Restoring Reason, Beauty, and Trust in Architecture, Part 23: The Pantheon

Episode Topic: The Pantheon 

Step into a metaphysical instrument of imperial apotheosis where light acts as a divine participant. Richard Etlin decodes this cosmological “Sphinx,” revealing how Hadrian used solar precision to validate Rome’s prophetic destiny. Discover the intersection of architectural transcendence and imperial propaganda. We invite you to step into the light and watch the full recording.

Featured Speakers:

• Richard A. Etlin, University of Maryland

Read this episode's recap over on the University of Notre Dame's open online learning community platform, ThinkND: https://go.nd.edu/aaf1e4.

This podcast is a part of the ThinkND Series titled Restoring Reason, Beauty, and Trust in Architecture. 

Thanks for listening! The ThinkND Podcast is brought to you by ThinkND, the University of Notre Dame's online learning community. We connect you with videos, podcasts, articles, courses, and other resources to inspire minds and spark conversations on topics that matter to you — everything from faith and politics, to science, technology, and your career.

• Learn more about ThinkND and register for upcoming live events at think.nd.edu.
• Join our LinkedIn community for updates, episode clips, and more.

Transcript

Welcome

Speaker 0:10

Good afternoon to all of you here and to all of you on the internet. Um, I'm Stefan, Dean of the School of Architecture. Uh, this lecture tonight is sponsored by the Department of Art Artists and Design. So it's one of our. I think it's the second, uh, lecture we had in common. This, this, uh, this semester. A very welcome, uh, development. Uh, the lecture is Professor Richard Lin. It gives you great pleasure to introduce him for very complex reasons. Uh, I know that we're together at Princeton, together at, we're at Prince Together's graduate students in architecture. She stayed on as a lifer at Princeton, sent out to get a second master's degree and a PhD from Princeton. But, uh, it turns out after a couple of glass of wine last night, as we figured out, they were also together as undergraduates in, in Princeton. So, uh, this is the first time I've been with him in more than 50 years, I think in 54 years, which is quite an extraordinary accomplishment considering that I've read most of his books and known about his, uh. His adventures in academia, uh, for all these decades, as many of you, many of you are as well. Uh, Richard, if I can call him classmate, I can, I can take liberties here, um, is one of the great, one of the great academics of his generation. He is his, uh, his background and his, um, contributions in the, in, in this, uh, field of, of art history is most extraordinary. Um, it, he started Kentucky and, uh, for four or five years, I think it was, and maybe for most of his, of his career at the University of Maryland. And, uh, he is the author of a, a countless number of articles and extra number of lectures, all kinds of initiatives all over the world. One of those people that whose, whose reputation and whose performance in his academic duties is, uh, without, uh, without peer in our generation. We're very happy to have him. He's gonna be to talk, be talking about a real, uh, fond issue for us. The, um, the design and current state of the Pantheon and its meaning. Uh, he's been working on this one for 20 years. 20 years. That's, uh, quite an accomplishment. I found out from sitting with his students at this, uh, afternoon for lunch, that he only engages in topics that he falls in love with, uh, meaning, uh, buildings. Of course. Let's leave it at that. And, um, and before I, I invite him, uh, to the podium. I, I would like to read out his books'cause there are so many of them. Uh, and although I could remember some of them, I couldn't remember all of them. So let me, lemme just make sure I, I, I, I read those for you so that you, you are aware and you can seek them, uh, in your work as you're, as you're going forward, forward in your own studies and your own projects. The architecture of death, the transformation of the cemetery in 18th century Paris. That's 1984. MIT, um, uh, modernism, Italian architecture 18 19 19 40. Uh, that is a, uh, an MIT 1991 book. Frankly, Wright and le busier Manchester University Press, 94 Symbolic Space, French Enlightenment, architecture, and le and, and its legacy. Uh, Chicago, uh, 1994 and, uh, in defense of humanism, value in the Arts and Letters Cambridge 1996. Uh, it is an enormous pleasure to have you here. It's wonderful to have been with you for a few hours yesterday and a few today, hoping to have you here many more times in the future. Let's, uh, let's welcome Lin to the podium.

