Adolescent Behavior in Byzantine Sources? Some Observations on Young Byzantine Women Pursuing their Goals

While searching the sources for information on adolescent women, I was intrigued by the goals they chose to pursue and the behavior they adopted in order to achieve them. Based on the presupposition that behavioral patterns accompanying each stage of human development remain constant throughout history, I focused on the aims and actions of seven1 Byzantine teenage women2 captured in the primary sources. I attempted to interpret them in the light of elementary findings of psychological research in order to see whether such treatment would render new readings of these passages and/or a better understanding of the female protagonists. Unlike young men, whom the chronicles typically depict as running after court offices or eager to prove their military skills, the goals of Byzantine adolescent women seem to have been mostly connected with relationships. Among these the relationship with God played an important role. Embraced and promoted by the Byzantine society, family and culture, it often figures especially in the hagiographic texts.

The Life of Matrona of Chios,³ af ourteenth-century saint,d escribes the young heroine'se arlyy earning to become ab ride of Christ: (…)w hen the time came for her parents to give her in marriage she refusedw ishingi nsteadt o maintain her virginity and purity in order to become abeautiful and blameless bride of the immortal bridegroom Christ (…). She secretlyl eft her family, forsakingher father,m other and sisters and came to the hills called Katabasis where she opened astadium of asceticfights (…). Her parents not knowingwhathad happened and where she was wereovercome with grief and did not cease to searchfor her until they found her.When they discoveredher whereabouts, they did not deem it right to leave her therealone but persuaded her to return to their house. Aservant of God, she obeyed the blessed order of her parents and returned home.⁴ Though runawaysaints were arelativelycommon sight in earlier Byzantine vitas, the aboved escription does not exactlyf it the established topos. Foro ne thing,the fugitivesusually did not return home. As the passagedoes not concur with an earlier depiction of the saint'sy outh, it seems thatM atrona, at that time still the teenage Maria,⁵ left homea fter af ight with her parents over al ess-than-desirable marriage and was laterr econciled to them, due perhaps to the protracted discomfort on the Katabasis heights. Her behavior reflects not onlythe tendencytoimpulsiveand rad-ical⁶ behavior and the desire to acquire her goal immediately⁷ but also the need for security and protection⁸ which finally brought her back home. Her ensuinglife in the house of her parents offered excellent conditions to the young adolescent,who lived as an un following the monastic regimen; she acquiredt he necessary freedom as well as the support and protection vital to this phase of her development.When Maria'sparents died some years later,she was amature adultwellprepared to leave her home and launch as uccessful monastic career.
While reflectingateenage solution to adifficult situation, Matrona'sstory underlines the complicated position of youngwomen within the Byzantine society.Asthe well-known stereotype implies, these adolescents stood under constant pressuret o adjust to the social norm and assume asubordinate place within the familyand community being frequentlyd enied the right to choose their spouse.Whatevert he circumstances of Matrona'sa dolescent life, the relationship with God and his saints, maintained through public and privatew orship offered teenageg irls, who were often kept under strict supervision in the parental home, ap ersonal space in which they could develop theirs elf-imagea nd self-confidencea nd loosen filial bonds; all crucial milestones of this developmental stage. Orthodoxf aith had apparentlym ucht oo ffer to girls who found themselvesi nM atrona'ss ituation. God,d epicted as aloving Father,could replacethe angry earthlyparents stillvery important to at eenage person, while ac ommitment to Christ freed young women from the dreaded prospect of an unwanted union and gave them an opportunityt od ecide their own fate.
As the sources indicate, the relationship with parents,though often complicated in their teenage years, was stillcrucial to Byzantine adolescent women. Even if they mayhavew ished to acquire more freedom, losing the support and protection represented by this bond⁹ was another matter.A tt he beginning of the Vita of Mary-Marinos,t he hagiographer includes as cene in which the widowed father of Mary announces his decision to enter am onastery.¹⁰ Mary,w ho refuses to be separated from him, is willing to bravet he harshness of monastic life and follow him dressed as ab oy.
