Contents

pp v-vii

List of Illustrations

pp viii-x

Preface

pp xi-xiv

Notes on Contributors

pp xv-xviii

1 - Introduction

pp 1-24

PART I - ANCIENT KEYNOTES: FROM HOMER TO LUCIAN

pp 25-26

2 - Laughter and Tears in Early Greek Literature

pp 27-35

3 - Imagining Divine Laughter in Homer and Lucian

pp 36-53

4 - Parody, Symbol and the Literary Past in Lucian

pp 54-72

PART II - ANCIENT MODELS, BYZANTINE COLLECTIONS: EPIGRAMS, RIDDLES AND JOKES

pp 73-74

5 - ‘Tantalus Ever in Tears’: The Greek Anthology as a Source of Emotions in Late Antiquity

pp 75-86

6 - ‘Do You Think You're Clever? Solve This Riddle, Then!’ The Comic Side of Byzantine Enigmatic Poetry

pp 87-103

7 - Philogelos: An Anti-Intellectual Joke-Book

pp 104-122

PART III - BYZANTINE PERSPECTIVES: TEARS AND LAUGHTER, THEORY AND PRAXIS

pp 123-124

8 - ‘Messages of the Soul’: Tears, Smiles, Laughter and Emotions Expressed by them in Byzantine Literature

pp 125-145

9 - Towards a Byzantine Theory of the Comic?

pp 146-165

10 - Staging Laughter and Tears: Libanius, Chrysostom and the Riot of the Statues

pp 166-186

11 - Lamenting for the Fall of Jerusalem in the Seventh Century CE

pp 187-198

12 - Guiding Grief: Liturgical Poetry and Ritual Lamentation in Early Byzantium

pp 199-216

PART IV - LAUGHTER, POWER AND SUBVERSION

pp 217-218

13 - Mime and the Dangers of Laughter in Late Antiquity

pp 219-231

14 - Laughter on Display: Mimic Performances and the Danger of Laughing in Byzantium

pp 232-242

15 - The Power of Amusement and the Amusement of Power: The Princely Frescoes of St Sophia, Kiev, and their Connections to the Byzantine World

pp 243-262

16 - Laughing at Eros and Aphrodite: Sexual Inversion and its Resolution in the Classicising Arts of Medieval Byzantium

pp 263-288

PART V - GENDER, GENRE AND LANGUAGE: LOSS AND SURVIVAL

pp 289-290

17 - Comforting Tears and Suggestive Smiles: To Laugh and Cry in the Komnenian Novel

pp 291-311

18 - Do Brothers Weep? Male Grief, Mourning, Lament and Tears in Eleventh- and Twelfth-Century Byzantium

pp 312-337

19 - Laments by Nicetas Choniates and Others for the Fall of Constantinople in 1204

pp 338-352

20 - ‘Words Filled With Tears’: Amorous Discourse as Lamentation in the Palaiologan Romances

pp 353-374