Pantheon as Solar Building

Equinox Light and Porch Pattern

Summer Solstice Imperial Spot

More Solar Encounters and Heat

Sublime Numinous Experience

Four Takeaways and Patron Return

Speaker 2 4:13

Well, thank you Stefan. It was doubly both for the invitation and for the overly generous introduction, and I thank all of you, uh, in the audience who've come out tonight to hear what I'm going to be talking about, about the Pantheon. Over the course of the next hour, I wish to demonstrate the degree to which the Pantheon can be considered as a solar building. Thanks to the sectional views published by Robert Hanna and Julia O'Malley in 2011. We know that a partial shaft of sunlight passes through the gorilla over the pantheons door to land on the porch at noon at the time of the equinoxes. So the full shaft fills the entrance bay, which occupies the thickness of the rotunda just behind the door at noon on April 21st. Rome's birthday. And that the full shaft lands inside the Rotunda Summit, behind the door at noon on the summer solstice. But before exploring this theme further, I must first establish the relevant background. And please gimme 10 minutes, 10 minutes before proceeding to the next solar photos. Italy's preeminent 19th century archeologist, Rudolfo Lanni. Famously called the Pantheon, the sinks of the campus marshes. Although the best preserved Roman Monument, it refuses to yield so many of its secrets, including who was the patron of the current building and what was the form of a grippers previous Pantheon building on the same site. Most scholars now believe that Trajan had the Pantheon designed and constructed. Up to some unknown level of the drum before his death. Yet even in this scenario, it was left to hadrian to construct the roofing. Would it be a cone or a dome? And to design all the marble decor for the interior as well as to design and build a porch. Hence, I'm going to refer to this building as Hadrian's Pantheon. With regard to Agri Pantheon in 1892, Ani was convinced that according to the new archeological studies of the site, agri Pantheon was Aus with the same diameter as Hadrian's, and also with an Oculus. And with the porch that extended outward as far as Hadrian's a subsequent porch. The preeminent German archeologist at the time agreed with long, shiny. Albeit debating whether the top lining came from an oculus or from a central clear story, as at the mausoleum known today as Santa Costanza. Several years later, Lanni mistakenly, I believe, would change his mind and decided that a grip his pantheon had not been a north facing building with a footprint much like Adrian's, but rather a south facing rectangular hole. Proceeded by a vast circular courtyard. For the purposes of this lecture, I would adhere to La Chinese's first instinct, seconded by the Germans. A more complete demonstration of all of these claims will have to await another occasion. The civic function of the Pantheon was not insignificant. Hadian is said to have held court in his Pantheon, and Darryl Phillips is probably correct in arguing that Griffin's earlier building on the site. Served as a meeting house for the Senate. One was obliged to assemble outside the city limit known as the Prime. Yet one might say that the Pantheons primary purpose was to serve as a symbolic building in 1871, Friedrich Adler remarked that the vast expanse of the Pantheons interior provided an architecture appropriate for an empire with world dominion. Thereby singling that Rome was aat. That is a world city. We can go even further by noting that Rome's major epic poets Naus in the third century, BCE, Inus writing in the early second century, BCE and Virgil writing during the age of Augustus had sung the Song of Rome's Prophetic Destiny over the World. For Aeu as William Lung Cellar has taught us, this prophetic destiny was grounded in the divine birth of Romulus and Remus, followed by Mars in Romulus ritual founding of the city. According to the Etruscan Wright, the Augusta, and in the deification of Romulus, Rome's first king who ascended to the sky at the time of his death. Virgil conjoined Rome's Alternative Foundation story. Whereby Jupiter assured Venus that her son Anas would be the progenitor of the race that would found the city of Rome. With Augustus, the adoptive son of the Divinized, Julius Caesar, a dissent of the Ian line as destined to fulfill Rome's destiny as Jupiter in the first book of Virgil's Ania had famously proclaimed of Rome. For these, I set no bounds in space or time, but have given empire without end. Its unprecedented dome spanning approximately 142 and a half feet, such that a circle or sphere could be inscribed within the interior. The Pantheon had the cosmic scale to embody this vision. It was located on the campus marsh at the top, palace Kari, the goat marsh, which levy recorded as the place of Ramos's deification and as Felipo Kelli has suggested by implication when Augustus died. He too would enjoy this honor. Finally, the statues of Morals and Venus inside the Rotunda. Along with that of the dub, Julius Caesar gave eloquent testimony to how the Pantheon embodied Rome's two foundation stories combining the epic heritage of Anas and Virgil. The designer of the Pantheon though, went even further by coordinating the new time visit of the Sun. God. As represented by the dramatic shift of sunlight with the most consequential times of the year. These included the two equinoxes one day and night were equal, and the summer solstice when the sun was highest in the sky and the day was longest, as we will see, significant places in the pantheon were provided with special arrangements of colored stones. That conveyed a straightforward message about Rome's prophetic destiny. In addition, the solo shaft appeared to Mark and celebrate Rome's Foundation Day its birthday on April 21st by seeming to select at noon the entrance bay to the rotunda sight of the Pantheons threshold stone, which it fully illuminated as Arnold Fun. Gnet famously pointed out in his book of 1909 Rites of Passage, a systematic study of the rites of the door in the