On April 1st, 2025, Professor Benjamin Anderson gave a talk at the American School of Classical Studies in Athens titled, "The Oracular Image: From Byzantium to the Baroque."
About the Lecture
An “oracular image” is a picture, made in the past by human hands and without divine aid, that foretells future events. Thus defined, the oracular image was a Byzantine invention, but it grew out of earlier (classical and Biblical) traditions, and outlived the end of the East Roman state.
This talk traces its thousand-year history, beginning with the story of Emperor Leo V (813-20) and the picture in an old book that foretold his death. Such prophecies of future sovereigns recurred in later Byzantine historians and post-Byzantine manuscripts.
The same images were adopted in the Latin book culture of western Europe, where they foretold future popes, and ultimately in French and German literature. They made their final appearance during the Greek Revolution, before falling into modern oblivion. The story of the oracular image thus provides a surprising counterpoint to the more familiar story of the Byzantine icon and its European afterlives.
