Byzantion 87, 387-405. doi: 10.2143/BYZ.87.0.3256913 © 2017 by Byzantion. All rights reserved. THE WORKS OF THE EMPEROR AND THE WORKS OF THE POET PAUL THE SILENTIARY’S EKPHRASIS OF HAGIA SOPHIA Paul the Silentiary’s Ekphrasis of Hagia Sophia offers a 6 th century impression of a building that still exists today. It has been eagerly studied, especially by archaeologists and art historians. 1 Most of these studies have focused on the central part of the poem (lines 354-920), the “ekphrasis proper”, describing the church building. However, Paul’s introductory lines are an integral part of the poem and essential for its appreciation. They care- fully prepare his audience for his virtual guided tour through the building. As far as I know, the rhetorical character of the introductory verses has never been thoroughly analysed. 2 In the present article, I propose such an analysis. In the first half, I offer a brief introduction to the historical setting 1 The amount of studies on Hagia Sophia is infinite, as is the variety in approach. To cite some examples from the last five years (2011-2016): C. DE STEFANI (ed.), Paulus Silentiarius: Descriptio Sanctae Sophiae, Descriptio Ambonis, Berlin, 2011; B. V. PENTCHEVA, Hagia Sophia and Multisensory Aesthetics, in Gesta, 50/2 (2011), pp. 93‐111; P. CESARETTI – M. L. FOBELLI, Santa Sofia di Costantinopoli. De Aedificiis 1,1, 1-78, Milano, 2011; J. KOSTENEC – K. DARK, Paul the Silentiary’s description of Hagia Sophia in the light of new archaeological evidence, in Bsl 70/3 (2011), pp. 88-105; K. BOESCH, Picture of Orthodoxy: A Theological Interpretation of the Mosaic over the Imperial Door of the Hagia Sophia, in Crux, 49/4 (2013), pp. 25-35; N. SCHIBILLE, Hagia Sophia and the Byzantine Aesthetic Expe- rience, Farnham, 2014; P . NIEWÖHNER – N. TETERIATNIKOV, The South Vestibule of Hagia Sophia at Istanbul: The Ornamental Mosaics and the Private Door of the Patriarchate, in DOP, 68 (2014), pp. 117-156; A. MOROPOULOU – N. ZACHARIAS – E. T. DELEGOU – B. MARÓTI – Z. KASZTOVSZKY, Analytical and technological examination of glass tesserae from Hagia Sophia, in Microchemical Journal, 125 (2016), pp. 170-184; E. M. VAN OPSTALL, On the Threshold, in EADEM (ed.), Sacred Gateways, Leiden, forthcoming at Brill in 2018. For an earlier version of the present article see the Dutch journal Lampas, 39/3 (2016), pp. 280-296. I would like to thank both anonymous peer-reviewers of Byzantion for their useful comments. 2 The poem has not received much attention from a philological / literary point of view. For an excellent textual edition see DE STEFANI, Paulus Silentiarius [see n. 1] and for a com- mentary see M. L. FOBELLI, Un Tempio per Giustiniano. Santa Sofia di Costantinopoli e la descrizione di Paolo Silenziaro, Roma, 2005. Partial translations of the Ekphrasis of Hagia Sophia in English can be found in C. A. MANGO, The Art of the Byzantine Empire: Sources and documents, 312-1453, Toronto, 1986, and in P. N. BELL, Three Political Voices from the Age of Justinian, Liverpool, 2009. Mary Whitby is currently working on a translation of the complete text. For translations in other modern languages, see O. VEH – W. PÜLHORN, Prokop. Paulos Silentiarios. Bauten, München, 1977 (German), M. C. FAYANT – P. CHUVIN, Paul le Silentiaire. Description de Sainte-Sophie de Constantinople, Paris, 1997 (French), FOBELLI, Un Tempio (Italian).