threshold. The threshold and the doorway of a building enjoyed a symbolic function all over the world, affecting passage from one ontological realm to another, and in Rome, the consecration ceremony for a temple involved consecration rights at the doorway by the threshold of various scholars Robert Hanna, with and Marina Deano have suggested. On the significant days noted above the equinoxes, the thermo solstice and Rome's birthday, the emperor might have walked into the shaft of light at noon to effectuate an epiphany. Although such a ritualized gesture is not known to have been part of Roman practice, the literary scholar Philip party signing a related Egyptian Ferran custom has suggested that perhaps Virgil was hinting at something comparable. When in the need he portrayed Augustus as sitting in front of his Peloton temple of Apollo, quote, seated at the snowy threshold of shiny PHUs, various tales of augustus's childhood recounted by suetonius. The historian writing during the time of Hadrian set the stage for this type of ritual encounter with some God. One recounted that the mother of Octavian, that is the future, Augustus had fallen asleep in a temple of Apollo. Whereby the God in the form of a snake impregnated her. The God left an indelible colored mark on her skin that portrayed the snake after the birth of Octavian. He was quote, therefore, regarded as a son of Apollo as a precedent or justification for solo encounter at the Pantheon. A further root tale related that as an infant, Octavian disappeared from his ground floor crib and was found sitting at the top of a toll tower. His face bathed by the sun. This last tale receives a parallel in another legend of a solo epiphany regarding Octa's arrival in Rome in the spring of 44, BCE, to accept the terms of Julius Caesar's will, taking his name in his inheritance, and most importantly, becoming his adoptive son. In the words of the historian EZ Pata and I quote, when Octavian arrived, a large crowd of his friends met him. And when he entered the city, they were seen above his head or above the sun in a perfect circle and around his head, a multicolored arc as though a crown was placed on the head of a man. Soon to be Great scholars have debated both sides of the argument as to whether this is a legend or a record of an actual halo and rainbow, no matter. But the story is the point. These tales help to establish the likelihood. Augustus Ceremonious stepped into the shaft of sunlight that arguably penetrated the Oculus of Agri Pantheon, thereby initiating a custom continued and Hadrian's replacement building. Now keep in mind then the likelihood of solar encounters at the Pantheon. Let us now consider the areas illuminated on the floor walls and doorway on these and other significant days. At noon on the equinoxes, the solar disc as centers on the cornice that separates the drum from the dome. This is the halfway point that divides the interior into two equal parts. We might add that this means that the solar disc is bisected by the cornice, one with one half resting on the dome and the other half on the wall of the rotunda. A perfect visual metaphor for the equality of day and night on the Equinox rendered visible through a super imposition of the sun on the architecture at its midpoint, thereby uniting the two in conveying a narrative of solar and architectural unison. As we can see in this photo, most of the sun does not pass through the grill over the entrance store. And the perforated surface of the grill further reduces the light that will fall on the empress face as he stands on the porch at noon on those days at a grip's pantheon. This epiphany would also have the sun celebrate Augustus's birthday. Although the birthday seems to have occurred not precisely on the day of the full Equinox, its proximity would've made the association possible as lo Hassel Berger has noted this near coincidence in time. Relevant for the province of Asia in around nine BCE to start the year with Augustus's birth. Since it nearly coincided with the Equinox, the symbolism of Augustus encounter with the sun on the Pantheons portrait, noon on the Equinox in this reduced light would've been appropriate. Because as a living emperor, he had not yet been deified, and hence did not yet merit a solar encounter with the full shaft of light, which occurs only inside the Pantheon. As the Roman historian Casio explained, the statues of Agrippa and Augustus replace only on the porch and not inside the temple. Now, if you open virtually any book or article on the Pantheon, you'll find a floor pattern for the central aisle of the porch. Showing four Egyptian gray granite discs alternating with three rectangular bars of the same stone. In 1997, Jim Williams published a plan of the Pantheon that presents the most accurate color arrangement of the floor of the entire building, while stars showing that the central aisle of the porch is missing the central gray rectangular bar. All subsequent published studies of the Pantheon except one. Have ignored this revised floor plan and none have commented on its significance. Just as the sun alights on the upper cornice inside the rotunda, which bisects the building, as well as this luminous disk into two parts, symbolic of the midpoints of the silver year, so too does the sun at noon land at this time. On the porch. In fact, it forms a luminous bar that occupies the empty space that bisects the sequence of granite discs and bars along the central approach axis. Hence the sun. God completes the pattern with a transient bar of light, with a symbolic visualization of the Equinox. The visual effect is startling, and once you have seen it, then every time that you return to the pantheon outside the season of the equinoxes, then you will think of this central empty space as the sun's preferred location where it will always alight. At the time of the once again, solar performance and architecture are harmonized together within a meaningful and unanticipated design. Today, the Pantheons porch is faced with a front row of gray Egyptian granite columns, albeit marred at the left