1. Melissa Crouch
Irene Kabala
ARHI 417W01
2/21/2014
Not so holier than thou: Art in Byzantium
When one thinks of the artworks of Byzantium, what comes to one’s mind are
churches decorated with beautiful gold religious imagery. However, there are some
artworks that depict religious imagery in a less-than-holy way. Like any other period
in history, the Byzantine people were not immune from sexual and other human
desires.
The riskier Byzantine artworks are not as blatant in sexual imagery as the Greek
and Romans artworks were, but they were still influential to the Byzantine artists.
Some of the blasphemous artworks depict holy or mythological images and sometimes
both are present on the artwork. These images are depicted on mosaics, bowls,
sculpture, manuscripts, and ivory caskets. In addition to the artworks, I will also
devote part of this analysis to hagiography, ideology, demonology, and other examples
of the profane in Byzantium.
Byzantine citizens believed that sexual acts should only be committed by
married couple and ideally only to produce children, and unless children were the
goal, the couple should no longer have sex. Byzantine Christians were presented with
a choice they could be celibate or married, but with either choice they were to live
their lives in the eschatological kingdom of God. Virginity was the ideal practice for

2. men and women in the eyes of the Christian church.
Hagiographical works observe the life or a part of a life of a holy man or woman
or group in order to offer the reader an ethical system and instruction on how to
devote one’s entire life to God. These stories show the structure of Christian morals,
and the highest honor is chastity. The hagiographical texts were filled with stories
that would entice the ordinary Byzantine listener. The Byzantine people respected the
epicene angels and holy people but they were not epicene themselves. They
essentially wanted erotic stories, and the hagiographical stories satisfied that desire.
Christian writers scorned the ancient admiration towards the sizzling essence set
free through the sexual act. The Byzantines regarded sins as those that affect the
soul. Every vice blackens the soul but sexual immorality also makes the body soiled
and appalling. The body was deemed sexually threatening, particularly if it was
gorgeous and naked.
Human beauty could reflect the gorgeousness of the soul or disguise the spiritual
malice of a person. Byzantine society was frightened by the display of the naked body.
The Vita of Antony the Younger said that a governor issued a decree that ordered all
fornicators and every prostitute to be arrested, their assets seized, and their hair
chopped off to make them a pariah of society.
The fornicators in Byzantine society continued to behave in this way as one
married man who had illicit interactions with whores. He would get up early and go to
church and was commended by everybody for his devotion. Women could also be
lewd. One woman who was healed by St. Thomais and, in thanks, vowed to stop

3. unruly intercourse with men for the duration of divine and great feast days. Monks
were also known to be fornicators. A monk of the monastery of St. Theodosios left for
Jerusalem and first went to a brothel and then became a craftsman.
One moral deed of a fornicator or prostitute could fortify their salvation. In the
Vita of Theodore of Edessa tells that a prostitute could obtain piety automatically,
without any effort on her part. In one story a woman whose son was dying begged
everyone to pray for his health. After nothing happened, she tossed the boy into the
lap of a harlot and implored her to pray for the ill boy. The Sinner was ashamed by
this request, but seeing as the boy was near death she turned to the east and beat her
breast with her hands and prayed in tears for the boy. A dazzling light fell from
heaven upon the boy and the prostitute, the prayer was accepted. The boy was cured
and the sinner could be seen pure in the eyes of God.
In another story that involves magic and a fornicating witch, Author of the Vita
of Basil the Younger, Gregory tells of his meeting with the witch. The witch was in a
legal marriage with Alexander but was so shameless that she slept with all the men
from the area. She used magic devices to accomplish her tainted dedications.
The witch desired Gregory and attempted to use magic and old-fashioned
feminine charm to seduce him. Her attempts failed and he managed to chase her
away. This shows that sorcerers and witches could prompt sexual desire in virtuous
individuals and was very treacherous for monks and nuns. This resembles a Roman
story called The Golden Ass where a Roman man stays at the home of a man and his
wife. The wife is a witch and preforms magic spells to have many male lovers. In the

