Solov. №
963/1073. L. 118-134, 30-40-e gg. XVII v.; BAN.
Arkhang. D. 233. L. 779-790 ob., XVII v.; GIM.
Shchuk. № 430. L. 1-16, XVII v.; RNB. Solov. №
182/182. L. 120-126 ob., XVIII v. CHOIDR.
1884. Kn. 3. P. 12. Skazaniye o chyudesekh
svyatykh Ioanna i Loggina / Izd.: O. S.
Sapozhnikova // Rus. agiografiya: Issled.,
publikatsii, polemika. SPb., 2005. p. 579-600.
[14] Spiski zhitiya Prokopiya Ust′yanskogo: RGIA
F.796 Op. 25 D.723 (a) L.50., L.588, 597. RNB
O.1.446. L. 1-13.
[15] Spiski zhitiya Varlaama Vazhskogo: sobr.
RGB F. 304. I. № 677; 1631 g. BAN. Arkhang.
sobr. D. 218 (posle 1712), RNB. Tikhanov. sobr.
№ 226 (nach. XVIII v.).
[16] Tuminskaya 2017.
[17] Kratkiye svedeniya o svyatom soderzhatsya v
Skazanii o chudesakh ot moshchey,
predstavlennom 3 redaktsiyami: nach. 1561 g.
RGB. Troits. F. 304/I. № 654, 1582 g. GIM. Sin.

AFTER CONSTANTINE 3 (2023) 8-21 20

Bibliography

1. Barsukov, N.P. (1882). Istochniki russkoj agiografii. St. Petersburg.

2. Gayevskaya, N. Tuminskaya, O. Obraz (2021). Yurodivogo v slove i izobrazhenii. Zolotaya alleya.
Kaluga.
3. Golubinsky, E.E. (1903). Istoriya kanonizacii svyatyh v Russkoj cerkvi. Moscow.
4. Dmitriyev, L. A. (1973). Zhitiynyye povesti Russkogo Severa kak pamyatniki literatury. XIII-XVII
vv. L.
5. Filaret, Metropoplitan of Minsk and Slutsk (2004). The way of the life-asserting love. Kiev: Duh I
Litera.
6. Hendricks, W. (1969). Three Models for the Description of Poetry. Journal of Linguistics. 5, (1).
pp. 1—22.
7. Mills, D. (1998). Recycling the Cycle: The City of Chester and Its Whitsun Plays. Toronto: University
of Toronto Press.
8. Ivanov, S.A. (2005). Blazhennyye pokhaby. M.: Yazyki slavyanskikh kul′tur. Moscow.
9. Khoruzhiy, S. (2012). Issledovaniya po isikhastskoy traditsii.tom. Sankt-Peterburg: I. RKHGA.
10. Sakharov, S. arkhimandrit. (1956). Osnovy pravoslavnogo podvizhnichestva. London.
11. Svyatyye, Novgorodskoy, Zemli (2006). Ili istoriya svyatoy severnoy Rusi v likakh X-XVIII v.: V 2 t.
- Velikiy Novgorod: TRIGON, P.1200
12. Thompson, M. (2017). Rubbish Theory the Creation and Destruction of Value. Without location:
Pluto Press
13. Tuminskaya, O. (2017). Ikona yurodivogo. SPb: Dmitriy Bulanin.
14. Vendina, T.I. (2002). Srednevekovyy chelovek v zerkale starolavyanskogo yazyka. M. Yazyki
slavyanskikh kultur.
15. Yakhontov, I. (1881). Zhitiya svyatykh severnorusskikh podvizhnikov Pomorskogo kraya kak
istoricheskiy istochnik. Kazan: Tip, Un-ta.

AFTER CONSTANTINE 3 (2023) 8-21 21

 THE METAPHORS OF MOTION IN ATHANASIUS’
ACCOUNT OF IDOLATRY*

Viacheslav V. Lytvynenko**

This study focuses on Athanasius’ account of idolatry in his double treatise Contra Gentes and De
Incarnatione Verbi. It seeks to show the importance of this topic within Athanasius’ theological
framework by drawing the links with creation, fall, and incarnation as the central themes of this
writing. The author suggests that a helpful way to identify such links is by looking into Athanasius’
use of metaphors of motion. Therefore, the bulk of the article examines the way in which these
metaphors are used to explain the origin of idolatry and the solution to the problem of pagan worship
in Contra Gentes, and it also explores the key role of the incarnation in De Incarnatione. The author
argues that Athanasius’ description of humanity’s movement to God by means of the soul, creation,
and Scriptures in Contra Gentes is best understood as stressing the effectiveness of the incarnation in De
Incarnatione rather than as standing in tension or contradicting it.

Keywords: Athanasius, double treatise, idolatry, metaphors, movement, upward, downward, fall, incarnation,
soul, creation, Scripture.

When we read Athanasius’ double treatise Contra
Gentes and De Incarnatione, we often focus on the
topics of creation, fall, and incarnation. We rarely
read it to see what Athanasius has to say about
idols. Yet a closer look into this work shows that
this topic takes up a surprisingly large amount of
space. Athanasius spends twenty-three chapters (7–
29) out of forty-seven for a detailed discussion of it
in Contra Gentes, and he addresses it again in De
Incarnatione (chs. 11–15, 18, 20–21, 30–32, 37, 40,
43, 45–53, 55), where idolatry is covered less
directly but still holding a fair bit of attention in
twenty-three chapters out of fifty-seven. In fact,
this topic is so interwoven with all the other major
themes of the treatise that one could reasonably
argue that a failure to give it proper attention can
leave one with an inadequate understanding of
Athanasius’ thought. At the time when he wrote
this work,[1] the gods of Roman Egypt were
still making a profound impression on people,
[2] and it is not without a reason that
Athanasius ends his treatise specifically with a
note on the triumph of Christianity over idols:
So, after what has been said above, this you must learn
and consider as the principle of what remains
unmentioned, and marvel at greatly: that when the
Saviour came, idolatry no more increased, but even that
which existed is diminishing and gradually ceasing. The
wisdom of the Greeks no longer prosper, but even that
which does exist is now disappearing. And the demons
no longer deceive with phantasies and oracles and magic,
but as soon as they dare and try they are put to shame
by the sign of the cross. To sum up, see how the teaching
of the Saviour increases everywhere, while all idolatry
and all opposition to the faith of Christ day by day
diminish and weaken and fall.[3]

