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Byzantine Women, Sex etc. – A Thread
Matrona of Perge – C5th runaway housewife/mother who disguised herself as a eunuch to be admitted to the monastery of Basianos, Constantinople and later founded her own convent in the capital.
Zosimus left Judean desert to find a holy person who surpassed him only to find that the person who fulfilled his criteria was an emaciated, half-naked Mary of Egypt.
Paraskeve the Younger: top women are better than top men coz they don’t just perform spiritual feats but do it from a lower baseline ie a weaker nature.
Theodore Bestos’ encomium on Euphemia delivered before choirs of holy men showed affection for her before sliding into ambivalent passages from the Song of Solomon that praised her breasts & navel.
Men went to the tomb of Theophano (wife of Leo VI) at Holy Apostles for her miraculous healing powers.
Women often had to battle the prejudice that they were the “daughters of Eve.” At other end of spectrum Thecla was exalted as an example of a spiritually powerful woman who remained a soul sister to Paul even when they were apart.
Kassia famously replied to Theophilos that though the worst evil may have come through woman (Eve) so did the best (Jesus through Mary).
We must praise Theodora Raoulaina who passed her prison term (imposed coz she rejected reconciliation with the Latins at Lyons) by composing the lives of sainted bros Theodore & Theophanes Graptoi (v. famous story).
There’s a joke in the Philogelos that went “a man tries to sell his wife tax-free & when asked why he replied so that she may be confiscated as contraband.”
Theodore Balsamon noted that the most libidinous byz folk ordered sexual acts to be painted in frescos upon the walls of their houses too so that they might incite all who saw them to f***.
C12th romance Hysimine & Hysiminias (by Makrembolites) contained a passage that clearly describes Hysminias having a wet dream over his beloved.
Early C12th Mt Athos had to move on Vlachs whose women were giving/selling their services to the monks.
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