Piroska and the Pantokrator

Marianne Sághy, Robert G. Ousterhout (eds)

Title: Piroska and the Pantokrator
Subtitle: Dynastic Memory, Healing and Salvation in Komnenian Constantinople
Editors: Marianne Sághy; Robert G. Ousterhout
Price: € 70,95 excl. VAT
ISBN: 9789633862957
Format: Paperback
Number of pages: 360
Language: English
Publication date: 09 - 10 - 2019
Dimensions: 15.5 x 22.9 cm
Series: CEU Medievalia
Categories
Discipline: Social and Political Sciences
Imprint: CEU Press
Also available as: eBook PDF - € 70,99

Table of Contents

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List of Illustrations
Preface

Introduction
Marianne Sághy

Greek Monasteries in Early Árpádian Hungary
Marianne Sághy

What did Piroska see at Home? New Trends in Art and Architecture in the Kingdom of Hungary around 1100
Béla Zsolt Szakács

Diplomatic Relations between Hungary and Byzantium in the Eleventh–Twelfth Centuries
Attila Bárány

Piroska-Eirene and the Komnenian Dynasty
Michael Jeffreys

Komnenian Empresses: From Powerful Mothers to Pious Wives
Roberta Franchi

Piroska-Eirene, First Western Empress of Byzantium: Power and Perception
Maximilian Lau

The Many Faces of Piroska-Eirene in Visual and Material Culture
Christopher Mielke

Imperial Women and Religious Foundations in Constantinople
Elif Demirtiken

To Each According to their Need: Medical and Charitable Institutions in the Pantokrator Monastery
Tyler Wolford

Piroska and the Pantokrator: Reassessing the Architectural Evidence
Robert Ousterhout

Piroska-Eirene and the Holy Theotokos
Etele Kiss

“A New Mixture of Two Powers:” Nicholas Kallikles and Theodore Prodromos on Empress Eirene
Roman Shlyakhtin

Ritual and Politics in the Pantokrator: A Lament in Two Acts for Eirene’s Son
Foteini Spingou

Concluding Remarks
Robert Ousterhout

Appendix 1 Synaxarion
Appendix 2 Theodoros Prodromos, “Epitaph of Empress Eirene”
Appendix 3 Nicholas Kallikles, “On the tomb of the Despina”
Index

Marianne Sághy, Robert G. Ousterhout (eds)

Piroska and the Pantokrator

Dynastic Memory, Healing and Salvation in Komnenian Constantinople

This book is about the Christ Pantokrator, an imposing monumental complex serving monastic, dynastic, medical and social purposes in Constantinople, founded by Emperor John II Komnenos and Empress Piroska-Eirene in 1118. Now called the Zeyrek Mosque, the second largest Byzantine religious edifice after Hagia Sophia still standing in Istanbul represents the most remarkable architectural and the most ambitious social project of the Komnenian dynasty. This volume approaches the Pantokrator from a special perspective, focusing on its co-founder, Empress Piroska-Eirene, the daughter of the Hungarian king Ladislaus I. This particular vantage point enables its authors to explore not only the architecture, the monastic and medical functions of the complex, but also Hungarian-Byzantine relations, the cultural and religious history of early medieval Hungary, imperial representation, personal faith and dynastic holiness. Piroska's wedding with John Komnenos came to be perceived as a union of East and West. The life of the Empress, a "sainted ruler," and her memory in early Árpádian Hungary and Komnenian Byzantium are discussed in the context of women and power, monastic foundations, architectural innovations, and spiritual models.

Editors

Marianne Sághy

Marianne Sághy was Associate Professor at the Department of Medieval Studies, Central European University, and at the Department of Medieval and Early Modern Universal History, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest.