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IN HECATE'S REALM: A NOTE ON SOZOMEN, HIST. ECCL. 7.23*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 April 2015

Alberto J. Quiroga-Puertas
Alberto J. Quiroga-Puertas*
Affiliation:
Universidad de Granada, Spain
*
aquiroga@ugr.es
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Extract

‘Can you tell me, Philocles, what in the world it is that makes many men so fond of lying that they delight in telling preposterous tales themselves and listen with especial attention to those who spin yarns of that sort?’

(Lucian, Philops. 1)
In the seventh book of his Historia Ecclesiastica the church historian Sozomen provides us with a detailed account of the social and political climate and subsequent motives which precipitated the outbreak of the Riot of the Statues in Antioch a.d. 387. According to his version ‘on the night before the sedition occurred, a spectre was seen in the form of a woman of prodigious height and terrible aspect, pacing through the streets of the city, lashing the air with an ill-sounding whip, similar to that which is used in goading on the beasts brought forward at the public theatres. It might have been inferred that the sedition was excited by the agency of some evil and malicious demon. There is no doubt but that much bloodshed would have ensued, had not the wrath of the emperor been stayed by his respect for this sacerdotal entreaty.’

Type
Shorter Notes
Information
The Classical Quarterly , Volume 65 , Issue 1 , May 2015 , pp. 427 - 433
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 2015 

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Footnotes

*

My gratitude goes to Mr Mark Hunter, Dr Peter Van Nuffelen, Dr Iveta Adams, Dr Manuel García Teijeiro and the anonymous referee for their kind suggestions. I would also like to thank for their support the Secretaría de Estado de Universidades e Investigación del Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia de España, and the research groups ‘Diversidad cultural, paz y resolución de conflictos en el cristianismo antiguo’ (HUM2006-11240-C02-02), Head Director Dr Fernández Ubiña, and HUM 404 ‘Tradición y Pervivencia de la Cultura Clásica’, Head Director Dr Calvo Martínez.

References

1 On his life and work, see Bidez, J., Grillet, B., Sabbah, G. and Festugière, A.-J., Sozomène: Histoire Ecclésiastique, 4 vols. (Paris, 1983–2005), 9–26Google Scholar; Chesnut, G.F., The First Christian Histories: Eusebius, Socrates, Sozomen, Theodoret and Evagrius (Paris, 1977), 192–200Google Scholar; Van Nuffelen, P., Un heritage de paix et de piété: étude sur les histoires ecclésiastiques de Socrate et de Sozomène (Leuven, 2004), 46–61.Google Scholar

2 Sozom., Hist. Eccl. 7.23. Sozomen's translations are taken from Schaff, P., Socrates and Sozomenus Ecclesiastical Histories (New York, 1886).Google Scholar

3 On the nature of the tax, see Browning, R., ‘The riot of a.d. 387 in Antioch. The role of the theatrical Claques in the Late Empire’, JRS 42 (1952), 13–20Google Scholar, at 14; King, N., The Emperor Theodosius and the Establishment of Christianity (London, 1961), 50–65.Google Scholar

4 Modern bibliography on the topic: Browning (n. 3), 13–20; French, D.R., ‘Rhetoric and rebellion of a.d. 387 in Antioch’, Historia 47 (1998), 468–84Google Scholar; Haas, C., Alexandria in Late Antiquity: Topography and Social Conflict (Baltimore and London, 1997), 8–10Google Scholar; Heayn, D.A., ‘Urban violence in fifth century Antioch: riot culture and dynamics in late antique eastern Mediterranean Cities’, CONCEPT: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Graduate Studies (2009)Google Scholar (concept.journals.villanova.edu/article/download/303/266); Leppin, H., ‘Steuern, Aufstand und Rhetoren: der Antiochener Steueraufstand von 387 in christlicher und heidnischer Deutung’, in Brandt, H. (ed.), Gedeutete Realität: Krisen, Wirklichkeiten, Interpretationen (3.–6. Jh. n. Chr.) (Sttutgart, 1999), 103–23Google Scholar; Quiroga, A., La retórica de Libanio y de Juan Crisóstomo en la Revuelta de las Estatuas (Salerno, 2007)Google Scholar; Van de Paverd, F., St. John Chrysostom: The Homilies on the Statues (Rome, 1991), 15–159.Google Scholar

