TY - CHAP
T1 - Imperial Women and Entertainment at the Middle Byzantine Court
AU - Garland, Lynda
PY - 2006
Y1 - 2006
N2 - If any women in Byzantium had the freedom to select their own forms of entertainment and amusement, clearly it would have been the women of the imperial family. Through a study of court entertainment and the degree to which women were permitted to be present as audience, we should expect to be able to ascertain the types of humour accessible to and appreciated by women at court. Certainly, under the 'aegis' of numerous emperors such as Constantine Monomachos (r. 1042-1055) and Isaac Angelos (r. 1185-1195), the imperial court was a hotbed of buffoonery and licentiousness (Garland 1995/6), and women of the imperial family are shown on many occasions as responding positively to the slapstick and jesting which was to be encountered as a matter of course in the imperial palace. And while historians may be recording these anecdotes to ridicule and undermine the dignity and propriety of a certain ruler or his administration, it must be assumed that the audience reaction to specific incidents appeared psychologically credible to the readership.
AB - If any women in Byzantium had the freedom to select their own forms of entertainment and amusement, clearly it would have been the women of the imperial family. Through a study of court entertainment and the degree to which women were permitted to be present as audience, we should expect to be able to ascertain the types of humour accessible to and appreciated by women at court. Certainly, under the 'aegis' of numerous emperors such as Constantine Monomachos (r. 1042-1055) and Isaac Angelos (r. 1185-1195), the imperial court was a hotbed of buffoonery and licentiousness (Garland 1995/6), and women of the imperial family are shown on many occasions as responding positively to the slapstick and jesting which was to be encountered as a matter of course in the imperial palace. And while historians may be recording these anecdotes to ridicule and undermine the dignity and propriety of a certain ruler or his administration, it must be assumed that the audience reaction to specific incidents appeared psychologically credible to the readership.
KW - Classical Greek and Roman History
UR - http://www.ashgate.com/default.aspx?page=637&calcTitle=1&title_id=8653&edition_id=9670
UR - http://books.google.com.au/books?id=T4eMlP3nV4YC&pg=PA177
UR - http://nla.gov.au/anbd.bib-an40308427
M3 - Chapter
SN - 9780754657378
SN - 075465737X
T3 - Publications of the Centre for Hellenic Studies, King's College London
SP - 177
EP - 191
BT - Byzantine Women: Varieties of Experience 800-1200
A2 - Garland, Lynda
PB - Ashgate Publishing
CY - Aldershot, United Kingdom
ER -