The worldview of women in demotic historic, akritic and epic poetry of the late Byzantine Period (9 th Century to 1453)

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1 The worldview of women in demotic historic, akritic and epic poetry of the late Byzantine Period (9 th Century to 1453) By VIRGINIA A. DELIGATOS STUDENT NO.: Dissertation submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree MAGISTER ARTIUM in GREEK In the Faculty of Humanities (Department of Greek & Latin Studies) at the UNIVERSITY OF JOHANNESBURG SUPERVISOR: PROF. B. HENDRICKX CO-SUPERVISOR: DR T. SANSARIDOU-HENDRICKX JOHANNESBURG 2008

2 i ABSTRACT A study is conducted into the roles of women living in the late Byzantine period between the 6 th Century to 1453, using demotic or popular poetry which can be quite significant in shedding some light into Byzantine history and society. An in depth analysis of these songs is carried out and compared to valid historical texts in order to create a proper account on history. Some questions that will be examined are as follows: How did women fit into society? What was their expected role? Did they ever go beyond their conventional role? Were they treated differently at different stages or circumstances in their life? Do the clues that are found in these songs correspond to the previously written historical texts that were predominantly written by men? It is no secret that, women portrayed in historical texts which refer to that period, were subjugated to the men in their lives and had very different roles to their partners, fathers, or brothers. Using demotic poetry, one is able to understand the voice of common folk and their worldview, thereby collecting accounts of the society s ideas and ideals at grassroots level. A collection of about 20 songs has been gathered for this study and each song has been analysed in detail alone and in its contexts. It is tremendously interesting to discover how important women were in their society and how they often seem to have influenced men s behaviour indirectly. 2

3 ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank Professor Benjamin Hendrickx and Dr. Thekla Sansaridou- Hendrickx, two role models for whom I have the utmost respect for. Prof. Hendrickx for teaching me from the moment I stepped into university to always keep an open mind and research the world in its past, present and future, and to question what comes my way. He was one of the first people to mould my school of thought - a true academic and exceptionally intelligent and learned man with a wealth of knowledge. Dr. Sansaridou-Hendrickx, for her amazing ability to conceptualize and explain the most complex of concepts and for teaching me how to structure information in order to allow it to fit perfectly into my view of the world. I am proud to be a woman when I have such a strong female role model such as herself a perfect balance between an academic and a mother and wife. I dedicate this work to my mother and father, the two most dedicated and loving parents who gave me the support and freedom to be who I am today. To my mother for being a model of femininity to me in all its virtues - she is beautiful, clever, strong, sensitive and nurturing all in one. My father, for always reassuring me of how I have the ability to be whatever I want to be and do whatever I want to do regardless of my gender. To both for giving me unconditional love and support in everything I do. I have the utmost respect for my parents. 3

4 CONTENTS ABSTRACT ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS i ii CHAPTER 1: Introduction The study and its aim Methodology 6 CHAPTER 2: Socio-historical Overview 2.1 Structure and function of society Position and role of the Byzantine Woman 9 CHAPTER 3: Demotic Songs 3.1 Technical characteristics Classification Selection of texts Outline of selected texts 19 CHAPTER 4: Roles Traditional Family Roles Girlhood Marriage and a woman s role as a wife Motherhood Widowhood Unconventional Roles The woman as a fighter 86 4

5 4.2.2 The woman as a murderer The woman as a leader 93 CHAPTER 5: Theotokos the Epitome of a Woman 97 CHAPTER 6: Class Differences 100 CONCLUSION 104 BIBLIOGRAPHY 107 ANNEXURE A 111 5

