Constantinople and the Construction of a Medieval Urban Identity

In his novel, Plowing the Dark, published in 2000, the writer Richard Powers summons the image of Justinian’s great church, Hagia Sophia, to represent the fabled city of Constantinople and its cultural legacy, inspired by Yeats’ poem, “Sailing to Byzantium.”¹ In doing so, he adheres to a long-established literary tradition. Following the example of classical rhetoric, Byzantine writers often included descriptions of well-known buildings in their texts.² Focusing on significant details, the ekphrasis of a monument was meant to evoke a visual image in the mind of the reader; more importantly, it could symbolize an abstract idea to reinforce the main theme of the text. Properly read, the literary evocation of a monument could represent imperial authority, piety or even urban identity. It is not surprising that the ekphrasis was a favorite literary motif of the writers of Byzantine Constantinople, a city filled with a rich repertory of historical monuments, with which their readers would have been familiar. Nor is it surprising that these evocative architectural descriptions have inspired a wealth of imaginative secondary literature, Yeats’ poem included.