Today, thanks to a reader question, we will take a look at a 14th century icon in the Byzantine Museum, Athens. It represents the Archangel Michael, leader of the heavenly armies.
{Byzantine Museum, Athens – St. Michael: 14th century – Photo by Giovanni Dall’Orto, Nov 12 2009)
The question asked was, what do the letters in the round mirror (depicted as a transparent sphere here) held by St. Michael mean?
Let’s look at them:
First, we need to know that the letters are Greek, which makes sense, given that it is a Byzantine icon.
The first letter — at the top — is Χ. It stands for Χριστος — Khristos — „Christ.“
It would be easy to mistake the second letter, at left, for an Α. But actually it is the letter Δ, which is often found written in this manner in old icons. It stands for Δικαιος — Dikaios
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