6 CHAPTER 1 Introduction It was as late as the end of the nineteenth century when scholars and philosophers of the West began realizing that women from the Byzantine period also have stories. 1 Most of the Byzantines who preserved records of their culture were men and the accounts that were recorded focused mostly on the activities of men. 2 Byzantine literature was also controlled by the aristocratic class 3 and it is in the last three decades and particularly from the nineties onwards that Byzantinists started showing a growing interest in women's studies, as the lengthy and expanding bibliography on Byzantine Women edited by Alice-Mary Talbot attests. 4 Motivated by this, I will focus on exploring the worldview of women in the late Byzantine period specifically, as depicted by Greek demotic songs that fall under the Akritic cycle, and the epic of Digenis Akritas. It is generally accepted that demotic songs are probably the first records of Modern Greek literature 5. They appeared around the 9 th century AD during the Byzantine period and were oral descriptions of various historical occurrences, either directly or indirectly. They are created in the vernacular and express accounts of everyday life, of traditions, and of ideals of casual ordinary folk. They express the vox populi - the culture, the 1 S. Constantinou, in her review of Connor s, 2004:xvii 2 A. M. Talbot, 1997:117 3 H.G. Beck, 1988:34 4 As per S. Constantinou, in her review of Connor s, Women of Byzantium, many Byzantine texts on female saints have been translated into modern languages, and volumes have appeared which contain translations of texts devoted to holy women (Brock, S. and S. Harvey Holy Women of the Syrian Orient, Talbot, A.-M. (ed.) 1996 Holy Women of Byzantium. There are studies presenting women's legal status, their role in society and their religious lives (see, for example, Beaucamp, J. 1990, Le statut de la femme à Byzance, Talbot, A.-M. (ed.) Women and Religious Life in Byzantium and the studies of Angeliki Laiou and Judith Herrin). Other studies examine the achievements and importance of women in Byzantine society (see, for example, Garland, L Byzantine Empresses: Women and Power in Byzantium, AD and Holum, K Theodosian Empresses: Women and Imperial Dominion in Late Antiquity). 1

7 ideals, the feelings, and the way of thinking of the people 6. They reflect the worldview of the people and can therefore be regarded as informal sources of sociological history. The specific categories of demotic songs that will be used in this study are those which refer to the Byzantine period between the 10 th century AD and the fall of Constantinople in More specifically, these are the songs which refer to the heroic akrites who defended the eastern border of the Byzantine Empire, or refer to other historical occurrences in that period. The woman features quite predominantly in the selected songs and it is worthy to discover the manner in which she is represented, and the manner in which she fits into the worldview of these texts. 1.1 The study and its aim According to Watts, demotic songs reflect the values, philosophy of life and social structure of the rural communities; in particular the Greek women s association with the family and household as opposed to Greek men s association with the public and social world. 7 Watts statement raises some interest and therefore leads to the aim of this study: to examine and reveal the woman behind the legendary poems/songs of the akrites and behind the historical demotic songs. The purpose is to explore the manner in which women are depicted in the selected texts. These findings will help recreate a picture of the woman featured in these songs. 5 Dragonas et. al, Δομή, Δημοτικά Τραγούδια 6 Αμαργιανάκης, 1990: 7 N. Watts, 1988:

8 The reason I have selected to examine the woman as she is portrayed through demotic songs, is because these are creations of the folk and of ordinary people thereby expressing accounts of the worldview on women in the period from which they derive. By examining the selected texts it will become apparent how they fitted into the worldview of the people/folk who wrote these songs. Our reference to the folk s worldview will therefore denote as defined below. The term worldview (also world-view, world view, and German Weltanschauung) has been examined in anthropological contexts and it is significant to discuss its meaning before attempting to use the term further. The term worldview as defined in the 1989 edition of the Oxford English Dictionary is a "... contemplation of the world, [a] view of life..." The OED defines Weltanschauung (literally, a perception of the world) as "... [a] particular philosophy of life; a concept of the world held by an individual or a group..." In Types and Problems of Philosophy, Hunter Mead 8 defines Weltanschauung as [a]n all-inclusive world-view or outlook. A somewhat poetic term to indicate either an articulated system of philosophy or a more or less unconscious attitude toward life and the world. 9 In "The Question of a Weltanschauung" from his New Introductory Lectures in Psycho- Analysis, Sigmund Freud 10 describes Weltanschauung as,... an intellectual construction which solves all the problems of our existence uniformly on the basis of one overriding hypothesis, which, accordingly, leaves no question unanswered and in which everything that interests us finds its fixed place. One's worldview is also referred to as one's philosophy, philosophy of life, mindset, outlook on life, formula for life, ideology, faith, or even religion. 8 Mead. H., Sansaridou-Hendrickx, Freud, S.,

