Alexander Riehle

Authorship and Gender (and) Identity.

Womens Writing in the Middle Byzantine
Period
1 Introduction
In her 1985 article Observations on the Life and Ideology of Byzantine Women Angeliki Laiou started from the premise that texts written by women, or texts in the
writing of which women participated in a major way, should be used in order to
try to establish the parameters of the female mentality. I would like to re-phrase
that assertion as a question using it as a starting point for my own discussion of
womens writing in the middle Byzantine period: can we use texts written by
women in order to establish the parameters of female identity? As the reader surely
has noticed, I replaced Laious mentality a term which is problematic in several
respects and has become somewhat out-of-fashion with identity, this term being
a pivotal one in gender studies, especially in feminist approaches drawing on Freudian psychoanalysis.
Some twenty-five years ago, Joan W. Scott defined gender as a constitutive element of social relationships based on perceived differences between the sexes and
as a primary way of signifying relationships of power. In its first aspect, gender involves four interrelated elements: first culturally available symbols that evoke multiple (and often contradictory) representations Scott interestingly cites as examples Eve and Mary as symbols of women; second, normative concepts that set
forth interpretations of the meanings of the symbols, that attempt to limit and contain their metaphoric possibilities e. g., religious and political dogma declaring
women as inherently weak and simultaneously dangerous; third, politics (), social
institutions and organizations for Byzantium one could think of public administration from which women were excluded, or monasteries, which provided both sexes

I am indebted to Scott Johnson (Washington D.C.) for his most helpful remarks and emendations.
Angeliki E. Laiou, Observations on the Life and Ideology of Byzantine Women, BF 9 (1985): 59
102, on 60.
See, e. g., Peter Burkes critical essay Strengths and Weaknesses in the History of Mentalities, In
Id., Varieties of Cultural History (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1997), 16282, who, despite all
reservations, embraces the notion of mentalities.
See the discussions in Joan W. Scott, Gender: A Useful Category of Historical Analysis, The
American Historical Review 91 (1986): 105375, on 106165 and Marion Gymnich, Entwrfe weiblicher
Identitt im englischen Frauenroman des 20. Jahrhunderts, Horizonte 28 (Trier: Wissenschaftlicher
Verlag Trier, 2000), 2863.

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with an alternative to the married life; and finally, subjective identity. My paper
will focus on this last element in its relation to the other three, arguing that gender
identity or rather, gendered identities are not only reflected in texts penned by
women of the period under examination, but that authorial practices contributed
to shaping and representing such identities and to negotiating normative concepts
associated with them.
The focus on the middle Byzantine period here broadly understood as the time
from the early 9th to the late 12th centuries makes sense insofar as this period marks
a turning point not only with regard to cultural production in general, as is well
known, but also with regard to womens participation in the literary discourse.
This becomes evident from a survey of the extant writings penned by women, as
texts survive solely from the first half of the ninth century and the first half of the
12th century that differ significantly as to their form, scope and function. I will
begin my discussion with the ninth century, which witnessed women as prolific composers of liturgical poetry.

2 Writing and chanting for redemption: female

authorial practices in 9th-century liturgical poetry
Three female hymnographers from the late 8th or early 9th century until around the
middle of that century are known to us today: Thekla, Kassia, and Theodosia. Of
these female authors, Kassia is undoubtedly the best known, not only because of

Scott, Gender, 106769.

In this I follow Paul Ricurs basic assumption that narratives function as mediation for selfinterpretation and thus for the creation of identity; see Paul Ricur, Narrative Identity, Philosophy
Today 35 (1991): 7381. See also Paul John Eakin, Living Autobiographically: How We Create Identity in
Narrative (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2008). For feminist approaches see Judith Kegan Gardiner,
On Female Identity and Womens Writing, Critical Inquiry 8 (1981): 34761 and the discussion in
Gymnich, Entwrfe weiblicher Identitt, 1627.
See the classic study by Alexander P. Kazhdan and Ann Wharton Epstein, Change in Byzantine
Culture in the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries, The Transformation of the Classical Heritage 7 (Berkeley:
University of California Press, 1985).
The only existing general survey of womens writing in Byzantium is, to my knowledge, Enrico
Valdo Malteses Donne e letteratura a Bisanzio: per una storia della cultura femminile, In Rose di
Pieria, ed. Francesco De Martino (Bari: Levante Editori, 1991), 36293. Malteses account needs serious
reconsideration, however, both in terms of methodology and with regard to the presented data. See,
most recently, also Maria Mavroudi, Learned Women of Byzantium and the Surviving Record, In
Byzantine Religious Culture. Studies in Honor of Alice-Mary Talbot, The Medieval Mediterranean 92,
eds. Denis Sullivan, Elizabeth Fisher and Stratis Papaioannou (Leiden-Boston: Brill, 2012), 5398.
See the survey of Eva Catafygiotu Topping, Women Hymnographers in Byzantium, 3
(198283): 98111.

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the various legends surrounding her life, but also because one of her hymns is still
chanted in the Orthodox Church namely her Troparion for Holy Wednesday. This
troparion which was included, probably by the Studite monks, in the Lenten Tridion is dedicated to the sinful woman who according to Luke was granted forgiveness by Christ when she showed repentance and reverence towards him by kissing
and anointing his feet. The short hymn reads as follows:
(1) , / , / , / , / (5) / , / , , / , / , / (10) , /
/ , / /
/ (15) / , / /
. / , / (20)
/ , / / /
/ (25) . / / / , / / (30) / .
[(1) Lord, the woman who / fell into many sins, / recognizing your divinity, / took on the myrrhbearers office / (5) and brings you in tears myrrh / before your entombment / saying Ah me! /
Night is upon me, / goad of incontinence, / (10) gloomy and moonless, / lust after sin. / Receive
my streams of tears, / you who feed clouds / with the water of the sea. / (15) Bend to my / hearts
groans, / you who bent the heavens / with your ineffable abasement. / I shall kiss your immaculate feet / (20) and wipe them again / with the hair of my head/the feet / whose sound Eve /
heard in paradise mid-afternoon / (25) and hid in fear. / Who will fathom / the numbers of my
sins / and the depths of your judgments, / my soul-saving savior? / (30) Do not overlook me, your
servant/you who have great pity without measure.]