AFTER CONSTANTINE 3 (2023) 22-34 22

Another curious aspect that shows up with a closer
look into Athanasius’ account of idolatry is his
frequent use of the metaphors of motion. He puts
them into service while discussing the origin of
idolatry and offering his refutations of pagan cults
throughout the double treatise. So, what is the
theological function of these metaphors and how
do they help Athanasius to make his points? In this
article, I am going to explore this in several ways.
First, I will ask how Athanasius employs the
metaphors of motion in Contra Gentes (henceforth
CG) to explain why people began substituting the
true God for pagan deities. Second, I will discuss
the solution he offers in this text to the problem of
idol worship by calling the pagans to reverse their
downward movement to the upward one by means
of the soul, creation, and Scriptures. Finally, I will
suggest that zooming in on these metaphors of
movement can help us sharpen Athanasius’ answer
to the “why” question of the incarnation in the
second part of his treatise De Incarnation Verbi
(henceforth De Inc.), to be considered at the end of
this study.
Before addressing the subject of idolatry in CG 7,
Athanasius gives a brief account of humanity as it
was originally created and then fell into sin. Two
major ideas that one immediately sees here are
“remaining” and “direction.” In creation, humanity
was made to “rejoice and converse with God,
living an idyllic and truly blessed and immortal
life,”[4] and “such did he [the Creator] wish it to
remain (μένειν).”[5] Yet what led humanity to sin
was the radical change of direction, as Athanasius
puts it:
But men, contemptuous of the better things and shrinking
from their apprehension, sought rather what was closer to
themselves – and what was closer to them was the body and
its sensations. So they turned their minds away (ἀπέστησαν
ἑαυτῶν τὸν νοῦν) from intelligible reality and began to
consider themselves. And by considering themselves and
cleaving to the body and the other senses, deceived as it were
in their own interests, they fell into selfish desires and
preferred their own good to the contemplation of the divine.
[6]
AFTER CONSTANTINE 3 (2023) 22-34
Out of this idea of the wrong direction in
which humanity stopped being focused on
God and became concentrated on self,
Athanasius brings a wide variety of metaphors
of motion to depict the disastrous change that
happened to humanity after the fall and the
way it led people to make idols and worship
them. To explain how exactly the first people
“fell into (καταβεγήκασιν) the folly of
idols,”[7] he begins with two illustrations in
chs. 8 and 9, where his language is dominated
with metaphors of motion. In CG 7.14–32,
Athanasius writes:
Εvil neither came from God nor was in God, nor did it
exist in the beginning, nor has it any independent
reality. But men, rejecting the notion of the good, began
to think up for themselves (φαντασίας ἑαυτοῖς
ἐπινοεῖν ἤρξαντο) and invent objects which do not
exist (τὰ οὐκ ὄντα) as the fancy struck them. For they
were like someone who closes his eyes when the sun is
shining and all the earth is illuminated by its light, and
imagines darkness which does not exist (οὐκ ὄντος),
and then wanders about missing his way as if in the
dark, often falling and stumbling over precipices (ὡς ἐν
σκότει πλανώμενος περιπατῇ, πολλάκις πίπτων
καὶ κατὰ κρημνῶν ὑπάγων), thinking it was not
light but dark, for he thinks he is looking, but does not
see at all. In similar fashion the soul of men, shutting
the eye through which it could see God, imagined evil
(κακὰ ἐπενόησεν), and moving therein (ἐν οἷς
κινουμένη) did not realize that, although it thought it
was acting, it did nothing at all, for it was inventing
non-existent things (τὰ οὐκ ὄντα). And it did not
remain (ἔμεινεν) as it had been made but appeared such
as it had defiled itself. For it was created to see God
and be enlightened by him; but instead of God it
pursued (ἐζήτησενv) corruptible things and darkness, as
the Spirit says somewhere in the Scriptures: “God made
man upright, but they sought many notions” (Eccles.
7.30). In this way the invention and notion of evil
occurred to men and was limned from the beginning.[8]
Several things are noteworthy in this passage.
First, Athanasius links the origin of idolatry to
the choice of humanity not to remain as it was
originally made. It was created to contemplate
23
God but chose to reject him and pursue things that with the original evils they glutted themselves with others,
were not divine. Second, Athanasius identifies this progressing (προκόπτοντες) in iniquity and extending
moment of change as the reason why people began (ἐπεκτείνοντες) their impiety still further. To this the
Divine Scripture bears witness, saying: “When the impious
to imagine evil – which could not originate from
man has descended into the abyss of evil he is disdainful”
God – and eventually make idols. Since idols are
(Prov. 18.3)[11]
part of human evil imagination, they are rightly
In a very Platonic fashion,[12] Athanasius
called “non-existent things” or “objects which do
describes a person who finds himself in the pit,
not exist,” just as evil itself “has no independent
where he cannot see the true reality, and therefore
reality.” Lastly, Athanasius uses a number of
thinks that the only real things that exist are the
metaphors of motion to describe what happened to
ones he perceives. Such a person is depicted as
people after the fall. He illustrates their fallen
having fallen into (καταδύς) the pit – with his eyes
condition by comparing them to a person who
turned downward (πρὸς τὸ κάτω) – and fallen
decides to close his eyes, and as a result such a
humanity is like that person. It moves in a
person is left to “wander around” (πλανώμενος
descending direction, and to describe this
περιπατῇ), often “falling” (πίπτων), and
Athanasius talks about the first people who
“stumbling over steep places” (κατὰ κρημνῶν
“foolishly sank (καταδύντες) to the desires and
ὑπάγων). Instead of remaining as it was made
fantasies of the body” and “the deeper they
(οὐχ ὁποία γέγονε, τοιαύτη καὶ ἔμεινεν),
descended (καταδυόμενοι) the greater was the
mankind imagined evil and moved in it (τὰ κακὰ
darkness.” Instead of remaining (διέμειναν), they
ἐπενόησεν, ἐν οἷς κινουμένη).
“progressed (προκόπτοντες) in iniquity and
In the next chapter, Athanasius reiterates his claim
extended (ἐπεκτείνοντες) their impiety still
that “evil is the prime cause of idolatry”[9] and
further,” thus inventing new superstitions and new
then offers another example to illustrate the way
gods.
humanity began “to regress (ἐξάγειν) to worse
Clearly, the sort of movement we observe in chs.
things”[10] after the fall, creating idols with no
7 and 8 of Contra Gentes has a negative sense.
reality in them. Here the metaphors of movement
Athanasius describes the fallen humanity with
abound again:
metaphors of downward motion that imply either
If someone falls into (καταδύς) an abyss and no longer sees
disorder (such as wandering around, stumbling,
the light nor what is visible in the light because his eyes are
pointed downwards (πρὸς τὸ κάτω) and the water is
and falling) or regress (descending deeper and
pouring over him, being aware only of what is in the abyss, deeper into the pit and darkness), and the end
he thinks there is nothing except that, and that what he result of this movement is the invention of idols.
perceives are the most important entities. In similar fashion In the rest of his account of idolatry, Athanasius
men of old foolishly sank (καταδύντες) to the desires and reinforces this idea of downward movement in
fantasies of the body and, forgetting their conception and idea three other episodes.
of God, with feeble reasoning – or rather irrationally – The first episode comes in ch. 9, where we have a
represented phenomena as gods and glorified creation instead
discussion of various developments of idolatry.
of the creator, deifying its works rather than their cause and
Here Athanasius talks about people’s desire to
fashioner and lord, God. And as, in the above example of
make their own gods out of celestial bodies,
those who fell into (καταδυόμενοι) the abyss, the deeper
they descend (ἐπικαταβαίνουσι) the greater is the darkness,
objects of nature, made-up creatures, personified
so also was the case with the race of men. For they did not lusts, as well as living and dead men. Tracing the
merely adhere to idolatry or remain (διέμειναν) where they roots of this desire for making gods and
had begun, but the longer they spent in their original errors, worshipping them, he argues that it began once
the more they invented ever new superstitions. And unsated humanity “turned from the true and only real

