ABSTRACT
We arrive at last at the entry for the ‘star’ warrior saint, George, ÌÂÁ·ÏÔÌ¿ÚÙ˘˜, Ù·Íȿگ˘, ηÏÏ›ÓÈÎÔ˜, above all ÙÚÔ·ÈÔÊfiÚÔ˜.1 In court ceremonial, according to Pseudo-Kodinos, a banner on which he was portrayed on horseback was carried in procession separately from that of the four great warrior marytrs Demetrius, Procopius and the two Theodores.2 By reason of his pre-eminence, it might have seemed more logical to treat him first. However, there were reasons for not doing so. One was that he would then have stolen all the limelight. Another is that the cult of St George does not fit easily into the schema used for the preceding entries. He had, indeed, all the characteristics of a warrior saint, but he also readily assimilated those of other saints and of deities who were receiving cult in regions where devotion to him developed. Yet another reason is the extraordinary disproportion between the minimal knowledge available of the historical St George and the maximal amount of cult which he received, not at once when he first emerged but progressively later, so that at the present day he is still the most popular warrior saint.
