{"id":4029,"date":"2010-04-16T19:32:39","date_gmt":"2010-04-16T18:32:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.roger-pearse.com\/weblog\/?p=4029"},"modified":"2010-04-16T19:32:39","modified_gmt":"2010-04-16T18:32:39","slug":"severian-of-gabala-and-the-heavens-as-a-tent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/roger-pearse.com\/weblog\/2010\/04\/16\/severian-of-gabala-and-the-heavens-as-a-tent\/","title":{"rendered":"Severian of Gabala and the heavens as a “tent”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Severian is famous — or infamous — because he compared the sky to a\u00a0“tent” and then to a “pavilion”\u00a0in his sermons on Genesis, e.g. in homily 1, 3:5<\/a>.\u00a0 I’ve been thinking about this.\u00a0 A tent to us is a square thing, and the idea is outlandish.\u00a0 But what did the word mean to Severian?\u00a0 What is being said?<\/p>\n

To find out, we need to see the Greek.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"severian3_5_greek\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"severian3_5_greek3\"<\/a><\/p>\n

This I rendered from French as follows:<\/p>\n

\n

5. Let us now ask where the sun goes down, and where, during the night, it purses its course?\u00a0 According to our adversaries, under the land; and we who look at the sky as a tent, what is our feeling on this?\u00a0 Look and see, I beg you, whether we are in error, or whether the truth of our opinion appears clearly, and whether reality is in agreement with our hypothesis.\u00a0 Imagine that above your head a pavilion has been set up.\u00a0 East would be there, north here, south there and west there.\u00a0 When the sun has left the East and starts to set, it will not set under the land; but crossing the limits of the sky, it traverses the northern areas where it is hidden by a kind of wall from our gaze, the upper waters concealing his journey from us; and, after having traversed these areas, it returns to the East.\u00a0And where is the proof of this assertion?\u00a0 In Ecclesiastes, an authentic and not interpolated work of Solomon: \u201cThe sun rises and the sun sets,\u201d it is written there;\u00a0 \u201cwhile rising, it moves towards its setting, then it turns to the north;\u00a0 it turns, it turns, and it rises again in its place.\u201d \u00a0Eccl<\/em>., i, 5.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The first word used — rendered “tent” by Bareille in his French translation —\u00a0is \u03c3\u03ba\u03b7\u03bd\u03ae<\/a>, which LSJ at Perseus give with a range of meanings.\u00a0 The word “skene” is what we get “scene” from, in a theatrical sense, as in the stuff on the stage, referring to the wall at the back of the stage behind which things went on.<\/p>\n

\n

I. a covered place, a tent, Hdt., Soph., etc.: \u2014in pl. a camp, Lat. castra, Aesch., Xen.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 2. generally, a dwelling-place, house, temple, Eur.
\nII. a wooden stage for actors, Plat.:\u2014in the regular theatre, the \u03c3\u03ba\u03b7\u03bd\u03ae was a wall at the back of the stage, with doors for entrance and exit; the stage (in our sense) was \u03c0\u03c1\u03bf\u03c3\u03ba\u03ae\u03bd\u03b9\u03bf\u03bd or \u03bb\u03bf\u03b3\u03b5\u1fd6\u03bf\u03bd, the sides or wings \u03c0\u03b1\u03c1\u03b1\u03c3\u03ba\u03ae\u03bd\u03b9\u03b1, and the wall under the stage, fronting the orchestra, \u1f51\u03c0\u03bf\u03c3\u03ba\u03ae\u03bd\u03b9\u03b1.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a02. \u03bf\u1f31 \u1f00\u03c0\u1f78 \u03c3\u03ba\u03b7\u03bd\u1fc6\u03c2, the actors, players, Dem.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 3. \u03c4\u1f78 \u1f10\u03c0\u1f76 \u03c3\u03ba\u03b7\u03bd\u1fc6\u03c2 \u03bc\u03ad\u03c1\u03bf\u03c2 that which is actually represented on the stage, Arist.; \u03c4\u1f70 \u1f00\u03c0\u1f78 \u03c4\u1fc6\u03c2 \u03c3\u03ba\u03b7\u03bd\u1fc6\u03c2 (sc. \u1f81\u03c3\u03bc\u03b1\u03c4\u03b1\uff09, odes sung on the stage, id=Arist.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 4. metaph. stage-effect, unreality, \u03c3\u03ba\u03b7\u03bd\u1f74 \u03c0\u1fb6\u03c2 \u1f41 \u03b2\u03af\u03bf\u03c2 “all the world’s a stage, ” Anth.
\nIII. the tented cover, tilt of a wagon, Aesch., Xen.: also a bed-tester, Dem.
\nIV. an entertainment given in tents, a banquet, Xen.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