AFTER CONSTANTINE 3 (2023) 22-34 24

God.”[13] In describing this turn from God to
pagan deification, he uses a number of metaphors
of downward motion as a clearly negative thing:
Once men’s minds had turned away (ἀπεπήδησεν) from
God, they became degraded (καταβαίνοντες) in their
thoughts and reasonings, and paid the honour due to God
first to heaven and the sun and moon and stars, thinking
them not only to be gods but also the causes of things other
than themselves. Then, descending lower
(ἐπικαταβαίνοντες) in their obscure arguments, they called
the ether and the air and the things in the air gods.
Advancing further (προβαίνοντες) in their evil thoughts,
they now praised the elements and the principles of the
composition of bodies – the warm and cold, dry and wet – as
gods. Like those who have fallen right down (πεσόντες) and
crawl on the earth as snails on the ground, these most
impious of men, in their descent from the contemplation of
God (πεσόντες καὶ καταπεσόντες ἀπὸ τῆς περὶ Θεοῦ
φαντασίας), then raised to divine status even men and
images of men, some while still alive, and others after their
death.[14]
In this passage, Athanasius repeatedly emphasizes
the downward movement of humanity and the
way it drove people to idolatry. Thus, he speaks of
ancient people as “going lower in their thoughts
and reasonings” (καταβαίνοντες ταῖς ἐννοίαις καὶ
τοῖς λογισμοῖς) to explain their desire to honor
celestial entities. He also depicts them
“descending yet lower in their obscure arguments”
(ἐπικαταβαίνοντες τοῖς σκοτεινοῖς λογισμοῖς),
when they started to treat the ether and the air as
gods. Finally, describing this degradation even
further, Athanasius stresses again that “they were
falling lower and lower from the contemplation of
God” (πεσόντες καὶ καταπεσόντες ἀπὸ τῆς περὶ
Θεοῦ φαντασίας) as they set up men, beasts,
creeping creatures, and rocks as their gods. The
picture we gain here is one of gradual movement
that put people one step down each time they
added a new deity to their list. In fact, this descent
from God to idolatry was so humiliating that
Athanasius compares humanity with snails: “Like
those who have fallen right down (πεσόντες) and
crawl on the earth as snails on the ground.”
AFTER CONSTANTINE 3 (2023) 22-34
In chs. 19 and 23 of Contra Gentes, we have two
other episodes where Athanasius employs the
metaphors of downward motion for his account of
idolatry. In the first of them, he speaks of people as
“having fallen into the unreasonableness of their
passions and pleasures” (εἰς γὰρ τὴν τῶν παθῶν
καὶ ἡδονῶν ἀλογίαν πεσόντες)[15] and describes
the invention of idols as a process of “going down
to the making of gods” (ἐπὶ τὴν τοιαύτην
θεοπλαστίαν κατέπεσον).[16] Athanasius
concludes that “having fallen (πεσόντες) […], they
wallow (κυλίονται) thus in these pleasures and
model God the Father of the Word in animal
form.”[17] In the final episode, Athanasius talks
about the variety of pagan cults and all sorts of
disagreements among them. Thus, the Phoenicians
do not recognize the gods of the Egyptians, and
the Egyptians do not recognize the gods of the
Phoenicians. A great deal of variety and conflict
concerning gods is also found among the
Scythians, Persians, Syrians, Pelasgians, Thracians,
Thebans, Indians, Arabs, Cilicians, Cappadocians,
Bithynians, and Armenians. According to
Athanasius, this confusion about multiple gods in
different places is the direct result of the rejection
of the one true God, which he describes in terms
as
of the downward motion:
For having fallen from (ἐκπεσόντες) the contemplation of
the one God they have come down (καταπεπτώκασι) to
many various cults; since they turned from
(ἀποστραφέντες) the true Word of the Father, Christ the
Saviour of all, it is right that their minds should be
wandering in many directions (εἰκότως εἰς πολλὰ τὴν
διάνοιαν ἔχουσι ῥεμβομένην). Just as those who turn
away from (ἀποστραφέντες) the sun to dwell in the shade
circle around in many pathless tracks (πολλὰς ἀνόδους
κυκλεύουσιν ὁδούς), not seeing those at hand but
imagining the absent to be present, and “seeing do not see”
(Matt. 13.13), in the same way those who have turned from
(ἀποστραφέντες) God and have darkened their souls, have
their minds in a roving state (ῥεμβόμενον ἔχουσι τὸν
νοῦ), and like drunken and blind men they imagine things
which do not exist.[18]
25
People’s turn from the contemplation of God and
the following downward movement toward the
invention of idols is presented here in three ways.
First, their minds are said to be wandering in many
directions (εἰς πολλὰ τὴν διάνοιαν ἔχουσι
ῥεμβομένην); second, they are like those who circle
around in many pathless ways (πολλὰς ἀνόδους
κυκλεύουσιν ὁδούς), as if they were in dark places,
away from the sun; and third, they are compared to
a drunk whose mind is in a roving state
(ῥεμβόμενον ἔχουσι τὸν νοῦ). As a result, they see
what is not there and imagine things that are not
true.
Thus, whatever metaphors Athanasius uses to
describe the state of idolatrous pagans in these
three episodes (whether falling, descending,
wallowing, going in circles, or wandering around),
and whatever comparisons he draws (whether
snails who crawl down, or someone who sits in the
dark, or a drunk who is not able to control his
movements), the basic idea is very clear. Turning
away from the true God set humanity on the
downward movement, and the lower it went the
more outrageous was its desire to make gods and
worship them.
Although Athanasius ends his account of idolatry
in ch. 29 of Contra Gentes, he briefly returns to this
topic several times again in the rest of the treatise.
To appreciate his thought about idolatry here, I
suggest that it is best to read the remaining
chapters as a call to reverse the downward
movement to the upward one by contemplating
God by means of three major ways – the soul (chs.
30–34), creation (chs. CG 35–45a), and Scriptures
(chs. 45b–47). While interpreters generally agree
on the importance of these means in Contra Gentes,
there has been a question as to whether the human
role in this part of the treatise may go against the
divine action in De Incarnatione. In dealing with
this issue, scholars have interpreted it as either a
matter of conflicting anthropologies and views of
salvation[19] or as a difference of emphases within
a consistent narrative.[20]
AFTER CONSTANTINE 3 (2023) 22-34
The second of these views makes sense if we read
the remaining chapters of Contra Gentes as an
account of the general economy of God that
reaches its peak with the incarnation of Christ in
De Incarnatione. In this case, whether it is the
power of the soul, the works of creation, or the
revelation of the Scriptures, all three are given to
humanity by God. None of them are supposed to
work autonomously or by themselves. Each of
their purposes is to serve as divine tools for
reversing the downward movement of the fallen
mankind to the upward trajectory, and the closer
one gets to the topic of the incarnation, the more
obvious become the limits of these other means. In
what follows, I will briefly look into this
framework and the way Athanasius deals with the
problem of idolatry here.
Beginning in ch. 30 of Contra Gentes, Athanasius
turns his attention to the soul and spends the next
three chapters proving its existence and describing
its functions. Defining the “road” (ἡ ὁδός) to God
as that which is “within ourselves” (ἐν ἡμῖν), he
identifies it with the soul and makes several
statements about its faculty to lift us up to things
divine. Thus, in CG 33, he compares the soul with
the body and says that “while the body is lying
motionless (μὴ κινουμένου) in bed as it were asleep
in death, it [the soul] is awake according to its
proper capacity and surpasses (ὑπερεκβαίνει) the
nature of the body. As if abandoning the body, yet
remaining in it, the soul pictures and contemplates
things superterrestrial, often meeting saints and
angels no longer in their earthly bodies”[21]
Furthermore, he claims that pagans rejected God
for their worship of idols precisely because they do
not think they have a rational soul,[22] for by
creating idols, they “act against reason and as if
they had no soul.”[23] Therefore, the first step that
can lead the pagans to the true God is their
recognition of the soul, which Athanasius
describes in terms of upward movement:
26
For just as they turned away (ἀπεστράφησαν) from God
with their mind and invented gods from non-existent entities,
so they can rise (ἀναβῆναι) towards God with the mind of
their soul and again turn back (ἐπιστρέψαι) towards him.
They can turn back (ἐπιστρέψαι) if they cast off the stain of
all desire which they have put on, and wash themselves until
they have eliminated every addition foreign to the soul and
show it unadulterated, as it was made, in order that in this
way they may be able to contemplate therewith the Word of
the Father, in whose image they were made in the beginning.
[24]
Here “turning away” (ἐπιστρέψαι) from idols and
“rising up” (ἀναβῆναι) to God is that which takes
place by contemplating him in the soul after it is
cleansed and able to reflect its Creator. At the same
