Although female rulers were an anomaly during the Middle Ages, Herrin (The Formation of Christendom) chronicles the lives of three eighth- and ninth-century Byzantine women who proved to be exceptions. As emperors' wives, Irene, Euphrosyne and Theodora "exercised imperial power and changed the course of the empire's history in a purposive, deliberate, and connected fashion." Their commitment to preserving the role of Christian icons in worship was especially significant, Herrin argues, since they defied years of opposing edicts—and eventually succeeded. Most Byzantine emperors in this period practiced a policy of "iconoclasm": they removed religious icons from churches and monasteries and persecuted those who prayed to them (iconophiles). But in various ways, these women engaged in sweeping reforms of iconoclasm: Irene, the first female emperor of Byzantium, sponsored a 787 council that restored icons to places of worship. Though this was later reversed, Theodora, from her position as widow of the emperor Theophilus, succeeded in 843 in restoring icons to the prominent place to which early Byzantine society had elevated them. Herrin contends that three factors—the growing cult of the Virgin as a symbol of female power, a new role for women in establishing claims to the throne and the development of certain court structures such as the role of eunuchs, who were servants of imperial women—provided new opportunities for women to rule. Herrin's study provides important glimpses into medieval history as well as the daily lives and rituals of Byzantine imperial women. 8 pages of color illus. (Feb.)
Forecast:Though Herrin's tone tends toward the scholarly, her book is the most accessible of the few currently available on this topic.
