MAMA XI 173 (Kidyessos) 
Templon epistyle and upright with images of saints
- Type of monument:
- Templon epistyle and upright.
- Location:
- Çayhisar (Kidyessos): in the yard of the same house as MAMA XI 166 (1956/6).
- Description:
- Left-hand part of templon epistyle and fragmentary upright of greyish-white Dokimeian marble, with mouldings on outer and inner edges. On the undersurface of the epistyle, 0.10m from the left-hand end, dowel hole for attachment to the upright. On the epistyle: at far left, above the upright, full-length incised champlevé depiction of St Aberkios; along the front of the epistyle, five incised portraits in medallions: (1) head-and-shoulders bust of bearded St Pausikakos; (2) head-and-shoulders bust of bearded St Nikolaos; (3) head-and-shoulders bust of unbearded St Thomas; (4) waist-length depiction of the winged archangel Michael; (5) head-and-shoulders bust of the Virgin Mary. On the upright: vine-scroll with birds and animals in relief. On left-hand side of the upright, rebate channel for a screen.
- Dimensions:
- (Lintel) 0.19; W. 0.60+; Th. 0.115; letters 0.007-0.013. (Jamb) Ht. 0.58+; W. 0.16; Th. 0.11.
- Record:
- Squeeze; MB notebook copy; photographs (1956/3-4).
- Publication:
- None.
- Date:
- Tenth century AD.
ὁ ἅγιος Ἀβέρκιος
ὁ ἅγιος Παυσίκακος
ὁ ἅγιος Νικόλαος
ὁ ἅ(γιος) Θομᾶς
5Μηχαίλ
μη(τὴ)ρ [θ(εο)ῦ]
Saint Aberkios. Saint Pausikakos. Saint Nikolaos. Saint Thomas. Michael. Mother [of God]...
Illustrations:
MAMA XI 173 (Kidyessos 14: 1956-3/4)
MAMA XI 173 (Kidyessos 14: 1956-3/4)
Squeeze of MAMA XI 173 (Kidyessos 14: 1956-3/4)
It seems very likely that the incised champlevé decoration on the epistyle represents the left-hand side of a Deisis flanked by archangels and saints, all depicted in incised medallions. If so, the original epistyle would have been a little over double the width of the surviving fragment (0.60m), with Christ in the centre flanked by the Theotokos and St John Prodromos, the archangels Michael and (probably) Gabriel to left and right, with four saints on each side. Our epistyle is stylistically very close to that of the eleventh-century church at Sebaste (Fıratlı 1970: 139 Res. 34-6); the clusters of incised triangles between the medallions on our epistyle are also found on the uprights of the Sebaste templon (Fıratlı 1970: 140, Res. 39). For similar middle Byzantine examples in Phrygia, see Sodini 1995: 294-9; St Thomas, depicted on our epistyle, also appears on a contemporary templon epistyle from Metropolis (Tatarlı) in southern Phrygia (MAMA IV 135).
The chief interest of the epistyle decoration is the presence on the far left-hand side of two ‘local’ saints, St Aberkios of Hierapolis (Koçhisar) and St Pausikakos of Synnada (Şuhut); compare the depiction on an epistyle from Synnada of the local saint Trophimos of Synnada (Sodini 1995: 299-302). Neither of these two saints had any particular association with Kidyessos, and hence their presence side by side here (and the particular prominence of Aberkios, depicted full-length at far left) constitutes important evidence for a strong sense of ‘Phrygian’ regional affiliation among the ecclesiastical communities of the region in the middle Byzantine period. St Aberkios, bishop of Hierapolis in the second century AD, is well known to us thanks to his (partially extant) tombstone and to a considerably later hagiographical Life, probably dating to the late fourth or early fifth century AD: see Wischmeyer 1980; Nissen 1912: 3-55; Thonemann 2011a: 84-7; Thonemann 2012. St Pausikakos is a more obscure figure. The short accounts of his life in the Synaxaria describe him as a native of Apameia (perhaps Apameia-Kelainai), the son of wealthy parents, and a doctor by profession. He was appointed bishop of Synnada by the patriarch of Constantinople, Kyriakos (596-606), and was said to have healed the emperor Maurice (582-602) from a serious illness, receiving in reward an annual remission of a litre of gold from Synnada’s tax dues (Delehaye 1902: cols. 682-4, May 13; Destephen 2008: 783). The only other depiction of him in Asia Minor comes from the tenth-century Tokalı Kilise in Cappadocia (Epstein 1986: 67 and Pl. 122; Jolivet-Lévy 1991: 104).