DAFNI. - The monastery and church of D. are located 10 km from Athens on the road leading to Eleusis. The complex, dedicated to the Dormition of the Blessed Virgin, occupied a quadrilateral enclosure of about 100 sq. m. and was built at the end of the 11th century above an earlier, more spacious basilica and an earlier monastery. The church was preceded by a portico and a narthex. Inside, the dome covers the entire square from which three apses open; it rests on four double arches and four piers.
The interior was richly decorated with marbles (fragments in the Athens museum). But the glory of D. consists of the mosaics, rich in pictorial effects despite the sobriety of their colors. At the summit of the dome, on a gold ground, at 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: 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.
Under the arches, standing near the niches, four bishops: Sylvester, Antimus, Eleutherius, Abercius; near the central square four deacons: Stephen, Rufinus, Laurence, Fulvus. Above, in the medallions above the trilobate windows, the saints Probus, Tarachus, Andronicus, Samonas, Gourias and Abibus. Above the side doors leading to the narthex the busts of Sergius and Bacchus; under the four arches, to the north, Acindynus, Pegasus, Aeternus, Elpidephorus, Anemopodistus; to the south, Eustathius, Ausentius, 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 Raising 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.
DAFNI - Detail of the Pantocrator. Mosaic from the end of the 11th century.
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 Anna, the Purification, the Presentation in the Temple.
About 100 m southeast of the enclosure 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 investigation into abuses in the archdiocese of Thebes (J. B. Pitra, Analecta novissima, I, Frascati 1885, p. 558). In 1263 the Duke of Athens was buried at D.
Abbots of D. were Stephen in 1237, John in 1250, Peter in 1283, James in 1308, Peter Strausberch in 1412. The Cistercians left D. in 1450; thus the Latin church disappeared, and in the 16th century the Orthodox took possession of it, as attested by two inscriptions, one of 1532 and the other of 1548. It then served as a garrison and even as a lunatic asylum from 1883 to 1885.
The buildings were damaged by earthquakes in 1889 and 1894. The Society of Christian Archaeology of Athens explored the monastery and began restorations, directed by the architect Troump of the French School in Athens; the mosaics were restored by Venetian artists.
At D. the Christian inscription of a Callopios was discovered (v. V. Chapot, Inscription chrétienne à Dapine, in Bulletin de la Société nationale des antiquaires de France, 6 (1903), pp. 200-201). - See pl. LXXIV.