Byzantine Animals

This article has two aims. First, it sketches the Byzantine background in order to highlight its distinctive features. Drawing on examples from Byzantine literature, it highlights both the richness of the sources and the lacunae that remain in their analysis. The phrase “Forgotten Empire” in the title is used with a largely ironic tone; while it draws on a familiar academic cliché, my aim is to highlight the genuinely marginal role that animal studies have historically played in the scholarly narrative on Byzantium. Second, it surveys the current state of Byzantine animal studies. It distinguishes between a “first wave” culminating in the volume Ζώα Και Π∊ριβάλλον Στο βυζάντιο (7ος–12ος Aι.) Animals and Environment in Byzantium (7th–12th Century) and a “second wave” characterized by more-interdisciplinary approaches such as ecocriticism, zoopoetics, and zooarchaeology. Neither discussion is exhaustive, nor is it intended to be. Rather, my aim is to situate Byzantine animals within the broader map of animal studies.