Piroska and the Pantokrator

Dynastic Memory, Healing and Salvation in Komnenian Constantinople

Marianne Sághy, Robert G. Ousterhout

• Publisher: Central European University Press
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9789633862971
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: European Medieval History
• Index: History

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.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title page
• copyright page
• TABLE OF CONTENTS
• List of Illustrations
• Preface
• Introduction
• Greek Monasteries in Early Árpádian Hungary
• What did Piroska see at Home? New Trends in Art and Architecture in the Kingdom of Hungary around 1100
• Diplomatic Relations between Hungary and Byzantium in the Eleventh–Twelfth Centuries
• Piroska-Eirene and the Komnenian Dynasty
• Komnenian Empresses: From Powerful Mothers to Pious Wives
• Piroska-Eirene, First Western Empress of Byzantium: Power and Perception
• The Many Faces of Piroska-Eirene in Visual and Material Culture
• Imperial Women and Religious Foundations in Constantinople
• To Each According to their Need: Medical and Charitable Institutions in the Pantokrator Monastery
• Piroska and the Pantokrator: Reassessing the Architectural Evidence
• Piroska-Eirene and the Holy Theotokos
• “A New Mixture of Two Powers:” Nicholas Kallikles and Theodore Prodromos on Empress Eirene
• Ritual and Politics in the Pantokrator: A Lament in Two Acts for Eirene’s Son
• Concluding Remarks
• Appendix 1 Synaxarion
• Appendix 2 Theodoros Prodromos, “Epitaph of Empress Eirene”
• Appendix 3 Nicholas Kallikles, “On the tomb of the Despina”
• Index
• Back cover