Abstract

According to the sources, the term “in Powers” was used in the titles of various Russian iconographies; the widespread and well-known one is: “The Saviour in Powers”. The origin and nature of this image are largely open to question. Its meaning has not been revealed: the word “Powers” can define either “angelic powers” or “divine creative power and might”. The article draws attention to the fact that every Russian icon with “in Powers” in its title has the same quadrangular pointed elements with the symbols of the evangelists. The author suggests that the term “Powers” is related not to the angels, as is commonly believed, but to these star-shaped figures. They are the most noticeable and characteristic details of “The Saviour in Powers” and other iconographies with similar star-shaped objects. And it is reasonable to assume that these iconographies, especially “The Saviour in Powers”, are named after them and not after comparatively small and hardly visible “transparent” angels. In the author’s view, the epithet “in Powers” was initially applied to the icon of the enthroned Savior in a star-shaped “radiance”, which was located in the center of the Deesis row. And here it meant “divine creative power”. Repeating in other icons, these (and similar to them) star-shaped figures should have been associated with the epithet “in Powers” and could add it to their titles. It is also possible that it was attributed to both angelic powers and star-shaped figures that would allow using “powers” in the plural form.