E01721: Greek inscription with an invocation of *Isidoros (soldier and martyr of Chios, S00425). Found at Livadia (island of Chios; Aegean Islands). Probably late antique.

online resource

posted on 2016-07-13, 00:00 authored by pnowakowski

+ ἀγαθῇ τύχῃ
[ἅ]γιε Ἰσίδωρε βοήθι
τοῦ δούλου σου
̣Ἀλαπιντίου. ἀμήν

'+ With good fortune! Saint Isidoros, help your servant Alapintios! Amen.'

Text: Zolotas 1908, 312, no. 29.

History

Evidence ID

E01721

Saint Name

Isidore, martyr of Chios, ob. 249/251 : S00425

Saint Name in Source

Ἰσίδωρος

Related Saint Records

https://oxford.figshare.com/articles/Isidoros_soldier_and_martyr_of_Chios/13730293

Type of Evidence

Inscriptions - Formal inscriptions (stone, mosaic, etc.)

Language

Greek

Evidence not before

400

Evidence not after

1300

Activity not before

400

Activity not after

1300

Place of Evidence - Region

Aegean islands and Cyprus Aegean islands and Cyprus

Place of Evidence - City, village, etc

Chios Livadia (Chios)

Place of evidence - City name in other Language(s)

Chios Salamis Σαλαμίς Salamis Salamis Farmagusta Far Κωνσταντία Konstantia Constantia Livadia (Chios) Salamis Σαλαμίς Salamis Salamis Farmagusta Far Κωνσταντία Konstantia Constantia

Cult Activities - Protagonists in Cult and Narratives

Other lay individuals/ people

Source

A whitish stone plaque. H. 0.39 m; W. 0.42 m; Th. 0.14 m. Seen and copied by Georgios Zolotas at the Museum of the Gymnasium in Chios after 1886. Said to have been found at Livadia.

Discussion

The inscription is an invocation of Saint Isidoros. Its remarkable feature is the unusual combination of the pagan introductory formula agathe tyche / 'with good fortune' with the Christian religion of the supplicant. We witness here a sign of the devotion to a local martyr, as Isidoros was martyred and then venerated in Chios. His cult was known to Gregory of Tours in the late 6th c., see: E00654. Dating: There is no reliable way to date such a short invocation: this type of prayer, with the 'servant-of-saint' formula, is unlikely to occur before the late 5th or 6th c., while the agathe tyche formula suggests a date early in this period.

Bibliography

Edition: Zolotas, G., "Επιγραφαί Χίου ανέκδοτοι", Athena 20 (1908), 312, no. 29 Further reading: Kiourtzian, G., "Pietas insulariorum", [in:] Eupsychia: mélanges offerts à Hélène Ahrweiler, vol. 2 (Série Byzantina Sorbonensia 16, Paris: Publications de la Sorbonne, 1998), 375.