5 Mainly Lib. Or. 1.258–9; 19–23; Sozom. Hist. Eccl. 7.23; Chrys. De Statuis; Zos. 4.41; Theod. HE 5.20.

6 Chrys. De Statuis 3.6; 12.1; 15.1; Lib. Or. 1.252; 19.29; 22.10.

7 Brown, P., Religion and Society in the Age of Saint Augustine (London, 1972)Google Scholar, 131: ‘For pagan and Christian alike, misfortune was unambiguously the work of suprahuman agents, the daemones.’ Lib. Or. 16.15 considers that demons are more than often responsible for Antioch's proverbial misbehaviour.

8 Van Nuffelen (n. 1), 493.

9 Van Nuffelen (n. 1), 245.

10 See the theoretical elaboration of this term in Guidorizzi, G., ‘La letteratura dell'irrazionale’, in Cambiano, G., Canfora, L. and Lanza, D. (edd.), Lo spazio letterario della Grecia antica, vol. 2 (Rome, 1995), 591–627.Google Scholar See also Reardon, B.P., Courants littéraires grecs de IIe et IIIe siècles après J.-C. (Paris, 1971), 237–43.Google Scholar

11 Ghost stories were recurrent in ancient Greek theatre, see Castro, M. Aguirre, ‘Fantasmas trágicos: algunas observaciones sobre su papel, aparición en escena e iconografía’, CFG(G) 16 (2006), 107–20Google Scholar; Bardel, R., ‘Spectral traces: ghosts in tragic fragments’, in McHardy, F., Robson, J. and Harvey, D. (edd.), Lost Dramas of Classical Athens (Exeter, 2005), 83–112CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Hickman, R.M., Ghostly Etiquette on the Classical Stage (Cedar Rapids, 1938)Google Scholar. For ghost apparitions in paradoxographical literature, see Chacón, A. Ibáñez, ‘La obra paradoxográfica de Damascio (apud Phot. Bibl. cod. 130)’, CFC(G) 18 (2008), 319–34Google Scholar; Guidorizzi (n. 10), 603–7. A comprehensive analysis in Stramaglia, A., Res inauditae, incredulae: storie di fantasmi nel mondo greco-latino (Bari, 1999), 5–117.Google Scholar

12 For a thorough analysis of Hecate's attributes, see Johnston, S.I., Restless Dead: Encounters between the Living and the Dead in Ancient Greece (Berkeley, CA and London, 1999), 203–49.Google Scholar

13 Translation is taken from Harmon, A.M., Lucian, vol. 3 (London and New York, 1921).Google Scholar

14 Stramaglia (n. 11), 41. See also West, D.R., Some Cults of Greek Goddesses and Female Daemons of Oriental Origin (Especially in Relation to the Mythology of Goddesses and Daemons in the Semitic World) (Kevelaer, 1995)Google Scholar, 282.

15 Stramaglia (n. 11), 41 n. 118.

16 Translation is taken from White, R.J., The Interpretation of Dreams by Artemidorus (Park Ridge, 1975).Google Scholar

17 A classical use of ἀγυιά as ‘the hollow way’ (κοίλαν πρὸς ἄγυιαν) to Hades is found in Pindar, Ol. 9.34. Furthermore it is used frequently in the Odyssey when referring to dusk (Hom. Od. 2.388; 3.487, 497; 11.12; 15.185, 296, 471): δύσετό τ' ἠέλιος σκιόωντό τε πᾶσαι ἀγυιαί.

