1 The Miracles of St. Artemios: Διήγηοις xãrv θανμάτων τον άγίον κα’ι ένάόξου μεγαλομάρτνρος κα’ι θανματονργον Αρτεμίαυ in Papadopoulos-Kerameus, A. (ed.), Varia Graeca Sacra (Leipzig 1975) 1-75Google Scholar. For English translation, see The Miracles of St. Artemios: a collection of miracle stories by an anonymous author of seventh-century Byzantium, trans. Crisafulli, V. S. with an introduction by Nesbitt, J. W. and commentary by Crisafulli, V. S. and Nesbitt, J. W. (Leiden 1997)Google Scholar [hereafter referred to as Miracles], Miracle 1. A forthcoming French critical edition will be published by Vincent Déroche. All page references refer to the English translation unless otherwise stated.

2 For antiquity, see Gleason, M., ‘The semiotics of gender: physiognomy and self-fashioning in the second century C.E.’, in Halperin, D., Winkler, J. and Zeitlin, F. (eds), Before sexuality: the construction of erotic experience in the Greek world (Princeton 1990) 389–415 Google Scholar; Gleason, M., Making men: Sophists and self-presentation in ancient Rome (Princeton 1995)Google Scholar; Kuefler, M., The manly eunuch: masculinity, gender ambiguity and Christian ideology in Late Antiquity (Chicago 2001)Google Scholar.

3 Brittan, A., Masculinity and power (Oxford 1989) 4-5Google Scholar.

4 Thompson, E. and Pleck, J., ‘The structure of male role norms’, in Kimmel, M. (ed.), Changing men: new directions in research on men and masculinity (London 1987) 25-36Google Scholar.

5 For viewing men essentially as bodies, see the collection of articles in Rosenfeld, D. and Faircloth, C. (eds), Medicalized masculinities (Philadelphia 2006)Google Scholar.

6 Seidler, V., Rediscovering masculinity (London 1989) 14-21Google Scholar. For a comprehensive study, see Connell, R., Masculinities, 2nd edn (Cambridge 2005)Google Scholar.

7 Déroche, V., ‘Pourquoi écrivait-on des recueils de miracles? L’exemple des Miracles de saint Artémios’ in Jolivet-Lévy, C., Kaplan, M. and Sodini, J-P. (eds), Les saints et leur sanctuaire à Byzance: textes, images et monuments (Paris 1993) 95-116Google Scholar; Brown, P., The cult of the saints: its rise and function in Latin Christianity (Chicago 1981)Google Scholar.

8 There are many examples of interpolations, linguistic curiosities and literary topoi, which are not the focus of attention of this paper. For these problems, see Beck, H.-D., ‘The early Christian miracle story: some observations on the form critical problem’, Semeia 11 (1978) 69-81Google Scholar and Theissen, G., The miracle stories of the early Christian tradition, trans. McDonagh, Francis (Edinburgh 1983)Google Scholar.

9 For a general overview, see Ditz, T., ‘The new men’s history and the peculiar absence of gendered power: some remedies from early American history’, Gender & History 16/1 (2004) 1-35CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

10 Ditz, ‘The new men’s history’, 1-2. Modernist inquiries acknowledged power as the formative divider but by uncovering ‘the discursive or ideological dimensions surrounding the power differentials ... it is possible to recognize the non-essentialist conditions under which masculinities proliferate, while retaining a political awareness of women and men as gender categories.’ The next step was then to move on to conceptions of gender and race ‘lend(ing) weight to the notion of masculinity as not only a historical product of social and economic conditions, but, moreover, an important influence on national identities and associated epistemologies.’

11 Kazhdan, A. and Constable, G., People and power in Byzantium: an introduction to modern Byzantine studies (Washington D. C 1982)Google Scholar.

12 Barber, C., ‘Homo Byzantinus?’ in James, L. (ed.), Women, men and eunuchs (London 1997) 185-99Google Scholar.

13 R. Webb, ‘Salome’s sisters: the rhetoric and realities of dance in Late Antiquity and Byzantium’ in James (ed.), Women, men and eunuchs, 119-48.

