Between heaven and earth. Apocalyptic prophecies, atmospheric events and astronomical symbolism in the tale of the Patria Constantinopolitana

Abstract

The text reflects on the presence in the Patria Constantinopolitana of oracles and prophecies, now connected to the monumental emergencies of the Nea Rome (as happens in the Parastaseis Syntomoi chronichai), now evoked symbolically, but always connected to astronomical events or climatic phenomena, interpreted as negative omens for the capital of the East and for its empire or, on the contrary, seen as reassuring signs of the eternity of Constantinople and its predestination to triumph over its enemies by virtue of divine favor and the fact of being the “new Jerusalem”. Calamitous events or particular astral conjunctures are reinterpreted in the light of the historical situation and the events of the Eastern Empire and give rise, in the stories of the patriographers, to horaseis (visions) and chresmòi (oracles) destined to reach a composite and stratified public, which included the common man and the refined intellectual. In this sense, the identification, within the large Patria collection, of elements that refer to a more conspicuous apocalyptic literature, allows, on the one hand, to deepen the knowledge of the Byzantine cultural world; on the other, to provide an unprecedented contribution for the reconstruction of the collective imagination of Constantinople and the symbolism connected to certain astral phenomena and conjunctures. The proposed contribution intends to investigate a similar cultural approach and highlight its constitutive characteristics, as indicators of a complex man-nature relationship, typical of the medieval world.