9 In a study by Aerts, et al., 1994 a world view is a coherent collection of concepts and theorems that must allow us to construct a global image of the world, and in this way to understand as many elements of our experience as possible. Societies, as well as individuals, have always contemplated deep questions relating to their being and becoming, and to the being and becoming of the world. The configuration of answers to these questions forms their world view Hence, a world view is a system of co-ordinates or a frame of reference in which everything presented to us by our diverse experiences can be placed. It is a symbolic system of representation that allows us to integrate everything we know about the world and ourselves into a global picture, one that illuminates reality as it is presented to us within a certain culture. 11 The aim of this study is to ultimately understand the woman s expected traditional role in folk society and in their worldview, any other roles she may have which are not conventional and lastly, other interesting roles or topics which may arise. The collection of demotic songs that was put together was done so as follows and the texts that were specifically selected were selected under the following criteria: 1. They belonged to the akritic, historical, and epic cycle as these texts made reference to the period in question, i.e. around the 10 th century AD They featured women. 3. Most of the songs were collected from Politis «Δημοτικά Τραγούδια Εκλογαί από τα τραγούδια του Ελληνικού Λαού», a book with a very rich collection of most well-known demotic songs. Politis was a leading folklorist in his day and 11 Aerts, D et al, 1994:10 4

10 founded, among others, the Historical and Ethnological Society of Athens in It is through this society s journal and later a second periodical, that folk/demotic songs and other ethnographical material were published. 12 He arranges his collection according to the themes the songs portray and their characteristics. This arrangement also follows a historical pattern. Politis categorization is mainly used by all schools in Greece today as is apparent from their set syllabus on literature Other songs were obtained from the book «Ιστορία και Δημοτικό Τραγούδι» of Dimitrakopoulos, a well-known writer which correlates history and literature of that period. Dimitrakopoulos has assembled a collection of demotic songs, grouping them according to various historical occurrences in Greek history that took place between These songs are briefly examined and placed into a historical context. 5. Some songs that have been used are not specifically demotic songs as such, but are classified as «δημώδη άσματα» which do not follow the linguistic character of demotic songs but are creations of the folk and play an important role in revealing their worldview. These songs were created during the Byzantine period and are mainly the folks grievances at the circuses during various revolts, or are insults towards various emperors and other state figures Lastly, the epic which is examined in this study, The Epic of Digenis Akritas, was taken from Ricks Byzantine Heroic Poetry. It is also not a demotic song but an epic that reflects the worldview of the folk and from which many demotic songs have been fashioned. These texts, which are described more closely in a later chapter, will form the primary source of information for this study. 12 Beaton, R. 1986: Κείμενα Νεοελληνικής Λογοτεχνίας Α Λυκείου, Γρηγοριάδης 14 Δημητρακόπουλος, 1993:5 15 Πολίτης, 1911:624 5

11 1.2 Methodology The research methodology to be utilized in executing this proposed research will be a qualitative one. The reason for this is that qualitative research is, among others,: a) concerned with the opinions, experiences and feelings of individuals producing subjective data; b) Describes social phenomena; c) Data collected is used to develop concepts and theories that help us understand the social world. 16 The study will be of an analytical and interpretative nature and the approach will borrow from a historiographic one. 17 Historiography is an appropriate method as it focuses on the narrative, interpretations, worldview, and method of presentation of other historians, which in our case are the folk who created these demotic songs. 18 The procedure of this study involves collecting about 20 samples of demotic poetry (more specifically, akritic, paraloges and historic songs, including the epic if Digenis Akritas) from the late Byzantine period, which feature or mention women. These are grouped according to their type as mentioned above, and then placed in an historical order. Each literary sample will be examined and analyzed, and any reference to the woman will be focused on. (see Annexure A). A system of indexing is used where all key words in the songs are indexed alphabetically for a more extensive analysis and easy reference. In addition, a table/mapping system is put in place, correlating the common themes found in the various songs. The historical context of each literary text will be considered and researched, as this will assist in making correct assumptions and deductions while attempting to examine the role 16 Hancock, 1998:2. 17 Berg,