4. story she has bewitched the Roman man’s friend and when he tries to escape she
casts a spell and ultimately kills him.
Demons and devils are, of course, one of the central reasons people in Byzantine
society went cuckoo for sex. The story from the Vita of Lazarus Galesiotes tells of a
man that was imprisoned and prayed to God to free him from imprisonment, swearing
that he would not ever return to his home but instead would go to the Holy Land. His
prayer was answered but he did not keep his promise and went home instead of going
to the Holy Land. He encountered a poor woman in a village and went to her hut,
there the Devil convinced the man to have sex with the woman. After he had satisfied
his lust; the man realized that he just had sex with his own daughter.
In Byzantium, demons were thought of as real presence in their lives. Demons
live in the air beneath the visible heaven as a result of their fall. The Devil and his
demons are informed and bold, brazen, sly, and observant creatures. Everyday
demons urged people to enjoy themselves, to eat and drink, wear fine clothes, marry
and have children. They urge this because they are the Devil’s baits. Being married, a
man has cravings for money, and that leads to injustice, falsehood, and obsession with
worldly business like sex, which prevents him from going to church.
The Life of Leo of Catania tells the story of a powerful magician called
Heliodorus. Heliodorus instructed to stand at night on a pagan tome and the Devil
provides him with one of his companions Gaspar. Heliodorus with Gaspar overthrows
the marketplace making it become lifeless and effects women walking in the street to
envision streams in front of them. The women then raised their tunics to their thighs

5. and he inspires the daughters of noblemen with uncontrollable passions. The pagan
magic or the Devil and demons were the makers of unholy behaviors in humans.
As the story of Heliodorus shows pagan structures have powers that effect
everyday life and people as do pagan statues. Pagan statues could be used similarly to
Christian images as a source of power. Pagan statues were a consistent presence in
Christian Constantinople and many of the statues were brought to the city by
Constantine the Great to create the new Rome.
The document Parastaseis Syntomoi Chronikai tells a story of the narrator and
his friend, they went to the ancient theater of the Kynegion to investigate the statues
there. They found a small, wide statue representing one Masimian, as they looked at
the statue and it fell on the friend and killed him. The narrator, frightened of being
blamed for the murder ran to the church of Hagia Sophia. After that they had the
statue buried and the moral of the story is; “Pray not to fall into temptation and be
on your guard when you contemplate ancient statues, especially pagan ones.”
This story and others like it show the Byzantines distrust of classical statues.
Classical statues were the spotlight for legends and where observed as both the
popular and the academic level as lively, treacherous and talismanic. Christian images
could share the same powers as pagan statues.
Theodore Lecter tells the story of a painter that portrayed Zeus in the likeness
of Christ and his hands withered. Pagan images functioned no differently to Christian
images; both had the abilities to punish the individual who mistreated them. The
differences between the images are that pagan statues act through the power of

6. demons, and the Christian through the power of God. The painter was punished by
god for creating a false ideal of God, and statue of Masimian killed the man for
trespassing, it is believed.
The powers of Pagan statues could be harnessed by placing the statue on its
side. In doing so, the pagan statue is under control. There are other ways of
controlling their power and obtaining the power of opposing gods for one’s own
advantage. Constantine did this when he created Constantinople and bishops convert
pagan temples for Christian usage.
Now the question of the hour is why, with the Byzantine views of sex in their
religion, why would they depict classical scenes involving male and female nudity?
Would that depict their holy people naked favorably in their artworks?
The poet John Geometres tells of the seven wonders of Constantinople and says
“With such errors was the stupid face of [pagan] Greece deceived, and gave an evil
veneration to the indecency of vain impieties. But the great and wise [emperor]
Constantine [the Great] brought [the sculptures] here to be a sport for the city, to be
a plaything for children and a source of laughter for men.”
This passage tells us that Byzantine people understood pagan sculptures as evil;
they could be controlled, but what is more significant is the belief that they are a
source of laughter for men. Many of the scholars on mythological or profane artworks
of Byzantium find the creation of the secular artwork to be humorous. I personally
agree, due to the fact that erotic scenes on artworks of the Greeks and Romans were
also considered to be humorous as well. But it is strange if one considers the fact that

