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1 results

  • 3 - The Conversion of a Personification

  • Stefanie Lenk, Georg-August-Universität, Göttingen, Germany
  • Book:
    Roman Identity and Lived Religion
    Published online:
    08 February 2025
    Print publication:
    20 February 2025, pp 155-193

  • Summary

    The chapter explores the varying iconographies of the personification of the River Jordan in Late Antiquity, particularly in the Orthodox and Arian baptisteries in Ravenna, focusing on how these depictions relate to biblical exegesis, and represent the standpoint of Ravenna’s Christian elite. Peter Chrysologus’s Sermon 160 is highlighted for its unique interpretation of the River Jordan, which, the chapter argues, has influenced the dome mosaic of the Orthodox baptistery by presenting the river as a converted, formerly pagan entity. In contrast to the previous case studies, the dome mosaic of the Orthodox baptistery openly condemns the Roman past as pagan but still acknowledges the pre-Christian classical heritage as relevant to Christianity. The Arian baptistery offers an alternative interpretation of the same depiction. The differences in the Orthodox and Arian representations of the River Jordan suggest that the attitude of Ravenna’s Arian clergy towards the Roman past was more positive than that of the Nicene clergy.