DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4679#0241
3. KHONAI. 215
above the entrance to the gorge1. In this situation it must have
been built before the population shifted to Khonai; and its ruins,
plainly visible in 1881, showed that it had been of large size and great
architectural pretensions. A quaint legend grew up to explain the
origin and sanctity of the church of Michael in its solitary position
down beside the threshing-floors of the people of Khonai in the plain.
According to this legend, Michael had preserved the neighbourhood
from an inundation by cleaving the gorge through the ridge and thus
allowing the Lycos and the tributary streams that join it to escape
into the lower valley; and the church was built in honour of the
deliverance. The form in which we have the legend is not earlier
than the ninth century, and is written by a person who had not seen
the localities. Colossai is unknown to him: the church is the church
of Khonai. Keretapa is represented as a place in its territory; and
the legend of the production of the lake of Keretapa is applied to
explain the origin of a fountain of drinkable water2 which rises on
the north side of the city, and joins the Lycos. But in spite of its
late character and the foolishness of many details, it is possible, even
probable, that the legend is founded on fact. An earthquake (such
as occurs in the legend) might naturally block the Lycos temporarily;
and the result would be an inundation, which would cease when the
pressure of the water swept away the obstruction. But there is no
evidence ; and we cannot go further than the statement that this may
have been the origin of the legend 3. Addenda.
The identity of the church of Michael of Khonai with the church
of Colossai has been doubted by some writers4; but it is proved, not
merely by the circumstance of the legend, but also by the words of
Nicetas of Khonai p. 523. This writer describes a raid of the Turks
under a renegade Greek, Theodore Mankaphas, in 1189: and the
description is noteworthy as a specimen of the terrible inroads by
which the Turks gradually destroyed the Greek civilization and
population of Asia. Hundreds of similar raids had been made by
Sassanians, Saracens, and Turks5, for centuries; this one is described
1 This statement is not susceptible my Church in R. Emp. Ch. XIX.
of conclusive proof; but the ruins of ' For example, the Abbe" Duchesne in
the church described in the following Bulletin Critique 1893 p. 164.
sentences of the text are so imposing 5 The Arab raids did not produce the
and on so large a scale, that one is same effect as the Turkish. The Arabs
justified in declaring them to be the raided for pleasure, profit, and battle,
remains of the famous church. The Turks raided with the deliberate
2 The water of the Lycos is nauseous and settled purpose of reducing the
and undrinkable. country to a wilderness, and letting it
8 The legend is discussed in detail in relapse into a land of nomads.
above the entrance to the gorge1. In this situation it must have
been built before the population shifted to Khonai; and its ruins,
plainly visible in 1881, showed that it had been of large size and great
architectural pretensions. A quaint legend grew up to explain the
origin and sanctity of the church of Michael in its solitary position
down beside the threshing-floors of the people of Khonai in the plain.
According to this legend, Michael had preserved the neighbourhood
from an inundation by cleaving the gorge through the ridge and thus
allowing the Lycos and the tributary streams that join it to escape
into the lower valley; and the church was built in honour of the
deliverance. The form in which we have the legend is not earlier
than the ninth century, and is written by a person who had not seen
the localities. Colossai is unknown to him: the church is the church
of Khonai. Keretapa is represented as a place in its territory; and
the legend of the production of the lake of Keretapa is applied to
explain the origin of a fountain of drinkable water2 which rises on
the north side of the city, and joins the Lycos. But in spite of its
late character and the foolishness of many details, it is possible, even
probable, that the legend is founded on fact. An earthquake (such
as occurs in the legend) might naturally block the Lycos temporarily;
and the result would be an inundation, which would cease when the
pressure of the water swept away the obstruction. But there is no
evidence ; and we cannot go further than the statement that this may
have been the origin of the legend 3. Addenda.
The identity of the church of Michael of Khonai with the church
of Colossai has been doubted by some writers4; but it is proved, not
merely by the circumstance of the legend, but also by the words of
Nicetas of Khonai p. 523. This writer describes a raid of the Turks
under a renegade Greek, Theodore Mankaphas, in 1189: and the
description is noteworthy as a specimen of the terrible inroads by
which the Turks gradually destroyed the Greek civilization and
population of Asia. Hundreds of similar raids had been made by
Sassanians, Saracens, and Turks5, for centuries; this one is described
1 This statement is not susceptible my Church in R. Emp. Ch. XIX.
of conclusive proof; but the ruins of ' For example, the Abbe" Duchesne in
the church described in the following Bulletin Critique 1893 p. 164.
sentences of the text are so imposing 5 The Arab raids did not produce the
and on so large a scale, that one is same effect as the Turkish. The Arabs
justified in declaring them to be the raided for pleasure, profit, and battle,
remains of the famous church. The Turks raided with the deliberate
2 The water of the Lycos is nauseous and settled purpose of reducing the
and undrinkable. country to a wilderness, and letting it
8 The legend is discussed in detail in relapse into a land of nomads.