The Christian Parthenon: Classicism and Pilgrimage in Byzantine Athens

by Anthony Kaldellis

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

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Church History

268 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2009

About the author

Ph.D. University of Michigan, Department of History (2001)
Anthony Kaldellis’ research explores the history, culture, and literature of the east Roman empire from antiquity to the fifteenth century. An earlier phase of it focused on the reception of ancient Hellenic culture, for example on how authors conceived their projects in relation to classical models (Procopius of Caesarea, 2004), as well as the history of identities (Hellenism in Byzantium, 2007), monuments (The Christian Parthenon, 2009), and genres (Ethnography after Antiquity, 2013). A second phase brought to light the enduring Roman matrices of Byzantine life and thought, focusing on its political sphere (The Byzantine Republic, 2015) and ethnic identities (Romanland: Ethnicity and Empire in Byzantium, 2019). He has translated into English the works of many medieval Greek writers, such as Prokopios, Genesios, Psellos, Attaleiates, and Laonikos Chalkokondyles. His own monographs have been translated into other modern languages, including Turkish, French, Romanian, Russian, and Greek. In 2019, he created the first academic podcast for his field, Byzantium & Friends. He has just published a new, comprehensive history of Byzantium, The New Roman Empire (2023), which embeds social, economic, religious, and demographic developments within a lively narrative framework.

Reviews

[Ραδάμανθυς Φωτόπουλος · Rating 4 out of 5]

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

[Phil · Rating 4 out of 5]

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

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

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

[Σταματία Τσελίκου · Rating 5 out of 5]

Εξαιρετικό,πρωτότυπο,τεκμηριωμένο.
Φωτίζει μια περίοδο της ιστορίας του εμβληματικού μνημείου σχετικά άγνωστη.

[Anatolikon · Rating 5 out of 5]

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