Routledge Handbook of Gender and Sexuality in Byzantium

This Handbook is the first to consider the interrelated subjects of gender and sexuality in the Eastern Roman Empire from an interdisciplinary perspective. Drawing on both modern theories and Byzantine perceptions, and considering multiple periods and religions (Eastern Orthodox, Islamic, and Jewish), it provides evidentiary textual and visual material support for an analysis of the two linked themes.

Broadly, the essays demonstrate that gender and sexual constructs in Byzantium were porous. As a result, they expand our knowledge of not only how sex and gender were conceived and performed but also how ideas and practices shaped Byzantine life.

The Routledge Handbook of Gender and Sexuality in Byzantium will be an indispensable guide for students and scholars of late antique and Byzantine religion, history, culture, and art, who will find it a useful critical survey of current scholarship and one that shines new light in their areas of research. The focus on issues of gender and sexuality may also be of interest to individuals concerned with Eastern Mediterranean culture, as well as to the broader public.

Charis Messis holds a PhD in Byzantine Studies from Écoles des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris and a habilitation from the Sorbonne University. He is now teaching Byzantine literature at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece. His research interests concern Byzantine history and literature, especially the history of gender, along with other social and anthropological aspects of the Byzantine world. He is author and co-editor of several books and articles, including Storytelling in Byzantium: Narratological approaches to Byzantine texts and Images, edited by C. Messis, M. Mullett, and I. Nilsson (2018).

Mati Meyer received her Ph.D. from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and is a faculty member at the Open University of Israel. She has published extensively in articles, a monograph and co-edited books on women, realia, emotions, corporeality, gender and sexuality, and biblical reception in Byzantine art, including: Emotions and Gender in Byzantine Culture, edited by Mati Meyer and Stavroula Constantinou (2018) and Between Judaism and Christianity: Art-historical essays in honor of Elisheva (Elisabeth) Revel Neher, edited by Katrin Kogman-Appel and Mati Meyer (2009).