time, Athanasius makes it clear that the soul is by
no means a self-sufficient method of coming to
God because of the soul’s created – and therefore
limited – nature. For that reason, when the power
of the soul does not succeed to accomplish its task,
there is another means of coming to know the true
God for the pagans, which is through the works of
creation: “If this instruction on the part of the soul
itself is not sufficient (μὴ αὐτάρκης) because of
external influences which disturb its mind and
prevent it from seeing the better course, it is still
possible to grasp knowledge about God from
visible phenomena, since creation through its order
and harmony, as it were in writing, indicates and
proclaims its master and maker.”[25]
Athanasius discusses the theme of creation and its
role in leading people to God in chs. 35–45. In the
process, he identifies idolatry with polytheism and
atheism,[26] and argues that the existing order and
harmony of the universe should make the pagans
“think that God is its leader and that he is one and
not many.”[27] To believe in multiple gods and
creators is wrong because the world “would have
had its movements at variance and dissimilar to
itself”[28] and there “would have been disorder and
chaos in the universe.”[29] Thus, with creation
being another important means of knowing God
within the scope of the divine economy, it is no
surprise that Athanasius describes a reflection about
it in terms of an upward paradigm: “As by looking
AFTER CONSTANTINE 3 (2023) 22-34
up to heaven (ἀναβλέψαντας) and seeing its order
and the light of the stars one can form an idea
(ἐνθυμεῖσθαι) of the Word who sets their order, so
when thinking of the Word of God one must also
think of his Father, God, from whom he proceeds
and is therefore rightly called the interpreter and
messenger of his Father.”[30]
However, just like the soul, creation has its limits.
God created it “out of nothing” (ἐξ οὐκ ὄντων),
[31] and therefore, it is “unstable, and weak, and
mortal when considered by itself.”[32] For that
reason, when the works of creation fail to lead a
pagan to God, there is also the revelation of
Scriptures, which Athanasius discusses in the final
chapters of Contra Gentes. The Scriptures are
superior both to the soul and creation because they
“preach more clearly and forcefully”
(φανερώτερον καὶ κατὰ μεῖζον κηρύττει)[33]
about God. Athanasius sums up his thought about
the Scriptures in ch. 45, and as before, idolatry is
described here in terms of the wrong direction. It
is a “turning away” (ἀποστραφείς) from the true
God to the deification of non-existing things, of
which the Scriptures warned the Jews from the
very beginning:
For the Jewish people had previously had fuller teaching,
since they had knowledge of God not only from the works of
creation but also from the Divine Scriptures. And Scripture
gives men a general dissuasion from the error of idolatry and
irrational imaginings in these words: “You will have no
other gods except me” (Ex. 20.3). It is not as if there were
other gods that Scripture forbids men to have them, but lest
anyone, turning away from (ἀποστραφεὶς) the true God,
should begin to deify for himself non-existent things, such as
are the spurious gods mentioned and indicated by the
prophets and historians.[34]
The fact that Athanasius treats the soul, creation,
and Scriptures before the subject of the incarnation
suggests, in my opinion, that he intended for the
latter to appear as the peak of God’s economy of
salvation. He devotes the entire treatise of De
Incarnatione to the discussion of the incarnation,
yet even here he spends a considerable space
talking about idolatry. In the remaining part of
this article, I will briefly consider two major ways
27
in which the downward movement of God
represented in Christ’s incarnation deals with
idolatry here. While they are closely
interconnected, each of them adds its own aspect
important for gaining a fuller picture of why
incarnation was needed.
The first way is epistemological. In De Inc. 14,
Athanasius poses the following question: “But
whose task was it to teach the world about the
Father after the madness of idolatry and impiety
got hold of the world and knowledge of God was
hidden?”[35] To answer it, he resorts to the
incarnation of Christ and the way it re-directs
humanity upward by giving them a new form of
revelation:
For men had neglected it [i.e., the works of creation]
previously, and their eyes were no longer directed upwards
(ἄνω) but downwards (κάτω). So as it was right for him to
wish to be of help to men, he came as a man and took to
himself a body like theirs of humble origin – I mean through
the works of the body – in order that those who were
unwilling to know him by his providence and government of
the universe, yet by the works done through the body might
know the Word of God who was in the body, and through
him the Father.[36]
Athanasius’ expression “their eyes were no longer
directed upwards (ἄνω) but downwards (κάτω)” in
this passage reminds us of his metaphors of motion
in CG 7.14–32, where he compared the fallen men
to those who closed their eyes, and as a result were
left to wander around, fall, and stumble. This time,
the problem of closed eyes has become one of
misdirected vision and to deal with it, the works of
Christ provide the knowledge about God that
humanity could not attain on its own, just by
looking at creation.
The second way how incarnation deals with idolatry,
according to Athanasius, is by destroying the demons.
The victory of Christ over them overthrows the idols
and persuades the pagans to leave their cults. In fact, the
triumph of Christianity over paganism is so remarkable
that “at the coming of the Saviour all nations
everywhere have begun to know God.”[37] In De Inc.
15.25–37, the incarnation of Christ and his resurrection
are specifically described as that which overcomes the
AFTER CONSTANTINE 3 (2023) 22-34
demons, brings superior knowledge of God, and
lifts men upward (αὐτοὺς ἀναγάγῃ) like no other
means available to humanity before:
But if they were prejudiced for the demons, yet when they
saw them being put to flight by the Lord, they recognized
that only he was the Word of God and that the demons
were not gods. And if their minds were by then fixed on the
dead, so that they worshipped the heroes and those said to be
gods by the poets, yet when they saw the resurrection of the
Saviour they confessed that the former were false, and that
only the Word of the Father was the true Lord, he who has
power over death. For this reason he was born and appeared
as a man and died and rose again, weakening and
overshadowing by his own works those of all men who ever
existed, in order that from wherever men were attracted he
might lift them up (ἐκεῖθεν αὐτοὺς ἀναγάγῃ) and teach
them his true Father, as he himself says: “I have come to
save and find that which was lost” (Luke 19.10).[38]
The way incarnation reverses the downward
trajectory in which the fallen mankind has moved
to an upward one is most clearly articulated ten
chapters later in De Inc. 25. Here the coming of
Christ opens the way to heaven that was blocked
by the demons in the previous times, and
Athanasius uses numerous metaphors of motion to
make his point:
In addition, if the enemy of our race, the devil, having fallen
(ἐκπεσὼν) from heaven moves around in this lower
atmosphere (περὶ τὸν ἀέρα τὸν ὧδε κάτω πλανᾶται),
and lording it here over his fellow demons in disobedience,
through them works vain fancies to cheat men and tries to
prevent them from rising upwards (τοῖς ἀνερχομένοις), the
Apostle speaks of this also: “According to the ruler of the
power of the air, who now works in the sons of disobedience”
(Eph. 2.2). But the Lord came to overthrow (καταβάλῃ) the
devil, purify the air, and open for us the way up to heaven
(ὁδοποιήσῃ ἡμῖν τὴν εἰς οὐρανοὺς ἄνοδον), as the
Apostle said, through the veil, that is, his flesh (Heb 10.20).
This had to be effected by death, and by what other death
would these things have been accomplished save by that
which takes place in the air, I mean the cross? For only he
who expires on the cross dies in the air. So it was right for
the Lord to endure it. For being raised up (ὑψωθείς) in this
way he purified the air from the wiles of the devil and all the
demons, saying: “I saw Satan falling (πεσόντα) as
lightning” (Luke 10.18). And he reopened the way up to
heaven (εἰς οὐρανοὺς ἄνοδον ὁδοποιῶν ἐνεκαίνιζε),
saying again: “Lift up (Ἄρατε) your gates, princes, and be
28
raised, (ἐπάρθητε) everlasting gates” (Ps. 23.7). For it was
not the Word himself who needed the gates to be opened
(ἀνοίξεως), since he is Lord of all, nor was any part of
creation closed to its Maker; but we were those who needed
it, whom he bore up through his own body (οὓς ἀνέφερεν
αὐτὸς διὰ τοῦ ἰδίου σώματος αὐτοῦ). For as he offered it
to death on behalf of all, so through it again he opened the
way up to heaven (πάλιν ὡδοποίησε τὴν εἰς οὐρανοὺς
ἄνοδον).[39]
Athanasius describes the devil as the one who
“wanders about our lower atmosphere” (περὶ τὸν