corner by a mismatched 17th century replacement. All the columns behind them are rows Egyptian granite. Two scholars killed the, and Amanda Claridge believed that originally all the columns around the perimeter were gray granite. Leading only the four central columns as rose granite. Well either configuration lends itself to narrative meaning for claridge, it was like quote, a satin lining in an otherwise sober suit. Yet we can also postulate a solar meaning. The rose granite of these columns was the same stone used in Egyptian bolus. Augustus famously brought two oli from Heliopolis, the City of the Sun to Rome. They were erected and dedicated in either 10 or nine. BCE. The esque at the Meridian near the ultra of Augustine Peace as Lo Hassel Berger emphasizes was appreciated as an Egyptian monument, symbolic of the sun, God's race. Hence, these rose grander columns at the Pantheon embrace and marked the space of the solar presence even in its absence, much like the missing gray granite bar on the floor of the porch. In the late 16th century, an engraving by Atak and a drawing by prio show the porch of Hadrian's pantheon, partially surrounded by marble panels with female personifications of Rome's provinces in the 19th century when the panels were no longer present. The French architect Achi player, followed by his student, Charli Dua Isabel. Each restored the pantheon with these symbolic panels. By measuring these panels, Isabel was able to ascertain that they fit precisely as pairs between the outside columns of the Pantheons porch. A model of the Pantheon displayed at the New York Metropolitan Museum of Arts, late 19th century hole of cast, followed suit. Recent historians wrongly, I believe, date these panelists only to Antoninus PS later temple to Hadrian in whose vicinity many of the panels were found, albeit with none in place in the temple. These scholars argue that illustrations such as Dupe and Rios simply mean that these more than 11,500 pound panels. We dragged about 200 meters across the campus marshes during the middle ages, mely to furnish several perimeter wall sections to the Pantheons porch while it was a papal church. Yet if we accept the historical evidence at face value as well as the 19th century restorations, then we have here on the porch, the first instance at the pantheon of the Emperor, standing with the embrace of the sung God. At the center of a symbolic representation of the entire empire on April 21st at noon, the message becomes more explicit, whereas the stones of the porch were mono gray set against a neutral white marble floor. On April 21st, the illuminated entrance bay features the emperor standing upon a red periphery disc, which was the imperial stone. Surrounded by a yellow marble square, symbolic of the sun, God at the pantheon. The appearance of the sun, God, through his shaft of light at noon and April 21st, Rome's birthday is highly dramatic. Whereas it is true that the sunlight fills the entrance bay for a period of two weeks resting in that space for a considerable amount of time. After the moment of noon, there is an additional type of encounter that takes place at noon on that day. Comparable to the so-called Kiss of the sun at the soap of Alexandria, as described by RUS of Acquia, who spent eight years in Alexandria, toured 3 73 to three 80 ce and I quote, there were also certain devices designed by Cuon artistry for the astonishment and admiration of ERs. A very small window had been so positioned with respect to the sunrise. Then on the day on which it had been decreed, that an image of the sun was to be carried inside to greet the statue of a soaps. The timing had to be observed carefully as the image entered, so that a sun beam passing straight through that very window would light up the mouth and lips of soaps to give the effect. As people watched that soaps was apparently receiving a kiss from the sun in salutation. Although this account was written in the fourth century ce, it is likely that this practice dated back to earlier times preceding the construction of grips and Hadrian's respective Pantheon buildings viewing the doorway from inside the Pantheon. As the time approaches noon on April 21st, the sun descends along the wall as it moves toward the door at a measured pace. The movement imparts a sensation of active presence of divinity inside the building. Here is a sequence of photos that shows a slow but steady progression as the sun proceeds toward the entrance portal with a downward and lateral suite followed by what appears to be upward movement, as if expressing intentionality to reach up to embrace the entrance portal all the way up to the top of the vault. The light reflected off the far wall of the entrance bay, as well as off its floor, illuminates the entire volume. Thereby giving the illusion that the sun has risen upward to embrace the vault in the Renaissance. Selio would stress the importance of reflected light in the six chapels of the Pantheon built into the thickness of the rotunda's wall. Yet in no other place and at no other time with such reflected light plays so important a role for the Pantheons narrative. In the entrance bay at noon on April 21st, it has taken 47 minutes for the sun to move through this sequence, and we still are two minutes away from noon as the sun reaches. As the sun outside reaches its highest position at what might be called percept noon. The shaft of sunlight inside embraces the entranceway of the rotunda, leaving the imprint of a slight arc of light. As if splitting a circle into two separate parts, attentive observers would recognize that this kiss at the entrance portal was not only a re consecration of the threshold, but also an evocation of Cleopatra's giant pearl. Split in two to serve as earrings for the colossal statue of Venus inside the Pantheon, a celebration of Octavian victory at M. The Battle of M for both the age of Augustus and for modern historians was in the words of Ronald Sign, quote, the birth legend In the mythology of the PrPE and the foundation myth of the new order, it is now being celebrated by the