The Pantheon in Four Colors (Creative Writing Assignment #10)

8:37 am

Eleven. This was the number of people that stood in the Pantheon. They orbited, sliding about the circumference. The vast floor remained empty. A janitor stood trying to tell a joke to a Japanese woman who had been sitting alone on a bench. A young couple meandered along, pointing and whispering to each other. These individual personalities will be absorbed and obliterated in the swell of photomongers when noon arrives.

The Pantheon was at its most powerful then. I could hear each of my steps ricocheting off the walls to eventually pass up through the oculus and outward into the Roman morning. Without the crowds and noise, the dome seemed to recede upwards as if the weight of all those pounding shoes during the afternoon had been holding it down. As I looked up at the dome I saw that the shading on the coffering gave the impression that the oculus was growing. That the dome was dilating to allow the sun in. I imagined the immense Pantheon as a flower, the oculus opening in the morning with the first rays of the sun.

In the morning I believed that I was in a Christian church. The crosses, the wooden carving of a crucified Christ, the frescos of the Annunciation, they were all visible. A narrow beam of light had only recently begun to crawl down the coffering, but the sacred language of church was already visible.

A pigeon suddenly darted above my head, soaring upward to a niche at the base of the dome. I saw this as a particularly Roman omen to leave.

The color that dominated the Pantheon in the morning was yellow.


2:10 pm

In the afternoon the Pantheon is a dark place. As I cross the threshold I have a fleeting fear that the darkness will not recede, that the Pantheon has been transformed into another dim cave, cloaking its exquisite vastness in obscurity. But then I see the sun-stain that terminates that vast and yet ethereal pillar of light. Through this column a million dust motes, citizens of Rome school, climbing hot currents upward. It seems like it might be made of some other medium than atmosphere. That one might be able to swim upward through the thick sunlight. The dust motes become tiny bubbles.

The hordes have come and now their cameras blaze. Are they afraid that their memories are weaker than their external hardrives? In the blurry confusion of echoes I cannot hear my footsteps any longer. Somewhere in the dim crowd a child is testing the strength of his shrill voice. That echo I do hear.

In the afternoon I believe that I am in a pagan temple. The same light that illuminated a circle of stone has seemed to suck the light out of the rest of the Pantheon. The Christian symbols have been veiled in shadows. The gloom the golden altar wall has turned to the color of urine. The wooden Christ that had previously drawn my attention now has taken on a new meaning with the change of light. Shadows have slid down from the arch above him enshrouding his bent head. He has gone from triumphant victory to forgotten martyr. Jupiter has taken the day shift.

The color that dominates the Pantheon in the afternoon is purple, like the dried blood of the sacrifices that once happened here.


7:17 pm

It will be the first time during the day that the Pantheon seems just as bright inside as the sky is outside. Soft, yellow lights will be switched on above the niches. The dome will be dark now except for a faint ring of light around the oculus. The tourists will be beginning to thin, they will move faster, shuffling in, pointing their weapons, snapping, and then shuffling out again. I will look to the coffering and see that opposed to this morning it will look as if the dome is contracting, as if the oculus is shrinking. The flower will close for the night.

With the help of the luminous bulbs, Christianity will take back the Pantheon. The wooden Christ again hangs triumphant, gloriously enthroned in artificial illumination. I will be able to see his bent head and know his sacrifice. The gold of the altar wall will shimmer again as I walk from one side to the other.

The colors that will dominate the Pantheon in the evening are blue and gold.