18 West (n. 14), 203–7; Johnston, S.I., ‘Crossroads’, ZPE 88 (1991), 217–24Google Scholar. For her relationship with night, see Bacchyl. Frag. 1B: Ἑκάτα[ ⌊δαϊδοφόρε⌋] ταν ἱε[ρ] Νυκ⌊τὸς μεγαλοκόλπου θύγατερ⌋. Felton, D., Haunted Greece and Rome: Ghosts Stories from Classical Antiquity (Austin, TX, 1999)Google Scholar, 7: ‘simply put, ghosts belong to the night because night-time is dark, and darkness is associated with death’.

19 Translation is taken from Betz, H.D., The Greek Magical Papyri in Translation (Chicago and London, 1986).Google Scholar

20 Teijeiro, M. García, ‘De maga a bruja: evolución de la hechicera en la Antigüedad clásica’, in Rodríguez, M.A. Pedregal and González, M. (edd.), Venus sin espejo: imágenes de mujeres en la Antigüedad clásica y el cristianismo primitivo (Oviedo, 2005), 33–53Google Scholar, at 37. Felton (n. 18), 7; Johnston, S.I., ‘Hekate’, DNP 5 (1998), 267–70Google Scholar. See Suda, ε 364.1: <Ἑκάτην:> οἱ μὲν τὴν Ἄρτεμιν, οἱ δὲ τὴν σελήνην, ἐν φάσμασιν ἐκτόποις φαινομένην τοῖς καταρωμένοις. τὰ δὲ φάσματα αὐτῆς δρακοντοκέφαλοι ἄνθρωποι καὶ ὑπερμεγέθεις, ὡς τὴν θέαν ἐκπλήττειν τοὺς ὁρῶντας.

21 On Hecate's syncretism, see for instance Martínez, J.L. Calvo, ‘La Diosa Hécate: un paradigma de sincretismo religioso del helenismo tardío’, Florentia Iliberritana 3 (1999), 71–82Google Scholar; Faraone, C.A., ‘Hymn to Selene-Hecate-Artemis from a Greek magical handbook (PGM 2714-83)’, in Kiley, M. (ed.), Prayer from Alexander to Constantine (London, 1997), 195–9Google Scholar; Rabinowitz, J., ‘Underneath the moon: Hekate and Luna’, Latomus 56 (1997), 535–43Google Scholar. PGM IV.2241–2358; 2602; 2664–2665. West (n. 14), 214: ‘it is clear that the PGM developed the chthonian, malevolent connections of Hekate to a greater extent than any other literature. There is also considerable syncretism, and some very imaginative animal epithets appear, that are clearly derived from the motifs of the earlier literature.’

22 Euseb. Praep. evang. 3.11, 13, 16; 4.22–3; 5.8. Gregor. Naz. In Sanct. Lum., PG 36.340.9; more specifically his Carmina quae spectant ad alios 1572.1: νυχίης Ἑκάτης κακὰ φάσματα. Theodoret, Graec. Aff. Curatio, 3.63–4; 10.22.

23 Collison-Morley, L., Greek and Roman Ghost Stories (London, 1912)Google Scholar, 144. See also García, A. Bravo, ‘Η Μαγικὴ κακοτεχνία. Materiales para una historia de la magia y la demonología bizantinas’, MHNH 2 (2002), 5–70Google Scholar, especially 46; Mitchell, S., Anatolia: Land, Men and Gods in Asia Minor (Oxford, 2002), 140–4Google Scholar; Teja, R., ‘Historias de magia y santidad en la Historia Religiosa de Teodoreto de Ciro’, in Torres, J. (ed.), Historica et philologica: in honorem José María Robles (Santander, 2002), 71–84Google Scholar; West (n. 14), 199–200; Winkler, J., ‘Lollianos and the Desperadoes’, JHS 100 (1980), 155–81CrossRefGoogle Scholar, especially 159–61.

24 Farnell, L.R., The Cults of the Greek States, vol. 1 (Oxford, 1896), 36–54Google Scholar; Harden, D.B., ‘A series of terracottas representing Artemis, found at Tarentum’, JHS 47 (1927), 93–101CrossRefGoogle Scholar, especially 95–6; West (n. 14), 216.