In Mary'scase, the physical changes occurringinadolescenceplayanimportant role in establishing thats he was in her teenage years at this point in her life, af act which the Vita does not explicitlym ention. As children under the ageo ft en¹¹ were not easilya dmittedt oB yzantine monasteries and her father apparentlyc onsidered her old enough to take care of herself, Mary could not have been aminor.The author makes this circumstance clear when he no longer calls her achild (παιδίον)asinthe passagefollowing the demise of her mother but a 'young woman' (νεᾶνις).¹² The vita further statest hat "afters he livedf or af ew years in the monastery,s ome of the monks considered her to be ae unuch, for she was beardless and of delicate voice".¹³ Had Mary entered the monastic community as ag rown woman, she would have been considered ae unuch immediately. The text,h owever,s uggests that she came at an agew hen the transformation into manhood was expectedand did not occur.
While Mary'sw ish to remain close to her father is naturallyi nterpreted by the hagiographer as as ign of love, obedience and humility very proper in af uture saint,c onsideringM ary'sb ehavior from the perspective of her ageg ives her story anew dimension. Instead of the faultless and perfect woman sketched by the author, it reveals at eenage girl insecure about assuminga dultr esponsibilities and desiring stability,continued protection, and contact with her parent,all very natural feelings in an adolescent.¹⁴ Young Byzantine women who for various reasons entered monastic life often wishedf or a relationshipw ith as piritual father who would stimulate their spiritual growth, give them as ense of protection and advise them in their ascetic struggles. While late Byzantine nuns commonlyreceivedsuch care in the convents, as the contemporary typika (monastic rules) informus,¹⁵ the written sources preservelittle evidence on specificallyt eenage recipients of such instruction.I na tl east one case, however,s uch guidance was bestowed in writing,d ue to the preoccupation of the spiritual father.The pupil was Eulogia Choumnaina,¹⁶ daughter of the famous Nikephoros Choumnos, and her guide was Theoleptos,b ishop of Philadelphia, aw ellknown statesmana nd theologian. Earlyi nh er adolescence( spring 1303),t he noble Eirene became the wife of John, third son of Andronikos II. Their marriage was ended prematurelyb yt he prince'sd eath four years later (1307). Soon after John'sdemise, Theoleptos cutthe golden locks of the then sixteen-year-old basilissa who on this occasion took the monastic name Eulogia. As she refused even the comfort of her own family, it wasTheoleptos who guided her through the first months of her untimely widowhood. At this time she became abbess of the femalep arto ft he double monasteryo fC hrist Philanthropos Soter,which she renovated and provided for from her own property.T oT heoleptos fell the uneasy task of supervisingt he transformation of ap ampered teenage princess into an ascetic leader of am onastic community,a ne xample of virtue and sourceo fg uidance to her nuns. As his letters to her witness, it was not an easy assignment.His first preserved missive from spring 1307, which finds her alreadyi nt he nunnery,c ontains the following recommendations: Sincethereforey ou lost the pleasureofthe bodyand arewalkinginthe land of mourners,take pains to make your rational soul suitable to God the Word,t oa ttach yourself to Christ and to establish with Him the spiritual marriage.G iveu pt he frequent visits at the palace, let go of the multitude of servants and run fromt he vanity of all flattery.¹⁷ While Eulogia'sm oods apparentlyr emained volatile throughout her life, the survey of her behavior described abover eflects the extremes well known to contemporary parents and psychologists: on one hand the refusal to see her family¹⁸ and the decision to become anun, on the otheranunwillingness to submit to the discipline and austerity of convent life, profound depression followed by the decision to give up the world one dayand longing for her formerhome the next.The prematuredeath of her husband, her inability to re-marryw ithout losing her status and her marred ambition, which she apparentlyn ever internallyr esolved, offer an ew avenue of understanding Eulogia'sp roblems in her later life; her longingt ol eave the nunnery, her difficult adjustment to monastic rule, conflicts with her nuns and her desperate insistenceo np ersonal contact with her second spiritual guide, expressed in her own preserved letters.¹⁹ Her strong relationship with Theoleptos also deserves attention as it reflects the need to find ar eplacemento fs orts for the parent,aperson "who would impress [her], represent an atural authority [toh er] and treat [her] as [an equal]".²⁰ It seems that the bishop was able to creates uch ab ond with his young charge, which then enabled him also to correct and guide her.