ἀέρα τὸν ὧδε κάτω πλανᾶται), trying to hinder
those who are going up (τοῖς ἀνερχομένοις). Such
efforts of the devil were overturned by the
incarnation of Christ and his death on the cross,
and Athanasius describes the fruits of Christ’s work
in two ways. First, it “cleansed the air” and
“opened the way up to heaven” (ὁδοποιήσῃ ἡμῖν
τὴν εἰς οὐρανοὺς ἄνοδον), which Athanasius
reiterates three more times in this passage. He says
that Christ “reopened the way up to heaven” (εἰς
οὐρανοὺς ἄνοδον ὁδοποιῶν ἐνεκαίνιζε) and that
we needed the gates of heaven to “be opened”
(ἀνοίξεως) for us; and he repeats that his death on
behalf of all was that which “again opened the way
up to heaven” (πάλιν ὡδοποίησε τὴν εἰς
οὐρανοὺς ἄνοδον). Second, Christ bore us up
through his own body (οὓς ἀνέφερεν αὐτὸς διὰ
τοῦ ἰδίου σώματος αὐτοῦ), meaning that instead
of leaving us with the task of rising to God, he
accomplished it for us by carrying us up through
his own body.[40] Accordingly, he opened the
way for us to heaven and brought us up to God
through himself.
Of course, Athanasius spends his entire career as a
bishop of the Alexandrian church pondering upon
these ideas and developing them further in his later
writings. However, the origin of these ideas
belongs to his apologetic work of refuting
paganism and the worship of idols. Our close look
into this hopefully makes it clear that the problem
of idolatry is important enough for Athanasius that
he spends almost half of Contra Gentes in order to
deal with it, and he carries this topic over to De
AFTER CONSTANTINE 3 (2023) 22-34
Incarnatione for additional reflection. As a result,
one cannot have a fuller picture of what
Athanasius writes about creation, fall, and
incarnation – the topics we normally look for in
the double treatise – without giving proper
attention to what he says about the pagan worship
of idols.
Similarly, one cannot appreciate Athanasius’
account of idolatry sufficiently without looking
into the metaphors of motion placed throughout
the treatise. They describe the fall and the
incarnation and also form an essential part of how
Athanasius sees the solution to the problem of
idolatry. Here the idea of reversing the downward
movement of the fallen mankind to the upward
one by means of the soul, creation, and Scriptures
is the key to understanding why the work of
Christ was needed. Being the most superior way
of re-directing man to God, it did what humanity
could not accomplish through the other means
available before. Most importantly, it destroyed the
demons who were blocking the way to God, re-
opened the doors to heaven, and ultimately
brought humanity to God.
Notes
*This study is a result of the research funded by the
Czech Science Foundation as the project GA ČR
21-11977S “Reception of the Alexandrian
Exegetical Principles between East and West.”
** Viacheslav V. Lytvynenko is a research professor
of patristics at Charles University, Prague, Czech
Republic. His work is focused on the reception of
the early Christian thought in medieval Slavonic
tradition.
[1]Scholars disagree on whether this treatise was
written before the outbreak of the Arian
controversy in A.D. 318 or 319, or much later
when the controversy already intensified in A.D.
350. The consensus date is A.D. 335 or 336. For a
helpful summary of opinions, see Leemans 2000,
pp. 132–135.
[2] Frankfurter 2017, esp. pp. 233–255.
29
[3] Athanasius, De Inc. 55.1–11 (Thomson 1971, pp.
269–270): "Τοῦτο οὖν μετὰ τὰ προειρημένα
καταμαθεῖν σε ἄξιόν ἐστιν καὶ ὡς ἀρχὴν τῶν μὴ
λεχθέντων θέσθαι, καὶ θαυμάσαι λίαν ὅτι τοῦ
Σωτῆρος ἐπιδημήσαντος οὐκ ἔτι μὲν ηὔξησεν ἡ
εἰδωλολατρία, καὶ ἡ οὖσα δὲ ἐλαττοῦται, καὶ κατ’
ὀλίγον παύεται· καὶ οὐκ ἔτι μὲν ἡ Ἑλλήνων σοφία
προκόπτει, καὶ ἡ οὖσα δὲ λοιπὸν ἀφανίζεται· καὶ
δαίμονες μὲν οὐκ ἔτι φαντασίαις καὶ μαντείαις καὶ
μαγείαις ἀπατῶσι, μόνον δὲ τολμῶντες καὶ
ἐπιχειροῦντες καταισχύνονται τῷ σημείῳ τοῦ
σταυροῦ. Καὶ συλλήβδην εἰπεῖν, θεώρει πῶς ἡ μὲν
τοῦ Σωτῆρος διδασκαλία πανταχοῦ αὔξει· πᾶσα δὲ
εἰδωλολατρία καὶ πάντα τὰ ἐναντιούμενα τῇ Χριστοῦ
πίστει καθ’ ἡμέραν ἐλαττοῦται καὶ ἐξασθενεῖ καὶ
πίπτει."
[4] Ibid., CG 2.14–15 (Thomson 1971, pp. 6–7):
"Ἀγάλληται καὶ συνομιλῇ τῷ Θείῳ, ζῶν τὸν ἀπήμονα
καὶ μακάριον ὄντως ἀθάνατον βίον."
[5] Ibid., CG 3.1–2 (Thomson 1971, pp. 8–9): "Καὶ
μένειν ἠθέλησεν."
[6] Ibid., CG 3.2–9 (Thomson 1971, pp. 8–9): "Οἱ δὲ
ἄνθρωποι, κατολιγωρήσαντες τῶν κρειττόνων, καὶ
ὀκνήσαντες περὶ τὴν τούτων κατάληψιν, τὰ ἐγγυτέρω
μᾶλλον ἑαυτῶν ἐζήτησαν, ἐγγύτερα δὲ τούτοις ἦν τὸ
σῶμα, καὶ αἱ τούτου αἰσθήσεις. ὅθεν τῶν μὲν νοητῶν
ἀπέστησαν ἑαυτῶν τὸν νοῦν, ἑαυτοὺς δὲ κατανοεῖν
ἤρξαντο. ἑαυτοὺς δὲ κατανοοῦντες, καὶ τοῦ τε
σώματος καὶ τῶν ἄλλων αἰσθητῶν
ἀντιλαμβανόμενοι, καὶ ὡς ἐν ἰδίοις ἀπατώμενοι, εἰς
ἑαυτῶν ἐπιθυμίαν ἔπεσαν, τὰ ἴδια προτιμήσαντες τῆς
πρὸς τὰ θεῖα θεωρίας."
[7] Ibid., CG 7.33 (Thomson 1971, pp. 18–19): "Εἰς τὴν
τῶν εἰδώλων μανίαν καταβεβήκασιν."
[8] Ibid., CG 7.14–32 (Thomson 1971, pp. 18–19): "Τὸ
κακὸν οὐ παρὰ Θεοῦ οὐδὲ ἐν Θεῷ οὔτε ἐξ ἀρχῆς
γέγονεν, οὔτε οὐσία τίς ἐστιν αὐτοῦ. ἀλλὰ ἄνθρωποι
κατὰ στέρησιν τῆς τοῦ καλοῦ φαντασίας ἑαυτοῖς
ἐπινοεῖν ἤρξαντο καὶ ἀναπλάττειν τὰ οὐκ ὄντα, καὶ
ἅπερ βούλονται. ὡς γὰρ ἄν τις ἡλίου φαίνοντος, καὶ
πάσης τῆς γῆς τῷ φωτὶ τούτου καταλαμπομένης,
καμμύων τοὺς ὀφθαλμούς, σκότος ἑαυτῷ ἐπινοῇ οὐκ
ὄντος σκότους, καὶ λοιπὸν ὡς ἐν σκότει πλανώμενος
περιπατῇ, πολλάκις πίπτων καὶ κατὰ κρημνῶν
ὑπάγων, νομίζων οὐκ εἶναι φῶς, ἀλλὰ σκότος· δοκῶν
γὰρ βλέπειν, οὐδ’ ὅλως ὁρᾷ· οὕτω καὶ ἡ ψυχὴ τῶν
ἀνθρώπων, καμμύσασα τὸν ὀφθαλμὸν δι’ οὗ τὸν
Θεὸν ὁρᾷν δύναται, ἑαυτῇ τὰ κακὰ ἐπενόησεν, ἐν οἷς
AFTER CONSTANTINE 3 (2023) 22-34
κινουμένη, οὐκ οἶδεν ὅτι δοκοῦσά τι ποιεῖν,
οὐδὲν ποιεῖ· τὰ οὐκ ὄντα γὰρ ἀναπλάττεται. καὶ
οὐχ ὁποία γέγονε, τοιαύτη καὶ ἔμεινεν· ἀλλ’
ὁποίαν ἑαυτὴν ἐνέφυρε, τοιαύτη καὶ φαίνεται.
γέγονε μὲν γὰρ εἰς τὸ ὁρᾷν τὸν Θεὸν καὶ ὑπ’
αὐτοῦ φωτίζεσθαι· αὕτη δὲ ἀντὶ τοῦ Θεοῦ τὰ
φθαρτὰ καὶ τὸ σκότος ἐζήτησεν, ὥς που καὶ τὸ
Πνεῦμα ἐγγράφως φησίν· “Ὁ Θεὸς τὸν
ἄνθρωπον ἐποίησεν εὐθῆ· αὐτοὶ δὲ ἐζήτησαν
λογισμοὺς πολλούς.” κακίας δὴ οὖν εὕρεσις καὶ
ἐπίνοια τοῖς ἀνθρώποις ἐξ ἀρχῆς οὕτω γέγονε
καὶ πέπλασται."
[9] Ibid., CG 8.18–19 (Thomson 1971, pp. 20–21):
"Προηγεῖται τοίνυν αἰτία τῆς εἰδωλολατρείας ἡ
κακία (trans. mine)."
[10] Ibid., CG 8.2 (Thomson 1971, pp. 20–21):
"Εἰς τὰ χείρονα ἑαυτὴν ἐξάγειν ἤρξατο."
[11] Ibid., CG 8.21–41 (Thomson 1971, pp. 20–
23): "Οἷον δὲ εἴ τις, εἰς βυθὸν καταδύς, μηκέτι
μὲν βλέποι τὸ φῶς, μηδὲ τὰ ἐν τῷ φωτὶ
φαινόμενα, διὰ τὸ τῶν ὀφθαλμῶν αὐτοῦ πρὸς τὸ
κάτω νεῦμα, καὶ τὴν τοῦ ὕδατος ἐπικειμένην
ἐπίχυσιν αὐτῷ· μόνα δὲ τὰ ἐν τῷ βυθῷ
αἰσθόμενος, νομίζοι μηδὲν πλέον ἐκείνων εἶναι,
ἀλλ’ αὐτὰ τὰ φαινόμενα αὐτῷ τῶν ὄντων εἶναι
τὰ κύρια· οὕτω καὶ οἱ πάλαι τῶν ἀνθρώπων
παράφρονες, καταδύντες εἰς τὰς τῶν σαρκῶν
ἐπιθυμίας καὶ φαντασίας, καὶ ἐπιλαθόμενοι τῆς
περὶ Θεοῦ ἐννοίας καὶ δόξης, ἀμυδρῷ τῷ
λογισμῷ, μᾶλλον δὲ ἀλογίᾳ χρησάμενοι, τὰ
φαινόμενα θεοὺς ἀνετυπώσαντο, τὴν κτίσιν
παρὰ τὸν κτίσαντα δοξάζοντες, καὶ τὰ ἔργα
μᾶλλον ἐκθειάζοντες ἤπερ τὸν τούτων αἴτιον καὶ
δημιουργὸν δεσπότην Θεόν. ὥσπερ δὲ κατὰ τὸ
προλεχθὲν παράδειγμα, οἱ εἰς τὸν βυθὸν
καταδυόμενοι, ὅσῳ μᾶλλον ἐπικαταβαίνουσι,
τοσοῦτον εἰς τὰ σκοτεινότερα καὶ βαθύτερα
ὁρμῶσιν· οὕτω καὶ τὸ τῶν ἀνθρώπων πέπονθε
γένος. οὐ γὰρ ἁπλῆν ἔσχον τὴν εἰδωλολατρείαν,
οὐδὲ ἀφ’ ὧν ἤρξαντο ἐν τούτοις καὶ διέμειναν·
ἀλλ’ ὅσον τοῖς πρώτοις ἐνεχρόνιζον, τοσοῦτον
ἑαυτοῖς καινοτέρας ἐφεύρισκον δεισιδαιμονίας·
καὶ κόρον οὐ λαμβάνοντες τῶν πρώτων, ἄλλοις
30
πάλιν ἐνεπίμπλαντο κακοῖς, προκόπτοντες ἐν
τοῖς αἰσχίστοις, καὶ πλεῖον ἑαυτῶν ἐπεκτείνοντες
τὴν ἀσέβειαν. τοῦτο δὲ καὶ ἡ θεία γραφὴ
μαρτύρεται λέγουσα· “Ὅταν ἔλθῃ ἀσεβὴς εἰς
βάθος κακῶν, καταφρονεῖ.”"
[12] Cf. Plato’s allegory of the cave in his Republic
514a–520a.
[13] Ibid., CG 9.18 (Thomson 1971, pp. 24–25):
"Τὸν ἀληθινὸν καὶ ὄντως ὄντα Θεὸν […]
ἀποστρεφόμενοι."
[14] Ibid., CG 9.1–14 (Thomson 1971, pp. 22–23):
'Ἄρτι γὰρ ἀπεπήδησεν ἡ διάνοια τῶν
ἀνθρώπων ἀπὸ Θεοῦ, καὶ καταβαίνοντες ταῖς
ἐννοίαις καὶ τοῖς λογισμοῖς οἱ ἄνθρωποι,
πρώτοις οὐρανῷ καὶ ἡλίῳ καὶ σελήνῃ καὶ τοῖς
ἄστροις τὴν τοῦ Θεοῦ τιμὴν ἀνέθηκαν, ἐκείνους
οὐ μόνον θεοὺς εἶναι νομίζοντες, ἀλλὰ καὶ τῶν
ἄλλων τῶν μετ’ αὐτοὺς αἰτίους τυγχάνειν· εἶτ’,
ἐπικαταβαίνοντες τοῖς σκοτεινοῖς λογισμοῖς,
αἰθέρα καὶ τὸν ἀέρα καὶ τὰ ἐν τῷ ἀέρι
προσηγόρευσαν θεούς. προβαίνοντες δὲ τοῖς
κακοῖς, ἤδη καὶ τὰ στοιχεῖα, καὶ τὰς ἀρχὰς τῆς
τῶν σωμάτων συστάσεως, τὴν θερμὴν καὶ τὴν
ψυχρὰν καὶ τὴν ξηρὰν καὶ τὴν ὑγρὰν οὐσίαν
θεοὺς ἀνύμνησαν. ὡς δὲ οἱ τέλεον πεσόντες περὶ
τὴν γῆν ἰλυσπῶνται δίκην τῶν ἐν τῇ χέρσῳ
κοχλιῶν· οὕτως οἱ ἀσεβέστατοι τῶν ἀνθρώπων,
πεσόντες καὶ καταπεσόντες ἀπὸ τῆς περὶ Θεοῦ
φαντασίας, λοιπὸν καὶ ἀνθρώπους καὶ
ἀνθρώπων μορφάς, τῶν μὲν ἔτι ζώντων, τῶν δὲ
καὶ μετὰ θάνατον εἰς θεοὺς ἀνέθηκαν."
[15] Ibid., GC 19.5 (Thomson 1971, pp. 52–53).
[16] Ibid., GC 19.18 (Thomson 1971, pp. 52–53).
[17] Ibid., GC 19.18–21 (Thomson 1971, pp. 52–
53).
[18] Ibid., CG 23.38–47 (Thomson 1971, pp. 64–
65; trans. slightly modified): "Ἐκπεσόντες γὰρ
ἀπὸ τῆς πρὸς τὸν ἕνα Θεὸν κατανοήσεως, εἰς
πολλὰ καὶ διάφορα καταπεπτώκασι· καὶ
ἀποστραφέντες τὸν ἀληθῶς τοῦ Πατρὸς Λόγον,
τὸν πάντων Σωτῆρα Χριστόν, εἰκότως εἰς πολλὰ
τὴν διάνοιαν ἔχουσι ῥεμβομένην. καὶ ὥσπερ οἱ