25 Bidez et al. (n. 1), 25–31; Van Nuffelen (n. 1), 59–61.

26 Stramaglia, A., ‘Le voci dei fantasmi’, in de Martino, F. and Sommerstein, A.H. (edd.), Lo spettacolo delle voci, vol. 1 (Bari, 1995), 193–230Google Scholar; Mango, C., Byzantium: The Empire of the New Rome (London, 1994), 159–62Google Scholar; Rodhe, E., Psyche: The Cult of Souls and the Belief of Immortality among the Greeks (trans., London, 1925), 155–60Google Scholar; West (n. 14), 281–3. See more recently Stachura, M., ‘Wandlungen und Kontinuität in der Häretiker und Heidenpolitik in den Werken von Sokrates und Sozomenus’, in Brodka, D. and Stachura, M. (edd.), Continuity and Change: Studies in Late Antique Historiography (Krakow, 2007), 131–46.Google Scholar

27 Collison-Morley (n. 23), 72–9; Felton (n. 18), 23–37; Winkler (n. 23), 161–3.

28 Bidez et al. (n. 1), 61.

29 Nobbs, A. Emmett, ‘Digressions in the ecclesiastical histories of Socrates, Sozomen and Theodoret’, JRS 14 (1986), 1–11.Google Scholar

30 Bidez et al. (n. 1), 38–41.

31 Brown, P., Power and Persuasion in Late Antiquity (Wisconsin, 1992), 133–5.Google Scholar

32 Bidez et al. (n. 1), 80. See also Brown (n. 7), 122; Ruggini, L. Cracco, ‘The ecclesiastical histories and the pagan historiography: providence and miracles’, Athenaeum 55 (1977), 107–26Google Scholar, especially 115–16; Mazza, M., Le maschere del potere: cultura e política nella tarda antichità (Naples, 1986), 262–3.Google Scholar

33 Amm. Marc. 19.12.20; 24.7.3–6; 25.10.1–3; 30.5.15–19; 31.1.2–4 takes recourse to the supernatural. See also Kelly, G., Ammianus Marcellinus: The Allusive Historian (Cambridge, 2008), 24–5Google Scholar; den Boeft, J., de Jonge, P., den Hengst, D., Teitler, H.C. and Drijvers, J.W., Philological and Historical Commentary on Ammianus Marcellinus XXIV (Leiden, 2002)Google Scholar, 212.

34 Bidez et al. (n. 1), 34. Also Van Nuffelen (n. 1), 190–1. Emmett Nobbs (n. 29), 3 considers that Sozomen has ‘a broader concept of the Church than Socrates’. See Sozomen, Hist. Eccl. 1.1.18; 3.15.

35 According to Cracco Ruggini (n. 32), 109, ‘the Church historians’ task was basically a common one: to show how evil was in due course overcome by good … Three features emerge as singularly relevant in all the Ecclesiastical Histories after Eusebius, in connection with supernatural interventions in history. 1) The role of emperors; 2) The role of holy men; 3) The emerging importance of native traditions.'

36 On the Schism of Antioch, see Chadwick, H., The Church in Ancient Society: From Galilee to Gregory the Great (Oxford, 2001)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Maraval, P., ‘Antioch et l'Orient’, in Mayeur, J.M., Petri, C., Petri, L. and Biarne, J. (edd.), Histoire du Christianisme, vol. 2 (Paris, 1995), 903–20Google Scholar; Cavallera, F., Le schisme d'Antioche (Paris, 1905).Google Scholar

37 Van Nuffelen (n. 1), 132. Similarly C. Mango (n. 26), 215: ‘I would even go so far as to say that demonology contributed very powerfully to the spread of the Christian religion.’ Also Markus, R., The End of Ancient Christianity (Cambridge, 1990), 91–5.Google Scholar