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Epiphanios archbishop of Kios (ninth century)

 
 

Obverse

The Virgin standing, holding Christ in her left arm. Circular inscription. Border of dots.

+υπεργιθε-οτοκεRοηθει

Ὑπεραγία Θεοτόκε βοήθει

Reverse

Inscription of four lines, a cross above and below. Border of dots.

+
+επιφνι
ρχιεπισκοπ
κιδουλτν
δλντθ̅υ
+

Ἐπιφανίῳ ἀρχιεπισκόπῳ Κίου, δούλῳ τῶν δούλων τοῦ Θ(εο)ῦ

Obverse

The Virgin standing, holding Christ in her left arm. Circular inscription. Border of dots.

+υπεργιθε-οτοκεRοηθει

Ὑπεραγία Θεοτόκε βοήθει

Reverse

Inscription of four lines, a cross above and below. Border of dots.

+
+επιφνι
ρχιεπισκοπ
κιδουλτν
δλντθ̅υ
+

Ἐπιφανίῳ ἀρχιεπισκόπῳ Κίου, δούλῳ τῶν δούλων τοῦ Θ(εο)ῦ

Accession number BZS.1951.31.5.104
Diameter 30.0 mm; field: 26.0 mm
Previous Editions

DO Seals 3, no. 50.2a.

Laurent, Corpus V/1, no. 834 (mistakenly identified as Fogg 21).

Credit Line Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Bequest of Thomas Whittemore.

Translation

Ὑπεραγία Θεοτόκε βοήθει Ἐπιφανίῳ ἀρχιεπισκόπῳ Κίου, δούλῳ τῶν δούλων τοῦ Θεοῦ.

Holy Mother of God, help Epiphanios, archbishop of Kios, servant of the servants of God.

Commentary

This seal and BZS.1955.1.4697 come from the same boulloterion. They are reminiscent of both the image (without sigla) and the legends (Ὑπεραγία Θεοτόκε βοήθει....δούλῳ τῶν δούλων τοῦ Θεοῦ) found on seals of Patriarch Methodios (843-847: Dated Seals, no. 50) and Patriarch Photios (858-867 and 877-886: Dated Seals, no. 54). Laurent is undoubtedly correct that the owner of these specimens was the Epiphanios of Kios who was present at the Photian Synod of 879. Note one unusual feature of this period: the cross above and below the inscriptions.

Kios (modern Gemlik) is located in a gulf on the sea of Marmara; it was a place of concentration of agricultural produce. It is attested as a see as early as the Council of Nicaea (325) and is listed as an archbishopric in all notitiae until the fourteenth century. See Laurent, Corpus V/1, 648; Zgusta, 266-67.

Bibliography

  • Catalogue of Byzantine Seals at Dumbarton Oaks and at the Fogg Museum of Art, Vol. 3: West, Northwest, and Central Asia Minor and the Orient (Open in Zotero)
  • Le Corpus des sceaux de l’empire byzantin (Open in Zotero)
  • Kleinasiatische Ortsnamen (Open in Zotero)
  • A Collection of Dated Byzantine Lead Seals (Open in Zotero)