Pagan Iconography on Christian Monuments

The tombstone of Licinia Amias, one of the earliest Christian funerary inscriptions from the city of Rome, was found in the Vatican. It is dated to the turn of the second and third centuries CE.1 There is a wreath depicted in the top of the stele with the letters D and M on either side, then we can see a line in Greek and the image of two fish with an anchor, and two lines in Latin survive beneath the image:

• D(is) [image of wreath] M(anibus)
• IXTHYC ZŌNTŌN
• [image of anchor and two fish]
• Liciniae Amiati be-
• ne merenti vixit
• . . .
• [To the Manes. Fish of the living. To Licinia Amias, of worthy merit, lived . . .]2

In addition to common Christian symbols (wreath, fish, and anchor) and the expression IXTHYC ZŌNTŌN (“fish of the living,” referring to Jesus Christ), an obvious pagan dedication to the Manes (deified spirits of the deceased), Dis Manibus, is also apparent in this inscription. For a monotheist believer, not even a single other god is acceptable, but this approach was clearly ignored by the stonemason, who on the other hand could not accept a Roman funerary stele without the D M abbreviation, no matter its meaning. Therefore, the tombstone of Licinia Amias is not a secret message by a pagan rebel but rather a palpable piece of evidence proving that certain pagan phrases were acceptable even to Christians, who did not speculate on the genuine meaning of D M but knew that this abbreviation must be inscribed on a proper tombstone.

Another example is provided by the mosaic representation of the Baptistery of Neon in Ravenna. The central medallion of the dome depicts the baptism of Jesus Christ in the River Jordan. The main figures of the fifth-century mosaic are those of Saint John the Baptist, of Christ himself, and of the Holy Spirit represented by the dove, but we can also see an aged man sitting on the right side of the picture: the god of River Jordan. According to the remark of Deborah Mauskopf Deliyannis (2010),

many modern viewers find the figure of the river Jordan confusing, but it would not have seemed unusual in the fifth century. Personifications of rivers as gods and goddesses were common in Greek and Roman art, and were quite commonly adapted for use in early Christian art, for example, for the Four Rivers of Paradise. (p. 99)

Obviously, the Christian mosaic makers did not find any fault in depicting pagan river deities in Christian mosaics, since they only followed the iconographic traditions of river representations.

Amulets and Curses

The above introductory examples intended to explain that no uniform Christian society existed in the Roman Empire, not even as late as the fifth century, because the practice of pagan traditions was still alive, and because there was a constant interaction between Christian and pagan ideas and iconographies (Monaca, 2020). For instance, pagan magicians applied numerous Christian phrases in their magical texts. Even the name of Christ himself is attested as one of the many demons invoked (Németh, 2015). Jesus Christ of Nazareth is referred to in six small lead containers found in the Anna Perenna sanctuary in Rome. The drawing on each container represents a figure of a demon with a bird head and human legs,3 and with a peculiar inscription on its belly:

• ICHNOP
• CHNKTH
• THTH

as it is read in one container, whereas five others read:

• ICHNOY
• CHNKTH
• THTH

In my paper cited above, I have suggested the following solution for the abbreviation:

• IĒSOUS
• CHRISTOS
• NAZŌRAIOS
• O PAIS, respectively O YIOS = the Son
• CHRISTOS
• NAZŌRAIOS
• KAI THEOS
• THEOS THEOS
• [Jesus Christ, the Nazarene, the Son, Christ, the Nazarene, and God, God, God].

Christian amulets also used pagan elements at the turn of the fourth and fifth centuries. An excellent example is provided by a Christian papyrus amulet of unknown origin (probably Egypt), which includes a prayer in the name of Jesus Christ, but it also addresses Ablanathanalba, a common phrase in the pagan magical tradition, and moreover, it contains seven charaktēres [magic signs].

