tence before the eighth century, for Constantine Copronymus
(740-775), the bitter iconoclast, displayed his contempt for monks and
all their ways by scattering the fraternity, and changing the fragrant
name of the establishment, Myrelaion, the place of myrrh-oil, into the
offensive designation, Psarelaion, the place of fish-oil.[310] The
monastery was restored by the Emperor Romanus I. Lecapenus (919-945),
who devoted his residence in this district to that object.[311] Hence
the monastery was sometimes described as 'in the palace of the
Myrelaion,'[312] [Greek: en tois palatiois tou Myrelaiou], and as 'the
monastery of the Emperor Romanus,'[313] [Greek: Mone tou basileos
Rhomanou]. It was strictly speaking a convent, and became noteworthy for
the distinguished rank of some of its inmates, and as the mausoleum in
which the founder and many members of his family were laid to rest. Here
Romanus II. sent his sister Agatha to take the veil, when he was obliged
to dismiss her from the court to soothe the jealousy of his beautiful
but wicked consort Theophano.[314] Upon the abdication of Isaac
Comnenus, his wife Aecatherina and her daughter Maria retired to the
Myrelaion, and there learned that a crown may be a badge of slavery and
the loss of it liberty.[315] Here were buried Theodora,[316] the wife of
Romanus Lecapenus, in 923, and, eight years later, his beloved son
Christopher,[317] for whom he mourned, says the historian of the event,
with a sorrow 'greater than the grievous mourning of the Egyptians.'
Here also Helena, the daughter of Romanus Lecapenus, and wife of
Constantine VII. Porphyrogenitus, was laid to rest, in 981, after an
imposing funeral, in which the body was carried to the grave on a bier
of gold adorned with pearls and other precious stones.[318] To this
monastery were transferred, from the monastery of S. Mamas, near the
Gate of the Xylokerkou, the three sarcophagi, one of them a fine piece
of work, containing the ashes of the Emperor Maurice and his children.
And here also Romanus Lecapenus himself was interred in 948, his remains
being brought from the island of Prote, where his unfilial sons, Stephen
and Constantine, had obliged him to spend the last years of his life as
a monk.[319]

[Illustration: PLATE LIII.
MYRELAION. THE SOUTH SIDE.]

[Illustration: MYRELAION. THE NARTHEX, LOOKING NORTH.
_To face page 196._]

_Architectural Features_

The building is on the 'four column' plan. The d