Though not frequentlydescribed in Byzantine chronicles, romantic relationships, endowed with the dramatic passion of adolescent love, form another group of goals  Theoleptoso fPhiladelphia, Letter 1(ed. A. Constantinides Hero,The Life and Letters of Theoleptos of Philadelphia. Brookline 1994,3 4, 10 -16): ἐπεὶ οὗντ ὴ ντ ο ῦσ ώ ματος ἀπόλαυσιν ἀπώλεσας καὶἐντῷτῶνπενθούντων βαδίζεις χώρᾳ, σπούδασον τὴνλογικὴνψυχὴνοἰκειῶσαι τῷ Θεῷ Λόγῷ καὶ σεαυτὴνσ υνάψαι τῷ Χριστῷ καὶ τὸ κατὰ πνεῦμα συστήσασθαι συνοικέσιον. κατάλειψον τὰς ἐντ ῶ παλατίῳ πυκνὰςδ ιατριβὰς· ἔασον τὸν ὐπηρετῶν· παράδραμε πάσης κολακείας τὴνμ αταιότητα (… pursued by Byzantine adolescent women. TheodoraPalaiologina,²¹ niece of Michael Palaiologos (later Michael VIII),was engagedb yE mperorT heodore II Laskaris to a man of rather modest origin named Balaneidiotes who, accordingt ot he sources, nevertheless won the heart of this exalted lady. Afterhehad become well acquainted with his fiancée and her family, the emperor suddenlychanged his mind and forced Theodorat om arry another nobleman, Basileios Kaballarios. In the words of George Pachymeres "thosel adies [Theodoraa nd her mother,M artha Palaiologina²²]w ho preferred the previous union and considered it as hamet oc hangei t, despised the [new] fiancé. Accordingt ot he order of the emperor,t he usual rituals none-the-less took place along with as plendid wedding".²³ In the following days the young groom did not consummatet he union, af act which he ascribed to the sorcery of his mother-in-law. Soon afterwards, however,T heodore II Laskaris died and the uncle of the unhappy bride, Michael, assumed his place. At the request of his sister, he allowed Theodorat os eparate from Kaballarios and marry Balaneidiotis, who on this occasion rose to the honor of grand stratopedarch.²⁴ Though the sources do not explicitlystate the precise ageofthe bride, we know that her mother,M artha Palaiologina, married in 1237 and her uncle,M ichael VIII, came to power in 1258. Theodorai sk nown to have had at least three siblings, of whom she mayn ot have been the eldest.T hus, by the time of her engagement and first marriage, she would have been in the second half of her adolescence.
Theodora'swillingness to bravethe anger of the emperorand even endanger her family'sfortunes seems an unusual behavior in awell-bred Byzantine ladybut not in ateenage girl able to fall violentlyinlove, as the novelists put it,without regard for the established system.²⁵ It is not very likely, therefore, thatt he clever and subtle plan which resulted in the annulment of Theodora'sm arriagec ame from the princess'so wn head. In fact,a st he groom blames his failuren ot on his bride but on his mother-in-law, it must have been this formidable ladyh erself who decided to aid Theodora, possiblyi no rder to prevent some scandalous or desperate action. Such an imagea lso fits within the framework of the mother-daughter relationship, often characterized, also in the adolescent phase, by atendencytomutualsupport.²⁶ What puzzledm ea sIreread the aboves tory was the question of how to reconcile the princess, determined to take as erious risk, with the later gravea nd rather silent nun standing,atleast from the perspective of the primary sources, in the shadow of her mother Martha and half-sister Nostongonissa as they took theirplace in the front lines of the Arsenite controversy,orher aunt Eirene and cousin TheodoraRaoulaina, who very effectively opposed the Union of Lyons (1274). Couldt he psycholog- ical changes which temporarilyoccur in adolescence²⁷ have been co-responsible for the above-described 'misconduct'?