• a///ee ēēē iiiii ooooo yuuuuu ōōōōōōō
• Ablanathanalba . eō[A]krammachamari kaicha
• k.aia, kýrie th[e]e, kyríai theōˆn pántōn, therápeuson
• Thaēsân . . .
• . . . apólyson onómati Iēsoû
• Christoû b b b b b b (charaktēres)
• (charaktēr) therápeuso[n] Thaēsâ[n], ḗdē ḗd, tachỳ tachý
• [Lord God, Lord of all Gods, heal Thaesas . . . release in the name of Jesus Christ. . . . heal Thaesas, now now, quickly quickly]. (Daniel & Maltomini, 1990, pp. 55–57)

In the years 364 and 365, the canons passed by the Council of Laodicea prohibited clerics from acting as magicians and from preparing phylacteries (Graf, 2013, pp. 304–305). However, the same problem seemed to prevail two hundred years later, as we can see it in a conciliar resolution from Africa:

diaconus aut clericus magus aut incantator non sit neque phylacteria faciat [no deacon or priest shall be a sorcerer or spell singer, nor make amulets]. (Graf, 2013, p. 305)

As it seems, the pagan world and the Christian world were not sharply separated from each other in late antiquity, and their coexistence was considered natural by common people. Clear evidence is found in a curse tablet from Bath that lists several dichotomies to define a possible thief: either man or woman, either slave or free, and (unusually) either gentilis [pagan] or Christian.

seu gen[ti]lis seu Ch[r]istianus cuaecumque utrum vir utrum mulier utrum puer utrum puella utrum s[er]rvus utrum liber mihi Annia[n]o ma‹n›tutene de bursa mea six argentos furaverit tu domina dea ab ipso perexige [whether pagan or Christian, whosoever, whether man or woman, whether boy or girl, whether slave or free, has stolen from me, Annianus, son of Matutina (?), six silver coins from my purse, you, lady Goddess, are to exact (them) from him]. (Tomlin, 1988, p. 232, No. 98)

Pagan magic was palpable reality for Christians, and they indeed took the field against it, as is confirmed by the biography of Saint Hilarion (291–371), a hermit who founded Palestinian monasticism. His biography was written by Saint Hieronymus around 390 in Bethlehem. Hilarion exorcised demons and healed the sick. Once he was asked to save the life of a chariot racer from Gaza. Charioteers were often the targets of curse spells, since high-value betting was common in chariot racing, and the prize had to be secured by all possible means. The Gaza charioteer may have been struck by a curse of this kind:

Auriga quoque Gazensis in curru percussus a daemone, totus obriguit; ita ut nec manum agitare, nec cervicem posset [al. possit] reflectere. Delatus ergo in lecto, cum solam linguam moveret ad preces, audit non prius posse sanari, quam crederet in Iesum, et se sponderet arti pristinae renuntiaturum. Credidit, spopondit, sanatus est: magisque de animae, quam de corporis salute exsultavit [A charioteer, also of Gaza, stricken by a demon in his chariot, became perfectly stiff, so that he could neither move his hand nor bend his neck. He was brought on a litter but could only signify his petition by moving his tongue and was told that he could not be healed unless he first believed in Christ and promised to forsake his former occupation. He believed, he promised, and he was healed: and rejoiced more in the saving of the soul than in that of the body]. (Jerome, 2012, Vita Hilarionis, No. 16)

There is another, even more peculiar case, where Saint Hilarion’s help was needed to fight off the doings of a pagan sorcerer. The story proves that both pagans and Christians believed in the supernatural powers of magicians and that even a Christian saint could participate in averting spells:

