ANASTASIS. — From the Greek Ἀνάστασις, i.e., resurrection. In the *Peregrinatio Aetheriae* (*Itinera Hierosolymitana*, in CSEL, 39, pp. 71, 73, 75, 99), written around the year 385, this term is already used several times to denote the place of Our Lord’s sepulchre and thus of the Resurrection, contained within the basilica erected there by Constantine in Jerusalem (v.).
Wilpert inappropriately applied the term *anastasis* to the scene frequently carved on Christian sarcophagi in Rome, Milan, Palermo, and Gaul, depicting the cross surmounted by the monogram of Christ, enclosed in a triumphal laurel wreath and often supported by a flying eagle, with two soldiers at the foot of the cross; sometimes a dove is found on each of the two lateral arms of the cross (Wilpert, *Sarcofagi*, p. 226). However, this designation of *anastasis* is not accurate, since the scene has a far more complex meaning and requires a much broader interpretation: it is the triumph of the Cross, the victory of Christ over death, the *crux invicta*. Instead, early Western Christian art never depicted the *anastasis* realistically as Eastern art did, which united it with the Harrowing of Hell. Examples are found in the museum of Daphne, in St. Lucia in Phocis, in the chapel of St. Barnabas at Soghuali, and in another at Qaranlik-Kilissé (Cappadocia); in Italy, in St. Mark’s in Venice and in the cathedral of Torcello.