The Heavenly Ladder of Saint John Climacus, late 12th century, The Holy Monastery of Saint Catherine, Sinai, Egypt
Photograph in the public domain
Saint Clement, from the Church of the Virgin Periblepos Ochrid,Macedonia.
The Lessing Gallery
[enlarged detail of St. Clement icon at left]
Here are a few Web sites that may be of help for your research or interest. If writing a paper, remember that you must cite Internet sources as well as any print, media or other sources you use.
Often, you will see identification inscriptions on an icon, especially for those after the iconoclastic period. If you don't already, you will recognize the most common, such as the IC XC for Jesous Christos/Jesus Christ, and the abbreviations for Saint, Archbishop, etc. Remember that the Greek word for saint or holy, "hagios", begins with a reversed apostrophe, as that represents an aspirated ("h" sound) beginning to a vowel. There is sometimes an 'O before the hagios, for ho= "the". The little squiggles above words represent the missing letter or letters in the abbreviation.
Note too that Russian icons may use the Russian word/abbreviation rather than the Greek, etc. It can be intriguing to try to read and understand some of these inscriptions, when legible. Note that Russian and other Slavic churches often use the Old Slavonic alphabet (of Sts. Cyril and Methodius) rather than the modern Russian alphabet for their liturgical inscriptions.
For a more fulsome guide to Eastern Orthodoxy, click on the link to the LibGuide, below.