Theodora

And it contains this story, which is illustrated in the manuscript, the 12th century manuscript, which shows a building.

And on the right-hand side is a woman identified as the Empress Theodora from the mid-9th century.

And in her hand, she's holding an ambivalent, at least in its current state of conservation, an ambivalent object.

But she's looking at something, she's holding something in her hands, and she's clearly engaged in some kind of intimate relation with it.

And yet, her eyes or her face is looking to her right, to the left-hand side of the image, where a male figure is, well, peeping into the building across which is the seated empress.

And so, an image which gives the basic structure of the story, but the verbal telling happens underneath it, which relates this story, where a figure who's called an anvrarion, as Stratis Papuanu translates as a half-man, although it can mean a diminutive figure, its meaning is ambiguous, but he's called a half-man by Stratis, and I follow that translation.

he comes across the Empress Theodora in her private chambers.

So Vendris is a eunuch, a jester, a court fool, and he's given for that reason access to highly private elite spaces within the palace, and he takes advantage of it to spy on Theodora, who is reverencing an icon in her hands.

But maybe to get to this kind of over under interpretation, one of the first kind of sustained reflections comes from this 12th century manuscript.

It involves this ninth century story of Dendris, Theodora, and dolls.

Can you tell us the story and a little bit about the image? Sure.

Yeah, yeah.

And it's a chronicle, a history written originally in the 9th century, then supplemented.

And it contains this story, which is illustrated in the manuscript, the 12th century manuscript, which shows a building.

And on the right-hand side is a woman identified as the Empress Theodora from the mid-9th century.

And in her hand, she's holding an ambivalent, at least in its current state of conservation, an ambivalent object.

And it's a chronicle, a history written originally in the 9th century, then And it contains this story, which is illustrated in the manuscript, the 12th century manuscript, which shows a building.

And on the right-hand side is a woman identified as the Empress Theodora from the midnight century.

And in her hand, she's holding an ambivalent, at least in its current state of conservation, an ambivalent object.

But she's holding something in her hands, and she's clearly engaged in some kind of intimate relation with it.

And so, an image which gives the basic structure of the story, but the verbal telling happens underneath it, which relates this story, where a figure who's called an anvrarion, as Stratis Papuanu translates as a half-man, although it can mean a diminutive figure.

Its meaning is ambiguous, but he's called a half-man by Stratis, and I follow that translation.

He comes across the Empress Theodora in her private chambers.

So Vendris is a eunuch, a jester, a court fool, and he's given for that reason access to highly private elite spaces within the palace, and he takes advantage of it to spy on Theodora, who is reverencing an icon in her hands.