See Ilse Rochow, Studien zu der Person, den Werken und dem Nachleben der Dichterin Kassia,
Berliner Byzantinistische Arbeiten 38 (Berlin: Akademie Verlag, 1967), 519 and 73191 on the brideshow legend and Kassias afterlife in Byzantine and post-Byzantine times.
My reading, although deviating in some key points from previous interpretations of this famous
hymn, owes a great deal to the following studies: Eva Catafygiotu Topping, The Psalmist, St. Luke
and Kassia the Nun, BS/EB 9 (1982): 19920; Andrew R. Dyck, On Cassia, ,
Byzantion 56 (1986): 6376; Alexander Kazhdan with Lee F. Sherry, and Christine Angelidi, A History
of Byzantine Literature (650850), Research Series 2 (Athens: (), , 1999), 31820; Eamonn H. R. Kelly, From Fallen Woman to Theotokos:
Music, Womens Voices and Byzantine Narratives of Gender Identity, In Byzantine Narrative. Papers
in Honour of Roger Scott, ed. John Burke (Melbourne: Australian Association for Byzantine Studies,
2006), 16481, on 17581.
7:3650
The Greek text is printed in , (Rome: s.n., 1879), 64445; the quoted translation is by
Dyck, On Cassia, 6364 (with modifications). For the Greek text and an English translation see also
Antonia Tripolitis, Kassia: The Legend, the Woman and Her Work, Garland Library of Medieval Literature, Series A, 84 (New York: Garland Publishing, 1992), 7679.

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As Andrew R. Dyck and Alexander Kazhdan have remarked, the versification of the
biblical account stands out for several reasons. The sinful woman is identified with
Mary Magdalene who was one of the women that went to Christs tomb to anoint his
body only to find it empty. This identification is not surprising per se as it is attested
also in earlier writings. What is remarkable, however, is that Kassia merges not only
the characters, but the two biblical stories: The words that Kassia places in the sinners mouth draw from Lukes account of the sinful woman anointing and kissing
Christs feet amid tears in the home of the Pharisee Simon. Yet, this direct speech
is chronologically and spatially placed at Christs empty tomb ([she] brings you in
tears myrrh / before your entombment / saying). Kassia, thus, creates a chronotopos (Michail Bakhtin) that defies chronological linearity and spatial allocation.
This impression of a movement beyond the rules of time and space is further reinforced by the reference to Eve, which previous scholarship struggled to interpret
adequately in their readings of the hymn. The lines at first glance seem awkward
and misplaced a mechanic insertion of a standard figure of female identification
by means of a relative clause loosely connected to the main clause. Yet, scholars
have failed to notice a little, but important detail: the relative pronoun refers
to , thus identifying Christs feet with the feet of God in the Old Testament.
However, in Genesis 3:8 the passage to which Kassia alludes there is no direct
reference to Gods feet: having realized that they are naked, Adam and Eve hide
from the Lords face ( ), when they hear His voice ()
while He was wandering about in the garden ( ). Kassia apparently manipulated the biblical account in order to evoke the prefiguration of
the New Testament story in the Old Testament: the feet that the sinful woman had
honored by kissing and anointing them are the same feet that Eve the woman
that had brought sin to humankind ran away from. This literary technique,
known as typology, is an extension of the common belief that the prophecies of
the Old Testament were fulfilled with the coming of Christ. As Derek Krueger has remarked, Christian writers used typology in order to reenact the Bible: the biblical
age became at once past, present, and timeless. Similarly, in Kassias hymn typol-

Mt 28:18; Mc 16:18; Lc 24:110.

See Dyck, On Cassia, 6667, n. 9.
Lc 7:3638.
Ll. 57; TR 645.
Of course it would be tempting to regard the representation of time in this poem as an example of
womens time as Julia Kristeva has described it: Womens Time, Signs 7 (1981): 1335, on 1518. I
am, however, rather skeptical toward such essentialist approaches.
Ll. 2225; TR 645. See Dyck, On Cassia, 7172.
L. 19; TR 645.
Derek Krueger, Writing and Holiness. The Practice of Authorship in the Early Christian East, Divinations: Rereading Late Ancient Religion (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2004),
1532, quotation on 27. On typology in hymnography see also Christian Hannick, The Theotokos in

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ogy serves the creation of a symbol signifying and representing the timeless woman.
This universal woman does undergo development, however: unlike the sinner Eve,
the sinful woman of the New Testament does not attempt to escape Gods feet, but
on the contrary seeks and embraces them.
This play with multiple and complex identifications is not constrained to the
level of the story (histoire), but extends to the levels of narrative discourse (discours
du rcit) and narrating (narration) as well. This becomes evident from an analysis of
the narrative macro-structure of Kassias troparion. The poem is dominated by the
first-person supplication prayer of the heroine which is, however, embedded in
the framework of a third-person narration. In the first lines, the heterodiegetic narrator who does not seem to bear any gendered markings introduces the sinful
woman to God as if drawing His attention to her actions: Lord, the woman who / fell
into many sins, / recognizing your divinity, took on the myrrh-bearers office / and
brings you in tears myrrh before your entombment. Notably, Kassia employs the
present tense (), thus evoking narrative immediacy and simultaneousness of
narration and story. Then, the narrator proceeds to introduce the characters own
words with the plain participle (saying). Through this rather concealed
way of inducing the characters discourse, the reported speech, signaled by the declarative , approaches immediate speech, in which the narrator is obliterated and the character substitutes for him, and the external focalization through the
narrator who does not seem to be omniscient, but takes on the role of an observer
shifts to internal focalization through the heroine. The characters speech covers
the remaining poem. At some point, the distinction between the voice of the sinful
woman (the intradiegetic level) and the narrative voice of the poet (the extradiegetic

