A 12th-century Byzantine novel describes a maiden as a mixture of milk & roses. That’s like the current Russian expression кровь с молоком (blood & milk). … Read the post from Byzantine maiden as mixture of milk and roses to кровь с молоком
In the Byzantine novel Drosilla and Charikles, a couple’s passionate love redeemed a dour old woman who allegorizes college sex tribunal officials. … Read the post Drosilla and Charikles shows college sex police can be redeemed
With pioneering literary realism, Rhodanthe in Prodromos’s 12th-century Byzantine romance occasionally showed that she could be a back-biting bitch … Read the post Rhodanthe as back-biting bitch: the real world of Byzantine romance
The Patria on Constantinople, compiled at the end of the tenth century, reported that statues there could identify non-virgin women and cuckolded men. … Read the post ancient Constantinople statues identified virgins & cuckolded men
In 12th-century Byzantium, Prodromos in his novel Rhodanthe and Dosikles transgressively asserted that men and women have equal intrinsic bodily beauty. … Read the post Prodromos with Dosikles challenged instrumental valuation of men