Dafni

DAFNI. - The monastery and church of D. are located 10 km from Athens on the road that led to Eleusis. The complex, dedicated to the Dormitio of the Blessed Virgin, occupied a quadrangular enclosure of about 100 sq m and was built at the end of the 11th century above a more spacious primitive basilica and an earlier monastery. The church was preceded by a portico and a narthex. Inside, the dome covers the entire square on which three apses open; it rests on four double arches and four pillars.

The iconostasis was richly decorated with marbles (fragments in the Athens museum). But the splendor of D. consists of the mosaics, rich in pictorial effects, even in the sobriety of their colors. At the top of the dome, on a gold ground, in the center, is the Pantocrator, surrounded by 16 prophets, arranged between the windows of the drum: Moses, David, Isaiah, Solomon, Elijah, Elisha, Jonah, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Malachi, Daniel, Micah, Joel, Zechariah, Ezekiel, Jeremiah.

At the four corners are the Annunciation, the Nativity of Jesus Christ, the Baptism, the Transfiguration. In the central apse, the Most Holy Virgin, between the archangels Michael and Gabriel. In the apse of the prothesis, the Forerunner with the priests of the old covenant Aaron and Zechariah. In the diaconicon, the three bishops Nicholas, Gregory the Wonderworker and Gregory of Agrigento.

Beneath the arches, standing beside the niches, four bishops: Sylvester, Anthimus, Eleutherius, Abercius; beside the central square, four deacons: Stephen, Rufinus, Lawrence, Euplus. Above, in the medallions over the trefoil windows, Sts. Probus, Tarachus, Andronicus, Samonas, Gourias and Abibus. Above the side doors leading to the narthex, the busts of Sergius and Bacchus; beneath the four arches, to the north, Acindynus, Pegasius, Aphtemius, Elpidephorus, Anempodistus; to the south, Eustratius, Auxentius, Eugenius, Mardarius and Orestes.

In the second zone, the Nativity of the Virgin, the Annunciation, the Nativity of Christ, the Adoration of the Magi, the Presentation in the Temple, the Baptism, the Transfiguration, the Resurrection of Lazarus.

In the third zone: the Entry of the Lord into Jerusalem, the Crucifixion, the Descent into Limbo, the Incredulity of St. Thomas, the Dormition of the Virgin.

In the narthex, to the north, the Betrayal of Judas, the Washing of the Feet, the Last Supper; to the south, the Prayer of Joachim and Anne, the Purification, the Presentation in the Temple.

About 100 m southeast of the enclosure there is a vaulted chapel with an ossuary. In 1211 the monastery was occupied by a Cistercian community. In 1217 Pope Honorius III entrusted to the abbot of D. an inquiry into abuses in the archdiocese of Thebes (J. B. Pitra, Analecta novissima, I, Frascati 1885, p. 558). The duke of Athens was buried at D. in 1263.

The abbots of D. were Stephen in 1237, John in 1250, Peter in 1283, James in 1308, Peter Strasberch in 1412. The Cistercians left D. in 1450; thus the Latin church disappeared, and in the 16th century the Orthodox installed themselves there, as attested by two inscriptions, one of 1532, the other of 1548. It then served as a garrison post and even as an insane asylum from 1885 to 1885.

The buildings were damaged by earthquakes in 1889 and 1894. The Christian Archaeological Society of Athens explored the monastery and began the restorations, directed by the architect Troump of the French School at Athens; the mosaics were restored by Venetian artists.

At D. the Christian inscription of a certain Callopis was found (v. V. Chapot, Inscription chrétienne à Daphne, in Bulletin de la Société nationale des antiquaires de France, 64 [1903], pp. 200-201). - See pl. LXXIV.

Enrico Josi