International congress of byzantine studies belgrade, 22 27 august 2016

Hugh Jeffery
University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom; 
[e-mail]
Angel Cult and the Transformation of the Temple of Aphrodite at Aphrodisias
This communication sets out a new interpretation of the transformation of the Temple of 
Aphrodite at Aphrodisias into a Christian basilica, generally considered the defining moment in 
a conflict between the city’s pagan and Christian communities. It is argued that the conversion 
aimed to bring under the control of the Church a vernacular angel cult focused on a sacred well. 
The significance of this well has not yet been recognised in scholarship on the site. It was popular 
belief in potentially heterodox, Judaising or Hellenising ἄγγελοι that provoked the construction of 
the cathedral, not the extinct public cult of Aphrodite.
The city of Aphrodisias is located on the plain of the river Morsynus to the west of Mt. Kadmos 
in southwest Asia Minor. The temple of the city’s eponymous goddess, completed in the first half 
of the first century AD, was transformed and enlarged into a cavernous Christian basilica around 
the final quarter of the fifth century. The conversion from temple into cathedral has previously 
been viewed within a narrative of contest between pagans and Christians for civic space and for 
legitimacy amongst the urban population.
Pagan religious practice in the form of Neoplatonist philosophy is attested at Aphrodisias well 
into the fifth century. However, the latest secure evidence for the public cult of Aphrodite dates 
from late third century. A philosophical school and private sacrifices in domestic settings do not 
necessarily imply an interest in maintaining public ritual amongst the non-Christian population. 
Moreover, the boundaries between Christian and pagan groups and practices were probably less 
obvious and more fluid than such a paradigm would imply, especially at a vernacular level.
An examination of the mechanisms of the transformation reveals that the principal objective 
of the Christian architects was to incorporate a small well to the east of the temple into their basilica. 
The structure was extended to the east so that the well would emerge in the centre of the cathedral 
apse. Archaeological and literary evidence suggests it had been the site of ritual activity since the 
Hellenistic period, and continued to be the focus of the cathedral until its final destruction in 1184.
The new cathedral was dedicated to the Archangel Michael, or possibly Michael and Gabriel. 
The veneration of ἄγγελοι often manifested as healing cults around springs, wells and other sources 
of flowing water, as was the case at Colossae, Germia, Corinth and Mamre. Late antique ἄγγελοι 
in were far from an exclusively Christian phenomenon, and were common in Jewish and pagan 
traditions. They were moreover an assumption of popular religious thought and not the preserve 
of educated philosophers. Sites believed to be frequented by these beings attracted both explicitly 
non-Christian worship and forms of Christian vernacular ritual practice condemned by Church 
authorities. Efforts were therefore made to bring these local ἄγγελοι cults under ecclesiastical 
control, frequently involving the erection of Christian structures in order to control ritual access. It 
is suggested that this was also the case in fifth century Aphrodisias.

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