τὸν ἥλιον ἀποστραφέντες καὶ ἐν σκοτεινοῖς
AFTER CONSTANTINE 3 (2023) 22-34
γενόμενοι τόποις, πολλὰς ἀνόδους κυκλεύουσιν
ὁδούς, καὶ τοὺς μὲν παρόντας οὐχ ὁρῶσι, τοὺς
δὲ μὴ ὄντας φαντάζονται ὡς παρόντας, καὶ
“βλέποντες οὐ βλέπουσι·” τὸν αὐτὸν τρόπον οἱ
τὸν Θεὸν ἀποστραφέντες καὶ σκοτισθέντες τὴν
ψυχὴν ῥεμβόμενον ἔχουσι τὸν νοῦν, καὶ τὰ οὐκ
ὄντα ὡς μεθύοντες καὶ μὴ ὁρῶντες φαντάζονται.'
[19] For example, Louth believes that the double
treatise presents two different views of salvation
and suggests that Athanasius went through a
career from a young Origenist in Contra Gentes to
an independent thinker in De Incarnatione. See
Louth 1975, p. 227; cf. Ibid., pp. 1981, 77–80. For
more views, see Pettersen 1990, pp. 14–20;
Widdicombe 1994, pp. 147–8; Robertson 2007,
pp. 148–151; Stead 1988, pp. 229–242; Haarlem
1961, p. 58; Roldanus 1968, pp. 11–123.
[20] For example, Pettersen remarks that “while
there are different emphases in the Contra Gentes
and the De Incarnatione, there are not different
conceptions of mankind’s redemption.”[1] See
Pettersen 1990, p. 16. Cf. Anatolios 2004, p. 31,
who makes a similar statement arguing that the
variance in Athanasius’ works has to do with a
difference in emphases: “He [Athanasius]
maintains a remarkable consistency in his
theological vision and even vocabulary, albeit with
some notable developments and variance of
emphases.” Meijering argues for the consistency of
Athanasian thought based on the apologetic
structure of the treatise and its four different means
(or “die Wege”) of the restoration of humanity:
“Als der Mensch über diese drei Wege [i.e., the
soul, creation, and Scriptures] die Gotteserkenntnis
nicht erlangen konnte, erschien das Wort, das ihn
im Anfang erschuf, in einem menschlichen
Körper, um so das Bild Gottes und damit die
Gotteserkenntnis im Menschen zu erneuern […]
Somit stellt sich der globale Aufbau des
Doppelwerkes so dar, als dass von den vier Wegen
der Gottesoffenbarung drei in CG behandelt
warden und der vierte in DI. In den Hauptsachen
kann sich keine Veränderung in den Ansichten des
31
Athanasius vollzogen haben, etwa in dem Sinne,
dass in CG den Heiden aufgrund einer ‘natürlichen
Theologie’ weiter entgegen käme als in DI, das
‘christozentrische Theologie’ bietet. Die
Feststellung in DI 12, dass der Mensch über die
ersten drei Wege Gotteserkenntnis hättte erlangen
können, er sie aber wegen seiner Sünde eben
faktisch nicht erlangte, war auch bereits in CG
getroffen worden.” See Meijering 1991, p. 316.
[21] Ibid., GC 33.22–26 (Thomson 1971, pp. 90–
91): "Ἀλλὰ πολλάκις, ἐπὶ κλίνης τούτου κειμένου
καὶ μὴ κινουμένου, ἀλλ’ ὡς ἐν θανάτῳ
κοιμωμένου, αὕτη κατὰ τὴν ἑαυτῆς δύναμιν
γρηγορεῖ, καὶ ὑπερεκβαίνει τὴν τοῦ σώματος
φύσιν· καὶ ὥσπερ ἀποδημοῦσα τούτου, μένουσα
ἐν τῷ σώματι, τὰ ὑπὲρ γῆν φαντάζεται καὶ
θεωρεῖ, πολλάκις δὲ καὶ τοῖς ἔξω τῶν γηΐνων
σωμάτων ἁγίοις καὶ ἀγγέλοις συναντᾷ."
[22] Ibid., CG 34.1–3 (Thomson 1971, pp. 92–93):
“They have denied God for the worship of
inanimate beings, so they do not think they have a
rational soul” (ὥσπερ τὸν Θεὸν ἠρνήσαντο καὶ
ἄψυχα θρησκεύουσιν, οὕτω καὶ ψυχὴν οὐκ ἔχειν
λογικὴν νομίζοντες).
[23] Ibid., CG 34.7–8 (Thomson 1971, pp. 92–93):
Ὡς μὴ ἔχοντες ψυχὴν παρὰ λόγον τολμώσι.
[24] Ibid., CG 34.12–19 (Thomson 1971, pp. 92–
93): "Δύνανται γάρ, ὥσπερ ἀπεστράφησαν τῇ
διανοίᾳ τὸν Θεὸν καὶ τὰ οὐκ ὄντα ἀνεπλάσαντο
εἰς θεούς, οὕτως ἀναβῆναι τῷ νῷ τῆς ψυχῆς, καὶ
πάλιν ἐπιστρέψαι πρὸς τὸν Θεόν. ἐπιστρέψαι δὲ
δύνανται, ἐὰν ὃν ἐνεδύσαντο ῥύπον πάσης
ἐπιθυμίας ἀπόθωνται, καὶ τοσοῦτον
ἀπονίψωνται, ἕως ἂν ἀπόθωνται πᾶν τὸ
συμβεβηκὸς ἀλλότριον τῇ ψυχῇ, καὶ μόνην αὐτὴν
ὥσπερ γέγονεν ἀποδείξωσιν, ἵν’ οὕτως ἐν αὐτῇ
θεωρῆσαι τὸν τοῦ Πατρὸς Λόγον, καθ’ ὃν καὶ
γεγόνασιν ἐξ ἀρχῆς, δυνηθῶσι."
[25] Ibid., CG 34.27–31 (Thomson 1971, pp. 92–
93): "Ἢ εἰ μὴ αὐτάρκης ἐστὶν ἡ παρὰ τῆς ψυχῆς
διδασκαλία διὰ τὰ ἐπιθολοῦντα ταύτης ἔξωθεν
τὸν νοῦν, καὶ μὴ ὁρᾷν αὐτὴν τὸ κρεῖττον· ἀλλ’
ἔστι πάλιν καὶ ἀπὸ τῶν φαινομένων τὴν περὶ τοῦ
AFTER CONSTANTINE 3 (2023) 22-34
Θεοῦ γνῶσιν καταλαβεῖν, τῆς κτίσεως ὥσπερ
γράμμασι διὰ τῆς τάξεως καὶ ἁρμονίας τὸν
ἑαυτῆς δεσπότην καὶ ποιητὴν σημαινούσης καὶ
βοώσης."
[26] Ibid., CG 38.30 (Thomson 1971, pp. 104–
105).
[27] Ibid., CG 38.22–23 (Thomson 1971, pp. 104–
105): "Οὕτως ἐν τῇ τοῦ παντὸς."
[28] Ibid., CG 39.27 (Thomson 1971, pp. 108–
109): "Διαφόρους εἶχε καὶ τὰς κινήσεις καὶ
ἀνομοίους ἑαυτῷ."
[29] Ibid., CG 39.29–30 (Thomson 1971, pp. 108–
109): "Πάλιν ἦν ἀκοσμία καὶ τοῦ παντὸς
ἀταξία."
[30] Ibid., CG 45.1–4 (Thomson 1971, pp. 122–
123): "Ὥσπερ γάρ, ἀναβλέψαντας εἰς τὸν
οὐρανὸν καὶ ἰδόντας τὸν κόσμον αὐτοῦ καὶ τὸ
τῶν ἄστρων φῶς, ἔστιν ἐνθυμεῖσθαι τὸν ταῦτα
διακοσμοῦντα Λόγον· οὕτω νοοῦντας Λόγον
Θεοῦ, νοεῖν ἐστιν ἀνάγκη καὶ τὸν τούτου Πατέρα
Θεόν, ἐξ οὗ προϊὼν εἰκότως τοῦ ἑαυτοῦ Πατρὸς
ἑρμηνεὺς καὶ ἄγγελος λέγεται."
[31] Ibid., CG 41.11 (Thomson 1971, pp. 112–
113).
[32] Ibid., CG 41.11–12 (Thomson 1971, pp. 112–
113): "Ῥευστή τις καὶ ἀσθενὴς καὶ θνητὴ καθ’
ἑαυτὴν συγκρινομένη τυγχάνει."
[33] Ibid., CG 45.12 (Thomson 1971, pp. 124–123
[34] Ibid., CG 45.36–44 (Thomson 1971, pp. 124–
123): "Ὁ γὰρ Ἰουδαίων πάλαι λαὸς κατὰ πλεῖον
εἶχε τὴν διδασκαλίαν, ὅτι μὴ μόνον ἐκ τῶν τῆς
κτίσεως ἔργων, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἐκ τῶν θείων γραφῶν
εἶχον τὴν περὶ Θεοῦ γνῶσιν. καὶ καθόλου δὲ
τοὺς ἀνθρώπους ἀπὸ τῆς περὶ τὰ εἴδωλα πλάνης
καὶ ἀλόγου φαντασίας ἀφέλκων, φησίν· “Οὐκ
ἔσονταί σοι θεοὶ ἕτεροι πλὴν ἐμοῦ.” οὐχ ὡς
ὄντων δὲ θεῶν ἄλλων κωλύει τούτους αὐτοὺς
ἔχειν, ἀλλ’ ἵνα μή τις, τὸν ἀληθινὸν ἀποστραφεὶς
Θεόν, ἑαυτῷ τὰ μὴ ὄντα θεοποιεῖν ἄρξηται,
ὁποῖοί εἰσιν οἱ παρὰ ποιηταῖς καὶ
συγγραφεῦσιν ὀνομασθέντες καὶ δειχθέντες οὐκ
ὄντες θεοί."
[35] Athanasius, De Inc. 14.13–15 (Thomson 1971,
pp. 166, trans. mine): "Ἐπειδὴ δὲ καὶ
32
εἰδωλομανία καὶ ἀθεότης κατεῖχε τὴν οἰκουμένην
καὶ ἡ περὶ Θεοῦ γνῶσις ἐκέκρυπτο, τίνος ἦν
διδάξαι τὴν οἰκουμένην περὶ Πατρός;"
[36] Ibid., De Inc. 14.33–40 (Thomson 1971, pp.
168–169): "Οὐχί γε· παρεῖδον γὰρ
πρότερον οἱ ἄνθρωποι, καὶ οὐκέτι μὲν ἄνω,
κάτω δὲ τοὺς ὀφθαλμοὺς ἐσχήκασιν. Ὅθεν
εἰκότως ἀνθρώπους θέλων ὠφελῆσαι,
ἄνθρωπος ἐπιδημεῖ, λαμβάνων ἑαυτῷ σῶμα
ὅμοιον ἐκείνοις, καὶ ἐκ τῶν κάτω – λέγω δὴ διὰ
τῶν τοῦ σώματος ἔργων – ἵνα οἱ μὴ θελήσαντες
αὐτὸν γνῶναι ἐκ τῆς εἰς τὰ ὅλα προνοίας καὶ
ἡγεμονίας αὐτοῦ, κἂν ἐκ τῶν δι’ αὐτοῦ τοῦ
σώματος ἔργων γνώσωνται τὸν ἐν τῷ σώματι
τοῦ Θεοῦ Λόγον, καὶ δι’ αὐτοῦ τὸν Πατέρα."
[37] Ibid., De Inc. 35.16–17 (Thomson 1971, pp.
218–219): Τῇ τοῦ Σωτῆρος ἐπιδημίᾳ καὶ πάντα
τὰ ἔθνη πανταχόθεν ἐπιγινώσκειν τὸν Θεὸν
ἤρξαντο.
[38] Ibid., De Inc. 15.25–37 (Thomson 1971, pp.
170–173): "Εἰ δὲ καὶ εἰς δαίμονας
προληφθέντες, ἀλλ’ ὁρῶντες αὐτοὺς διωκομένους
ὑπὸ τοῦ Κυρίου, ἐγίνωσκον μόνον εἶναι τοῦτον
τὸν τοῦ Θεοῦ Λόγον, καὶ οὐκ εἶναι θεοὺς τοὺς
δαίμονας. Εἰ δὲ καὶ εἰς νεκροὺς ἤδη τούτων ἦν ὁ
νοῦς κατασχεθείς, ὥστε θρησκεύειν ἥρωας, καὶ
τοὺς παρὰ ποιηταῖς λεγομένους θεούς· ἀλλ’
ὁρῶντες τὴν τοῦ Σωτῆρος ἀνάστασιν,
ὡμολόγουν ἐκείνους εἶναι ψευδεῖς, καὶ μόνον τὸν
Κύριον ἀληθινόν, τὸν τοῦ Πατρὸς Λόγον, τὸν καὶ
τοῦ θανάτου κυριεύοντα. ∆ιὰ τοῦτο
γεγέννηται, καὶ ἄνθρωπος ἐφάνη, καὶ ἀπέθανε,
καὶ ἀνέστη, ἀμβλύνας καὶ ἐπισκιάσας τὰ τῶν
πώποτε γενομένων ἀνθρώπων διὰ τῶν ἰδίων
ἔργων, ἵνα ὅπου δ’ ἂν ὦσι προληφθέντες οἱ
ἄνθρωποι, ἐκεῖθεν αὐτοὺς ἀναγάγῃ, καὶ διδάξῃ
τὸν ἀληθινὸν ἑαυτοῦ Πατέρα, καθάπερ καὶ αὐτός
φησιν· “Ἦλθον σῶσαι καὶ εὑρεῖν
ἀπολωλός.”"
[39] Ibid., De Inc. 25.17–39 (Thomson 1971, pp.
194–196): "Καὶ πάλιν εἰ ὁ ἐχθρὸς τοῦ γένους
ἡμῶν διάβολος, ἐκπεσὼν ἀπὸ τοῦ οὐρανοῦ, περὶ
τὸν ἀέρα τὸν ὧδε κάτω πλανᾶται, κἀκεῖ τῶν σὺν
αὐτῷ δαιμόνων ὡς ὁμοίων ἐν τῇ ἀπειθείᾳ
AFTER CONSTANTINE 3 (2023) 22-34
ἐξουσιάζων, φαντασίας μὲν δι’ αὐτῶν ἐνεργεῖ
τοῖς ἀπατωμένοις, ἐπιχειρεῖ δὲ τοῖς ἀνερχομένοις
ἐμποδίζειν· καὶ περὶ τούτου φησὶν ὁ Ἀπόστολος·
“Κατὰ τὸν ἄρχοντα τῆς ἐξουσίας τοῦ ἀέρος, τοῦ
τοῦτο νῦν ἐνεργοῦντος ἐν τοῖς υἱοῖς τῆς ἀπειθείας,”
ἦλθε δὲ ὁ Κύριος ἵνα τὸν μὲν διάβολον
καταβάλῃ, τὸν δὲ ἀέρα καθαρίσῃ, καὶ
ὡς ὁδοποιήσῃ ἡμῖν τὴν εἰς οὐρανοὺς ἄνοδον, ὡς
εἶπεν ὁ Ἀπόστολος, “διὰ τοῦ καταπετάσματος,
τοῦτ’ ἔστιν τῆς σαρκὸς αὐτοῦ,” τοῦτο δὲ ἔδει
γενέσθαι διὰ τοῦ θανάτου· ποίῳ δ’ ἂν ἄλλῳ
θανάτῳ ἐγεγόνει ταῦτα, ἢ τῷ ἐν ἀέρι γενομένῳ,
φημὶ δὴ τῷ σταυρῷ; Μόνος γὰρ ἐν τῷ ἀέρι τις
ἀποθνῄσκει, ὁ σταυρῷ τελειούμενος. ∆ιὸ καὶ
εἰκότως τοῦ τον ὑπέμεινεν ὁ Κύριος. Οὕτω γὰρ
ὑψωθείς, τὸν μὲν ἀέρα ἐκαθάριζεν ἀπό τε τῆς
διαβολικῆς καὶ πάσης τῶν δαιμόνων ἐπιβουλῆς
λέγων· “Ἐθεώρουν τὸν Σατανᾶν ὡς ἀστραπὴν
πεσόντα,” τὴν εἰς οὐρανοὺς ἄνοδον ὁδοποιῶν
ἐνεκαίνιζε λέγων πάλιν· “Ἄρατε πύλας οἱ
ἦσαν ἄρχοντες ὑμῶν καὶ ἐπάρθητε πύλαι αἰώνιοι.”
Οὐ γὰρ αὐτὸς ὁ Λόγος ἦν ὁ χρῄζων ἀνοίξεως
τῶν πυλῶν, πάντων Κύριος ὤν, οὐδὲ
κεκλεισμένον ἦν τι τῶν ποιημάτων τῷ ποιητῇ,
ἀλλ’ ἡμεῖς ἦμεν οἱ χρῄζοντες, οὓς ἀνέφερεν αὐτὸς
διὰ τοῦ ἰδίου σώματος αὐτοῦ. Ὡς γὰρ ὑπὲρ
πάντων αὐτὸ προσήνεγκε τῷ θανάτῳ, οὕτως δι’
αὐτοῦ πάλιν ὡδοποίησε τὴν εἰς οὐρανοὺς
ἄνοδον."
[40] Athanasius spends a great deal of time
καὶ reflecting on how the effectiveness of grace and
security of salvation is ensured by the fact that the
work of salvation is located within the Savior
himself, who does what humanity cannot
accomplish on its own. For an analysis of this
aspect, see Lytvynenko 2021, pp. 128, 135–137.
τὸ
33
Bibliography

