ABOUT THE PERSONIFICATION OF THE SUN IN COSMAS INDICOPLEUSTES’ «CHRISTIAN TOPOGRAPHY»

О ПЕРСОНИФИКАЦИИ СОЛНЦА В «ХРИСТИАНСКОЙ ТОПОГРАФИИ» КОСЬМЫ ИНДИКОПЛОВА

Лобынцев Денис Викторович

студент, Белгородский государственный национальный исследовательский университет, РФ, г. Белгород

Марков Александр Владимирович

научный руководитель, старший преподаватель, Белгородский государственный национальный исследовательский университет, РФ, г. Белгород

Among the abundance of miniatures in the Greek manuscripts of Cosmas Indicopleustes’ «Christian Topography» one can find an unusual image: a schematically drawn red disk with descending rays, inside of which is placed the face of a man with a crown on his head. Captions on the miniatures of the manuscripts (αἱ δὲ ἀπὸ τοῦ ἡλίον κατερχόμεναι ἐπὶ τὰ σώματα ἀκτῖνές [9, c. 234] — «the rays of the sun falling upon bodies», σχόλιον οἱ ἒξωθεν τὸ σχῆμα τοῦτο ὑποτίθενται [9, c. 241] — «explanation to the supposed view [of the world] outside») convince us that the Sun is depicted on the miniature. A similar image is also contained in ancient Russian manuscripts of the 16th-17th centuries, although it is worth noting that in them this image was transformed into the fact that the Sun was depicted without a schematic image of the Earth on which they descend, and the sun's rays began to be drawn in the form of contours of clothes, “mantles " with a collar [2][4]. Thus, we are dealing with a drawing of the humanized Sun. Since Cosmas created his work in line with the Christian tradition, such a miniature is puzzling. We would like to devote this article to finding out how this image could be born.

Primarily let's ask ourselves a question: is this miniature a random, unconscious copying from a protograph? We tend to think that this is not the case. This plot is present in the main Greek manuscripts of the "Topography", although the date of their creation varies significantly (Vat. gr. 699 dates to the 3rd quarter of the 9th century [1, с. 68], the Laurent. Plut. IX. 28 and Sinait. gr. 1186 – the 11th century [10, c. 47-48]). In addition, the man-Sun is depicted in several miniatures with different content, such as the movement of the Sun across the sky at different latitudes, the sunrise and sunset behind the great mountain in the north, the supposed illumination of the Sun by the spherical Earth, etc. It is obviously that the Christian essays both Orthodox and Nestorian tradition, to which Cosmas probably belonged, "humanization" of heavenly bodies is atypical. So, Origen wrote in the "Philokalia": «Suppose the sun were to speak and say, "I melt and dry up"…» («Ὥσπερ δὲ καὶ εἰ ὁ ἥλιος ἔλεγε φωνὴν προϊέμενος ὅτι ἐγὼ τήκω καὶ ξηραίνων») [7, с. 147]. This wording is in the subjunctive mood, which emphasizes the unrealistic nature of such a phenomenon from the point of view of Origen.

So, there is no doubt that this plot could not have arisen as a result of the evolution of Christian iconography. Finally, let's get down to the main issue - the origin and symbolism of the image of the humanized Sun. When considering the corresponding miniatures of the Topography, one can note its only attribute - a ray crown, or a radiant wreath. This attribute often appears in the visual arts in the 3rd-4th centuries AD and is inextricably linked with such a religious phenomenon of Antiquity as solar cults, such as cults of Helios, Mitra, Elagabalus, the Aurelian cult of Sol Invictus. The most striking examples of this, known to us, it's a stamped silver disc from the British Museum [8, с. 58] and antoniniani which was minted in the period from the monetary reform of Caracalla to Diocletian – date back to the 3rd century. An image of a ray crown appears on them, replacing the laurel wreath, traditionally used as a symbol of power; however, these two iconographic images subsequently successfully coexist (such as the golden multiples of Constantine the Great [5, c. 495]). Comparing them with miniatures from the lists of «Christian topography» (the most typical example is the Florentine manuscript), one can notice an obvious similarity.

In our opinion, the image of the living Sun in the studied lists of «Topography» goes back directly to the solar cults of Antiquity. At the same time, there are very few sources known to us containing such an image were created in the 5th and 6th centuries (at this time the Topography was written); one of the few among them are Aksumite coins of the 6th century (№№ 441 and 538 in BMCAK [6, с. 42, 44]), the crowns of which are very similar to those depicted in the Topography. The absence of a Byzantine source base of this period is explained by the almost overwhelming significance of Christianity by that time and its pressure on the pagan beliefs that had fallen into decay and were being supplanted. A logical and rather complicated question arises: where could Cosmas Indicopleustes borrow this image? This could explain his biography.

Cosmas is known to us as a traveler who visited many areas of the Middle East and Northeast Africa (Persia, Arabia, Ethiopia, Aksum) [3, с. 250], while his exegesis and cosmography stem from the views of Syrian theologians. In this regard, the idea of ​​borrowing a similar image in the Syrian regions of Byzantium or in the Sasanian Empire, in our opinion, has the right to exist. This is also likely because it was in Syria and Persia that their own solar cults arose (like Heliogabalus and Mitra). The above Aksumite coins could also serve as models for creating a miniature. This is supported by the fact that in Chapter VI of the "Christian Topography", devoted to the study of the size of the Sun, Cosmas several times speaks of his observations made during his trip to Aksum and Ethiopia. It was in Byzantine Egypt, where Cosmas supposedly was born and where he often visited, that these coins could be in circulation, and Cosmas himself, obviously, often traded in Aksum. So, at first glance, a rather insignificant problem of the genesis of a separate miniature has a deep implication. The image of the humanized Sun in «Christian Topography» goes back to solar cults, but, most likely, it was created by Cosmas thoughtlessly, without introducing the idea of the divinity of the heavenly body. Such use of the iconographic image without the meaning originally given to it can be regarded as one of the manifestations of the mediaevalization of the ancient art.