Greek inscription from a chancel screen with an invocation of *Michael (the Archangel, S00181), probably commemorating the offering of the screen or the construction of a church dedicated to the saint. Found near Oia, island of Thera/modern Santorini (Aegean Islands). Probably 5th c. Once implausibly dated it to the 2nd or 3rd c.
Evidence ID
E01268
Type of Evidence
Inscriptions - Inscribed architectural elements
Inscriptions - Formal inscriptions (stone, mosaic, etc.)
+ ἅγιε καὶ φοβερὲ Μιχαὴλ ἀρχά̣νγελε, βοήθι τῷ δούλῳ ̣σ̣ο̣υ Χαριλάῳ καὶ Μνημοσύνῃ κὲ τοῖς πε[σίν]
1. σο[υ] Hiller von Gaertringen || Ὡρίμῳ καὶ [- - -] Ross, [Χ]αρίμῳ Halbherr, Χαριλάῳ Hiller von Gaertringen || κὲ ἱοῖς Πε[- - -] Halbherr
'+ Holy and formidable Michael the Archangel, help your servant Charilaos, and Mnemosyne, and the children!'
Text: Kiourtzian 2000, no. 143.
Cult PlacesPrayer/supplication/invocation
Protagonists in Cult and NarrativesWomen
Cult building - independent (church)
Non Liturgical ActivityPrayer/supplication/invocation
Renovation and embellishment of cult buildings
Bequests, donations, gifts and offerings
Construction of cult buildings
Protagonists in Cult and NarrativesWomen
Children
Other lay individuals/ people
Source
A blue marble plaque from a chancel screen. H. 0.63 m; W. 1.44 m; Th. 0.13 m; letter height 0.025-0.035 m. Broken in the centre and on the right-hand side.Found by Ludwig Ross in September of 1835, in a ruined modern or medieval chapel, dedicated to *Stephen, the First Martyr, built on the stony hill of Messa-Vouno near the necropolis of the ancient city of Oia on the island of Santorini. When recorded, it was reused in a wall of the chapel. Revisited by Federico Halbherr before 1891, who offered a better reading, but implausibly identified the stone as "the front slab of a sarcophagus", in which, he believed, the first supplicant had been buried.
The inscription is engraved in one line, in the upper margin of the plaque. The stone also bears a carving of a framed cross and floral decorations.
Discussion
The inscription is an invocation of Michael the Archangel on behalf of Charilaos, his wife Mnemosyne, and their unnamed children. Kiourtzian notes that both names: Charilaos and Mnemosyne were uncommon in Late Antiquity, which may suggest that the supplicants came from well educated milieus. Henri Grégoire also pointed to the long survival of Greek pagan names in the Aegean Islands. It seems that the invocation, though it is not a proper dedicatory inscription, commemorated the offering of the chancel screen to a church dedicated to Michael, by the couple, if not the construction of the church itself. Kiourtzian supposes that it could be the church, where the inscription was found, and that its original dedication was to Michael.In our inscription Michael is named ἅγιος/'holy' and φοβεός/'formidable'. Kiourtzian notes that the second epithet was usually given to God, but was sometimes associated with angels or archangels as messengers of the divine will. Here Michael was probably named so, because of his role as the commander of the invincible heavenly hosts.
Ludwig Ross, the first editor of the inscription, implausibly dated it to the 2nd or 3rd c. This dating was sustained by Adold Kirchhoff in the fourth volume of Corpus Inscriptionum Graecarum, and questioned, though not definitely rejected, by Hiller von Gaertringen in Inscriptiones Graecae. Beginning from Halbherr, editors and commentators have been rightly pointing out that the letter forms, the archaeological context of the inscription and its phrasing allow us to place it only in or after the 4th c. Kiourtzian dates it to the 5th c., based on the pagans names bore by the supplicants, unlikely to occur in later times.
Bibliography
Edition:Kiourtzian, G., Recueil des inscriptions grecques chrétiennes des Cyclades, de la fin du IIIe au VIIIe siècle après J.-C., (Travaux et mémoires du Centre de recherche d'histoire et civilisation de Byzance. Monographies 12, Paris: De Boccard, 2000), no. 143.
IGC - Grégoire, H (ed.), Recueil des inscriptions grecques chrétiennes d'Asie Mineure, vol. 1 (Paris: Leroux, 1922), no. 166.
Evangelidis, T., Κυκλαδικὸν Ἡμερολόγιον (1908), 34.
Hiller von Gaertringen, F. (ed.), Thera: Untersuchungen, Vermessungen und Ausgrabungen in den Jahren 1895-[1902], vol. 3: Stadtgeschichte von Thera (Berlin: G. Reimer, 1904), 195.
Hiller von Gaertringen, F. (ed.), Inscriptiones Graecae, vol 12: Inscriptiones insularum maris Aegaei praeter Delum, part 3: Inscriptiones Symes, Teutlussae, Teli, Nisyri, Astypalaeae, Anaphes, Therae et Therasiae, Pholegandri, Meli, Cimoli (Berlin: Apud G. Reimerum, 1898), no. 975.
Halbherr, F., "Krete, the Sporades and the Kyklades", American Journal of Archaeology 7 (1891), 534.
Halbherr, F., "Greek Christian inscriptions in the Cyclades and in Crete", Athenaeum (1891), 458.
Corpus Inscriptionum Graecarum IV, no. 8911.
Ross, L., Reisen auf den griechischen Inseln des ägäischen Meers, vol. 1 (Stuttgart-Tübingen: J.G. Gotta'schen, 1840), 60.
Further reading:
Halkin, F., "Inscriptions grecques relatives à l'hagiographie. Supplément", Analecta Bollandiana 71 (1953), 340.
Kiourtzian, G., "Pietas insulariorum", [in:] Eupsychia: mélanges offerts à Hélène Ahrweiler, vol. 2 (Série Byzantina Sorbonensia 16, Paris: Publications de la Sorbonne, 1998), 370.
Leclercq, H., "Achaïe", Dictionnaire d'archéologie chrétienne et liturgie, vol. 1/1 (Paris: Librarie Letouzey et Ané, 1924), col. 338.
Images
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From: Kiourtzian 2000, plate 51.
Record Created By
Paweł Nowakowski
Date of Entry
11/04/2016
| ID | Name | Name in Source | Identity | S00181 | Michael, the Archangel | Μιχαήλ | Certain |
|---|
Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL:
Paweł Nowakowski, Cult of Saints, E01268 - http://csla.history.ox.ac.uk/record.php?recid=E01268