The metropolis of Methymna (eleventh century or sixth/seventh century)
Obverse
Within a circle of pellets, a chi-ro monogram: : Χριστός. Within the border of dots, a circular inscription beginning at the top.
μητροπολες
Μητροπόλεως
Reverse
In the center, the same chi-ro monogram as on the obverse. Within the border of dots, a circular inscription beginning with a cross at the top.
μηθυμνησ
Μηθύμνης
Obverse
Within a circle of pellets, a chi-ro monogram: : Χριστός. Within the border of dots, a circular inscription beginning at the top.
μητροπολες
Μητροπόλεως
Reverse
In the center, the same chi-ro monogram as on the obverse. Within the border of dots, a circular inscription beginning with a cross at the top.
μηθυμνησ
Μηθύμνης
| Accession number | BZS.1955.1.4930 |
|---|---|
| Diameter | 20.0 mm; field: 16.0 mm |
| Previous Editions | DO Seals 2, no. 52.4. |
Translation
Μητροπόλεως Μηθύμνης.
(Seal of) the metropolis of Methymna.
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)
- Les îles de l’empire byzantin: VIIIe-XIIe siècles (Open in Zotero)
- Hierarchia Ecclesiastica Orientalis: Series episcoporum ecclesiarum christianarum orientalium (Open in Zotero)
Commentary
The central medallions seem to be six-rayed stars, but the central spokes show a loop at the top right. Laurent dated the seal to the end of the eleventh century, obviously because Methymna became a metropolis only after 1072. Yet the seal is in our view archaic: the Christogram, the wreath border, the forms of the letters, particularly, the Ρ without serif, the Υ, the short Ω, and the with the long central bar, point to a six or seventh-century date. Now at this date there was no metropolis of Methynmna as far as we know. Should we therefore understand that the word μητρόπολις on the present seal should be understood as the urban metropolis of late antiquity? The question is open.
Methymna (Molybos), the second most important city of the island of Lesbos, is listed in the notitiae as an archbishopric; some time between 1072 (REB 18 [1960] 57) and 1084/1085 (ibid., 68), it was raised to the rank of metropolis, probably close to 1080. See Laurent, Corpus V/1, 622, 646; Fedalto, 213-15; Malamut, Iles, 232, 275, 356, 370.