There is quite a range of meanings in there, and there may be post-classical meanings that\u00a0LSJ doesn’t have.\u00a0 Is “tent” quite adequate?\u00a0 Wouldn’t “covered area” be better?<\/p>\n

The second word used is \u03ba\u03b1\u03bc\u1f71\u03c1\u03b1\u03bd — rendered “pavilion”.\u00a0 This also has a range of meanings:<\/p>\n

\n

\u03ba\u03b1\u03bc\u1f71\u03c1-\u03b1, Ion. \u03ba\u03b1\u03bc\u1f71\u03c1-\u03b7 \u03bc\u03b1, \u1f21,
\n\u00a0[A] anything with an arched cover, covered carriage, Hdt. 1.199, D.C. 36.49 ; covered boat or barge, Str. 11.2.12, cf. Gell. 10.25 ; vaulted chamber, Agatharch. 62, PStrassb. 91.5 (i B.C.), D.S. 18.26, BGU 731 (ii A.D.) ; vault of a tomb, CIG 2241 ( Chios ), 3007 ( Ephesus ), 3104 ( Teos ), IG 7.2725.4 (Acraeph.); vault of heaven, LXX Is. 40.22 ; vaulted ceiling, \u03c4\u03bf\u1fe6 \u1f11\u03c0\u03c4\u03b1\u03ba\u03bb\u1f77\u03bd\u03bf\u03c5 PCair.Zen. 445.9 (iii B.C.) ; tester-bed, Arr. An. 7.25.4 ; vaulted sewer, as gloss on \u03c8\u03b1\u03bb\u1f77\u03c2, Sch. Pl. Lg. 947d, Hsch.
\n\u00a0[II] Medic., hollow near the auditory meatus, Poll. 2.86 .
\n\u00a0[III] pl., = \u03b6\u1ff6\u03bd\u03b1\u03b9 \u03c3\u03c4\u03c1\u03b1\u03c4\u03b9\u03c9\u03c4\u03b9\u03ba\u03b1\u1f77, Hsch. (Cf. Avest, kamar\u0101 ‘girdle’, Lat. camurus, unless Carian, cf. \u03ba\u03b1\u03bc\u03b1\u03c1\u1f79\u03c2 11 .)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

which all adds up to “something with a curved top”.\u00a0 The LXX meaning in Is. 40.22 of “vault of heaven”\u00a0is perhaps\u00a0what is in mind here, conceived of as curved.<\/p>\n

Cosmas Indicopleustes adopted the idea of Severian — which was speculation by the latter.\u00a0 His model was a cube with a domed roof.\u00a0 The fact that this meant the world had corners was no problem — on the contrary! —\u00a0because the bible talks about the four corners of the world.\u00a0 I haven’t read enough of Severian to find his reference to corners, but it looks as if this is the pattern here too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Severian is famous — or infamous — because he compared the sky to a\u00a0“tent” and then to a “pavilion”\u00a0in his sermons on Genesis, e.g. in homily 1, 3:5.\u00a0 I’ve been thinking about this.\u00a0 A tent to us is a square thing, and the idea is outlandish.\u00a0 But what did the word mean to Severian?\u00a0 What […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":0,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[38],"tags":[1287,1521],"class_list":["post-4029","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-severian-of-gabala-information-access","tag-patristics","tag-severian-of-gabala"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/roger-pearse.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4029","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/roger-pearse.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/roger-pearse.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/roger-pearse.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/roger-pearse.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4029"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/roger-pearse.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4029\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/roger-pearse.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4029"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/roger-pearse.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4029"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/roger-pearse.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4029"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}