to whom was the parthenon dedicated?.
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Importance of the Parthenon
Haunted by its glorious yet pagan past, the native city of Socrates and Plato could hardly be expected to have the same valence for Christian writers as it had for pagans. In the Christian imaginaire it was rather a place that deserved to be treated negatively not only on account of its ancient pagan connotations but also because of its ongoing association with the apologists and defenders of paganism.
For Christian poets and authors, some of whom enjoyed and still enjoy much acclaim, being Athenian became synonymous with being incorrigibly pagan. Notably, in the whole of early Christian literature it is only Gregory of Nazianzos who, in his Funeral Oration for Basil of Caesarea BHGhis dearest friend, reserved words of high praise for Athens, encapsulated in his characterization of it as the golden city of learning and, prior to that, as the homeland of eloquence Or.
Although the city is still seen as reflecting the glory of its classical splendour, this whole passage from a masterpiece of Christian rhetoric offers the one and only reference to contemporary Athens in patristic literature2. Granted, it was not only for its enduring legacy that Athens received such magnanimous compliments from a Christian author; above to whom was the parthenon dedicated?, it was Athens that had provided the foundation stone upon which this Christian friendship had been built and it acquired extra significance as the place where the two friends had met after leaving their common fatherland in pursuit of knowledge. Incidentally, however, on the same occasion Gregory did not hesitate to refer to a negative aspect of their See more studies, namely the fact that they had found themselves in the company of some young, frivolous and spoiled students who, as a 1 See ed.
Paris— PG 37, v. Copenhagen— This negative attitude towards Athens, motivated by its strong associations with paganism, was to prevail in patristic literature and the hymnography produced in late antiquity. Yet it was typical even of authors who lived well after this period. For instance, in three of his surviving epigrams the tenth- century poet Ioannes Geometres, whose work is now being re-evaluated by scholars in a positive light, treats Athens in a similar fashion.
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Recent scholarship tends to almost totally reverse this negative picture of Athens. To begin with, Marco di Branco has discussed various texts that point to the emergence of an Athens imaginaire which could ally its fame as a site of learning and wisdom with Christian spirituality5.
Much of this literature was hagiographical in character and chronologically spanned a long period from late antiquity to the 12th century. It concerns saints, who either visited Athens for the purpose of learning and pilgrimage or were natives of the city.
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No doubt the most prominent among them was St Dionysios the Ehom whose hagiographical dossier will be discussed below6. On the other hand, they must have marked a new era for the city, an era which began with the conversion of the Parthenon into a Christian church8. As a matter of fact, in the course of time this church dedicated to 3 See ed. Cramer, Anecdota Graeca, IV.]
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