Between Byzantine Men: Desire, Homosociality, and Brotherhood in the Medieval Empire

231 Pages·2022·10.855 MB·English

by  Mark Masterson

Between Byzantine Men
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 Byz-
antine Men: Desire, Homosociality, and Brotherhood in the Medieval Empire
challenges and transforms this situation by placing at center stage Byzan-
tine 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 medie-
val 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.
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 mascu-
linity. He is also one of editors of the collection, Sex in Antiquity: Exploring
Gender and Sexuality in the Ancient World (2015).

Between Byzantine Men
Desire, Homosociality, and Brotherhood
in the Medieval Empire
Mark Masterson
First published 2022
by Routledge
4 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2022 Mark Masterson
The right of Mark Masterson to be identified as author of this work
has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
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reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical,
or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including
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Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks
or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and
explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record has been requested for this book
ISBN: 978-0-815-35382-9 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-032-28444-6 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-351-13523-8 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/9781351135238
Typeset in Times New Roman
by codeMantra
Contents
Acknowledgments vii
A Note on Translations viii
A Note on Transliteration of Greek (and Related Matters) viii
A Note on the End Notes viii
List of abbreviations ix
Introduction 1
Prelude: Letter 44 of Nikephoros Ouranos 1
What This Book Does and How It Does It 4
A Christian Empire 5
Letter 26 of Nikephoros Ouranos 6
A Comparison 9
Civil Law 11
Canon Law/Penitentials 12
Men in the Life of Mary the Younger 13
Prospect 15
1 Eroticism and Desire in Epistolography 24
How to Read Byzantine Epistolography 25
Letters of Theodoros Daphnopates 26
Letter 18 27
Letter 17 30
Desire’s Dreams and Visions in Letters of an Emperor
and His Friend 38
Dreams and Visions in the Suda 39
A Letter from Constantine 41
A Letter from Theodoros 46
Two Letters of Symeon the Logothete 49
Conclusion 53
vi Contents
2 Histories of Masculine Beauty and Desire: The Case of
Emperor Basil I 67
Historiographies from the Mid-Tenth Century 68
Narrative of the Rise of Basil I 69
Summary of Things to Come 71
Amorous Language 73
Theophilitzes and Hetaireiai 74
The Emperor’s Horse 77
Grappling and a Naked Scourging 79
Basilikinos/Basiliskianos: Handsome Competition 85
Eagle and Ganymede 90
Male Backsides and Romans 101
Conclusion 107
3 Framing the Brotherhoods of Emperor Basil I 121
Basil’s Brotherhoods in the Historiographies 122
Nicholas 122
John 128
Other Brothers 135
Liturgies for the Adelphopoiesis Ritual 135
A Tenth-Century Prayer: “A Thing Flowery and Much-desired
by Us, The Sweet Scent of Love” 139
Framing “A Thing Flowery and Much-desired by Us, The
Sweet Scent of Love” 146
Scripture 146
Court Ceremonial and Epistolography 148
Conclusion 153
Appendix of Prayers 155
4 Revisiting the Bachelorhood of Emperor Basil II 169
Introduction 169
The State of the Question of Basil’s Bachelorhood 170
Symeon the New Theologian’s Evidence 174
Basil II as Symeon’s Referent 178
Conclusion 184
Conclusion 193
Works Cited 205
Major Primary Sources 205
Secondary Sources 206
Index 217
Acknowledgments
It has not been easy working on this book since the world changed so much,
but friends have helped.
I have thanks to offer to the following:
Jonathan Else for being a lovely thing in my life that I did not expect to
see again;
Hugh Young, Tim Bish, and Lars Anderson for being vitally interested
and supportive;
Alex Drummond and Lynn Peace have been there for me too;
Richard Arnold, Dougal McNeill, and Yiyan Wang have made me smile
often;
A shout-out to the Enigma Café Staff for being so friendly while I typed
this book into my computer;
to Anne Else, whom I am so pleased to know;
to Zdravko Lulich for his support.
My scholar friends from around the world have likewise been supportive:
Stephanie Cobb, Derek Krueger, Nancy Rabinowitz, Amy Richlin, Steven
Smith, Shaun Tougher;
On line, I have enjoyed the interest and banter of Ben Cartlidge, Rebecca
