Summary
Hans Georg Beck: Byzantine Eroticon
"Christianity" - said Nietzsche - "does not know joy". Byzantine society, despite the strong influence of Christianity, knew and valued joy, including sensual joy, which the church condemned the most. Hans-Georg Beck reveals how the erotophobia of the official church was often ignored in Byzantine everyday life, art, literature, even in monasteries. The texts of some old romance novels have also come down to us in the form of prayer books, which were disguised as prayer books to shorten the long hours of monastic services. Byzantine erotikon tells about that lesser-known side of Byzantine society.
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