Byzantine Hymnography: Typology and Allegory, In Images of the Mother of God. Perceptions of the
Theotokos in Byzantium, ed. Maria Vassilaki (Aldershot-Burlington: Ashgate, 2005); 6976.
For this distinction see Grard Genette, Narrative Discourse. An Essay in Method, trans. Jane E.
Lewin (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1980), 2532. I will treat Kassias troparion as a narrative
poem, because it presents the basic characteristics of narrative texts, i. e. it tells a story (the story of
the sinful woman) and is narrated by someone (the poetic persona). See Genette, Narrative Discourse,
29.
Ll. 731; TR 645.
On this issue see Ina Schabert, The Authorial Mind and the Question of Gender, In Telling
Stories. Studies in Honour of Ulbrich Broich on the Occasion of His 60th Birthday, eds. Elmar Lehmann
and Bernd Lenz (Amsterdam: B.R. Grner, 1992), 31228 and Susan S. Lanser, Sexing Narratology:
Toward a Gendered Poetics of Narrative Voice, In Transcending Boundaries: Narratology in Context,
eds. Walter Grnzweig and Andreas Solbach, (Tbingen: Narr 1999), 16783.
Ll. 16; TR 64445.
L. 6; TR 645. Cf. Genette, Narrative Discourse, 21619.
L. 7; TR 645.
Genette, Narrative Discourse, 17275, quotation on 174.
Cf. Genette, Narrative Discourse, 18594.

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level) fades out, and the heterodiegetic narrator, who had pointed to the sinful
woman, turns into a homodiegetic, gendered narrator (note especially the phrase
). Finally, the merging of the two distinct narrative
levels in Kassias troparion finds expression in the narratee i. e., the person to
which the narrative is addressed , who on both levels is one and the same person
namely, God (, [] on the extradiegetic level;
, possessive pronouns and imperatives directed toward God on the intradiegetic level).
Taking into consideration that hymnography was composed in order to be performed, one can even go a step further in interpreting Kassias troparion as a piece
of literature that plays with multiple strands of identification. Although there is no
hard evidence for the performative context of the troparion before it was included
in the Tridion, we may assume that it was originally composed to be sung by the
nuns of Kassias monastery. In my view, a further effect of the aforementioned narrative device is that it engages the performing congregation and the actual audience
of the hymn in identifying with the sinful woman. While in the beginning of the
poem the narrator identifies the sinful woman as a specific historical person
(the woman who / fell into many sins) and at the same disassociates herself/himself from her by pointing to her, the individual characteristics of that person and the
distance between the narrator and the character yield to collective traits of woman
and identification of the narrator and the character. This effect must have been intensified in a liturgical performance, in which the chanted words are not quickly read,
but protracted. In this way, the performing choir or congregation would sing for the
largest part a first-person narrative, using the repenting and begging words of the
sinful woman that had been granted redemption by Christ. This act of repentance
was not a one-time event. Kassia, notably, has her heroine use the future tense
when referring to her self-humiliation and act of submission to Christ (,

When I first translated the piece into German, I must admit that I was not sure where to place the
closing quotation marks before the final prayer or after?
L. 30. For heterodiegetic and homodiegetic narrators and the disintegration of character resulting from the transition from one status to the other see Genette, Narrative Discourse, 24347. Cf.
also Derek Kruegers similar observation on Rmanos kontakion On the Healing of the Leper: Krueger,
Writing and Holiness, 176.
Ll. 1, 3; TR 644 (extradiegetic); ll. 12, 15, 18, 19, 27, 29, 30; TR 645 (intradiegetic). Cf. Genette,
Narrative Discourse, 22731 and 25960.
Symen Logothets reports that after Theophilos bride-show, Kassia became a nun and founded
her own convent: Chronicon 130, 5 (ed. Staffan Wahlgren, Symeonis Magistri et Logothetae Chronicon,
Corpus Fontium Historiae Byzantinae, Series Berolinensis 44.1 [Berlin-New York: de Gruyter, 2006],
217). On the location of this monastery in Constantinople, later known as Ta Ikasias, see Albrecht
Berger, Untersuchungen zu den Patria Konstantinupoleos, Poikila Byzantina 8 (Bonn: Habelt, 1988),
64950.
Ll. 12; TR 644.

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). Thus, the universal woman, whose words were to be repeated annually

in a liturgical performance, would continue to supplicate and beg for mercy until ultimate release from sins would be granted through the second coming of Christ.
Interestingly, there seems to be a direct reference to Kassias troparion in another liturgical poem penned by a woman in the 9th century. The otherwise unknown Theodosia composed a kann on Saint Ioannikios, who had been a strong opponent of
iconoclasm, shortly after his death in 846. In the first troparion of the first ode
i. e., at the very beginning of the hymn Theodosia describes her sinfulness using
a wording and imagery that resemble the words of the sinful woman in Kassias
troparion:
A / / , / / .
[The mist and gloom of misconduct / and the night of sin / enfold me, oh good [Ioannikios]! /
Since you are the sun of righteousness / rise for me as light of forgiveness.]

If this is a direct quotation, this passage would allow interesting conclusions about
the dating and circulation of Kassias hymn. What is more in this context, the reference gives us a clue to a key motif of Theodosias hymn: sinfulness and release from
sins. The poet repeatedly prays for forgiveness for the sinners, most notably in the
concluding theotokion, thus creating a ring composition. However, Theodosia not
only emphasizes sinfulness, but in the theotokion of the sixth ode makes a claim
to thesis i. e., deification or equation with god:
/ / /
/ , , / / .
[Your divine offspring / divinized my human nature / and joined it to the Father / and the Holy
Spirit. / Therefore from our soul / we appropriately worship you, / oh all-unblemished Mother of
God.]

