Evidence ID
E01218Saint Name
Mary, Mother of Christ : S00033
Archangels (unspecified) : S00191
Gabriel, the Archangel : S00192Saint Name in Source
Μαρία
ἀρχάνγελοςImage Caption 1
Fragment B with the right-hand end of the inscription on Face A. From: Deligiannakis 2015, 265.Type of Evidence
Inscriptions - Formal inscriptions (stone, mosaic, etc.)
Literary - OtherEvidence not before
400Evidence not after
600Activity not before
400Activity not after
600Place of Evidence - Region
Aegean islands and Cyprus
Aegean islands and CyprusPlace of Evidence - City, village, etc
Ikaria
KamposPlace of evidence - City name in other Language(s)
Ikaria
Salamis
Σαλαμίς
Salamis
Salamis
Farmagusta
Far
Κωνσταντία
Konstantia
Constantia
Kampos
Salamis
Σαλαμίς
Salamis
Salamis
Farmagusta
Far
Κωνσταντία
Konstantia
ConstantiaCult activities - Places
Cult building - independent (church)Cult activities - Non Liturgical Practices and Customs
Appropriation of older cult sitesSource
Two, non-conjoining, fragments of a white marble plaque (Th. 0.075 m). Fragment A: broken and lost on the right-hand side and on the left lower corner. H. 0.43 m; W. 0.9 m. Fragment B: broken on the left-hand side and on the lower right-hand corner. H. 0.0445 m; W. 0.53 m.
Fragment A was brought from a place named Fanári to the village of Agios Kirikos (Ikaria) by a local. Now lost. Fragment B is now in the Museum of the village of Kampos (Ikaria), it had been found in a local house. It is possible that the inscription was related to the basilica near Oinoe, presumably dedicated to Mary in late antiquity (now to Hagia Eirene).
Both fragments were seen and copied by Ludwig Bürchner and Albert Rehm at the turn of the 20th c. Fragment B was revisited and photographed by Angelos P. Matthaiou in 1995.
The plaque was inscribed on two faces (Face A: letter height 0.03-0.04 m; Face B: letter height 0.025 m). Face A bears two holes, apparently cut when the plaque was reused. On the right-hand margin of Face A there is a carving of a cross.Discussion
The inscription on Face A reproduces the text of an oracle, ascribed to Apollo, foretelling the transformation of a pagan shrine into a church dedicated to the Virgin Mary. It appears in several accounts of the 5th and 6th c. Christian authors. For a discussion, see: Agusta-Boularot 2006, 103-105.
Among the earliest writers alluding to this oracle, we have Theodotos, bishop of Ankyra (Galatia, central Asia Minor) and a participant of the council of Ephesos 431. He mentions the prophecy in Homilia in Deiparam et in nativitatem Domini 14, PG 77, 1430 (written before his death in 446). It was also known to the author of a theological treatise, dating to the late 5th c.: the so-called Theosophia Tubingensi (ed. Erbse) §§ 53-54.
Angelos P. Matthaiou notes that the text found on the island of Ikaria, and discussed here, is very close to the version offered by John Malalas in his 6th c. Chronicle (IV 8; E05665), and hence come the substantial completions. Malalas says that the inscription from which he copied the text was displayed in the sanctuary of Rhea in Kyzikos (Hellespontus, northwest Asia Minor), believed to have been founded by the Argonauts. According to Malalas, the Argonauts, having killed the king of Kyzikos, constructed there a temple. The newly-established shrine, however, lacked a dedicatee, so they departed for the nearby oracle of Pythia Therma (probably at modern Yalova in Bithynia or at the thermae of Gunen near Kyzikos, see: Hasluck 1910, 102) to enquire about the proper dedication. Apollo answered, in words that were much alike our oracle, that he foresees the coming of the tripartite God, conceived by a virgin, called Maria, which inclined the Argonauts to dedicate the temple to Rhea (the mother of the pagan Gods) and inscribe the oracle on a marble plaque, inlaid with bronze letters, over the entrance. Malalas does not say whether he saw the inscription himself, but claims that the prophecy was fulfilled when the shrine was converted to a church of Mary, Mother of Christ, by the emperor Zeno in 474-491. Raymond Janin suggested that the sanctuary mentioned in this legend was the monastery of the God-Bearer on the mount of Dindymos.
It is very probable that the text really was displayed on the new Christian sanctuary and became the source for the author of our inscription, as Ikaria lies not very far from Kyzikos. The oracle is also known to have existed in at least one more monumental inscription, displayed over the gate of christianised Parthenon in Athens.
The text inscribed on Face B, possibly a hymn, refers to an unnamed archangel and again Mary, Mother of Christ. Therefore it may be an account of the annunciation by the archangel *Gabriel. It was probably carved later than the former text.
Dating: 5th or 6th c., based on the literary context of the inscribed text.Bibliography
Edition:
Inscriptiones Graecae XII 6,2: Inscriptiones Icariae insulae (nos. 1217-1292), ed. Angelos P. Matthaiou, no. 1265.
Matthaiou, A.P., Papadopoulos, G.K., Ἐπιγραφὲς Ἰκαρίας (Athens: Greek Epigraphic Society/Hellenike Epigraphike Hetaireia, 2003), 61-65.
Further reading:
Agusta-Boularot, S., "Malalas épigraphiste? Nature et fonction des citations épigraphiques dans la Chronique", in: S. Agusta-Boularot et al., Recherches sur la Chronique de Jean Malalas, vol. 2 (Monographies, Centre de recherche d'histoire et civilisation de Byzance 24, Paris : Association des amis du centre d'histoire et civilisation de Byzance, 2006), 103-105.
Busine, A., "The discovery of inscriptions and the legitimation of new cults", in B. Dignas, R.R.R. Smith (eds.), Historical & Religious Memory in the Ancient World (Oxford: OUP, 2012), 241-256.
Deligiannakis, G., "Late paganism on the Aegean Islands and processes of Christianisation", in: L. Lavan, M. Mulryan (eds.), The Archaeology of Late Antique ‘Paganism’ (Leiden – Boston: Brill, 2011), 325–327.
Deligiannakis, G., "Εκχριστιανίζοντας τις νησιωτικές κοινότητες του ανατολικού Αιγαίου. Η περίπτωση της νήσου Ικαρίας [Christianizing island communities in the Eastern Aegean. The case of Ikaria]", Δελτίον της Χριστιανικής Αρχαιολογικής Εταιρείας 36 (2015), 264-266.
Deligiannakis, G., "Heresy and late antique epigraphy in an island landscape: exploring the limits of the archaeological evidence", in: K. Bolle, C. Machado, C. Witschel (eds.), The Epigraphic Culture(s) of Late Antiquity (Heidelberger Althistorische Beiträge und Epigraphische Studien, Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 2017), 524-525.
Hasluck, F.W., Cyzicus: being some account of the history and antiquities of that city, and of the district adjacent to it with the towns of Apollonia ad Rhyndoveum, Miletupolis, Hadrianutherae, Priapus, Zeleia, etc. (Cambridge : Cambridge University Press 1910), 102.
Janin, R., La géographie ecclésiastique de l'Empire Byzantin, vol. 1: Le siège de Constantinople et le patriarcat oecuménique. Les Églises et les monastères des grands centres byzantins (Paris 1975), 203-205.
Reference works:
Chroniques d'épigraphie byzantine, 240.
Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum 53, 904.
