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The bishop of Helos (eleventh century)

 
 

Obverse

Bust of the Virgin orans. On either side, the inscription: Μ̅Θ̅ : Μήτηρ Θεοῦ. Border of dots.

Reverse

Inscription of five lines. Border of dots.

ΘΥΤΗ
ΕΛΣΦΥ
ΛΑΤΤΕΣΟ
ΛΑΤΡΙΝ
ΚΟΡ

Θύτην Ἕλως φύλαττε σὸν λάτριν, Κόρη

Obverse

Bust of the Virgin orans. On either side, the inscription: Μ̅Θ̅ : Μήτηρ Θεοῦ. Border of dots.

Reverse

Inscription of five lines. Border of dots.

ΘΥΤΗ
ΕΛΣΦΥ
ΛΑΤΤΕΣΟ
ΛΑΤΡΙΝ
ΚΟΡ

Θύτην Ἕλως φύλαττε σὸν λάτριν, Κόρη

Accession number BZS.1958.106.5360
Diameter 20.0 mm; field: 13.0 mm
Previous Editions

DO Seals 2, no. 26.2. Cf. Wassiliou-Seibt, Siegel mit metrischen Legenden I, no. 951.

Translation

Θύτην Ἕλως φύλαττε σὸν λάτριν, Κόρη.

Virgin, watch over, the bishop of Helos, your servant.

Commentary

Dodecasyllabic. Note the substitution of an omega for the sound ou: this is a phenomenon typical of the Tzakonian (and the Maniot) dialect in Greek (G. Anagnostopulos, Tsakonische Grammatik [Berlin-Athens, 1926], 21; H. Pernot, Introduction à l'étude du dialecte tsakonien [Paris, 1934], 20).

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.

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)
  • Notitiae Episcopatuum Ecclesiae Constantinopolitanae (Open in Zotero)
  • De Administrando Imperio (Open in Zotero)
  • Constantine Porphyrogenitus, 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)
  • The Mediaeval Names Melingi and Ezeritae of Slavic Groups in the Peloponnesus (Open in Zotero)
  • Le Corpus des sceaux de l’empire byzantin (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)
  • Corpus der byzantinischen Siegel mit metrischen Legenden, Vol. 1, Siegellegenden von Alpha bis inclusive My (Open in Zotero)