The Roles and Identities of Byzantine Power Elite Women - Based on the Sigillographic Sources of the 7th-12th centuries -

서지정보

· 발행기관 : 한국서양중세사학회
· 수록지 정보 : 서양중세사연구 / 33호 / 79 ~ 119페이지
· 저자명 : 황원호

초록

This study’s aim is to investigate the Byzantine Power Elite Women’s roles and identities in the light of dated seals of the 7th and 12th centuries. The Byzantine dated seals, which were used to authenticate legal documents and letters, are nowadays considered to be very important research material because they provide us with much information on the Byzantine people’s identities. A group of female signers’ names (family and given names), titles, kinship ties and symbolic images are well attested on a number of dated seals. Thus, with the seals elements stamped on the seals, this paper will highlight the Byzantine elite women’s roles and identities changed in the medieval Byzantine History.
Firstly, the presence of a different rank of titles on the seals demonstrates some sort of power and influence that the Byzantine elite women had wielded not only for their family’s promotion but also for the Empire’s political integration. The official titles attributed to empresses and aristocratic women show clearly the elite women’s roles and identities in Byzantium because it used to be attributed to the imperial wives and mothers or later even to daughters. Moreover the effigy of empresses or image of Mother of God stamped on their seals reveals also the elite women’s most public self-images or self-identities.
Secondly, the different type of names and titles on the seals reflects the change of the elite women’s roles and identities in the course of 7th and 12th centuries. Between the 7th and the 10th centuries, one of the dominant images of empresses was as wife and mother. It is well known for two empresses to be responsible for the restoration of icons during the period of Iconoclasm. Of two women, Eirene played a role as sole female ruler. The other iconophile empress Theodora is portrayed in written and sigillographic sources as anxious for the salvation of her iconoclast husband and regent for her son.
Thirdly, the presence of the family name added to given name on the seals illustrates the elite women’s roles and identities changed from the 11th century. We can understand that from the empress Zoe through to the women of the Komnenian dynasty, aristocratic daughters did on occasion wield imperial power for themselves and certainly provided a force to be reckoned with. Especially Anna Dalassene’s dramatic life and long career confirms that, from the 11th century, the daughters of noble families played more significant role in favor of their families as bearers of lineage and property while the aristocracy extended its power in the Byzantium.
Finally, the different kinship ties on the seals confirm that Byzantine women had access to political power through the relationship with their family male members. This might be as mother (the empress Eirene and Theodora), wife (the empress Theodora and Anna Dalassene and daughter (the empresses Zoe and Theodora). Thus, in the course of the 12th century, the increasing numbers of the kinship ties on the seals demonstrate that the Byzantine women’s roles and identities were the most formulated in public domains with their social position reaching the climax.

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