7. Byzantine people feared the images of pagan art. The Byzantine People regarded
many of the ancient pagan statues to have the same powers as the images of the Holy.
One example of pagan images being depicted on Byzantine art are ivory boxes.
Byzantine ivory boxes are the largest class of Byzantine secular art, there are more
than 125 objects of these boxes and fewer than 40 have been identified as having
religious iconography. The first ivory box to expand upon that is decorated with
classical images of pagan myths is the Veroli Casket, Victoria and Albert Museum,
London (fig, 1.). The Veroli Casket is covered in mythological images like the Rape of
Europa, centaurs and maenads.
The Veroli Casket was made in Istanbul, Turkey and dated to the second half of
the 10th century. The Veroli Casket is made of wood overlaid with carved ivory and
bone plaques. It is believed that the ivory boxes were used to hold money. The casket
was a very high priced and high-status object, but lacks inscriptions. Without
inscriptions, it is not as simple to identify its mythological scenes and figures as it is
with the ivory boxes with religious images that have inscriptions.
! The following are what scholars have identified on the Veroli Casket. On the
left of the lid, shows the Rape of Europa, on the right are centaurs and maenads
playing and dancing to the music of Hercules. On the front of the casket are the
stories of Bellerophon and Iphegenia. The back of the casket has a scene with children
and animals and other representations of Europa. It also depicts a Dionysiac
procession, with two figures identified as Mars the god of war and Venus the goddess
of love. The ends have scenes of Dionysius the god of wine, in a chariot drawn by

8. panthers, and a nymph riding a seahorse.
Manny of the mythological scenes on the Veroli Casket have sexual, perverted,
and erotic stories to tell. The Byzantine artists did not depict scenes of Symposiums,
drunken orgies, or giant penises in their artworks, but alas, they knew the myths and
knew of their erotic nature. For example the story of the Rape of Europa (fig,2), the
story is not only a sexual Greek myth but it also has bestiality in it.
The myth of the Rape of Europa goes, Zeus was captivated by Europa and
resolved to seduce or ravish her. He transformed himself into a docile white bull and
blended in with her father's brood. While Europa and her helpers were picking
flowers, she saw the bull in the field. She caressed the bull, and ultimately got onto
his back. Zeus took that opening and ran off to the sea and began swimming, with her
on his back, to the island of Crete. He then exposed his true identity, and Europa later
gave birth to King Minos.
The image of a woman riding a bull does not automatically mean it is depicting
the Rape of Europa there is criteria. The bull must be running and the woman riding
the bull has to be grasping the neck or horn of the bull. Also it is common for
Dionysiac and maenads to be depicted with Europa. The Rape of Europa on the Veroli
Casket has all the criteria listed above, so it is most certainly Europa.
The scene itself does not look sexual, as there is no nudity except for the Putti,
no sexual acts, but the myths and characters have erotic histories. An example for the
erotic history of the one of the figures is the god Dionysiac. Dionysiac is the god of
wine, fertility of plants and animals, death and rebirth, and ecstasy. Dionysiac
followers consist of maenads also called wild women, Satyrs, centaurs, and others.

9. The other image on the back of the casket that depicts the Rape of Europa (fig,
3.) does have nudity and it is more erotic than the other. The Europa scene on the
back shows what looks to be Putti giving cunnilingus to a horse. This scene is labeled
as a parody of the Rape of Europa, so apparently Byzantine people thought Putti or
little boys with wings giving head to a horse was rather hilarious. I assume they would
have to find this kind of image funny and not erotic because if they found it erotic
they would be seen as enjoying bestiality and pedophilia, and God probably wouldn’t
care for that - although homosexuality was deemed far worse than bestiality…!
Another ivory box (fig, 4.) with mythological figures is found in the Walters Art
Museum in Baltimore. It is covered with nude putti dancing, sticking out their behinds
in an exaggerated way. Other figures on the ivory box include an Eros riding a hippo
camp, a centaur playing a flute, a nude male, possibly Hercules, playing a lyre, and
Dionysus in a chariot drawn by panthers.
Besides the Nudity and the presents of Dionysiac the god of wine and ecstasy,
and Eros god of desire, this ivory box is not overly sexualized. This Ivory box can be
seen as silly and amusing. The putti are shaking their butts around in a whimsical
fashion and are probably drunk, due to the presents of Dionysiac. This ivory box is a
good example of the comical view of Greek myth in Byzantium. Alas, where this is
rather lighthearted, the Byzantines do have their more risky artwork.
! There is a wool and lined tapestry in the Musee National du Moyen Age Thermes
de Cluny museum in Paris that depicts Leda and the Swan (fig,5.). The May of Lead
and the Swan once again has Zeus admiring a lovely lady and going after her in the
form of an anime. The story goes Zeus desired Leda and took the guise of a swan.

