Theodore bishop of Helos and synkellos (eleventh century)
Obverse
Bust of St. John the Baptist; details indistinct. On the right, the inscription: |Ι|ΟΠΡ|ΔΡ,|Μ,: ὁ Πρόδρομος. Border of dots.
Reverse
Inscription of six lines. Border of dots.
ΚΕΘ
.ΣΔ
.Δ.
.ΙΣΚΟΠ
ΕΛˊΣΥΓ
ΕΛΛ
Κύριε βοήθει τῷ σῷ δούλῳ Θεωδώρῳ ἐπισκόπῳ Ἕλους καὶ συγκέλλῳ
Obverse
Bust of St. John the Baptist; details indistinct. On the right, the inscription: |Ι|ΟΠΡ|ΔΡ,|Μ,: ὁ Πρόδρομος. Border of dots.
Reverse
Inscription of six lines. Border of dots.
ΚΕΘ
.ΣΔ
.Δ.
.ΙΣΚΟΠ
ΕΛˊΣΥΓ
ΕΛΛ
Κύριε βοήθει τῷ σῷ δούλῳ Θεωδώρῳ ἐπισκόπῳ Ἕλους καὶ συγκέλλῳ
| Accession number | BZS.1947.2.2058 |
|---|---|
| Diameter | 25.0 mm |
| Previous Editions | DO Seals 2, no. 26.1. |
Translation
Κύριε βοήθει τῷ σῷ δούλῳ Θεωδώρῳ ἐπισκόπῳ Ἕλους καὶ συγκέλλῳ.
Lord, help your servant Theodore, bishop of Helos and synkellos.
Bibliography
- Catalogue of the Byzantine Seals at Dumbarton Oaks and at the Fogg Museum of Art, Vol. 2: South of the Balkans, the Islands, South of Asia Minor (Open in Zotero)
- Le Corpus des sceaux de l’empire byzantin (Open in Zotero)
- Notitiae Episcopatuum Ecclesiae Constantinopolitanae (Open in Zotero)
- De Administrando Imperio (Open in Zotero)
- The Life of Saint Nikon: Text, Translation, and Commentary (Open in Zotero)
- La Morée franque: Recherches historiques, topographiques et archéologiques sur la principauté d’Achaïe (1205-1430) (Open in Zotero)
- Constantine Porphyrogenitus, De Administrando Imperio (Open in Zotero)
- Development of Rural Settlements: A Study of the Helos Plain in Southern Greece (Open in Zotero)
- Hierarchia Ecclesiastica Orientalis: Series episcoporum ecclesiarum christianarum orientalium (Open in Zotero)
Commentary
The see of Helos, a suffragan of Patras, appears in the 10th century (Darrouzès, Notitiae, no. 9, line 414;its mention in notitia, no. 7, line 555, is an interpolation). Was it a specific town or, more generally, a region, namely the plain of Helos to the southeast of Sparta? We think that Helos must certainly have been a town (exact location unknown; perhaps Skala on the Eurotas river or a nearby location), as were practically all other bishoprics: it is mentioned as such in De Adm. Imp. (chap. 50, line 16), together with another town, Lakedaimonia; in the Life of St. Nikon (168, 174, 293), it appears as a town of mixed population, Byzantine and, presumably, Slavic; the Latin sources also allude to it as if it were a town (Bon, Morée francque, 99, note 4, 498), and in the 18th century there is mention of the fortezza di Eleos. From Antiquity, its name came from the swampy region in which it was situated. Of course nothing rules out that the creation of the bishopric was related to the Christianization of the Ezeritai (who also took their name from the "lake"). See D. Georgakas, "The Mediaeval Names Melingi and Ezeritae of Slavic Groups in the Peloponnesus," BZ 43 (1950) 327-30; Bon, Péloponnèse, 108-110; Laurent, Corpus V/1, 493 ff; Commentary, 186; J. M. Wagstaff, The Development of Rural Settlements: A Study of the Helos Plain in Southern Greece (Avebury, 1982), 58; Fedalto, 502-3.