Christus Saltans as Dionysios and David : The Dance of the Savior in its Late-Antique Cultural Context

Abstract

In this article, I situate the Dance of the Savior within its Late Antique cultural context, beyond its place in the history of doctrine. In particular, I outline early Christian forms of dance, not as a marker of heresy, but as an important aspect of post-Constantinian liturgy. While some patristic authors criticized dance as a pagan or Jewish practice, my study is structured around the Christian appropriation of Dionysiac and Davidic imagery, which is found especially in references to dance at festival celebrations (including the cult of martyrs) and imperial rituals (such as the return of the Cross to Jerusalem under Heraclius), respectively. The Dance of the Savior should therefore not be viewed as an “apocryphon,” but rather a text closely related to various public rituals of Late-Antique Christianity.