Mothers and Sons Fathers and Daughters

<p><i>Mothers and Sons Fathers and Daughters</i> makes available for the first time complete English translations from the works of Michael Psellos (1018-1076?) a key philosopher of the Byzantine Empire. Psellos was not simply a philosopher he was also a courtier historian and monk and his works betray a dazzling engagement with philosophy theology history and science. These interests were expressed in some eleven hundred works including formal rhetorical texts history writing letters poetry and texts written for his students. This book contains the works that Psellos wrote about his family including a long funeral oration for his mother that features unique recollections from a childhood spent in Constantinople; a funeral oration for his young daughter Styliane which includes a detailed description of her physical appearance and a moving account of her illness and death; a legal work pertaining to the engagement of his second adopted daughter; and various letters and other works that relate to the private life of this Byzantine family. These works offer us a rare and comprehensive picture of the family life of a medieval Byzantine courtier and philosopher. Much of the material follows the rules of rhetoric inherited from classical and Christian antiquity but Psellos was always recasting the conventions of those genre to express his own revolutionary views regarding the relation of body and soul. Some of these works also have an apologetic or legal purpose as Psellos sometimes used them to get himself out of some trouble. <i>Mothers and Sons Fathers and Daughters</i> will appeal to all who study medieval women childhood and the family especially as it provides a Byzantine perspective that has been absent from most modern discussions of those topics.</p>