Colesworthy, Stephen Guy-Bray, and Giacomo Sanfilippo.
Frank Garrett ran an online seminar on Nietzsche throughout 2021 which
was a wonderful diversion and I learned things.
Christabel Marshall has been my research assistant and student for a
number of years and is also a good friend. She helped me a number of times
throughout the process of writing this book.
I miss seeing my friend Barbara Gold in New York.
I miss my friends in California: Gary Matus, Dan Sheehan, and, most of
all, Park Neely;
I miss Deborah Hollingsworth back in California, and we both miss
Timothy Heartt (DM).
I thank the Classics Programme and the School of Languages and
Cultures at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. I also espe-
cially wish to thank Lisa Lowe, Ida Li, and Lagi Aukusitino in the School
viii Acknowledgments
of Languages and Cultures, Gerry Keating at Image Services, and Tess
Tuxford in the Research Office;
I also thank the Royal Society of New Zealand for the Marsden Grant
which did so much to help this project along, and the Dumbarton Oaks
Research Library for a Summer Fellowship in 2015 and also for being so
welcoming when I was in the neighborhood again in 2018;
Lastly, I thank Michael Greenwood, Louis Nicholson-Pallett, and A ssunta
Petrone at the press for their help in getting this project across the line.
And Nelson.
A Note on Translations
Unless otherwise specified, all translations are my own.
A Note on Transliteration of Greek (and Related Matters)
As I most often have the words in Greek nearby that I am converting into
the Latin alphabet, I have decided that it is unnecessary to use macrons and
other such things, unless I am quoting someone’s scholarship that is using
them. This means, to take some examples, that an o in the Latin script can
be omicron or omega, and an e can be either epsilon or eta. How this works
will be clear enough and any confusion can be cleared up by the Greek that
is almost invariably nearby.
If I am quoting a noun or adjective or a verb in isolation, the reader may
anticipate that I am using the Nominative singular for the noun, the Nom-
inative singular masculine for the adjective, and the first person singular
present indicative for the verb. When I am quoting directly from a passage,
I will quote/transliterate the form that appears there. Words will sometimes
look different, as Greek is inflected.
Sometimes I use English translations of the names of works, e.g., On Im-
perial Reigns, while at other times the Latin titles, e.g., Theophanes Con-
tinuatus. I would be grateful for patience as the field as a whole has many
customs and one ends up following the practice of the people whom one
reads. A perfect solution here is elusive.
Lastly, if a name is common enough in English usage, e.g., Constantine or
Basil, I have used the anglicization. If it is uncommon, then I have transliterated
the Greek (and I tend to avoid Latinization of names). An exception: I opted to
keep Paulos (and not Paul) as Nikephoros’ correspondent because the Apostle
Paul figures in comments that concern Paulos and Nikephoros. It seemed much
easier that way. In any case: again a perfect solution is not to be found.
A Note on the End Notes
Notes are included in this book to provide references or add supplemen-
tal material of various kinds, e.g., the Greek texts, additional explanations,
expansions. While the notes are not irrelevant, the argument of the book
proceeds independently of them and curiosity is the reason to consult them.
Abbreviations
AB = Analecta Bollandiana
BMGS = Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies
ByzSt = Byzantine Studies/Études byzantines
CMH = The Cambridge Medieval History
DOCat = Catalogue of the Byzantine and Early Mediaeval
Antiquities in the Dumbarton Oaks Collection
DOP = Dumbarton Oaks Papers
DOSeals = Catalogue of Byzantine Seals at Dumbarton Oaks and in
the Fogg Museum of Art
FM = Fontes Minores
JDAI = Jahrbuch des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts
JMedHist = Journal of Medieval History
JÖB = Jahrbuch der Österreichischen Byzantinistik
JWalt = Journal of the Walters Art Gallery
Lampe = Lampe and Liddell, A Patristic Greek Lexicon
LSJ = Liddell, Scott, Jones, and McKenzie, A Greek–English
Lexicon
MUSJ = Mélanges de l'Université Saint-Joseph, Beirut
OCP = Orientalia christiana periodica
ODB = Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium
OHBS = The Oxford Handbook of Byzantine Studies
PG = Patrologia Graeca
SBMünch = Sitzungsberichte der Bayerischen Akademie der
Wissenschaften, Philosophisch-historische Klasse
TLG = Thesaurus Linguae Graecae