Archive note: This text comes from the old archive of Nomika Epilekta and is preserved with care for historical and informative reading.

The art of Byzantine iconography is governed by laws and rules. The icon painter does not depict the natural appearance of things, but the spiritual one. There are, however, representations that go beyond the limits of differentiation and reach exaggeration, which may have symbolic and allegorical meaning. Such a case is the rendering of the figure of Saint Christopher. The Saint is rendered in two versions. In the first he has a dog’s head, while in the second he appears with a beautiful face, carrying Christ as an infant on his shoulders while crossing the river. The dog-faced version of the Saint is one of the main examples of exaggeration in Byzantine iconography. One of the interpretations given for the rendering of the dog-faced form is that it represents the Saint’s past before he came to know the teaching of Christ, while the beautiful version represents his life in Christ and his reborn existence. The image of the dog-faced Saint may also show that deformity and ugliness are not always identified with evil, nor beauty with good, as happens in Western art. Saint Christopher the dog-headed, Church of Saints Anargyroi in Androni of Elis (8th c.) Saint Christopher was quite ugly and is described by his biographers as dog-headed. He had great physical strength and came from a land of cannibals, from the tribe of the Marmaritai in North Africa or from the race of the Dog-heads. Herodotus and Hesiod speak of dog-headed people, while a similar legend also existed in Asia, since it appears in Chinese texts of the sixth century. The rumours about dog-headed people were probably due to the limited knowledge that existed about Asia. Strabo, Aeschylus and later Claudius Ptolemy also speak of dog-headed people. Even the army of Alexander the Great is said to have included dog-headed soldiers. Saint Christopher the dog-headed, Byzantine and Christian Museum, 1685 The use of zoomorphic features does not appear for the first time in Byzantine art, but seems to follow representations of the Egyptian god Anubis. Earlier representations too, in many parts of the world and dating back thousands of years, depict dog-headed figures. This iconographic element remained in use in Byzantine painting for many years after the Quinisext Ecumenical Council, when allegory and symbolism were considered elements that should be removed from Byzantine art and the symbols of the first Christian centuries should be replaced with images that directly represent what they symbolize, thus revealing their meaning. Over time, therefore, the version of the dog-headed Saint was set aside, and from the 14th century the version of the beautiful Saint carrying Christ on his shoulder prevailed.

Saint Christopher, Holy Monastery of Stavronikita, Mount Athos, 1546

The official Orthodox Church has accepted the image of the Saint in human form. In this image, the little Christ whom he carries on his shoulders refers to another variation of the Saint’s life, according to which Saint Christopher, because he was giant in stature, wanted to use his enormous strength by offering it to Christ. Then a hermit advised him to go near a rushing river and help people who were trying to cross to the opposite bank. “Whatever you do for weak people,” he told him, “is as though you do it for Almighty Christ.” And so Saint Christopher very willingly carried travellers across. One night, a small child asked him to help him cross the river, and he gladly placed the child on his shoulders and entered the rushing waters. In the middle of the crossing, his shoulders began to grow heavy, and as time passed the child became unbearable to carry. When he finally reached the opposite bank, he asked the child why he was so heavy, and the child replied: “Because I am the one who carries the world, the king you wished to serve; therefore, from today, because you carried me, you shall be called Christopher.” Tradition says that he lived and was martyred in the years of the Roman emperor Decius. His memory is honoured on 9 May by the Orthodox Church and on 25 July by the Catholic Church.