Saint Mark (San Marcos) is a new cult of Venice centered on a winged beast of changing face, on the square, basilica and lion-column at the city’s heart, and on a dispute between two Marks, the Evangelist and the Mage, within Barbatos.
| Type | Deity / place |
| Location | Venice |
| Spanish entry | San Marcos |
The deity
A winged, bearded, griffin-like beast whose large face shifts from a feline’s to an old, wise man’s with a long white beard. It is “a new cult, but a good one”, with “a defect of divinities”, and is growing; unions can be celebrated in its name.
The two Marks
The square is “an ancient place of Barbatos”, with “a sigil reconstituted in the distance”. Barbatos has a beneficent and a non-beneficent aspect, marked by the name: Mark the Evangelist instead of Mark the Mage.
- The Evangelist was “a respectable aide-de-camp”; his body founds the basilica.
- The Mage first appeared in 275 A.D.A., “coerced by the devils”, and pulled off a pantomime to deceive them. He lived in the Invisible Cities, was strongly opposed a thousand years ago, and went to Persia, where he became Arsace and founded a dynasty.
The founding theft
Mark the Evangelist was stolen by the merchants of Tronqueto and Torquelo. The Venetians took the body from a museum and covered it with pieces of pork, so customs could not search their ships properly; the thieves escaped and founded the Basilica of Saint Mark in Venice. The relic was never recovered, and the theft stands as a living affront to Islam.
The square
The center of Venice, in the old administrative districts, is under permanent construction, with large statues and stones brought from afar. The Columns of Saint Mark and Saint Theodore marked the main entrance when the city was reachable only by sea; the place was also called the Gate of the East. The basilica bears a quadriga representing the pantheon. Beside it stands Marco Polo’s house, the Millone, a meeting point.
The lion
The Lion of Saint Mark, on a great column in the main square, watches; once it turned. It is now gone from its pedestal. One account says a dark, black column remains; another that “a pillar of nothingness” stands where the lion was.
Marco Polo
“The other guardian” of the place, friend of the Great Khan, who received him as envoy of distant tributaries such as Venice to tell of the invisible cities. Genoese pirates captured him and left him in Italy.
Conflicting accounts
- Nefedo is called the Mage’s husband in one account; another names “the ex-husband of Neferu”, who negotiated an exit with Torreón and a nymph and offered black pearls. Whether these are one person, two, or a copyist’s slip is open.
- Whether the black column and the pillar of nothingness are the same, and whether the lion left, was removed or descended, is unresolved.
Open questions
- Whether the winged beast is the Evangelist, the Mage, or a third power is not established.
- From which museum and city the body was taken is not stated.
- What the reconstituted sigil is, and who restored it, is unknown.