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Chapter 11 - ‘No Longer Does Phoebus Have a Cabin’

Emperor Julian and the Fall of the Temple of Apollo in Delphi

from Part III - Divine Transcendence and Pragmatic Purposes

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 October 2023

By
Aude Busine
Edited by
Elsa Giovanna Simonetti  and
Claire Hall
Elsa Giovanna Simonetti
Affiliation:
Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium
Claire Hall
Affiliation:
University of Durham
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Summary

This paper focuses on three famous hexameters allegedly uttered by Apollo in Delphi for Emperor Julian by means of the emperor’s physician Oribasius. Since the nineteenth century, this text, in which Apollo announces the destruction of his temple and the silence of the oracle, has been the subject of numerous interpretations. Some scholars regard it as a genuine oracle produced in Delphi and intended for the pagan Emperor Julian while he was in Antioch (362–3). Others argue that it is a Christian forgery and piece of anti-pagan propaganda written shortly after Julian’s death. In this chapter, I first discuss the literary context of this oracle’s quotation in the Artemii Passio, an anonymous and fictitious seventh-century hagiographical work. I argue that we cannot date the text to the fourth century, because its attribution to the lost Church History of Philostorgius appears to be spurious and is not grounded. Second, I analyse the anonymous hagiographer’s construction of this episode and compare it to similar late Byzantine pseudo-oracles about the fate of pagan temples in order to provide a new interpretation of this prophecy.

Keywords

oraclesJulianPhilostorgiusOribasiusDelphitempleslate antiquityChristian forgeries
Type
Chapter
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Divination and Revelation in Later Antiquity , pp. 208 - 221
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

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