Enquiry

The suspension consists of an openwork roundel with a box-shaped monogram; below a cross pattée from which hang three long chains bisected with roundels cut out with cross motifs; the end of each chain is secured to a large disc cast in openwork in the form of a wheel with radiating spokes or a sun-burst with crosses to each arm. On the rim, nine receptacles for glass oil lamps (candelia).

When lit, these lamps cast beautiful shadows, magnifying the designs of this polycandelon on walls and floors.  Much larger versions were used to light the great church of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople, which the poet and courtier Paul the Silentiary described in 563 AD: “Thus is everything clothed in beauty … no words are sufficient to describe the illumination in the evening: you might say that some nocturnal sun filled the majestic church with light.”

The box-shaped monogram in the roundel at the top probably gives the name of the polycandelon’s owner or perhaps of the church for which it was made. Resolving it depends on which letters one chooses to read in its stylised form.  Among the possibilities:

A Γ Ε O C V  (Euagous or Seauagou)

A Γ I Ε Λ O C V (Gelasiou or Oualagesou)

A Γ Γ Ε Λ O V  (Angelou or Ageliou)