The Life of St.E irene of Chrysobalanton includes another case of youthful passion, which concerns anun under the guidance of this formidable abbess.Her ageis once more not specified, but the fact that she is called a 'girl,' kore,suggests that she was in her adolescent years. Of noble Cappadocian descent,s he entered Eirene's²⁸ convent and took the monastic vows.H er distant loverd id not forgeth er,h owever, and with the aid of as orcerer rekindled the girl'sl ovef or him: (…)the girl was unexpectedlyattacked by aseethingpassion which maddened her with afrantic lust for her former suitor and did not allow her to control herself. Violentlyleaping,s creaming, moaning, crying, and callingo ut his name in al oud voice, she assured with fearful oaths that unless someone let her see him with her eyes and enjoy to excess his sight and conversation, she would hangh erself. One could see her continuallyr unningt ot he gateway, urgingh er escape and with inarticulate screams and shameless gesturesorderingthe door-keeper to let her out.²⁹ The abbess reacted promptly, orderingthe sisters to pray,fast and make athousand genuflections ad ay,a nd set ac onstant guard over the bewitched girl. Through several dreams,s he then receivedi nstructions as to how to proceed and miraculously procured "twoi dols made of lead,o ne resembling the suitor,t he other the sick nun, embracing each other and bound together with hairs and threads (…)inscribed on them [was] the name of the author of the evil and appellations of servant demons".³⁰ Needless to say, once these objects wered estroyed, the Cappadocian nun quickly recovered bothh er wits and her passion for the spiritual calling.
If we admit the possibilitythat the girl was not actingunderaspell, we behold a tragic story of ay oungw oman who apparentlyt ook her vows before she was completelyc ertain of her heart or under the pressure of material circumstances. In her case, however,there wasn oway backast he sacred promises could not be undone.

Adolescent Behaviori nB yzantine Sources?
The girl'sviolent entreaties, screams and threatsfit well the model of adolescent behavior.³¹ The young nun did not have amother nearby to help her devise astratagem and so she struggled loudlyb ut in vain. While the Byzantines did have as ense of adolescence as an ageo fs eeking and testingone'sc alling,³² the monastic founders nevertheless had the final wordi nd eciding at what aget he novices could take the veil. Once this ritual had taken place, the Orthodox Church considered the vows irreversible.
In problematic families and with girls of strongcharacter,the need for relationship, essentiallythe need for love, mayhavetranspired in asociallyundesirable way. The sinful youth of St Mary of Egypt,a sr ecounted by Sophronios,³³ is an otorious example. In her confession to Father Zosimas, she admits that at the ageo ft welve she left her parents and went to Alexandria, whereshe led adebauched life for seventeen years, stressingt hat her reasons for immorality weren ot material.³⁴ Though Mary'sfigurehas been reshaped by Sophronios and her despicable youth creates the plot of the legend and counterpart to her later ascetic lifestyle, it does not describe a whollyi mprobable event.Ayoungw oman would run from home, like the above Mary-Matrona of Chios, most probablyafter afight or misunderstanding with her parents.Moreproblematic is the detail confessed to Father Zosimas, that she led apromiscuous life without material necessity, which would indicate an eed to rebel against the values of her parents or ad esire to receive lovea nd recognition, which the latter failed to confer.Whether due to the miraculous intervention of the Theotokos on her own journey to maturity,Mary later became aholywoman and afamous ascetic -an extreme example of the more common transformation of awild teenager into ab alanced and responsible individual.³⁵ In its description of adolescence, the World Health Organization depicts this phase as "movement towards ocial and economic independence," in which "development of identity and the acquisition of skills needed to carry out adultr elation- ships and roles"³⁶ take place. While most,i fn ot all, Byzantine women receivedi nstruction in domestic tasksand sometimes in the familytrade, the eulogy of Michael Psellos³⁷ dedicated to his mother confirms that at least some of them also desired education. Following the description of her childhood and directlypreceding the depiction of her marriage, the adolescent Theodote, according to her son, regretted that "she happened not to be aman by nature and that she was not allowed to studyliterature freely".³⁸ Determined woman that she was, she nevertheless managed to overcome this handicap: Evading the attention of her mother whenever she could, she picked up the basic principleso f letters from someone and soon began through her own efforts to join them together and to form syllables and then sentences, without havinga ny need for an instructor in the basics.³⁹ Psellos'st ext offers at estimonyn ot onlyt othe scholarlyi nterests of his mother but also to the difficulties faced by gifted Byzantine women of unprivileged background who desired knowledge as ameans of personal growth.⁴⁰ On the other hand, it is encouragingt os ee that Theodote, and perhaps others, had the perseverance to teach themselvest oread and write. If not absolutelyexceptional, Theodote'sstory mayindicate that basic education among the Byzantine female population was not as rare as the preserved sources would have us believe.