sun God at the Pantheon. Hence, every year at noon on Rome's birthday in the building that celebrates Rome's foundation. The sun also celebrates the foundation of this new political order. Educated Romans would recall that in prop's Poman Actio, as EST Harrison has explained, the poet had asserted that Romero's Foundation on the Hallow site is worth nothing unless Augustus wins the battle. And Hadrian's Giant across the facade proclaiming that Agri made this links the two Pantheon billings together. While also recalling a grip's role as Octavian successful Admiral in that battle, the ephemeral image of light that evokes the Cleopatra split Pearl at the Pantheons entrance portal reinforces the permanent message of the Basilic of Neptune attached to the rear of the Pantheon, which can be understood as celebrating a grip of the Admiral and the battle of Axio. This solo performance as if the sun were kissing, the portal passes away within two minutes. In a semi acceleration of flight, the life phenomenon is well known to the locals. One time I overheard a middle-aged Roman matron say to another, as the two arcs of light moved off the portal, it has passed it's over. Gave me the impression that she and her friend. Consider this to be a magical event that they came to observe year after year. They knew what to expect, but even then, the event was still thrilling. I have no reason to believe that the ancient Romans were not felt the same. In effect the see me acceleration of this movie shaft of light over the wall surface as it passes on to embrace the void of the portal, remain in place for this brief arc of time is breathtaking. In short. There is something uncanny about how the sun at noon on the equinoxes has his disc bisect the building at the line of the upper cornice as it falls onto the open space between the gray granite marker and how in April 21st Rome's birthday, it fills the entrance bay to the rotunda while splitting the kiss, the interface of the entrance portal. It's as if the sun were selecting these specific places. Get at noon on the summer soltice. The sun's choice of location is truly eerie because it does not fall on the first square behind the rotunda entrance, but rather onto the second square, which is also the first square with the red porphyry disc situated behind the entrance bay. It is as if the sun is seeking out and selecting this particular spot within the vast field of squares and circles. Hence, the type of encounter of the emperor with the sun that occurred inside the entrance bay on April 21st is repeated here as the emperor stands within the shaft of sunlight, such that the sun embraces him, the imperial symbolism of the red porphyry disks on the pantheons floor, as well as that of the purple periphery plaster of the attic zone. May well have given explicit, been given explicit meaning, but the presence of a porphyry statue of Hadrian. And although there is no evidence of such a statue inside the Pantheon, his presence is what's certainly possible given the existence of porphyry statue of Hadrian. At Caza Marina. As Neo explained, the pantheon stone evoked the heavens. The heavens had deep resonance for enus. For whom the cosmos was a celestial temple that's fragment 48. To aas the celestial temple was neither a neutral nor an indifferent cosmological entity. Ascal have stressed the extent fragments of his epic poem. The Annals seem to convey in the words of Jackie Elliot, quote, a chronological continuity between the origins of the universe and Roman history. Such that the heavenly bodies presided over action, unambiguously centered to Rome, which was the hub of space and time, the primary focus of the cosmos in all of its aspects. This vision stresses. Elliot was new and had widespread resident Hadrian's Pantheon gave symbolic form to this idea, not only by presenting the cosmos as a celestial temple, but also through numerical symbolism. As William Lurky pointed out, the five rows of coffers in the dome can be understood both as symbolizing the five circles of the universe as depicted on or sphere, and also as what Plutarch and others considered the five zones of the earth. And as Diane Favreau has stressed Rome symbolic topography of the divinely sanctioned seven hills. Which according to the antiquarian, Varo furnished the ancient name for Rome as septum may be related to a symbolic representation of the theme in the rows of 28 coffers. And in the 28 vertical ribs of the dome toward the year eight BCE, Augustus had multiplied the number seven for the hills of Rome by two to organize the city into 14 administrative zones. Which vaguely corresponded to Seven Hills and Seven Valleys, and by doubling that number into 28, Hadian had effectively created an image of expansion, such as the City of Rome symbolically coincided with the cosmos, just as the solar bras in the form of an epiphany in the encounter between the emperor and sun. God is intensified at noon on the So Soltice. So two is the political narrative of the solar encounter amplified To reinforce this numerological symbolism, the solar disc on the ground as shown here, also lights upon parts of four hollow red squares, each appearing as a three-sided open form off into space according to the four cardinal points of the compass. As if they were vectors reaching out into the entire world, so is to embrace it and to include it within their domain. This then is a visual metaphor of Rome's rule. Over the ocu mean with the imperial red porphyry lines extending outward from the red porphyry disc symbolic of the emperor and his goddy hand consecrated by the enveloping yellow square of the sun. This political message, as we have seen, was first conveyed on the porch. The recombination of the encompassing perimeter of allegorical panels of the provinces, coupled with the emperor's stance within the divine light of the sun at the new, at noon on the equinoxes, and seconded by the frame of rose granite columns. Now this message has been repeated inside the rotunda, totally abstractly through a combination of light form and color. Also with the emperor, within