Ll. 1920; TR 645.

For aspects of interaction between literary composition, performance and identification in
hymnography cf. Derek Kruegers remarks on Rmanos kontakia: Writing and Holiness, 16668.
A critical edition of the text by Athanasios Komins can be found in Analecta hymnica Graeca,
vol. 3, Canones Novembris (Rome: Istituto di Studi Bizantini e Neoellenici, 1972), 12233. The English
translations are my own. On Theodosia and her kann see Eva Catafygiotu Topping, Theodosia:
Melodos and Monastria, 4 (198687): 384405.
Hymnus in sanctum Ioannicium 1,1, p. 122, ll. 15 Komins.
Hymnus in sanctum Ioannicium 9, theotokion, p. 133, ll. 21320 Komins. See also the kathisma,
pp. 12425, ll. 1619 Komins. George of Nicomedia, in his kann on Saint Ioannikios (pp. 11121
Komins), introduces himself using similar metaphors of darkness and light (1,1, pp. 11112, ll. 16
Komins). However, the contrast here refers to the despondency () that has befallen the poets
soul, not to and (Theodosia).
Hymnus in sanctum Ioannicium 6, theotokion, p. 128, ll. 10612 Komins.

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According to Byzantine exegetes, Eve was tempted by the serpent with the promise to
become god-like. Now, through the incarnation of God, genuine deification had become possible.
The theme of sin and redemption through devotion is most explicitly treated in Theklas kann on the Theotokos, which is probably the earliest liturgical poem composed by a woman that has survived. The hymn is presented by the congregation
this is how I would translate in this context as an encomium to the
Mother of God:
/ / / , , /
/ / / /
.
[Now the congregation / weaves for you, oh holy one, through the Spirit / an ever-blooming
wreath / of encomia / and offers it to you by chanting, / singing Hail / along with your
bride-leader, / the archangel Gabriel, / and crowning you reverently.]

After the first praise of the Theotokos as the mediator of salvation, Thekla proceeds
to introduce the traditional juxtaposition of Eve and Mary, emphasizing that the reconciliation of humankind with God was only possible through the Mother of God:

See the references in Lampe, PGL, s.v. C.1.

See, for instance, also the anonymous kann on the Nativity in Athanasios Komins, Analecta
hymnica Graeca, vol. 4, Canones Decembris (Rome: Istituto di Studi Bizantini e Neoellenici, 1976),
693701, on 698, ll. 12026 (Hymnus in nativitatem 6,2): / , /
, / , / / /
(The son of God rendered the humans sons of God by becoming the son of a human, and
the almighty Lord divinized us through his assuming flesh).
Text published in Sophrnios Eustratiads, , vol. 1, A 78
(Chennevires-sur-Marne: LErmitage, 1931), 16668. The English translations are my own. On Thekla
and her kann see Eva Catafygiotu Topping, Thekla the Nun: In Praise of Woman, GOTR 25 (1980):
35370. I will exclude from my discussion the theotokia of Theklas kann, which bear the acrostic
[]. If we accept the interpretation that Clement composed and inserted the theotokia in this
kann (see the discussions in Wilhelm Weyh, Die Akrostichis in der byzantinischen Kanonesdichtung, BZ 17 (1908): 169, on 5253 and Alexander Kazhdan, An Oxymoron: Individual Features of a
Byzantine Hymnographer, RSBN n.s. 29 (1992): 1958, on 2324; on Clements habit to sign the
theotokia with his name see also Kazhdan, A History of Byzantine Literature, 263), then Thekla must
have been the earliest of our three woman hymnographers (on Clements biographical data see
Kazhdan, with Sherry and Angelidi, A History of Byzantine Literature, 26263). Note also that the only
verses making explicit reference to the iconoclast controversy (Hymnus in Deiparam 7, theotokion, p.
168, ll. 16870 Eustratiads) are part of such a theotokion (theotokion of the seventh ode), which also
points to Clements authorship (cf. Kazhdan, An Oxymoron, 26: [Clement] extols the icon almost
in every hymn).
Hymnus in Deiparam 1,1, p. 166, ll. 19 Eustratiads.
Hymnus in Deiparam 3,1, p. 166, ll. 3740 Eustratiads: A /
/ / .

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The beginning of alienation from God was / Eves deceit towards humankind. / Yet
the holy Theotokos / reconciled God with us again.
However, like in Kassias troparion but more explicitly Thekla stresses not
only the role of the Theotokos for the salvation of all humans in general, but particularly for the redemption of the female sex ( , ) from
the sinful state here labeled as curse () that Eve had bequeathed to it:
/ , , /
/ .
[From Anna you, the joy of the race, blossomed / and gave birth, oh virgin, to the king. / And
with you rejoice in your offspring / all women, being liberated from the curse through you.]
/ , / /
/ .
[You liberated from bitter slavery / the entire race, oh virgin. / And by means of Christs freedom
/ you honored the female sex / through your divine offspring.]

Premise for the accomplishment of this transformation is the fact that women lead
virtuous lives, with the authors namesake Saint Thekla serving as a model:
/ , , / /
/ / / .
[Through you, Theotokos, / the primal mother is released from condemnation. / And behold!
Now women / contend on behalf of Christ. / And the female sex rejoices / as the protomartyr
/ virgin Thekla exclaims.]

Also like Kassia, Thekla uses typology to evoke the predestination of the narrated
events, even pointing explicitly to prefiguration ():
/ / /
, / , , .
[The fleece of Gideon / once prefigured the divine descent / of Gods Logos upon you. / For [you
received] your pregnancy, chaste virgin, / like the dew.]
/ , , / /
/ , / / .
[You were proclaimed to us / as the new paradise, all-holy Theotokos, / bringing forth not the
tree of death / but the Lord without seed / like a plant of life, in whose eternal life we all take
delight.]