10. Zeus was then being chased by an eagle and fell into Leda’s arms and seduced her.
Once again we have bestiality being depicted in Byzantine artwork.
There is an account by Procopius about Theodora’s stage performance in the
sixth century. Actresses were allowed to appear nude onstage with the exception of a
loincloth. In Theodora’s act, she would lay on her back with grains of barley between
her legs and let geese eat it. This can be seen as a reenactment of Leda and the
Swan. In the tapestry it shows a naked dancer in the act of a spin in front of a swan
and the swan pecks at her butt from behind.
There is another tapestry that depicts the myth of Leda and the Swan in a far
more graphic way. In that tapestry there is no doubt that the women and swan are
having sex. You can scarcely see the swan’s penis entering the women or Leda. Leda
and the swan are in the center of the tapestry and they are surrounded by maenads,
panthers, rabbits, and Dionysiac. This tapestry has to be the most sexual out of all the
artworks because it shows a sexual act, and cannot be interpreted in a different way.
Pyxis with the judgment of Paris (fig,6) Byzantine, early 6th century Ivory, in
the Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, Maryland. This Pyxis has the myth of the
Judgment of Paris; the story goes Eris, the goddess of discord, was not invited to a
wedding celebration and as revenge, tossed the golden apple of the Hesperides,
inscribed “the fairest.” This started a dispute with the goddess and Troy had to pick
the winner. He picked Aphrodite and she bestowed on to him the love of Helen of
Troy.
The Pyxis shows a naked Aphrodite receiving the golden apple. Naked women
are very rare in Byzantine artworks. Usually nudity is played for laughs or as a

11. religious statement. The Pyxis was used to store cosmetics and jewelry, this
emphasizes the times in the container that will make the user as beautiful as the
goddess of love. As I said, beauty could be a good or bad thing. This Pyxis does not
work with the why Byzantine people viewed life and art. It shows pagan images and
nudity but that is not to uncommon, but when mixed with the vanity of beauty and
sexuality it gets a bit murky.
Although the Byzantine people viewed sex as only an option for reproduction,
they seem to be fine with showing Europa and Leda having sex with Zeus in bull and
swan form. Also depicting Putti performing cunnilingus on a horse is also fine. They
also saw the body as sexually threatening, especially if it was beautiful and naked.
Byzantine society was frightened of the naked body, but yet the nude classical figures
were all over their artworks like Aphrodite and Europa.
Byzantines distrusted classical images and statues because they had the same
power as icons. Yet they cover their artwork with large numbers of classical pagan
images. They also believed that one could harness the power of the pagan power;
perhaps their very reason for doing so. Perhaps it could be as the poet John
Geometres stated that they are a source of laughter for men.
Whatever the reason the Byzantine people had for creating these works, you
cannot fully deny the sexual subjects of the artworks. The Rape of Europa, Leda and
the Swan having sex, and the Putti blowing the horse, were all hideously sexual. The
Byzantine people were only human. They wanted sexual images just as much as
anybody; they were just a bit more subtle about it. Of course, we can just blame
those pesky devils and demons for making the artists and people whom commissioned

12. the artworks.
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Figure 1. Veroli Casket, Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
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Figure 2. Veroli Casket lid, The rape of Europa, Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

13. !
Figure 3. Detail of the back of the Veroli Casket, Aphrodite and Ares, Parody of The Rape of
Europa, Erotes Playing with a Horse, Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
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Figure 4. Naked dancers and Mythological figures. Bone casket, The Walters Art
Museum, Baltimore.

14. !
Figure 5. Performance of Leda and the Swan, Wool and linen tapestry weave, Musee National
du Moyen Age Thermes de Cluny, Paris.

15. !
Figure 6. Pyxis with the Judgment of Paris, Egypt, Byzantine, early 6th century Ivory, The
Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, Maryland.
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