Last month I explored the ‘Way of Death’ that I experieced at Hierapolis: the destruction and re-creation of the world through geology, and the amazing Temple of Hades there, where worshippers witnessed the bloodless deaths of sacrifices in a cave that was an entrance to the Underworld.
This month I want to look at memorials to the dead that you find in Hierapolis: the Martyrium of the Apostle Philip and a look at one of two necropoli on the site.
The Martyrium of Philip
Geology has less to do with the second temple of death in Hierapolis, the Martyrium of Philip.
The Book of Acts in the Bible mentions the apostle several times in the years after Jesus’ departure. He was active in Samaria, where he converted a famous magician, Simon Magus, to The Way, as the Christian movement was then known. A meeting with an Ethiopian dignitary led to a baptism and the early founding of Christianity in that country. Acts last shows him not far from Jerusalem in Caesarea, where his four daughters were prophets – these would not be the only women with whom Philip would collaborate on his missionary journeys.
For the rest of Philip’s life, we rely heavily on the 4th-century text, The Acts of Philip, as well as the traditions in and around his place of death in Hierapolis.
The Acts state that Philip traveled with his sister, Mariamne, and his fellow apostle Bartholemew to “Ophioryma, which is called Hierapolis of Asia.” They found shelter there in the home of a local man, Stachys. They used healing as a tool for conversion and attracted many – of course Hierapolis was a perfect location for a faith-healer, as the city drew many travelers from all parts for that very purpose.
Philip’s group quickly fell in competition with those who “worship as in old times the serpents and the viper, of which also they set up images.” These “serpents and the viper” could well refer to the statue of Hades at the Plutonium, which is flanked by two, coiled snakes.
One of those who came for healing was Nicanora, the wife of the city administrator, who flew into a rage and question her: “Did not I leave you in bed? How had you so much strength as to come to these magicians? And how have you been cured of the inflammation of your eyes?” I note that Nicanora had been in bed, not in the spas, where most people who came to Hierapolis went for healing.
The rest of the tale in The Acts of Philip doesn’t match what I saw in my visit to Hierapolis. Philip, Bartholomew, Mariamme are tortured (likely). Philip gets so angry with his oppressors that he casts the proconsul’s palace and the temple of the serpents down into the abyss (the temple is still there, next to the rift ((as I described in part 1)), the palace has not been restored). For his vindictive behavior towards the proconsul, God tells Philip he will have to wait 40 days outside the gates of Paradise before he can enter.
Philip was taken outside the walls and crucified on a steep hill just a stone’s throw from the northeastern gate of the city. In recent years, a crew of Italian archeologists – besides doing an amazing job restoring the theater in Hierapolis – have uncovered not only the grave, but also a church, a bath complex, and a series of steps that led pilgrims to the holy site.
An arched bridge was erected over the gorge outside the gate – now known as St. Philip’s Gate – and the current metal bridge preserves the form of the original, which was long ago lost and washed down the mountain.
The Sacred Number Eight
A fascinating element of the Philip martyrium is early Christians’ fascination with the number eight. An eight-chambered bath complex lies just above the bridge at the base of the steps to the Martyrium. Here pilgrims would purify themselves before approaching the tomb of St. Philip, which was part of an eight-chambered basilica.
Christian fascination with the number eight was a connection with its Jewish roots and unique aspects of the resurrection of Jesus. Jews celebrated a seven-day week, based on their account of creation, and they rested on the seventh day. Jesus had arisen on Sunday, the 8th day after Palm Sunday, when he had entered Jerusalem in triumph. Seven weeks later, Pentecost would fall on Sunday as well, so the “8th day” became associated with Jesus and the breaking of bread in his remembrance. Early Christian sources refer to this 8th day as “the Lord’s Day.”
But there is always more. There are 8 writers in the New Testament. Jesus appeared 8 times to his disciples after the Resurrection. The Book of Revelation reveals the beast’s number to be 666, but the Christians of the day also related the number of Jesus’ name in Greek, Ιησους, to 888.
The Necropoli of Hierapolis
Beyond the Temple of Hades and the Marterium of Philip, Hierapolis has two cemeteries or necropoli as they were known. The walk past the North Gate passes a village of tombs, from rounded, archaic tomb chambers, to mausolea, to sarcophagi mounted above tombstones. A visitor to Hierapolis could easily spend a day among the tombs, inspecting inscriptions (there are several that relate to Jews, others that imply that the interred person was a gladiator).
I’m no expert in Roman cities, but there seemed to be more tombs here than in other places I have been. Perhaps this is because so many wealthy people came to Hierapolis to find healing in its mineral pools, only to die of their ailments here.
The archaeology museum on the site has a number of exemplary sarcophagi (the Greek word, sarcophagus, literally means “flesh-eating”). In the gardens are other burial stellae and statues. As I toured, familiar motifs were evident: garlands and flowers carved into the sides of the sarcophagi, providing an eternal funeral, gorgon’s heads to ward off evil, and even tragic/comedic actors’ masks – which I found on two – perhaps showing that the deceased had lived a full life.
Roman cities forbade burial within the city limits, and the necropoli of Hierapolis follow this rule carefully. The northern acropolis is the most accessible because it is beyond the northern gate. The eastern necropolis lies upon a hill overlooking the city wall between Philip’s Martiyrum and the North Gate.
This is Hierapolis. A place of healing mineral waters, and a place where death was worshiped, remembered, and interred.
I am indebted again to Izabela Misczak and her book, The Secrets of Pamukkale and Hierapolis. I own a lot of her TAN Travel Guides, and I highly recommend them for the history-minded traveler to western Türkiye.