Hymnus in Deiparam 3,3, p. 166, ll. 4548 Eustratiads.

Hymnus in Deiparam 5,3, p. 167, ll. 7983 Eustratiads.
Hymnus in Deiparam 8,3, p. 168, ll. 15763 Eustratiads.
Hymnus in Deiparam 7,1, p. 167, ll. 11115 Eustratiads.
Hymnus in Deiparam 8,1, p. 167, ll. 14349 Eustratiads. Scott Johnson suggested the reasonable,
in my view emendation of to , in which case the translation would read from
which let us all feed unto life without death.

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The hymn concludes with a prayer addressed by the congregation to the Mother of
God:
/ / , /
, / / / .
[Venerating you in hymns worthy of God / as a flower of purity and a rod / of virginity and as
mother of God, / with words of praise / we beseech you, Theotokos: / support us in our virginity /
and protect our purity!]

Here, in the last strophe like in the introductory troparion it becomes evident that
authorship and performance are conceived of as devotional practices, like Derek
Krueger has shown for earlier texts in his book on Christian authorship. By praising
the Theotokos, the author and the performing congregation acknowledge Marys role
in salvation for humankind and for women in particular. Women adhering to the
Christian ideals and hymnography was a principle means to lay claim to such adherence were thus not Eves daughters, as the prevailing ideology held it, but virtuous females that Mary had released from Eves legacy.

3 Writing as self-representation: female authorial

practices in the Komnenian era
An interesting contrast to this liturgical poetry can be found in the literary production of women in the Komnenian era. Compared to texts authored by men, not
much has been preserved from this period either, but we are well informed about
the authors of the surviving texts, since they belonged to the very top of society
the imperial family that is. This is probably not a pure coincidence owing to the contingencies of textual transmission, but might well reflect a change in the broader
socio-cultural framework. The Komnenian court appropriated a large part of the literary production, and its family business policies enhanced womens chances at
participating in public discourse.
Of course the best known educated woman of that time is emperor Alexios own
daughter Anna Komnn, who in 1118/19 with the help of her mother Eirn Doukaina had plotted against her brother John in order to secure the imperial throne for her
husband Nikphoros Bryennios. Shortly after being forced to retire to the Kecharit-

Hymnus in Deiparam 9,3, p. 168, ll. 18591 Eustratiads.

Krueger, Writing and Holiness, esp. 6393 and 15988.
For a recent discussion see Barbara Hill, Actions Speak Louder than Words: Annas Attempted
Usurpation, In Anna Komnene and Her Times, Garland Medieval Casebooks 29/Garland Reference
Library of the Humanities 2201, ed. Thalia Gouma-Peterson (New York: Garland Publishing, 2000),
4562.

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men monastery, she drew up her will, of which the prologue survives. Like many
such prefaces to testaments, this text is highly self-referential and autobiographical,
and Anna presents multiple personae of herself the Christian Monastic, the Aristocrat, the Daughter and Wife, the Woman, Intellectual, Author as Stratis Papaioannou has observed. However, one persona dominates the scene, the representation of which occupies nearly one third of the text:
,
<>, ,
, , ,
,
<>
, , , , ,
,
,
. , , , ,

,
.
,
, .
[As I am about to set forth what pertains to me, I should first reveal this in front of all mankind
as if in a public performance, appealing to the unmistakable eye as my witness. Since I was extremely loved by my parent emperors and beloved these are the words of Solomon in the
sight of my father and mother [Prov 4:3], during the entire time of my life that I spent together
with my parents, I never disobeyed them nor did I do anything else against their wish and will
as some children, spoiled by the extreme love of their parents, most often do regarding the wishes of their parents. Never did I have any wish, which was not also their wish, nor did I not want
what they also wanted; neither in serious pursuits, nor in playful ones, neither as little child, nor
as adolescent, nor when I became a woman and a mother of many good children. At every age,
from by birth until now, I carried out their wishes and as that centurion in the gospels says [Mt
8:9] when they ordered me, I was present, when they so wished, I went away; I was like a
shadow that follows the bodies closely. It is to them that I also owe my turn toward this [wedded] life, even though I always desired the most pure and unwedded one; while I was inclined
toward the latter, I exchanged that superior one for the former and I served the flesh due to the

Stratis Papaioannou, Anna Komnenes Will, In Byzantine Religious Culture, eds. Sullivan, Fisher
and Papaioannou, 99121 provides an English translation and excellent discussion of the text. For the
Greek text see Paul Gautier, Michel Italikos. Lettres et discours, Archives de lOrient chrtien 14 (Paris:
Institut Franais dtudes Byzantines, 1972), 10609.
Papaioannou, Anna Komnenes Will, 10917, quotation on 117.
Testamentum, p. 107,7108,3 Gautier (trans. Papaioannou, Anna Komnenes Will, 10506).

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Alexander Riehle

will of my parents. I regarded my disobedience toward them to be equal to the disobedience toward God and a violation of divine law. What also led me to this life were my own innate modesty and most ineffable affection for my emperor parents. And what strengthened me further
were the sacrifice of Isaac, who submitted to his father [Gen 22:119], and the paternal blessing
of Jacob, who readily obeyed his father [Gen 28:17]. Is there something more honorable that the
fathers blessing? Is there something more blessed that the mothers wish? Especially, when they
have been so great and distinguished in virtue, such that not even the world itself was worthy of
them [cf. Heb 11:38].]