1.Anatolios, Kh. (2004). Athanasius. The Early Church Fathers. London: Routledge.
2.Athanasius of Alexandria (1971). Contra Gentes and De Incarnatione. Ed. and trans. R., W., Thomson.
Oxford Early Christian Texts. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
3.Frankfurter, D. (2017). Christianizing Egypt: Syncretism and Local Worlds in Late Antiquity. Martin
Classical Lectures. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
4.Haarlem, van A. (1961). Incarnatie en verlossing bij Athanasius. Wageningen: H. Veenman en zonen.
5.Leemans, J. (2000). Thirteen Years of Athanasius Research (1985–1998). A Survey and Bibliography.
Sacris Erudiri, 39, pp. 132–135.
6.Louth, A. (1975). The Concept of the Soul in Athanasius’ Contra Gentes – De Incarnatione Verbi.
Studia Patristica, 13, pp. 227–231.
7.Louth, A. (1981). The Origins of the Christian Mystical Tradition From Plato to Denys. Oxford:
Clarendon Press.
8.Lytvynenko, V. (2021). The Image of God in Athanasius’ Contra Gentes – De Incarnatione and
Orationes contra Arianos. In: T., Hainthaler, F., Mali, G., Emmenegger, A., Morozov, eds. Pro Oriente.
Wiener Patristische Tagungen IX. Band XLIII. Tyrolia/Verlag: Innsbruck/Wien, pp. 121–143.
9.Meijering, E., P. (1991). Struktur und Zusammenhang des apologetischen Werkes von Athanasius.
Vigiliae Christianae, 45 (4), pp. 313–326.
10.Pettersen, A. (1990). Athanasius and the Human Body. Bristol: The Bristol Press.
11. Plato (2013). Republic. Volume II: Books 6–10. Trans. C., Emlyn-Jones, W., Preddy. Loeb Classical
Library No. 276. Cambridge/London: Harvard University Press.
12. Robertson, J., M. (2007). Christ as Mediator: A Study of the Theologies of Eusebius of Caesarea,
Marcellus of Ancyra, and Athanasius of Alexandria. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
13. Roldanus, J. (2004). Le Christ et l’homme dans la Théologie d’Athanase d’Alexandrie. Étude de la
conjonction de sa conception de l’homme avec sa christologie. Leiden: Brill.
14. Stead, C. (1988). Knowledge of God in Eusebius and Athanasius. In: van D., Broek, T., Baarda, J.,
Mansfeld, eds. Knowledge of God in the Graeco-Roman World. Leiden: Brill, pp. 229–242.
15. Widdicombe, P. (1994). The Fatherhood of God from Origen to Athanasius. Oxford: Clarendon
Press.

