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The Cult of Saints in Late Antiquity


from its origins to circa AD 700, across the entire Christian world


Greek inscription from Anazarbos (Cilicia, south-east Asia Minor) with a poem commemorating the restoration of a picture of *Menas (probably the soldier and martyr of Abu Mena, S00073) perhaps in the apse of a local church, funded by an unnamed emperor. Probably 6th c.

Evidence ID

E00709

Type of Evidence

Inscriptions - Formal inscriptions (stone, mosaic, etc.)

In four lines of hexameters:

+ Μηνᾶς ὑψικέλευ|θε τεὸν πολυπίδ[α]|κα μαζόν
σῶζε πο̣[ρ]|ὼν ναέτηισιν ἔχει[ν] | εὐπάρθενον ἥβη[ν]· |
δωτίναις βασιλήισι | ἔχεις πεφυλαγμέ|νον εἶδος
ἁψῖδος | στροφάλιγγι Φι|λαγριάδεσσι με|ρίμναις (ivy leaf)

Φιλαγρίου ἰν|λουστρίου (ivy leaf)

3-4. πο̣[ρ]|ὼν Halkin, Hamdi Sayar, Dagron & Marcillet-Jaubert, πα[ρ]|ὼν Merkelbach & Stauber Robert Gough

'+ Heavenly Menas, keep this multiple fountain (literally: your many-fountained breast), granting the inhabitants to have youthful vigour. Thanks to imperial largesse, your image is secured on the circle of the apse by the efforts of Philagrios. (Poem) by Philagrios, of illustris rank.'

Text:
I. Anazarbos, no. 58. Trans. E. Rizos, P. Nowakowski.

Cult Places

Cult building - independent (church)
Holy spring/well/river
Cult building - secondary installation (fountain, pilgrims’ hostel)

Places Named after Saint

Other

Use of Images

Commissioning/producing an image

Non Liturgical Activity

Prayer/supplication/invocation
Bequests, donations, gifts and offerings
Renovation and embellishment of cult buildings

Miracles

Miracle after death
Power over elements (fire, earthquakes, floods, weather)
Healing diseases and disabilities

Protagonists in Cult and Narratives

Aristocrats
Monarchs and their family
Other lay individuals/ people

Source

The inscription was reused in the masonry of the northern gate entrance in Anavarza. H. 1.40 m; W. 0.63 m; letter height 0.06 – 0.048 m.

Discussion

The poem commemorates the renovation of a picture of a certain Menas, probably in the apse of a local church. If it refers to the rock-cut church in the upper city, it can be dated to the period after 516 when the church was founded. Another explanation is that the picture was located in a large building with a fountain providing water for the town (see Gough 1952, 133-134). Though the mentioned Menas is not called ἅγιος/'saint', it is rather unlikely that he is the Anatolian deity Men, as the inscription is Christian (it begins with a cross). Michael Gough, Reinhold Merkelbach and Josef Stauber identified this Menas as the famous Egyptian martyr, though a homonymous local victim of persecutions may also be in question.

The renovation was funded by an unnamed emperor and supervised by a certain Philagrios of
illustris rank. Philagrios might be the same person who constructed a stoa in Keramos (PLRE 2, Philagrius 4; for the building inscription see: SGO 01/10/02; I. Keramos 66; Varınlıoğlu, E., “The missing fragment of I.K. 30 (Keramos), no. 66”, Epigraphica Anatolica 25 (1995), 93-94; Lebek, W.D., “Dichterisches über den Menschenfreund Philagrios aus Kermaos (I.K. 30, 66)”, Epigraphica Anatolica 27 (1996), 151-156; but contra CEByz, 533).

The reference to the "many-fountained breast of Menas" is by no means unambiguous but may be to a local rounded crag with a spring providing fresh water (see Gough 1952, 133).


Bibliography

Edition:
I. Anazarbos 58

Steinepigramme aus dem griechischen Osten
, no. 19/17/05

Dagron, G., Marcillet-Jaubert, J., “Inscriptions de Cilicie et d'Isaurie”,
Belleten Türk Tarih Kurumu 42 (1978), 379

Gough M., “Anazarbus”,
Anatolian Studies 2 (1952), no. 4a

PLRE
2, Philagrius 4.

Further Reading:
Destephen, S., "Martyrs locaux et cultes civiques en Asie Mineure", in: J.C. Caillet, S. Destephen, B. Dumézil, H. Inglebert, Des dieux civiques aux saints patrons (IVe-VIIe siècle) (Paris: éditions A. & J. Picard, 2015), 107.

Halkin, F., “Inscriptions grecques relatives à l'hagiographie, IX, Asie Mineure”,
Analecta Bollandiana 71 (1953), 346-347

Halkin, F., “L'inscription métrique d'Anazarbe en l'honneur de Saint Ménas”,
Byzantion 23 (1953), 239-243

Reference works:
Bulletin épigraphique (1954), 238.

Chroniques d'épigraphie byzantine,
533

Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum
12, 545a


Record Created By

Pawel Nowakowski

Date of Entry

22/09/2015

Related Saint Records
IDNameName in SourceIdentity
S00073Menas, soldier and martyr buried at Abu MenaΜηνᾶςUncertain


Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL:
Pawel Nowakowski, Cult of Saints, E00709 - http://csla.history.ox.ac.uk/record.php?recid=E00709