Conclusion
Despite the paucity of examples, the aboves ources indicate thatB yzantine adolescent women focused primarily on relationships of various kinds. Upon inspection, the texts also revealthe tendencies and emotions typicalofthis agegroup, including willingness to risk, internal turmoil, egocentrism and the need to immediatelya chievet heirg oals.
Regarding family, though adolescencei nB yzantium was apparentlyl ikewise marked by parent-child conflicts and at endencyt oe xplore new ideas rather than quickly accept adulta uthority,as table family background had ac rucial impact on teenagers' futurec hoices and success in life. Itsi mportance is apparent in the successes of Matrona of Chios, TheodoraT archaneiotissa or Mary-Marinos, while its lack broughtMary of Egypt as well as the nameless nun from the monastery of Eirene of Chrysobalanton into serious difficulties.
The seven descriptions also reflect tensions related to the social expectations which wereplaced on young women. The approved or ideal desires clearlyincluded serving God, obeying parents, maintaining chastity,remainingfaithfultoone'sfiancé and keepingsacredvows. Conversely, they reveal the problems faced by teenaged females. Among these, the inability to choose partners, enter or leave the monastery, remain with parents,escaped ifficult circumstances,ora cquire basic knowledge obviouslyr ankedh igho nt he list.
The idealized aims of Byzantine adolescent women interestingly stand in direct contrast to those of their male counterparts established by the recent studyo fD e-spoinaA riantzi. While mend esired good looks, recognition and strength,⁴¹ young women were expected to completelynegatesuch wishesbyremaininghidden within their homes or monasteries,n eglectingt heir beauty and cherishing no othera mbition than piety.I np ursuing their dreams which went beyond the approved limited sphere they almost always had to takei rregular and often ingenious paths.
Surprisingly,s everal patterns connected with contemporary adolescent women do not appear in the abovesources. One of them is the tendency to become amember of apeer group.⁴² The dearth of information about these groupings maycertainlybe ascribed in part to alack of interest of the Byzantine authors. Nevertheless, their existencem ay have been limited by the expectation that the more prominent women would spend most of their time in their homes, while extensive help in the household mayh avek ept their less fortunate peers from attending.
Missing in the aboveexamples is also anynote of the adolescent focus on apperance. It is, of course, not likelyt haty oung Byzantine women would have neglected their looks as both the preserved images of Byzantine women and archeological finds of jewelry indicate.Whether due to lack of financial means or lack of social significance,t hey apparentlyf ailed to make the resulto ft heire fforts provocative enough to capture the attention of contemporary authors who after all perhaps weren ot as opposed to female beauty as the liveso ft he Byzantine female saints would have us believe.
In applying developmental psychologyo nl iteraryf igures,which weren ot even based on real personalities, one must,ofcourse exercisecaution. While constructing  Ariantzi,Adoleszenz 19 -21 (as in n. 2).Ongender-oriented needs also see Vágnerová,Vývojová psychologie 471-482.  Forthe peergroups in Byzantium see in this volume the paper of D. Ariantzi,Soziale Identitätsbildung im Jugendalter. completelyfictive characters,the authors mayhavemore or less projected their own fears, ideas and expectations into the (female) figures in order to achievet heir purposes, which most frequentlye ntailed issuing aw arningo re ncouragement to their audiences.Such 'figments of imagination' werenot meant to resemble human beings -and they did not.O nt he other hand, with sources describing historical women (and men) who had to pass through the elementary processes of infancy,a dolescence, adulthood and aging, the findingso fm odern psychologists mayp rovide much insight.T hough their individual experiences of these seasons mayh aved iffered to ac ertain degree, they always shaped their stories -and left am ark on the texts. Adolescent Behaviori nB yzantine Sources?