12 of the woman. Background reading is carried out on the historical context of these texts including background reading on demotic poetry. The abovementioned procedures provide the background required in fulfilling the primary objective. Special care is taken in checking and double-checking sources of information, as this lends a good deal of validity and reliability to my conclusions. Certain issues are questioned including the way the women are described and referred to in these texts and the reasoning behind this worldview. Another aim is to examine the difference between the way the woman actually was and the way she was seen or expected to be. Following this procedure, common themes arising from the texts will be drawn and these will question and deduce some hypotheses on the role of the women in the worldview of the texts. These findings are what will be recorded and mentioned in this thesis constituting its body. Themes such as women s traditional and non-conventional roles will be examined within the context in which they were bound up. In addition, the depiction of their relationships, their activities, their characteristics, and their position in society will be observed. An attempt will be made to prove most findings with historical sources but this may just merely be a concurrence with the historical source as there are no first hand sources on this research topic and so these historical sources may also be subjective. As a first step, it is necessary to define and elaborate on the contexts that will steer this study, that is, the historical and sociological context in which the selected demotic songs and texts derive from, and the characteristics of demotic songs and more specifically those of the Akritic cycle. 18 Furay C. & Salevouris M.J, 1988:223 7

13 CHAPTER 2 Socio-historical Overview 2.1 Structure and Function of society During the ninth and tenth century, under the Macedonian dynasty, society was hierarchically arranged. The imperial family was at the top and the emperor was supreme and decided on who would receive prestige and power. The emperor was regarded as God s representative and his empire would mimic the heavens 19. Below the imperial family was the imperial bureaucracy, who was an aristocracy of service, whose position was determined by the emperor. It was divided into three groups: civil administration, military officials, and the eunuchs. At the top of each group was an aristocracy which was chosen by the emperor. Ordinary people were workmen or merchants and Byzantine city life was based on trade and the presence of many large landowners. Normally those who made their fortune in trade aspired to improved status by movement into the bureaucracy. 20 Byzantines had to pay taxes and if they did not do so, it was regarded as a sin. The emperor on the other hand, was responsible for their wellbeing as long as they remained his subjects. The only people that were exempted from paying taxes were the poor who were also excluded from any grants given by the empire 21. Peasant farmers paid the bulk of the taxes and most served as the basis o the Byzantine thematic armies in the early years of the dynasty. Later on however, large landowners began to secure the property of the peasants and posed a serious threat which a number of emperors tried to mitigate through legislation. The Macedonian emperors tried to support 19 Cavallo, 1997:2 20 Gregory, 8

14 the peasants against the larger landowners but they also happened to be officials appointed by the government. They, therefore, had a twofold position: they were dependent upon the emperor for their appointment, but held their land in their own names. The rise of the large landowners was not totally a negative phenomenon: these individuals provided the military leadership that brought Byzantine arms to its greatest height in the 10th-11th centuries. Nevertheless, the landed aristocracy challenged the emperor. 22 Late in the 7 th Century, the Eastern frontier was reorganized into themata which were military zones where inalienable grants of land were given to soldiers as long as they protected the frontiers. These landowners were said to be heroic figures who fought for and protected the Christian-Roman civilization at the frontiers of the Empire from Arab invasions which later became Turkish invasions. 23 The epic of Digenis Akritas should be seen as an important creation of the new aristocracy. It reflects their cultural ideas and political attitudes. It is one of the first products of Byzantine "provincial" culture. 2.2 Position and role of the Byzantine woman The family was central to Byzantine life and was the basis of Byzantine social structure. The vast majority of the population consisted of nuclear families whose members were the parents and the unmarried children. 24 There were also a considerable number of households, where parents and married children or married siblings lived together in a kind of extended family. 21 Cavallo, 1997:2 22 Gregory, 23 Hendrickx, 2007:62 24 Γάσπαρης et al, No date:

15 The head of the household and the owner of the property was the man, and it was he who was responsible for the payment of taxes. When a woman married, she usually moved to her husband's home, to which she brought her dowry. The dowry was the essential family property and its purpose was to preserve the family and children 25. Women were at the centre of the family unit, attending mostly to household issues and remaining within the confines of their home. It was only in the family that the woman s role was respected by law, by religion and by society. 26 Heer points out that no woman s voice was to be heard in public and that they were governed by a thoroughly masculine theology and by a morality made by men for men. 27 From the 12 th Century onward however, women seem to become more liberated in terms of femininity and love in Byzantine literature. Sansaridou-Hendrickx, in her study, The Worldview of the Anonymous chronicle of the Tocco (14 th -15 th Cent): Women and Gender Relations 28, mentions that Watts 29 concludes that the women s roles remain subservient to those of men and are made possible by male tolerance of them. If the woman had no place in the family, with the exception of nuns, she was regarded as nothing but shameless temptresses of sexual desire. 30 Byzantine social views held women between the image and role of the Virgin Mary, pure and the mother of Christ, and of Eve, the seductress who led the entire human race into sin. They were expected to live up to the role of the Virgin Mary and if they did not do so they were regarded as the latter. Virginity was a characteristic highly esteemed by society yet women were caught between being pure and reproducing which required sexual relations. Marriage and procreation of children was a woman s primary functions, yet she was considered unclean forty days after childbirth and was regarded as weak and untrustworthy Laiou, 1992: Cavallo, 1997:11 27 Heer, Medieval World, no date: 261, from T. Sansaridou-Hendrickx, 2002: T. Sansaridou-Hendrickx, 2002: Watts, Folk Songs, no date: 50-51, from T. Sansaridou-Hendrickx, 2002: Cavallo, 1997:11 31 Talbot, 1997:118 10

16 In addition, Byzantine literature makes mention that adultery by a woman was an extreme crime, as opposed to a man committing adultery. Women were paraded and flogged in public and treated like prostitutes. 32 Sansaridou-Hendrickx quotes in her study that Byzantine society was more tolerant of male adultery and the related practices of concubinage and prostitution, than of female infidelity. 33 In summary, women were an integral part of Byzantine society although subjugated to their men, and they undertook a variety of roles such as the mother, the wife, the empress, the leader. Many aspects will arise upon examining the women in the texts that have been selected for this study which should shed more light into the status and role of the woman. 32 Koukoules, 1949, vol. III: Herrin, J. et al, Women, 1991:2202, from T. Sansaridou-Hendrickx, 2002:228 11

17 CHAPTER 3 Demotic Songs Dimaras 34 supports that, the demotic song is a sincere, authentic, and unaltered expression of the folk spirit, and reveals the Hellenic people to be as temperate in disposition as they are frugal in life, a people who are classical in the expression of their sensibility. Romaios mentions that these songs express the rich and multifaceted world of the people s soul, they save historical memories of events that moved them. 35 This tradition of expressing everyday life and events through demotic songs can be traced from the 9 th century AD during the Byzantine period and continued on right through the fall of Constantinople, the collapse of the Byzantine Empire, the Turkish invasion of Greece, the four hundred years of oppression of Greece by the Turks and finally the freedom of Greece from Ottoman rule in Technical characteristics The basic characteristics of demotic songs are that they are first and foremost oral and passed on orally, therefore having many versions preserved over different areas of Greece and over various periods, most surviving even until today. Secondly, they are associated to music, dance, and song. They were sung in times of joy and festivities, and at times of sadness and mourning, as part of people s lives. The Political verse is a distinguishing feature of Byzantine folk/demotic poetry with the following characteristics: There are fifteen syllables per line divided into two hemstitches 34 Dimaras, 1974:10 35 Ρωμαίος, 1980:13 12

