Byzantine Heraldry??

[Shayne]

Hi, I've searched the internet for a while, pretty extensively, and haven't come up with anything sufficient regarding the meaning of this symbol. I know the double headed eagle came into Byzantine as a similar graphic form, but does anyone have any information into this particular design? Particularly the symbol at the centre of the eagle.


Cheers

[Seleucos of Olympia]

Without having any deeper knowledge on it, it looks like a combination of the letters Π, Α, Λ, Γ, (P,A,L,G), probably denoting the name Palaeologos.

[Romano-Dacis]

Without having any deeper knowledge on it, it looks like a combination of the letters Π, Α, Λ, Γ, (P,A,L,G), probably denoting the name Palaeologos.

Bing!
It is the Palaiologos crest. Incidentally, Charlemagne had a very similar design.

The letters spell out KAROLVS (A, O, and U are in the center).

[alhoon]

I think the two headed eagle's meaning was something like "looking to the east, looking to the west" i.e. that the Byzantine empire didn't forget it's western roots or it's Eastern ambitions.

[Lonck]

the two headed eagle originated from the Hittites or the area around there, long before the byzantines came into existence. Wikipedia confirms it.

[Phoebus]

I don't think anyone here claimed that the double-headed eagle was a unique product of the Romans.

Be that as it may, the two-headed eagle as a symbol of the eastern Roman empire is derived from the long-standing use of the eagle as a symbol of both the Roman Republic and the Roman empire that succeeded it. The two heads are well-atested to be a symbol of watchfulness/dominion over both east and west. On the other hand, there's no more evidence to assume a link to the far, far earlier Hittites (whose use of the double-headed eagle ended before the Roman use of the single-headed eagle even came into prominence) than there is to the Indian dynasty that used a similar emblem.

Incidentally, you linked to the wrong page. It makes no mention of Hittites--but I know what you were driving at.