The strong emphasis on filial obedience and the importance of a fathers blessing
underpinned by the references to the Old Testament raises the suspicion that Anna
alludes to her involvement in the conflict over Alexios succession, insinuating that
her attempt to secure the throne for her husband was not an usurpation but had
been in accord with her fathers wish. The chronological proximity between this
event and the composition of Annas will (1118/23) further corroborates this hypothesis.
The suggested reading of her testament is supported by some passages of Annas
famous Alexiad a generic hybrid in which historical writing is merged with literary
traditions drawing from epic poetry and monodic discourse. In its frequent and unusually strong representation of the author, the Alexiad shares some striking similarities with Annas testament that go beyond mere linguistic overlap. Both prefaces
start with topoi specific to each genre: While in the Alexiad Anna presents historical
writing as a shield against the obfuscating force of time, in her testament she emphasizes that one ought to draw up ones will while ones physical and mental state
is still sound. In both texts, she then introduces herself with an emphatic I,
Anna, followed by a proud presentation of her lineage and learning:
, A ,
, , -

See, most recently, Leonora Neville, Lamentation, History, and Female Authorship in Anna
Komnenes Alexiad, GRBS 53 (2013): 192218. The Alexiad is available in an excellent critical edition:
Diether R. Reinsch and Athanasios Kambylis, Annae Comnenae Alexias, Corpus Fontium Historiae
Byzantinae, Series Berolinensis 40.1 (Berlin-New York: de Gruyter, 2001). For an English translation
see E. R. A. Sewter and Peter Frankopan, Anna Komnene. The Alexiad (London: Penguin Books,
2009).
See the notes to Papaioannous translation (Anna Komnenes Will, 1047) and the comments,
ibid., 10809.
Alexias, Prologus 1,1, p. 5 Reinsch-Kambylis (trans. Sewter and Frankopan, Anna Komnene 3). This
topos is used by many Byzantine historiographers in their prologues (e. g., Prokopios, Agathias,
George Akropolits).
Testamentum 106,110 Gautier (trans. Papaioannou, Anna Komnenes Will, 104). For this topos
in testaments see Heleni G. Saradi, Notai e documenti greci dallet di Giustiniano al XIX secolo, vol. 1,
Il sistema notarile bizantino (VI-XV secolo), Per una storia del notariato nella civilt europea 4 (Milan:
Giuffr, 1999), 23436.
Alexias, Prologus 2, pp. 56 Reinsch-Kambylis (trans. Sewter and Frankopan, Anna Komnene, 3).

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257

(
, ,
)
.
[I, Anna, daughter of the Emperor Alexios and the Empress Eirn, born and bred in the purple,
not without some acquaintance with literature having devoted the most earnest study to the
Greek language, in fact, and being not unpractised in rhetoric and having read thoroughly the
works of Aristotle and the dialogues of Plato, and having fortified my mind with the tetrakus of
sciences (these things must be divulged, and it is not boasting to recall what Nature and my own
zeal for knowledge have given me, nor what God has appointed to me from above and what has
been contributed by circumstances), I desire now by means of my writings to give an account of
my fathers deeds.]
, , , ,
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A , , , .
, , ,
, . A

, ,
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[I, therefore, always accepting this manner of managing ones own affairs, am setting forth this
text before my full testament I, Anna, born of the purple, not ignorant of letters, nor untrained
in the scriptures, but, rather, greatly immersed in the divine words and also not left ignorant of
pagan education. Gratitude belongs to my emperor parents who deprived me of nothing, including learning [], allowing me to draw from its fountain to the extent that I had wanted. But
since I mentioned my parents, let me say some things about them to the readers of this my will,
so that, even in my departing words, I might not leave unmentioned the ones that gave me entrance into this life. My father was Alexios Komnnos, that most illustrious emperor of the
Roman people, whose trophies, deeds of prowess, and stratagems against the surrounding barbarians the entire world itself could not contain (to speak in the words of the divine voice) [Jn
21:25]. Eirn was my mother, the great joy and adornment of kingship; a scion of the Doukai
family, she illumined the entire earth under the sun with her virtues. No one among men
could rival her in any respect. My father alas, what a loss for all! what suffering has taken
over the inhabited world! departed from this world toward heaven, exchanging his earthly purple garment for a heavenly one, while my mother was left behind alive, a cause for wonder and a
living model of virtue. In short, such were the ones that gave birth to me.]

Testamentum p. 106,11107,6 Gautier (trans. Papaioannou, Anna Komnenes Will, 10405).

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Alexander Riehle

Moreover, the authorial self-portrait of the affectionate and obedient child presented
in the prologue to her testament looms large also in the Alexiad, for example in the
extensive account of her birth that Anna inserted in Book VI. Similarly, Book XV
has been interpreted as a staged presentation of Alexios deathbed in which
Anna herself, her mother and sisters appear as loving relatives fulfilling their filial
or matrimonial duties, while John II Komnnos is strikingly absent.
I think that even this brief and somewhat sketchy discussion of some features of
Annas narratives can show that these texts testify to a growing self-awareness of the
female author, who did not refrain from inscribing herself into the text and from
publicizing specific representations of her self. This surprising self-awareness can
also be observed in a genre that in the Komnenian and Palaiologan periods became
increasingly important in the framework of representational projects involving the
foundation and restoration of public buildings, churches and monasteries namely
typika.
It is a striking fact that one of the first typika surviving from the Komnenian era
was drawn up by a woman. Around 111016 Eirn Doukaina the wife of emperor
Alexios I and Annas mother authored a rule for the Kecharitmen monastery lo-