Sed et Italicus eiusdem oppidi municeps Christianus, adversus Gazensem Duumvirum, Marnae idolo deditum, Circenses equos [al. circi equos curules] nutriebat. Hoc siquidem in Romanis urbibus iam inde servabatur a Romulo, ut propter felicem Sabinarum raptum, Conso, quasi consiliorum Deo, quadrigae septeno currant circumitu; et equos partis adversae fregisse, victoria sit. Hic itaque aemulo suo habente maleficum, qui daemoniacis quibusdam imprecationibus et huius impediret [al. praecantationibus et huius praeparet] equos, et illius concitaret ad cursum, venit ad beatum Hilarionem, et non tam adversarium laedi, quam se defendi obsecravit. Ineptum visum est venerando seni in huiuscemodi nugis orationem perdere. Cumque subrideret et diceret: Cur non magis equorum pretium pro salute animae tuae pauperibus erogas? Ille respondit, functionem esse publicam; et hoc se non tam velle, quam cogi: nec posse hominem Christianum uti magicis artibus; sed a servo Christi potius auxilium petere, maxime contra Gazenses adversarios Dei: et non tam sibi quam Ecclesiae Christi insultantes. Rogatus ergo a fratribus qui aderant, scyphum fictilem quo bibere consueverat, aqua iussit impleri, eique tradi. Quem cum accepisset Italicus, et stabulum, et equos, et aurigas suos, rhedam, carcerumque repagula aspersit. Mira vulgi exspectatio: nam et adversarius hoc ipsum irridens, diffamaverat; et fautores Italici sibi certam victoriam pollicentes exsultabant. Igitur dato signo hi advolant, illi praepediuntur. Sub horum curru rotae fervent, illi praetervolantium terga vix cernunt. Clamor fit vulgi nimius [Codd. nimius attollitur]: ita ut Ethnici quoque ipsi concreparent, Marnas victus est a Christo. Porro furentes adversarii, Hilarionem maleficum Christianum ad supplicium poposcerunt. Indubitata ergo victoria et illis, et multis retro Circensibus plurimis fidei occasio fuit

[Another story relates to Italicus, a citizen of the same town. He was a Christian and kept horses for the circus to contend against those of the Duumvir of Gaza who was a votary of the idol god Marnas. This custom, at least in Roman cities, was as old as the days of Romulus and was instituted in commemoration of the successful seizure of the Sabine women. The chariots raced seven times round the circus in honor of Consus in his character of the God of Counsel. Victory lay with the team which tired out the horses opposed to them. Now the rival of Italicus had in his pay a magician to incite his horses by certain demoniacal incantations and keep back those of his opponent. Italicus therefore came to the blessed Hilarion and besought his aid, not so much for the injury of his adversary as for protection for himself. It seemed absurd for the venerable old man to waste prayers on trifles of this sort. He therefore smiled and said, “Why do you not rather give the price of the horses to the poor for the salvation of your soul?” His visitor replied that his office was a public duty and that he acted not so much from choice as from compulsion, that no Christian man could employ magic, but would rather seek aid from a servant of Christ, especially against the people of Gaza who were enemies of God, and who would exult over the Church of Christ more than over him. At the request therefore of the brethren who were present, he ordered an earthenware cup out of which he was wont to drink to be filled with water and given to Italicus. The latter took it and sprinkled it over his stable and horses, his charioteers and his chariot, and the barriers of the course. The crowd was in a marvelous state of excitement, for the enemy in derision had published the news of what was going to be done and the backers of Italicus were in high spirits at the victory which they promised themselves. The signal is given; the one team flies toward the goal, the other sticks fast: the wheels are glowing hot beneath the chariot of the one, while the other scarcely catches a glimpse of the opponents’ backs as they flit past. The shouts of the crowd swell to a roar and the heathens themselves with one voice declare Marnas is conquered by Christ. After this the opponents in their rage demanded that Hilarion as a Christian magician should be dragged to execution. This decisive victory and several others which followed in successive games of the circus caused many to turn to the faith]. (Jerome, 2012, Vita Hilarionis, No. 20)

In the days of Hilarion, the pagan cult of Marnas still existed, and Christians had to stand up against it.

Even today, some pagan elements can be found in the everyday practice of European Christianity. Memory of the suovetaurilia procession is reflected in the cult of San Zopito in the town of Loreto Aprutino (Carrol, 1992, pp. 46–48). The procession with a white ox is held forty days before Whit Monday. However, San Zopito, a saint excelling in averting demons and in harvest forecast, did actually never exist. The name itself derives from a misunderstood inscription. In fact, the term sospitus in domino means “asleep in the arms of the Lord,” but sospitus was taken as a name. This mistake gave birth to a saint with ancient Roman components in his cult.

