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Performing gender in lay saints’ Lives*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 January 2016

Stavroula Constantinou
Stavroula Constantinou*
Affiliation:
University of Cyprus, Nicosia
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Abstract

Taking as its point of departure Judith Butler’s theory of gender performativity, this article shows how femininity and masculinity are performed in three lay saints’ Lives from the middle Byzantine period: the Life of Philaretos the Merciful (820), the Life of Thomaïs of Lesbos (mid-tenth century) and the Life of Mary the Younger (eleventh century). The approach of these texts through gender performativity shows in the most graphic way the difference between male and female constructions of sanctity on the one hand, and the important role that gender plays in the construction of lay sanctity, on the other.

Type
Articles
Information
Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies , Volume 38 , Issue 1 , 2014 , pp. 24 - 32
Copyright
Copyright © The Centre for Byzantine, Ottoman and Modern Greek Studies, University of Birmingham 2014

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Footnotes

*

This paper was presented at the XXXIX Spring Symposium of Byzantine Studies at Queen’s University Belfast in April 2005. I thank Margaret Mullett for inviting me to participate in the conference on ‘performing Byzantium’, the participants and the readers for BMGS for their many helpful comments and suggestions.

References

1 Butler formulates her theory of gender performativity in her famous book Gender Trouble (1990). See also Butler, J., ‘Performative acts and gender constitution: an essay in phenomenology and feminist theory’, in Case, S.-E (ed.), Performing feminisms: feminist critical theory and theatre (Baltimore 1990) 270-82Google Scholar.

2 Butler, J., Gender trouble: feminism and the subversion of identity (New York and London 1999) 33 Google Scholar, 43-4.

3 According to Minos Kokolakis the ‘dramatic simile of life’ has its origins in Solon (638-558 BC): Kokolakis, M., The dramatic simile of life (Athens 1960) 12–15 Google Scholar. Nevertheless, the earliest use of the metaphor can be detected in some works of Plato (see, for example, Laws VII 817 B-D and Phileb. 50 B). Later, it becomes a commonplace in the works of Cynic and Stoic philosophers, such as Bion of Borysthenes, Chrysip-pus, Seneca, Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius. It is also used by authors, such as Plutarch, Lucian and Plotinus. For a presentation of the relevant passages from the works of these philosophers and other writers of the Graeco-Roman antiquity, see Kokolakis, The dramatic simile of life, 22-5, 37-9, 40-8, 52-8, 65-7 and Kokolakis, M., ‘To “δράμα του βίου” εις τον Επίκτητον’, in Kokolakis, M., (ed.) Φιλολογικά μελετήματα εις την αρχαίαν ελληνικήν γραμματείαν (Athens 1976) 177-85Google Scholar. For a discussion of the use of the stage metaphor in pagan and early Christian writings, see also Dodds, E. R., Pagan and Christian in an age of anxiety: some aspects of religious experience from Marcus Aurelius to Constantine (Cambridge 1965) 8-12CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

4 See, for example, patriarch Photios’ letter 234 in Laourdas, B. and Westerink, L. G. (eds.), Photii patri-archae Constantinopolitani Epistulae et Amphilochia, II (Leipzig 1984) 151 Google Scholar, and Theophanes Continuatus, ed. I. Bekker (Bonn 1838) 200.3. For a discussion of the metaphor in Theophanes Continuatus, see Ljubarskij, J. N., ‘Der Kaiser als Mime: zum Problem der Gestalt des byzantinischen Kaisers Michael III’, JOB 37 (1987) 39–50 Google Scholar, esp. 41-2.

5 An example is John of Salisbury’s work Policraticus (bk 3).

6 See, for example, Ludovicus Vives’ (1492-1540) allegorical fable, the Fabula de hornine, William Shakespeare’s As You Like It (2.7.136-166), The Merchant of Venice (1.1.77-79), Macbeth (5.5.24-28) and Miguel de Cervantes’, Don Quixote (Part II, bk V, 12). For the use of the theatrum mundi metaphor in the Shakespearean age, see Elton, W. R., ‘Shakespeare and the thought of his Age’, in Wells, S., (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare Studies (Cambridge 1986) 17–34 Google Scholar.