the embrace of the sun, both literally within the solar shaft and symbolically at the center of a red periphery disc surrounded by yellow solar square, the visible, gentle convex curvature of this floor repeatedly associated by scholars as evocative of the earth's surface, reinforces this message. This meaning is enhanced when one considers. The floor of the Rotunda presents a uniform background field of vain Fri and marble called white in color with purple striations. The choice of stone is not indifferent. Rather it has important political symbolism. Along with green vein, Christian Marble Pavan Setta was the other marble that Fabio Bari identifies as a Roman symbol of water. In fact, BTO was used for the giant drain cover representing the God okas, the so-called bocata that Barry believes was located at one of Hadian shrines, uh, and one of, sorry, Hercules Hercules shrines at the foreign of barium as Raven Taylor has suggested. The may have been selected for the, because its coloring recall. Homer's reference to the wine phase C and Virgil's use of the metaphor of the marble smoothness of the sea. As Eaas approaches the Tiber in Book seven of the Inea, especially with its Ian Echo from Fragment 3 84, may well have encouraged an architectural rendition. The conceit on the Pantheons floor OK was the God whose waters enc circled the world and from which All Rivers issued. The sun rose from and fed into his waters. Homer had rimmed the shield of Achilles with Okas, as would hesed. The shield of Hercules in India needed. Virgil would have Jupiter. Jupiter recount roams. Prophetic destiny needed to be achieved by Augustus in these terms. Quote, from this noble stock, there will be born a row Trojan Caesar, to bound his empire by Okas at the limits of the world and his fame by the stars. The Association of Okas with Hercules would've had particular importance to Hadian. In his study of the Bo de Veta, Barry explores how Hadian saw himself as a new Hercules carrying his portrait without a Hercules on a series of coins. Trajan two, he points out that fashioned himself as a Hercules quote, but just one Emperor Hadrian minted coins combining both Hercules and Ocean. Then in Urus, the coin of the highest domination in this era of almost pure gold, in no fewer than five versions, as Brian Bosworth has explained, Alexander the greats conquest that extended to the edge of the world were celebrated as having equaled the merits of Hercules, the traditional benefactor of humanity who diverse the world and per it of criminals and monsters accordingly. Barry argues for Hadrian's Self Association with Hercules and Okas as a reference to ruling over the ocu mean a message enhanced by monuments at the edge of the Roman Empire in Britain, including a mask of okas, similar, similar to the Boca Theta. Hence this symbolic feature in Britain at the fall limit of the world accords well with the symbolic reading of the floor that I am proposing inside the rotunda of Adrian's Pantheon. At Hadian Villa, at Tivoli, at least one and possibly two. Marine freezes with the exotic animals from the fringes of the empire included figures of Okas. As the emperor walks through the Pantheon, he sets the floor into motion. As Mark Wilson Jones has demonstrated, there is a dynamic quality to the overall surface pattern such that when viewed along the main axis. It presents a pattern of squares, then shifts into diamonds when seen on the diagonal axis. Yet the dynamism goes even further at the far edges of the paton's floor. There are partial squares and partial diamonds that appear to slide under the bounding wall of the rotunda. A visual metaphor of empire that extends beyond the confines of the building to encompass the entire world. This is a remarkable visualization through an unprecedented type of architecture. A Virgil's proclamation about Rome's prophetic destiny of achieving empire without end, with no bounds in space. And just as the panels that personified the totality of Rome's restored provinces around the outer perimeter of the porch have a corresponding Adriana coin series celebrating his restoration of provinces and cities. So too does the theme inside the Pantheons Rotunda of Rome's Rule over the world as having been consolidated by Hadrian have its corresponding coin issue of the restoration of the world, which Jocelyn Toby dates to one 19 to 1 21 ce. That is to the early years during the construction of the Pantheon. Since this is arguably the Pantheons most important message conveyed by the meeting of the solar shaft and the floor one should not be surprised to discover retrospectively that the same configuration has been presented in an abbreviated manner in the entrance bay, shown on the right here at the entrance bay on a field of. A yellow square with central red porphyry disc occupies the middle position with partial red banded squares open to the east and west, which disappear at the sidewalls, sliding under and outward in a way comparable to the partial squares and partial diamonds that meet the walls of the interior of the rotunda. The central disc positioned directly under the Oculus, the controlling location of the entire building. It is the only instance in the pantheon of Egyptian por type, now called subtype, Gabriel geeky of 2021 terms it extremely rare for Rome. This stone presents a red, gray, granular texture. His color evokes both the purple and red porphyry used in the pantheon. And in this case, it is fashioned with bookmatched images of mirrored red arcs that evoke the solid red porphyry discs in this and other alignments as well as the directional red porphyry bars discussed above. This photo was taken with a view, uh, with one's back to the entrance and with one's gaze toward the main abs. There is a sense of movement in these mirrored red arcs. Echoing the coursing of the sun, but now signified not by the Yellowstone of the sun, but rather by the stone of the emperor at the pantheon. The dynamism of the image of an expanding em empire without and on the floor is accompanied, complimented by an analogous image in the dome. As