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The Sgouros (Medieval Greek: Σγουρός), also known as Sgouropoulos (Σγουρόπουλος), Sgouromallaios (Σγουρομαλλαίος), Sgouranos (Σγουρανός), Sgouris (Σγουρής), Sgourismenos (Σγουρισμένος), Sgouritzis (Σγουρίτζης), and Sgourogiannis (Σγουρογιάννης), was a Byzantine Greek noble family – composed of multiple branches – that originated from Nafplio.

Name

The name of the family derives from the Greek adjective sgourós (σγουρός), which is indicative of wavy hair. According to linguist and philologist Georgios Babiniotis, the adjective sgourós derives either from Ancient Greek gurós (γυρός) 'curved, round' with the introduction of the prefix σ-, or from the noun svoúros (σβούρος), which might have been detached from svouró-mallos (σβουρό-μαλλος).

History

The Sgouros family was a rich and powerful family, which first appeared in the middle of the 11th c. in Nafplio. From the very beginning right until the 15th c., it was part of the Byzantine provincial middle class. Members of the family appear to hold both political and ecclesiastical positions, and they were also distinguished as scholars, scribes, orators, etc. The Byzantinist Alexander Kazhdan, who was a notable scholar of mid-Byzantine and late Byzantine society, identified twelve representatives of the family during the reign of Alexios I Komnenos (1081-1118). With the appearance of the most prominent Sgouroi at the end of the 12th and beginning of the 13th centuries (Theodoros and Leon), the family arranged marriages with the noble family of Angeloi.

Although many Sgouroi were distinguished in public administrative positions from the time of Alexios I Komnenos, they never seem to have been members of the aristocratic court in Constantinople. Some of the most important positions held by the recorded members – mainly from 1086/1088 AD and thereafter – were those of the protospatharios, sebastos, chartoularios, proedros, domestikos, protostrator, logothetis, megas hetaireiarches, protonotarios, prokathimenos, protallagator, and sebastohypertatos (by Leon Sgouros).

Members

There have been about 90 recorded members of the family and its branches between the 11th and 15th centuries. Of those, only four were women. Furthermore, 37 belonged to the branch of Sgourópouloi (one related through marriage to the Doukas family), 16 to Sgoúroi (one related through marriage to the Doukas family), 14 to Sgouroí, four to Sgouromállides (two related through marriage to the Palaiologoi family), two Sgourítzes, and one Sgouranós, Sgourogiánnis, and Sgourothomás respectively. The following table lists them chronologically.

Footnotes

1. ^ Vlachopoulou 2001, p. 17
2. Georgakas 1937, pp. 37–52
3. Babiniotis 2010, p. 1252
4. Vlachopoulou 2001, pp. 17–18
5. Vlachopoulou 2001, p. 18
6. Vlachopoulou 2001, pp. 98–102
7. PLP10 1990, pp. 195–203

References

• Vlachopoulou, Fotini (2001). Ο βίος και η πολιτεία του Λέοντος Σγουρού: Βυζαντινού άρχοντα της βορειοανατολικής Πελοποννήσου στις αρχές του 13ου αιώνα [The life and times of Leon Sgouros: Byzantine lord of northeastern Peloponnese in the early 13th century] (in Greek). University of Johannesburg.
• Trapp, Erich; Beyer, Hans-Veit; Kaplaneres, Sokrates; Leontiades, Johannes G., eds. (1990). Prosopographisches Lexikon der Palaiologenzeit [Prosopographical Lexicon of the Palaiologan era] (in German). Vol. 10 (1st ed.). Austrian Academy of Sciences Press. ISBN 978-3-7001-1775-9.
• Georgakas, Demetrios (1937). "Περί της λέξεως σγουρός και των συγγενών". Αθηνά. No. 47. Η εν Αθήναις Επιστημονική Εταιρεία. ISSN 1011-1557.
• Babiniotis, Georgios (2010) . Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας Ελληνικής γλώσσας (in Greek). Lexicology Center Ltd. ISBN 978-960-89751-8-7.

• Byzantine families