There is another, even more complex case: the cult of the Eleusinian Demeter, which was adopted by Christianity within the cult of Saint Demetrius. Though Demetrius was male, he became the patron of agriculture, similar to the ancient goddess Demeter. A certain Saint Demetra is worshipped only in Eleusis, and her legend includes the kidnapping of her daughter, which is clearly reminiscent of the ancient myth. In 1940, a number of local newspapers reported that Saint Demetra or the goddess Demeter personally appeared on a coach heading to Athens (Picard, 1940, pp. 102–104).

Paganism and Christianity in Hungary

In 997, the pagan Koppány [Cupan] lead a rebellion against Grand Prince Stephen (later King Saint Stephen I of Hungary), but Koppány was defeated and cruelly punished, as described by the Chronicon Pictum [Illuminated Chronicle]:

In eodem autem prelio Vencellinus comes interfecit Cupan ducem, et largissimis beneficiis a Beato Stephano, tunc Duce, remuneratus est. Ipsum vero Cupan Beatus Stephanus quatuor partes fecit mactari; primam partem misit in portam Strigoniensem, secundam in Vesprimiensem, tertiam in Iauriensem, quartam in Erdel

[In this battle, count Vecellin killed Duke Koppány and Blessed Stephen, then still Duke, rewarded him with very large benefits. However, Blessed Stephen had Koppány cut into four parts; he sent the first part to the gate of Esztergom, the second to that of Veszprém, the third to that of Győr, and the fourth to Transylvania]. (Szentpétery, 1999, Vol. 1, p. 313)

Converting his people to Christianity, Stephen took severe actions against paganism throughout his life. According to the Life of Saint Stephen by Hartvik, the king, who had lost his heir, offered the holy crown and the country to the Virgin Mary the day before he died, that is, on August 14, 1038:

Regina celi reparatrix inclita mundi, tuo patrocinio sanctam ecclesiam cum episcopis et clero, regnum cum primatibus et populo subpremis precibus committo, quibus ultimum vale dicens manibus tuis animam meam commendo

[Queen of heavens, renowned restorer of the world, to your patronage I commit the holy Church with the bishops and priests, the country with the lords and the people, and bidding a last farewell to them I commend my spirit into your hands]. (Szentpétery, 1999, Vol. 2, p. 431)

Hence the Boldogasszony [Blessed Woman], who had played a major role in the faith of the pagan Hungarians, was identified with the Virgin Mary. This identification facilitated the adoption of Christianity by the Hungarians. Therefore, one of the most widespread Hungarian hymns to Mary begins with addressing “Boldogasszony, our Mother.” The fact that the pre-Christian Boldogasszony is still venerated in the name Babba Mária [Beautiful Mary] among Csango Hungarians in Romania was discovered only in 1973. When the weather is rough, the Csangos offer her the following prayer:

In other words: may the Boldogasszony take the storms away to a place where no people live, so that it may cause no damage.

King Saint Ladislaus of Hungary promulgated his first law book in 1092, and §22 reads:

Quicunque ritu gentium, juxta puteos sacrificaverint, vel ad arbores, et fontes, et lapides, obtulerint, reatum suum bove luant

[Those who perform sacrifice according to pagan rituals beside wells, or who bring gifts to forests or fountains or stones, shall pay an ox for their crime]. (Nagy, 1899, p. 56)

The severe measures of Saint Stephen and his descendants apparently failed to perfect the conversion of pagan Hungarians to Christianity. Punishments held back public pagan sacrifice, yet traces of pre-Christian religion have endured until today. Collecting pieces of traditional folk music in December 1968, Hungarian folklorist Zsuzsanna Erdélyi recorded a previously unknown, long “prayer” from a ninety-eight-year-old woman in Somogy county, south Hungary. Within a period of four years, she managed to record six hundred pieces of text containing numerous pagan elements, the existence of which was not acknowledged, let alone consented by the Church (Erdélyi, 1976, p. 11). In 1976 she published her 770-page collection of folk prayers, some of the items being either pagan or Christian with pagan elements. A great number of prayers begin with the name of the Virgin Mary, but as we have seen, the Boldogasszony was originally a pagan deity, whom Saint Stephen identified with the Virgin Mary and who was incorporated in the Hungarian Christian cult while keeping her primary name: the Boldogasszony. Therefore, folk prayers containing no other Christian element but the name of the Virgin Mary or of the Boldogasszony are Christian only on the surface, and they in fact have kept their ancient roots. The following example is one of the most widespread incantations against illness recorded on the Great Hungarian Plain:

Another version, also from the Plain:

During the incantation, the patient is supposed to hug and kiss the ground or an oven (Cs. Pócs, 1967, p. 30).