William McDonald's and William Lokey have explained the domes, asymmetrical coffers. Telescoping layers and their innermost panel pushed upward toward the top of the frame, impart the impression of space actively receding upwards and outwards away from the grid of ribs and meridians that frames the closest surface of the dome. This effect is enhanced by the angling of the frame, the frames, and the cfer, such that the lower portions remain in light and the upper reaches disappear in shadow. Furthermore, not only is the dome dynamically expanding, but it also does not sit statically upon its base. Rather it appears to hover in air. As JB Ward Perkins has stressed the different rhythms of the vertical features of the attic band and the dome above, whereby the ribs of the dome do not align with the plasters of the attic, quote, undoubtedly emphasize the visual discontinuity. Thus contributing to the magical suring quality of the dome. In addition, the architect has boldly created a discrepancy between the diminutive plasters of the attic and the weighty dome that it carries. As William Lurky explains, and I quote, instead of a serious statement of weight and support at this critical juncture, the architect goes out of his way to emphasize that his attic cannot support the dome. The effect of the original attic before its partial and approximate restoration in the 1930s are shown here would've been even more effective because as Lurky further emphasizes the porphyry pal plaster shafts originally were flush with a marble surface with only their white marble bases and white marble capitals projecting outward and relief. And finally, the Heinz killer. It was the smooth flight and graceful effect of this attic that makes the dome appear to hover in air just as the emperor was symbolically. Symbolically given a controlling role in the narrative on the pantheons floor to the symbolism of the red porphyry discs and the red directional porphyry lines. So too is this narrative reinforced at the attic where the plasters are made of Imperial purple porphyry. Whereas the initial understanding of the hovering dome comes from the faculty of perception, there may also have been an intellectual component to its message. Cer, while focusing on Hadrian's interest in Pythagorean thought has argued that Hadrian's Pantheon displays the numerological characteristics of a Pythagorean construction. The idea is intriguing. But does not need to be tied specifically to Hadrian's intellectual predilections. There appears to have been a longstanding tradition in Greek architecture whereby architects used Pythagorean numbers, ratios, and proportions, as well as relevant geometric configurations to invest a building with a cosmic harmony shared by the ratios of music. Music, which informed both earthly music and the musical harmonies of the heavenly bodies. It should be remembered that for Varo, the number seven for the Sept ammonium, which Hadrian's Pantheon organizes the corpus and ribs of the dome was a Pythagorean number with mystical religious resonances that included the number of zones of the sky with regard to the visual illusion of the pantheons hovering dome. It may be significant. The seeming plaster, which ring the attic zone just under the dome, and which could not possibly support its weight. Number 64. What terms the great unifying number in Pythagorean thought. We can now understand how this diminutive attic zone was able to support the massive dome to a cosmic numerology without need of a structure that debate the earthbound laws of physics. The prime mover, so to speak, of this attic zone is the emperor represented by the purple porphyry plasters situated in the middle of the rotunda elevation. Between the expanding floor and the expanding dome, the emperor serves as guarantor of the peace, the order, and the prosperity of the empire as represented by this highly symbolic architecture. Here then was Rome's second symbolic representation of a central, uh, position in the universe. It had received its first such symbolic sign under Augustus when the print caps had erected in the Roman forum in 20 BCE, the golden milestone, which solicit the distance to Rome's major cities across the Ritas of the empire. Augustus located the golden milestone to the opposite side of the imperial roster as appendant to the Mundus. The shallow circular Hollow dug by Romulus as the first ritual act of founding the city of Rome, where it served as a symbolic center around which the land of the city was then ritually plowed to the couple. Through the coupling of these two symbolic forms, the Mund and the golden Milestone observes Nico Bela quote. For the first time, Rome's political and historical center coincided topographically to signal the center of the world Adrian's Pantheon. Reiterated the message on a scale and through a dynamism that corresponds to what James Porter had, has termed the ancient Greek and Roman interest in the sublime. Whereas we have considered the most significant intersections of the coursing sun with the architecture of the Pantheon. According to the solar calendar and according to Rome's Foundation Day, there is still one more important solar encounter to address Marina de Franceschini. And Giuseppe ano had discovered that at noon during two periods, the two periods of April, sixth to eighth and September 4th, sixth, the shaft of sunlight passing onto the Porsche through the doorway creates with a term a light square. The lands on the disc of gray granite within the intermediate block, closest to the entrance, creating an apparition of the typical unit of the floor pattern of a circle within a square. Found throughout. The interior of the building and the nature of the light, which superimposes a luminous square over the permanent disc on the pavement just in front of the threshold to the dome rotunda impart the impression of a Pythagorean solution to the problem of the squaring of the circle. Once again, the sun, God helps to design the architecture and to give it meaning, and inside of the same moment, the sun outlines the shape of the entrance