The first day of the Annual School of Byzantine Studies began with a fascinating lecture by the scientific director, Athanassios Semoglou ("Aristotle" University in Thessaloniki), entitled "Paleochristian theophany and the spread of apocalyptic knowledge in the Mediterranean basin." He explored the notion of "theophany" as a means of conveying a new message of apocalyptic knowledge and offered a new interpretation of the two major theophanies represented in the Rotunda church in Thessaloniki and the Latomou Monastery (Osios David) in the same city, showing the channels of transmission of the concepts of Majestas Domini and Divine Wisdom. The speaker followed the phoenix motif as a symbol of the Resurrection and Monophysite Christology in the Rotunda program, placing it in the Palestinian context of the first part of the fourth century, as well as the motif of the rainbow, Jesus beardless or the archangel's wings, linking them to scenes from the Old and New Testaments.
