ABSTRACT
Penthos (grief or mourning) is one of the best explored emotions in the realm of Byzantine studies. Beginning with Irénée Hausherr, penthos and its practical instantiations in weeping, sorrow and acts of contrition have been located squarely at the centre of the Christian practices of repentance and compunction for humanity’s sin. This ‘joyful grief’ appears as a central element in the path towards the individual’s spiritual transformation, so much so that contemporary scholars have occasionally argued that this alone constituted true grief in the Christian imagination. Yet Byzantines did not reserve their grief for wholly spiritual matters; a separate but equally significant tradition of penthos surrounds a manifestation more of this world, namely, that of grief over the loss of a loved one. Such was the case particularly when a death was perceived as ‘untimely’, as in the case of children who failed to outlive their parents. Byzantine writers wrestled with the question of whether grief at another’s death was indeed justified even when the departed was very young. In the process, Byzantine authors drew upon biblical exemplars of grieving parents, or indeed ascribed grief to parents not obviously so depicted, to model appropriate responses to death and bereavement for families as well as churches at large. By calling on Sarah and Abraham, Jephthah and his household, Eve and Adam, David, Job, and their respective female counterparts, Byzantine writers crafted an affective tapestry of mourning and consolation in the face of infant and childhood mortality.