AFTER CONSTANTINE 3 (2023) 22-34 34

 ZEUXIPPOS OR BYZANTION
THE CITY OF THE SUN
BOOK REVIEW
Valeria Fol*
Prof. V. Lozanova[1] dedicated years of work to
present us the monograph Zeuxippos or Byzantion
– The City of the Sun. Knowing her publications in
recent years, I can say that she consistently explores
various issues from sacred geography and the
mytho-legendary tradition of the founding of
Constantinople to arrive at the proposed title of the
book. In fact, the place of sun worship in the
history of the city and of the Emperor Constantine
the Great is an age-old topic, loaded with many
biases of a different nature, and is a great challenge.
In the scientific literature about the early centuries
of the city's existence Zeuxippos as a mythological
character and one of the manifestations of the cult
of the sun always remains in the background. In
the scientific literature about the early centuries of
the city's existence, Zeuxippos as a mythological
character and one of the manifestations of the cult
of the sun always remains in the background.
Prof. Lozanova focuses her attention on this
problem, considering it in the widest possible
context, analyzing all available written and
archaeological sources, and this is one of the
contributions of her monograph.
The book’s structure includes a preface, four
chapters, an epilogue, and comprehensive
bibliography. The Preface dramatically introduces
the issue by outlining the two sacred topoi of the
city: the Hippodrome and the Forum of
Constantine, and by an overview of the challenges
in their history that have sparked the author's
interest. The big issue around which the analysis is
built is the extent to which pre-Christian and/or
AFTER CONSTANTINE 3 (2023) 35-37
Christian elements are contained in the
ideology of Constantine the Great, manifested
in the founding and consecration of the new
imperial capital, the symbolism of rituals,
statues and other signs, of architectural
solutions, their transformations and – last but
not least –how the inhabitants of the city
perceived all this over the centuries. V.
Lozanova examines all the opinions about the
symbolism of all the elements of the
consecration of the city and rightly notes that
they are spread over the entire spectrum
between a completely pagan to an extremely
Christian religious-ideological interpretation.
The first chapter, The Sun Emperor in the City
of the Sun, is devoted to the specific role of the
city's solar deity Zeuxippos, his identification
with Helios and Zeus Helios, and his religious-
ideological role in Constantine's public
behaviour in Byzantion. V. Lozanova rightly
points out the importance of this local cult
tradition for connecting the figure of the ruler
with the Sun in the rituals of the consecration
of the city and with the sacred topography of
Byzantion. In several places in the book, she
emphasizes that the discrepancy in the
identifications of the local solar deity in the
sources actually proves that he should not
automatically be identified with Apollo or
Helios. In several places in the book, she
emphasizes that the discrepancy in the
identifications of the local sun deity in the
sources actually proves that one should not
35
automatically equate him with Apollo or Helios.
The author reasonably disputes the popular
opinion that the solar aspects in the consecration of
Constantinople and the solar cult of Constantine
arose only from the traditions of the Megarian
Apoikists.
The second chapter, Zeuxippos – Zeus Helios and
Septimius Severus– begins with a historical
excursus before analyzing the written records
mentioning Zeuxippos in connection with the
building activity of Septimius Severus and his
attempt to be associated with the ancient Thracian
deity. The second chapter, Zeuxippos - Zeus
Helios and Septimius Severus begins with a
historical excursus, before analyzing the written
records mentioning Zeuxippos in connection with
the building activity of Septimius Severus and his
attempt to be associated with the ancient Thracian
deity. Worthy of note is the hypothesis based on
written sources and linguistic analysis that the
name Zeuxippos is probably contamination by the
Hellenic identification of a Thracian supreme solar
deity and his possible visualization as a horseman,
probably with Zeus Hippios. V. Lozanova
emphasizes that Zeuxippos sometimes also appears
in the sources as leader of the Megarian apoikists,
since through the mythological figure of the sun
god of the Thracians in Byzantium, autochthony,
sacredness, and, from there, the correctness of their
choice of a place for the foundation of the apoikia
are justified.
Recently, many authors have dealt with the role of
light and darkness in religious ideas, including in
royal ideology. An essential place in these studies is
occupied by the cult of Sol Invictus in Roman
imperial ideology. The studies of the early scholars
were dominated by the identification of the solar
statues of Constantine I the Great in
Constantinople on the Forum Constantini with Sol
Invictus (Unconquered Sun). According to the
author, the diverging accounts of the Byzantine
sources leave no doubt that Constantine’s statue on
the porphyry column brought from Egyptian
AFTER CONSTANTINE 3 (2023) 35-37
Thebes stood far from the traditional
iconographic schemes of Sol Invictus (Chapter
I: The Sun Emperor in the City of Sun) that
the Emperor seems to have abandoned in his
other demonstrations of power considerably
long before the inauguration of
Constantinople in 330 AD. In her analysis of
numismatic material from Constantinople and
Constantine’s coinage during the time of the
inauguration of the city, V. Lozanova
convincingly draws attention to a very
important aspect of the Emperor’s policy
concerning the encouragement of the religious
identity of the polis through toleration of local
cults. Thus, the statue on the porphyry column
clearly symbolized Constantine’s claims that
the roots of the “new city” founded by him
went deeply into the most distant past of the
city. As a background to these public
demonstrations, she suggests that more
attention be paid to Septimius Severus' efforts
to “establish religious-political communication
with the local cultic traditions of Byzantium”
as noted in the sources.
In the third chapter, Byzas and the Birth of
Byzantion, the most ancient layer of the sacred
topography of the Byzantium region is
reconstructed on the basis of mythical-
legendary tradition and analysis of coin
images. All the variants of the mythographic
tradition about Byzas, the omens for the
founding of the city, and their correlation with
the ideological and political actions of
Constantine in the consecration of the city are
examined in great detail. It is logically
concluded that the ancient local tradition was
secondarily inscribed in the wider Hellenic
mythical-literary framework of the story of Io
and Zeus as a natural process reflecting the
context of Hellenic colonization. The analyses
of the sources again lead the author to the
already-reached conclusion that Constantine
consciously used the ancient local
36
mythological traditions of Byzantion to establish local cult practices, on the one hand, and those of
his cult and public behavior as Sun Emperor in the the imperial cult of the ruler or even his personal
City of the Sun. pre-Christian cult, on the other. That effort to
The fourth chapter, In the Chariot of Helios, is achieve balance would explain the neutral
devoted to the consecration of the city, the language of Constantine’s public messages and
dedication of the statues that patronize it, the public demonstrations of his religious preferences.
sacred topography with which these activities are Certainly, the Emperor’s aspiration at
associated, and the coinage in which they are demonstrating universal religious tolerance and
reflected. On the second day of the spectacular 40- balanced concealment of his personal religious-
day celebrations of the founding of the new city, philosophical views should not be underestimated
the Emperor made clear religious manifestations in those processes.
with Tyche, the patroness of his newly founded The monograph has indisputable contributions
city. Constantine resurrected the ancient religious and offers many challenges, both because of the
and vast source material collected, the different
mythological context of Byzantion’s birth, perspective from which it is analyzed and because
“flirting” with the patron goddess of the city, of the reasoned conclusions about the place of the
Tyche-Keroessa, the mother of the heros-oikistes local mythographic tradition and the solar deity in
and the eponym Byzas – probably gracefully and the ideology and public behaviour of Constantine
discretely (?) replacing her with the figure of his the Great in the renewal and consecration of
own mother Helena. Thus, according to V. Byzantion as a city of the Sun Emperor.
Lozanova, the propaganda messages and allegories
were outlined, as derived from the mythological Notes
traditions of the city’s founding and structured by * Valeria Fol, Prof. D.Sc., PhD is a Professor at the
the relations between the Great Goddess-Mother Institute for Balkan Studies & Centre of
and her solar son. Thracology, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, and
The author's conclusions confirm her observations at the University of Library Studies and
from the previous chapters to reach the conclusion Information Technologies, Sofia (Bulgaria). Her
in the Epilogue which reads: “Constantine made research interests are focused on Thracian studies,
demonstrative and deliberate use of the solar history and theory of Ancient culture; Ancient
symbolism in which late antique and medieval religion. Academia.edu:
authors recognize a solar god identified by them https://independent.academia.edu/ValeriaFol. E-
most generally like Helios or Apollo, and the mail: valeriafol@gmail.com.
Christian authors – even like Jesus. The local
population of Byzantium, however, called him [1]Vanya Lozanova-Stancheva, Prof. D.Sc., PhD is
Zeuxippos.” In the analyses of the written sources, a Professor at the Institute for Balkan Studies &
the sacred topography, and the images in the book Centre of Thracology, Bulgarian Academy of
proposed by Prof. Lozanova, one can see the Sciences, Sofia (Bulgaria). Her research interests
transformational models by which Christianity are focused on the history and theory of Ancient
gradually absorbed and put its own meaning into culture; Ancient religion, Thracian studies.
the pagan symbols, artistic-architectural solutions, Academia.edu:
and ritual actions. With that policy and behaviour, https://bas.academia.edu/VanyaLozanova. E-mail:
the Emperor perhaps was seeking a balance lozanova_vanya@yahoo.com.
between the traditional religion of the city and the

AFTER CONSTANTINE 3 (2023) 35-37 37

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