7 For the construction of male and female sanctity in Byzantine hagiography, see Constantinou, S., Female corporeal performances: reading the body in Byzantine Passions and Lives of holy women [Acta Byzantina Upsaliensia, 9] (Uppsala 2005)Google Scholar. As for the Western tradition, see Bynum, C. Walker (ed.), Fragmentation and redemption: essays on gender and the human body in medieval religion (New York 1992)Google Scholar.

8 For the subgenres of male and female Life, see Constantinou, S., ‘Subgenre and gender in Saints’ Lives’, in Odorico, P. and Agapitos, P. (eds.), Les Vies des Saints à Byzance. Genre littéraire ou biographie historique’? Actes du lie colloque international sur la littérature byzantine. Paris, 6-8 juin 2002 [Dossiers byzantins, 41 (Paris 2004) 411-23Google Scholar and Constantinou, Female corporeal performances, 11-17.

9 To a lay holy man (Philotheos of Opsikion) is devoted also another encomium written by Eustathios of Thessalonike.

10 The text is edited in Acta Sanctorum Nov. IV. 1925: 692-705.

11 English translation by Laiou, A., ‘Life of St. Mary the Younger’, in Talbot, A.-M. (ed.), Holy women of Byzantium: ten saints’ Lives in English translation [Byzantine Saints’ Lives in Translation, 1] (Washington, DC 1996) 254-89Google Scholar, here 273.

12 For a literary discussion of Philaretos’ Life, see Kazhdan, A. and Sherry, L. F., ‘The tale of a happy Fool: The Vita of St. Philaretos the Merciful (BHG, 1511z-1512B)’, Byz 66 (1996) 351-62Google Scholar; Ludwig, C., Sonderformen byzantinischer Hagiographie und ihr literarisches Vorbild: Untersuchungen zu den Viten des Asop, des Phihretos, des Symeon Salos und des Andreas Salos [Berliner Byzantinische Studien, 3] (Frankfurt/Main and Berlin 1997) 104-45Google Scholar; Rydén, L., The Life of St Philaretos the Merciful written by his grandson Niketas. A critical edition with introduction, translation, notes, and indices [Studia Byzantina Upsaliensia 8] (Uppsala 2002) 16–50 Google Scholar.

13 For a literary analysis of Thomaïs’ Life, see Constantinou, Female corporeal performances, 162-92.

14 For a literary approach to the Life of Mary, see Constantinou, Female corporeal performances, 162-92 and Constantinou, S., ‘A Byzantine hagiographical parody: Life of Mary the Younger ’, BMGS 34.2 (2010) 160-81Google Scholar.

15 Here it is used Lennart Rydén’s edition of the text: Rydén, The Life of St Philaretos, 60-119.

16 For Niketas, see Rydén, The Life of St Philaretos, 45-50.

17 Thomaïs’ Life is edited in Acta Sanctorum Nov. IV. 1925: 234-42.

18 Laiou, ‘Life of St Mary the Younger’, 260.

19 Laiou, ‘Life of St Mary the Younger’, 263.

20 English translation by P. Halsall, ‘Life of St. Thomaïs of Lesbos’, in A.-M. Talbot (ed.), Holy women of Byzantium, 291-322, here 313.

21 Halsall, ‘Life of St. Thomaïs of Lesbos’, 307.

22 Laiou, ‘Life of St Mary the Younger’, 264.

23 For an analysis of the Life of Mary of Antioch through the perspective of virginity, see Constantinou, S., ‘Virginity in danger: holiness and sexuality in the Life of Mary of Antioch ’, in Searby, D., Witakowska, E. Balicka and Heldt, J., ΔΩΡΟΝ ΡΟΔΟΠΟΙΚΙΛΟΝ: studies in honor of Jan Olof Rosenqvist [Studia Byzantina Upsaliensia, 12] (Uppsala 2012) 123-32Google Scholar.

24 For the atypical character of Theodora’s Life, see Vinson, M. P., ‘Life of St. Theodora the empress’, in Talbot, A.-M. (ed.), Byzantine defenders of images: eight saints’ Lives in English translation [Byzantine Saints’ Lives in Translation, 2] (Washington, D.C. 1998) 353-82Google Scholar, here 353-60.

25 See Constantinou, Female Corporeal Performances.