Alexias VI 8,12, pp. 18384 Reinsch-Kambylis (trans. Sewter and Frankopan, Anna Komnene, 167
68). See Angeliki Laiou, Introduction: Why Anna Komnene, In Anna Komnene, ed. Gouma-Peterson,
114, on 3.
Margaret Mullett, Alexios I Komnenos and Imperial Renewal, In New Constantines: The Rhythm
of Imperial Renewal in Byzantium, 4th13th Centuries, ed. Paul Magdalino, Publications of the Society
for the Promotion of Byzantine Studies 2 (Aldershot: Variorum, 1994): 25967, on 26265.
All surviving monastic rules are readily available in English translation along with immensely
helpful introductions and commentaries in John Thomas and Angela Constantinides Hero, eds.,
Byzantine Monastic Foundation Documents: A Complete Translation of the Surviving Founders Typika
and Testaments, Dumbarton Oaks Studies 35 (Washington, DC: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library
and Collection, 2000). Catia Galatariotou, Byzantine Ktetorika Typika: A Comparative Study, REB 45
(1987): 77138 provides a still very valuable discussion of the diverse material. Particularly for the
prefaces as the preferred vehicle of autobiography in Byzantium see Michael Angold, The Autobiographical Impulse in Byzantium, DOP 52 (1998): 22557, on 24046, as well as Martin Hinterberger, Autobiographische Traditionen in Byzanz, Wiener Byzantinistische Studien 22 (Vienna: Verlag
der sterreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1999), 198201. For a more skeptical assessment
concerning the autobiographical character of typika see Margaret Mullett, Constructing Identities in
Twelfth-Century Byzantium, In Byzantium Matures. Choices, Sensitivities, and Modes of Expression
(Eleventh to Fifteenth Centuries), 13, ed. Christine Angelidi (Athens:
(), , 2004): 12944, on 12933 and 14344, and Ead.,
Typika and Other Texts, In Founders and Refounders of Byzantine Monasteries, Belfast Texts and
Translations 6.3, ed. Margaret Mullett (Belfast: Belfast Byzantine Enterprises, 2007): 182209, on 204
07.
For a discussion of womens typika see Catia Galatariotou, Byzantine Womens Monastic Communities: The Evidence of the , JB 38 (1988): 26390. On the question of the authorship of
the Kecharitmen typikon see Mullett, Typika, 20304. Even if Eirn did not compose the text of
the typikon herself, it is beyond doubt that she dictated the exact contents to the actual author.

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cated in Constantinople. This rule heavily draws on the typikon of the Evergetis
monastery (or another typikon based on that text), but introduces also some interesting novelties, most notably those pertaining to the status of noblewomen within the
monastic community. The fourth chapter, for instance, rules that Eirenes granddaughters as well as all female aristocrats ( ) entering the convent as nuns be allowed to stay in a private apartment apart
from the cells of the remaining nuns, to follow regular diet and to have two
servants. This and other passages of the typikon, subverting the ideals of coenobitic
monasticism, reveal the Komnenians strong sense of kinship and class, as is also
the case in other aristocratic typika of the Komnenian and Palaiologan periods. A
considerable portion of the text is concerned with the care for the founders relatives,
and particularly the (spiritual and material) wellbeing of the female lineage of the
family. As such, the typikon perhaps does not testify to an individual selfawareness, but is certainly an extension of a strong awareness of class and the
role of women within the elite as preservers of aristocratic ideals.

4 Concluding remarks
In conclusion, I would like to return to my opening question: Can we use texts written by women in order to establish the parameters of female identity?
There are certain common traits in the corpus of the texts discussed above from
the 9th and 12th centuries respectively that could be explained by an identity shared
among their authors. However, even if we assume that women writers of each period
shared a particular identity and that authorial practices contributed to shaping it,
there seems little, if any, common ground between the writers and their texts of
the two periods when compared to one another. So maybe it is wrong to hypothesize
that there was one identity (gendered or not) that all authors shared and shaped in

Paul Gautier, Le typikon de la Thotokos Kcharitmn, REB 43 (1985): 5165 (trans. Robert
Jordan, Kecharitomene: Typikon of Empress Irene Doukaina Komnene for the Convent of the Mother
of God Kecharitomene in Constantinople, In Byzantine Monastic Foundation Documents, eds. Thomas and Hero, vol. 2, no 27, 649724).
Gautier, Le typikon, 3739, ll. 299323 (trans. Jordan, Kecharitomene, 670).
See the passages referenced in Galatariotou, Byzantine Ktetorika Typika, 89 no 6, 93 no 2930, 96
no 44, 97 no 51, 98 no 52, 99 no 56. In addition, see also 17 of the typikon, ruling against monastic
ideals that the nuns of the monastery be allowed to accept visits from their relatives to a certain
extent and under certain circumstances: Gautier, Le typikon, 61, ll. 72767 (trans. Jordan, Kecharitomene, 679).
See Galatariotou, Byzantine Ktetorika Typika, 8991 and 95101 and Ead., Byzantine Womens
Monastic Communities, 27184.
Cf. Mullett, Typika, 20406 and Ead., Constructing Identities on the problem of individuality.
Cf. Galatariotous interesting observation that provisions for immediate family members are
primarily to be found in typika of female founders: Galatariotou, Byzantine Ktetorika Typika, 97 and
Ead., Byzantine Womens Monastic Communities, 279.

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the process of writing and performing, and we should rather speak of identities in
the plural. What is it that makes such identities differ from one another?
One important parameter of identities as represented in and through texts is
genre: the choice of genre can tell us something about the purpose or function of
a text, its performative dimension, its actual audience and the audiences expectations. Stratis Papaioannous observation that Annas self-portrait as conveyed in
her testament is multi-layered, becomes even more relevant when we look at a
group of texts written by the same individual in various genres, on different occasions, and/or over a long time span. We can, consequently, assume that Kassias persona in her gnomic epigrams does not necessarily have to match her liturgical persona. Or, to give another example: the strong presence of Annas authorial voice can
be explained not only with her self-conscious personality, with the increasing visibility of women from the 11th century onwards or with the growing self-awareness of the
Byzantine author that can be observed after the 10th century. Interestingly, in Sergias
Narration about Saint Olympias a text dating to the seventh century that is sort of a
testament in disguise a striking pre-dominance of the narrator over the actual
subject of the text can be observed that resembles in several respects Annas self-assertive voice in the prefaces to her testament and to the Alexiad. This suggests that
the testamentary character of the texts provide the framework for the inscription
of the self into the narrative. Thus, the construction and representation of a distinct
female identity through authorial practices could vary according to genre and performative context.
Further important factors are the socio-cultural shifts and concomitant changes
in the premises and parameters of literary production that occurred in the history of
the empire. Looking again at the ninth century, it is a striking fact that besides Kassias epigrams, whose authenticity is questionable all surviving texts penned by
women belong to the genre of hymnography. It is unclear whether Thekla, Kassia and
Theodosia were involved in the controversy over the veneration of icons and if they
were, to what extent. Marc Lauxtermann has convincingly argued that Kassia, who in

