Synopses & Reviews
Women played key roles in Byzantine society: some ruled or co-ruled the empire, and others commissioned art and buildings, went on pilgrimages, and wrote. This engrossing book draws on evidence ranging from pictorial mosaics and inscriptions on the walls of churches to womenand#8217;s poetry and histories, examining for the first time the lives, occupations, beliefs, and social roles of Byzantine women.
In each chapter Carolyn L. Connor introduces us to a single womanand#151;from the elite to the ordinaryand#151;and uses her as a springboard to discuss Byzantine society. Frequently quoting from contemporary accounts, Connor reveals what these women thought of themselves and their lives and how they remembered the lives of women who had lived earlier.
Informative, sympathetic, and engagingly written, this book is a window into Byzantine culture and womenand#8217;s history that has never before been opened.
Review
"A splendid achievement. A fascinating exploration of the role and activities of women over centuries of Byzantine history."and#8212;John Matthews, Yale University
Synopsis
On detailed inspection, sources relating to the Byzantine empire do contain significant reference to the position and role of women in society. In this study Carolyn Connor presents a window into the lives, occupations, beliefs, and social roles of Byzantine women' from Late Antiquity, AD 250, to the Fall of Constantinople in 1453. Drawing on a wide variety of sources including art, architecture, inscriptions, hagiographies, poetry. histories, legal records and chronicles, each chapter takes a particular theme relating to women such as imperial marriage, women as saints, female pilgrimages, monasticism and women as patrons. Each chapter begins with a general introduction to its central theme and then takes a particular female figure as a case study, covering many different types and social classes of women. The lives of ordinary women, wives, mothers, and sisters are social classes of women. The lives of ordinary women, wives, mothers, and sisters are placed alongside those of the empress Theodora, the empress Zoe, the wife of the emperor Justinian, Anna Kommene, and so on. An impressive and well-written study which is not beyond the general reader.
About the Author
Carolyn L. Connor is professor of classics at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.