Table of Contents

Contents

List of Illustrations

Acknowledgments

Note on the Transliteration of Slavic and Greek

List of Emperors, A.D. 324–1204

Introduction

Part I. The Theotokos and Imperial Power

1. Origins of the Civic Cult

2. The Avar Siege: Memory and Change

3. In the Context of War

Part II. Icons in Practice

4. The Hodegetria Icon and Its Tuesday Procession

5. The Blachernai Responds: The Icon of the “Usual Miracle”

6. Synthesis: Imperial Memorial Rites at the Pantokrator

Conclusion

Notes

Bibliography

Index

About the Author

Bissera V. Pentcheva is Assistant Professor of Art History at Stanford University.

Reviews

"This is a major work. It provides a much-needed overview of the development of the cult of the Virgin in Byzantium between the fifth and thirteenth centuries. But it is much more than that too. In its richly detailed account of how icons of the Virgin helped shape Byzantine imperial ideologies, it offers a significant contribution to studies of gender and empire. Its deployment of an unprecedented range of sources, its attentiveness to both major and minor artistic media, and its brilliant descriptions of the role of icons will ensure that it becomes a standard book on the Virgin and her cult in Byzantium." - David Freedberg, author of The Eye of the Lynx"