See Alexander Riehle, I, The Sinner Sergia The Narration About Saint Olympias (BHG 1376)
between Hagiography and Testament, In Hybrids and Mixtures. Genre-Crossing in Byzantine Literature, eds. Aglae Pizzone and Alexander Riehle (forthcoming).
See Marc D. Lauxtermann, Byzantine Poetry from Pisides to Geometres: Texts and Contexts, vol. 1,
Wiener Byzantinistische Studien 24.1 (Vienna: Verlag der sterreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 2003), 24852. For a more optimistic assessment see Sonja Schnauer, Zu Spielarten der
mimesis in der profanen Dichtung der Kassia, In Imitatio aemulatio variatio. Akten des internationalen wissenschaftlichen Symposiums zur byzantinischen Sprache und Literatur, Denkschriften
der philosophischen-hististorischen Klasse 402, Verffentlichungen zur Byzanzforschung 21, eds.
Andreas Rhoby and Elisabeth Schiffer (Vienna: Verlag der sterreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaftenten, 2010), 24352, on 24447.

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some modern accounts is still depicted as female champion of the iconophiles, in

later years seems at least not to have openly opposed the iconoclast emperors and
their religious policies. Theodosia composed a hymn on an iconophile saint, but
only once vaguely alludes to his struggles for the veneration of icons. The only reference to the controversy in Theklas kann on the Theotokos is made in lines that in
all likelihood are not her own composition, but were inserted later on by Clement.
However, the question of the role of women in the iconophile movement is of minor
importance to the issues addressed in this paper. What matters more is that the 9th
century with its active involvement of women (and particularly, nuns) in ecclesiastical politics apparently provided a fertile ground for women as authors of liturgical
poetry. What I would regard as textual representations and extensions of female
identity merges with identities of different sorts monastic identity being only the
most obvious.
After more than a century of their near-to-complete disappearance from literature, women re-surface with more vigor in the late 11th century. This re-emergence
might in part be due to the increased importance of women in the family business
of the Komnenians. Thus, it comes as no surprise that female identity is closely tied
to class identity. Traditional roles like motherhood were not negated, but absorbed
into the new aristocratic self-awareness with its strong emphasis on kinship and family ties.

See, for instance, Kurt Sherry, Kassia the Nun in Context. The Religious Thought of a Ninth-Century
Byzantine Monastic (Piscataway: Gorgias Press, 2011), 4361. On Sherrys problematic book see my
review in JB 63 (2013): 264-66.
Marc D. Lauxtermann, Three Biographical Notes, BZ 91 (1998): 391405, on 39394 and 396. See
also Kosta Simi, Kassias Hymnography in the Light of Patristic Sources and Earlier Hymnographical Works, Zbornik Radova Vizantolokog Instituta 48 (2011): 737, on 1227 for a discussion of the
most often subtle and indirect treatment of iconophile themes in her hymnography.
Hymnus in sanctum Ioannicium 6,2, p. 127, ll. 9298 Komins.
See above n. 42.
See Alexander P. Kazhdan and Alice-Mary Talbot, Women and Iconoclasm, BZ 84/85 (1991/92):
391408, on 40001 and Mavroudi, Learned Women of Byzantium, 7273 and 75.
See Mavroudi, Learned Women of Byzantium, 72 who attempts to link womens participation in
the literary discourse to certain patterns in periods of transition and internal struggles.
In modern theory, the field of post-colonial studies has decisively contributed to the understanding that notions of gender are strongly intertwined with other discourses contributing to identity
formation such as race and class. For a brief survey see Peter Childs, Jean Jacques Weber and Patrick
Williams, Post-Colonial Theory and Literatures: African, Caribbean and South Asian, WVT-Handbcher
zum literaturwissenschaftlichen Studium 7 (Trier: Wissenschaftlicher Verlag Trier, 2006), 12629.
See Mullett, Alexios I Komnenos and Imperial Renewal, 26162; Barbara Hill, Imperial Women
and the Ideology of Womanhood in the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries, In Women, Men and
Eunuchs. Gender in Byzantium, ed. Liz James (London: Routledge, 1997), 7699, on 8291; Ead.,
Imperial Women in Byzantium 10251204: Power, Patronage and Ideology (Harlow: Longman, 1999),
esp. 7883.

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Hence, womanhood, understood as gender identity, is not a stable category that

remained unchanged and unchallenged, neither within the individual nor over time,
but is continuously constituted through discursive acts a conclusion that would
hardly surprise scholars dealing with questions of gender today. Womanhood in Byzantium generally meant sinfulness (especially, licentiousness) and weakness.
Even if women seem to have adopted these facets of female identity, imposed by
a society that we would regard as misogynic, the texts discussed in my paper reveal
in different ways that this normative concept was perennially negotiated and that engagement in authorial practices functioned as a vehicle or catalyst for this negotiation.

See, in particular, Judith Butlers influential Gender Trouble: Femininity and the Subversion of
Identity (New York: Routledge, 1990).
See the classic study by Catia Galatariotou, Holy Women and Witches: Aspects of Byzantine
Conceptions of Gender, BGMS 9 (198485): 5594.
See, e. g., Galatariotou, Byzantine Womens Monastic Communities, 28889 for the evidence of
womens typika.

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