Seal of Theodoros
source date: Late 7th c. – early 8th c. Spätes 7. Jh. – frühes 8. Jh. ύστερος 7ος αι., – αρχέ
edition published: 2025-01-02
availability: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International - CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/)

Θεοτόκε βοήθει

Θεοδώρῳ

ΕΘoΡΩ

Θεοτόκε βοήθει Θεοδώρῳ.

Mother of God, help Theodoros.

Muttergottes, hilf Theodoros.

Θεοτόκε βοήθησε το Θεόδωρο.

The upper part of the seal is damaged, so we do not know for sure whether the monogram on the reverse is fully preserved. If we assume that the monogram is fully preserved, then it would correspond to the monogram type Zacos 186, with the omicron inscribed in the rho and the name in the dative case. Alternatively, it can be assumed that there is a letter above the pi, either an upsilon (see the monogram type Zacos 179), in which case the name would be in the genitive, or an omicron (see the monogram type Zacos 185). There seems to be no place for an OV ligature. No parallels of this seal are known, but there are many specimens showing on the obverse the same invocative monogram (Laurent, type I) and on the reverse a similar cruciform monogram, with the name Theodoros in the genitive (with an OV ligature) or, more rarely, in the dative (with an omicron drown at the top of the rho).[1] Quite often there is no decoration in the quarters of the name monogram, except for one seal published in the [...], which shows four stars ( BZS.1947.2.1720 ).

[1] In the genitive: (1) Tatis Collection, no. 2315, published in [...], no. 8.58 ; (2) DO BZS.1958.106.5006 (Zacos Collection), published in [...], no. 1619 and in [...] ; (3) DO BZS.1947.2.1720 and (4) DO BZS.1958.106.4997, both published in [...] . In the dative, with an omicron drown at the top of the rho: DO BZS.1958.106.2340, published in [...], no. 1621 and in [...] . On a seal published by Zografopoulos the case is unclear, as the upper part of the monogram is missing (Karthago, no. 18/6/1, published in [...], no. Θ 12 ).