Dovecote Church

Saint Eunoikos

The name beside this figure is shown as EYNOHKOC - "Eunoikos". According to Jerphanion other sources spell his name as EYNOIXOC - "Eunoikhos". There are several instances in the Dovecote Church of alternate spellings for the names of the figures.

The klibanion appears to be of fairly large plates - most likely lamellar - and kremasmata of similar construction. His legs appear to be bare except for his boots, and he has a strange feature around the centre of his torso, remarked upon by Nicolle - what he interprets as a circular gap in the armour to allow flexibility, which would supposedly be closed up by the warrior sitting on his horse. I must say I find this explanation hard to accept, and I am making further investigations of the photographs to see if I can suggest an alternative explanation. One possibility is that, rather than a gap in the armour, it's a reinforcement added over it.

Detail.
The pattern of plates appears to continue into the circular region. Unfortunately, piicture quality is not sufficient to really determine the nature of this feature. If anything, it increases the mystery.

The kremasmata appear to be of individual strips - but do they continue through the circular feature as they seem to do, or is this just a coincidental alignment of the shading? In fact, it even appears as though the garment is "bloused over" this feature, as if it is some kind of belt or girdle.

Back to Illustrations of Byzantine Costume and Soldiers in Dovecote Church, Cavusin, Cappadocia, Turkey