Cs. Pócs remarks that this prayer may have been borrowed from other peoples, as Mother Earth has not been attested as a pagan Hungarian deity, however, she has no doubt that this widespread incantation is profoundly pagan, containing not even a single Christian element. It is also worth adding that academic research and even folklore studies had almost completely ignored incantation texts like this until the 1970s. The collection of Erdélyi has radically changed our picture about pagan Hungarian traditions surviving under the Christian surface. As for the Babba Mária in Transylvania, Daczó (1981) gives the following explanation:

However, since the people living in these scattered forest settlements rarely met priests, they easily maintained and practiced their ancestral beliefs beside their superficial Christian religion. This is how the veneration of Babba Mária could survive so openly and clearly. All the more so, because this cult, as we have seen above, offered them a straight and easy way to the Christian God. (p. 238)

Paganism and Christianity in Mexico

The described Hungarian development shows striking resemblance to what happened in Mexico, when the ancient Nahua goddess Tonantzin was identified with the Virgin Mary. This was not particularly difficult, because the Aztec goddess was no less similar to Mary than Babba Mária. This is attested by a poem, Tonantzin (Our Lady), composed by Sister Juana Inés de la Cruz in 1676, the first three stanzas of which are as follows:

In his Imagen de la Virgen María Madre de Dios de Guadalupe, published in 1648, Miguel Sánchez (1594–1674) was the first author to record that in December 1531, Mary appeared to a Nahua named Juan Diego on Tepeyac Hill (Martínez Baracs, 2001, p. 154). According to tradition, there had once been a sanctuary dedicated to Tonantzin in the same place. For the Nahua, this apparition proved that Mary was the same as Tonantzin, whose name was composed of the possessive prefix to- “our,” the nominal root nān “mother,” and the honorific suffix -tzin. Tonantzin was a telluric mother goddess. To commemorate the apparition, the feast of the Virgin of Guadalupe (still called Tonantzin by the Nahua) is celebrated on the twelfth of December to this day. At first, incorporating the goddess into the Catholic cult did not seem easy. The Franciscan friar Bernardino de Sahagún strongly condemned such integration.5

Becoming Christian was neither a rapid nor a smooth process for any of these peoples. However, it could be accelerated to some extent if the Catholic Church accepted or at least tolerated the adoption and integration of elements of certain local cults. This, of course, led to the development of local variants of Catholicism. Worshipping the Boldogasszony or even Tonantzin would have been unthinkable in Rome. Nevertheless, it facilitated the adoption of the Virgin Mary by the Hungarians and the Nahua.

However, there is also a difference compared to the Hungarian example. The Catholic Church in Mexico was aware that identifying Tonantzin with Mary could be an expedient tool in winning Nahua believers. Consequently, the cult of Tonantzin flourished in public and with the help of the priests, unlike the cult of Babba Mária, which was worshipped despite the intentions of the church. However, we can rightly assume that the perception of Tonantzin was different for a Catholic priest or a Christianized Nahua, even if they both recognized Mary in Tonantzin. The roots of reverence for ancient deities go very deep in the history of human communities.

There is a long way from paganism to Christianity; it is no wonder that the progress was very slow in the first centuries after Christ. In Hungary, even a thousand years after the adoption of Christianity, we find traces of the ancient gods, while in New Spain and independent Mexico the Blessed Mary was worshipped as a reformulation of the ancient goddess Tonantzin long after the indigenous peoples’ conversion to the Catholic faith.

Notes

The writing of this chapter was supported by the Hungarian Research Fund (OTKA K 134319) and by the project Religious Acculturation in the Old World and Colonial America: A Comparative Analysis of the Rhetoric of Alterity and the Construction of the Other (2015–2018; Spain, Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness of Spain, project HAR2014-57067-P). The author’s ORCID iD is 0000-0001-8708-8102.

References