18 of 8 and 7 syllables each. Each line should be like a building block, complete in itself but related to the preceding and following lines. Irrelevant and obvious details are not given and the song moves quickly. The political verse is also known as Constantinopolitan verse and is said to come from the circle of Constantinople. 36 Trypanis on the other hand, points out that by the 11 th Century political meant common, what was used everyday. 37 In all of these, a dramatic, narrative structure exists including love/sexuality, exile, and death which apparently go very deep in Greek culture. 38 The songs that will be examined in this study consist of lyrics that are strongly conveyed, reflecting the external and internal world of the people vividly. The physical world is often personified, many stereotypes are used and impossible and supernatural occurrences feature regularly which seem to govern both man and nature 39. Heroism is also glorified and demotic songs often create prototypes of heroes Classification Demotic songs have been categorized in various ways. One manner is that which classifies them according to how or when they are sung, that is, a) those sung at the table, b) those sung on the street and c) those which are danced to. Another classification is that of Kyriakidis, the man who succeeded Politis to the chair of the Loagrafia in Athens. He set out to prove that the direct origin of modern oral material, particularly songs, was not to be sought in the classical world, but in the two well-defined historical epochs: that of the late Roman Empire and that of the highpoint of 36 Gregory, 37 Trypanis, 1981: Beaton, 1986: Dimaras, 1974: Dimaras, 1974:

19 Arab-Byzantine confrontation in the Middle East between the 8 th and 11 th century 41. Kyriakidis groups the songs according to the following themes: a) general songs/hymns, b) narrative songs, and c) dramatic songs 42. Loukatos 43, groups them as: a) epic, b) lyrical, c) family orientated, d) religious, e) social, f) seasonal, and g) children s songs. For the purpose of this study, we will use the classification that Politis uses, as he has done so using the period from which they arise 44. He ranks the songs as 1) Akritic, 2) Historic, 3) Kleftic, 4) Paraloges, 5) songs of love, 6) wedding songs, 7) lullabies, 8) carols, 9) laments, etc. From the above categories, we will use selected Historic songs, Akritic songs, Paraloges, and the epic of Digenis Akritas all of which stem from the period that this study specifically examines and revolves around - the late and post Byzantine period (around the 9 th Century A.D. until the fall of Constantinople in 1453) and the Akritic cycle which revolved around the eastern borders (akres) of the Byzantine Empire. It is important to keep in mind though, that, as per Trypanis 45, It is impossible to date Modern Greek folk songs with any accuracy or to follow their development even in outline. The only exceptions are the historical folk songs, which we must assume were composed shortly after the events they refer to 3.3 Selection of Texts The demotic songs that remain from the Byzantine period are unfortunately few. According to Dimitrakopoulos, the reason for this is not because they were not sung often but because the events which took place after that period allowed them to be forgotten 41 Beaton, 1986: Kyriakidis, Loukatos, 1977:94 44 Politis, No date 14

20 and these were not properly put together into collections. The few that do remain though refer to occurrences from the later Byzantine period such as, barbaric invasions, looting of cities, various revolutions, and various incidences which had a strong impact and effect on the Byzantine people 46. The events which stand out the most in these demotic songs are those of the continuous fighting between the Byzantines and the Arabs. These are expressed mainly in the Akritic songs and names of influential figures are hidden in these, such as heroes, emperors and generals. The founding of Constantinople is often referred to and also the building of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople. 47 Akritic demotic poetry Foreign tribes constantly threatened the borders of the Byzantine Empire. The historical context of akritic songs revolves mostly around the fighting between the Byzantine Empire and Islamism, who to the Byzantines was a dangerous enemy 48. To meet the challenge presented by a multitude of potential invaders, the military defenses constantly reorganized themselves into districts called themes, each defended by its own units called bands, which were stationed permanently there. 49 Certain sensitive frontier districts, such as the eastern external flank of the state, were kept outside the thematic organization. They were not always stable and from the eighth to the tenth century moved between Cappadocia and the Euphrates, as Politis explains 50. These eastern frontiers of the empire were guarded by the akrites who were frontier guards (guarding the borders akres hence their name akrites ) Trypanis, 1981: Δημητρακόπουλος, 1993:7 47 Among these are other songs which describe various laments of the people on various revolts and grievances against emperors and other formal figures (Ν.Politis, «Δημώδη βυζαντινά άσματα» περιοδ. «Λαογραφία» p.624) (Δημητρακόπουλος 1993:7) 48 Beck, 1988:97 49 N. Watts, 1988:51 50 Politis, L. 1973: Hendrickx, 2007:62 15