1st Edition
Between Byzantine Men Desire, Homosociality, and Brotherhood in the Medieval Empire
The presence and importance of same-sex desire between men in the Byzantine Empire has been understudied. While John Boswell and others tried to open a conversation about desire between Byzantine men decades ago, the field reverted to emphasis on prohibition and an inability to read the evidence of same-sex desire between men in the sources. Between Byzantine Men: Desire, Homosociality, and Brotherhood in the Medieval Empire challenges and transforms this situation by placing at centre stage Byzantine men's desiring relations with one another.
This book foregrounds desire between men in and around the imperial court of the 900s. Analysis of Greek sources (many untranslated until now) and of material culture reveals a situation both more liberal than the medieval West and important for its rite of brother-making (adelphopoiesis), which was a precursor to today’s same-sex marriage. This book transforms our understanding of Byzantine elite men's culture and is an important addition to the history of sex and desire between men.
Between Byzantine Men will appeal to scholars and general readers who are interested in Byzantine History, Society, and Culture, the History of Masculinity, and the History of Sexuality.
Introduction
Prelude: Letter 44 of Nikephoros Ouranos
What This Book Does and How It Does It
A Christian Empire
Letter 26 of Nikephoros Ouranos
A Comparison
Civil Law
Canon Law/Penitentials
Men in the Life of Mary the Younger
Prospect
Chapter One: Eroticism and Desire in Epistolography
How to Read Byzantine Epistolography
Letters of Theodoros Daphnopates
Letter 18
Letter 17
Desire’s Dreams and Visions in Letters of an Emperor and his Friend
Dreams and Visions in the Suda
A Letter from Constantine
A Letter from Theodoros
Two Letters of Symeon the Logothete
Conclusion
Chapter Two: Histories of Masculine Beauty and Desire: The Case of Emperor Basil I
Historiographies from the Mid-Tenth Century
Narrative of the Rise of Basil I
Summary of Things to Come
Amorous Language
Theophilitzes and Hetaireiai
The Emperor’s Horse
Grappling and a Naked Scourging
Basilikinos/Basiliskianos: Handsome Competition
Eagle and Ganymede
Male Backsides and Romans
Conclusion
Chapter Three: Framing the Brotherhoods of Emperor Basil I
Basil’s Brotherhoods in the Historiographies
Nicholas
John
Other Brothers
Liturgies for the Adelphopoiesis Ritual
A Tenth-Century Prayer: "A Thing Flowery and Much-desired by Us, The Sweet
Scent of Love"
Framing "A Thing Flowery and Much-desired by Us, The Sweet Scent of Love"
Scripture
Court Ceremonial and Epistolography
Conclusion
Appendix of Prayers
Chapter Four: Revisiting the Bachelorhood of Emperor Basil II
Introduction
The State of the Question of Basil’s Bachelorhood
Symeon the New Theologian’s Evidence
Basil II as Symeon’s Referent
Conclusion
Conclusion
Biography
Mark Masterson is Associate Professor of Classics at Te Herenga Waka/Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. He is the author of Man to Man: Desire, Homosociality and Authority in Late-Roman Manhood (2014), as well as a number of articles and book chapters on sexuality and masculinity. He is also one of editors of the collection, Sex in Antiquity: Exploring Gender and Sexuality in the Ancient World (2015).
‘… this book is highly stimulating and delightful. Masterson has a gift for covering much ground economically and with sophistication and verve. His readings are lucid and mostly compelling, despite the complexity of ideas’ - Speculum 98/4 (October 2023).
‘Masterson’s book is a meaningful contribution to those seeking to undertake a queer approach to Byzantine sources’ - Journal of the History of Sexuality, Volume 32, Number 3, September 2023.
