Epigrams on Works of Art 183Kartsonis assumes that the epigram describes either an extremely rare type of
the Crucifixion, in which the cross is firmly planted in the stomach of Hades,
or an equally unusual iconographic composition which combines the Crucifix-
ion and the Rising of the Dead^82. It is worth noting, however, that the epigram
does not refer to the cross. If the cross is the emetic that makes Hades vomit,
why does the poet not mention it expressly? And why do later Anastasis
epigrams, such as the one by Prodromos, use the metaphorical image of vom-
iting Hades if it actually refers to the Crucifixion? Is the lemma incorrect?
Byzantine scribes were sometimes rather absent-minded, especially at the end
of a hard day’s work. The epigrams on the decoration of the church of the
Source can be found at the lower half of page 62 of the Palatine manuscript.
This was the last page copied by scribe A (the following pages were written by
his fellow scribe J). When he reached page 62, scribe A was evidently getting
very tired, as a few scribal errors clearly indicate: he put the lemma of 114
above 113 (but having discovered his mistake, erased it and wrote the correct
title) and conflated the texts of 30 and 116 by way of haplography (a mistake
which he afterwards deleted)^83. The scribe’s fatigue probably also accounts for
the puzzling lemma attached to epigram no. 111. Between the epigrams on the
Ascension and the Anastasis there must have been an epigram on the Crucifix-
ion, of which he copied only the title, but forgot to copy the text. He then
turned to the text of the next epigram (on the Anastasis), which he faithfully
copied. In other words, because of his scribal error due to fatigue, scribe A
provided the lemma, but not the text of the epigram on the Crucifixion, and
the text, but not the lemma of the epigram on the Anastasis^84.
Epigrams nos. 109–114 (and the epigram on the Crucifixion that is missing)
were inscribed on the walls and the dome of the church of the Virgin of the
Source, as indicated by the lemmata attached to them. The lemma attached to
110 even specifies where the epigram was situated in the church: eœß tñn
tro ̄llon, “in the dome”. The epigrams focus on the major liturgical feasts.
They are epigrams on the pictures of the feast cycle. This particular church
programme of decoration became popular in the middle Byzantine period. The
earliest surviving examples date from the eleventh century. By good fortune,
however, we have a few literary descriptions of church decorations demon-
strating that the feast cycle was already introduced in Byzantine monumental
art in the second half of the ninth century^85. Although the twelve-feast cycle
(^82) A. KARTSONIS, Anastasis. The Making of an Image. Princeton 1986, 146–150.
(^83) See chapter 3, pp. 89–90.
(^84) See STADTMÜLLER 1894–1906: I, p. XVI.
(^85) See the texts in: C. MANGO, The Art of the Byzantine Empire. Englewood Cliffs 1972,
199–201 (the decoration of the church of the Holy Apostles dating from the reign of Basil
I) and 203–205 (the church of Zaoutzas dating from 886–893).