pole. Which I also illustrate with their photo in which they call after refines of Aquile, a kiss of the sun. The most intense encounter with the sun takes place inside the rotunda at noon on the thermo solstice. In part, this is a function of the time of the year when the sun is at its hottest. In part, this is a function of the position of the shaft of sunlight within a large interior space. Offering a dual experience at the same time of the shaft of light surrounding the body and of the shadows that fill the emans rotunda beyond the shaft of light. And in part, this is a function of the form of the architectural container, which intensifies all of these effects. ProVia is description of the ideal shape for a sauna, was similar to that of the Pantheons rotunda quote. These rooms ought to be constructed on a circular design so that the force of flame and vapor can escape along the curvatures of the walls and out the center at an even rate and however broad they are. They should have the same height up to the spring of the dome and should have an oculus at the center considered in the opposite manner. Such a volumetric shape best concentrates the heat. As can be seen from the scaled models of 19th century kilns for firing porcelain on display at the Sever National Ceramics Museum in limo, all miniaturized approximate versions of the Vitruvian sauna as John Giacomo Martinez has noted, the Vitruvian sauna has the height of one and a half times the width, whereas the Pantheon stone presents a more concentrated volume of one to one. Hence. The feeling of heat when standing within the intense shaft of sunlight at noon on the summer solstice. And now for my last section, the type of physical encounter through the body encountered here at noon on the summer solstice corresponds to what 19th century on feeling philosophers would term fu literally a feeling within your body. The experience is overwhelming, truly awe inspiring as the heat from this concentrated shaft of sunlight feels as if it is infusing every pore of your body. While the brilliance of the light itself makes the space beyond it nearly disappear in a disorienting darkness, the experience is taught about to what root of Otto would define as the experience of the holy. Through the feeling of primal numinous, awe. It seems that this light-filled epiphany might have been analogous to that experience at the sanctuary of Demeter at Lucas, where Augustus and Hadrian each was initiated into the mysteries. Let us consider several passages from PLU Tar published in Kevin Clinton's epiphany in Elian Mysteries 2001. PLU talk describes the culminating part of the ceremony quote, but then when encounters an extraordinary light, similarly in on progress, in virtue, he recounts that quote. When the temple is opened, the participant be holding a great light, adopts a different attitude, silence and awe. Plu talk seems to be suggesting some manner of full bodily engagement. He likens to the encounter with an extraordinary light at the moment of dying. In fact, paragraph begins then at the point of death, the soul suffers. Something like that. What those who participate in the great initiations suffer. A physical representation of this experience can be found elsewhere in Rome, in car's conversion of St. Paul on the way to Damascus. In Thei Chapel with the painting evokes the experience of enveloping and blinding light that throws the surroundings at noon into darkness, precisely as in the Ian Pantheon. In fact, Paul's narrative in Acts 22.6 places the vision at the time of noon as I made my journey in junior Damascus, about noon, a great light from heaven suddenly shown about me. Whereas in the New Testament to count Saul, now, Paul is temporarily blinded at the time. Caravaggio's painting captures the duality of the experience of ecstatic epiphany in the Pantheon that combines an enveloping light in a circum ambian darkness. The spiritual power of this experience is reflected in the spontaneous gesture of tourists today, who after stepping into the shaft of light. Immediately raise their hands in the primitive gesture of worship of an oran. To conclude, I would like to leave you with four thoughts to consider. First, the Pantheon is an experiential building. To understand it fully requires a visitor to step into the shaft of Devon. So Knight at noon. In a progressive sequence of ever intensifying illumination and heat, starting with Equinox on the porch, proceeding into the entrance bay on Rome's birthday, and culminating with the embrace of the sun inside the rotunda on the summer solstice, we must ask ourselves what these experiences would've meant to Hadrian, who as pen b Davies has reminded us. Identified with the sun. Second, the Pantheon is a narrative building, repeatedly telling the tale of Rome's prophetic destiny to rule over the world under the guidance of the emperor who is sustained by the sun go. The way that the colored stones are used with a simple, easy to understand symbolism, to convey that narrative is most likely unprecedented and certainly remarkable. Third, the Pantheon belongs to the realm of the sublime. Its vast interior space, seconded by the sun, God's active participation in the building's narrative, which also takes place on the porch. All further sustained inside, but the illusionism of the endlessly expanding floor and the hovering and receding dome. And fourth. We could now return to the controversy about who was the patron of the Pantheon. Both Trajan and Hadrian were consummate warriors, yet as Indra ha McEwen has reminded us. It was Hadrian who arguably was schooled in rhetoric, possibly by the great Quintilian. It was Hadrian who wrote and delivered speeches for, it was Hadrian who was the amateur architect. And as Pierre Go stresses, it was Hadrian who was said to be an expert in astronomy. And so we have to ask ourselves, which of Rome's emperors, Trajan, or Hadrian was more likely to sponsor an architecture to translates into visual form at the level of the sublime, the most famous line in Latin poetry that forts an empire with no bounds in time or space.