14 Mullett, M., ‘The “other” in Byzantium’ in Sraythe, D. (ed.), Strangers to themselves: the Byzantine outsider (Aldershot 2000) 6-7Google Scholar; Galatariotou, C., ‘Open space/ closed space: the perceived worlds of Kekaumenos and Digenes Akritas’ in Mullett, M. and Smythe, D. (eds), Alexios I Komnenos, I, Papers (Belfast 1996) 302-28Google Scholar.

15 Mullett, ‘The “other” in Byzantium’, 1-22.

16 Miracle 5.

17 Miracle 17.

18 Miracle 30.

19 Miracle 23.

20 Miracle 16.

21 Miracle 14.

22 Miracle 27.

23 Miracle 3. In terms of other daily activities, we also know that there were toilet facilities (Miracle 35) and a communal dining hall (Miracle 17).

24 The Artemii Passio (BHG 170-7c, CPG 8082). The version used here is in Lieu, S. and Montserrat, D. (eds), From Constantine to Julian (London 1996) 224-62Google Scholar, eh. 35, 236. See also Lieu, S., ‘From villain to saint and martyr: the life and afterlife of Flavius Artemius, “Dux Aegypti”’, BMGS 20 (1996) 56-76Google Scholar.

25 Artemii Passio, chs 37 (237-8); eh. 49 (244). He was ‘compressed and crushed between rocks ... all his insides were ruptured, and the structure of his bones was all shattered, and his eyeballs were knocked from their sockets’ [chs 60-2, (249-50)].

26 Artemii Passio, eh. 67 (253).

27 Artemii Passio, ch. 67 (253).

28 Janin, R., La géographie ecclésiastique de l’empire byzantin. Vol III: Les églises et les monastères (Paris 1969) 53 Google Scholar.

29 Artemii Passio, ch. 67 (253).

30 See The Miracles of St. Artemios, Introduction, 7 and Supplementary Essay, 33-5 for a fuller discussion.

31 See The Miracles of St. Artemios, Translator’s Preface, xii. However, for criticisms and a discussions of the problems see V.|Déroche’s review of the Miracles in REB 56 (1998) 286-9Google ScholarPubMed, esp. 286-7 and Efthymiadis, S.’ review in JOB 49 (1999) 347 Google Scholar.

32 E., and Edelstein, L., Asclepius: a collection and interpretation of the testimonies, 2 vols in 1 (Baltimore 1975)Google Scholar and Dillon, M., ‘The didactic nature of the Epidaurian Iamata’, Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 101 (1994) 242-43Google Scholar.

33 See Dagron, G., Vie et miracles de saint Thècle (Brussels 1978) 103-8Google Scholar for Thekla’s incubatory cult.

34 Talbot, A.-M., ‘Healing shrines: the evidence of miracle accounts’, DOP 56 (2002) 153-73Google Scholar; Talbot, A.-M., ‘Healing shrines in late Byzantine Constantinople’, in Talbot, A.-M. (ed.), Women and religious life in Byzantium (Aldershot 2001) XIV, 1-24Google Scholar.

35 For Thekla, see Dagron, Vie et miracles, and Johnson, S. F., The Life and Miracles of Thekla: a literary study (Washington D.C. 2006)Google Scholar. However, note that Johnson rightly observes (8, 121, 172-5, 199-207) that the majority of Thekla’s miracles do not concern healing, though the healing miracles garner the most attention, probably as they seem the most interesting. These are miracles 7-8, 11-12, 17-18, 25, 36–41.

36 For Cosmas and Damian, see Festugière, A.-J. (trans.), Saint Thècle, Saints Come et Damien, Saints Cyr et Jean (extraits), Saint Georges (Paris 1971) 83-213Google Scholar and Csepregi, I., ‘The miracles of saints Cosmas and Damian: characteristics of dream healing’, Annual of Medieval Studies at the Central European University 8 (2002) 89-121Google Scholar. For Cyrus and John, see Marcos, N. F., Los Thaumata de Sofronio: Contribución al Estudio de la Incubatio Cristiana (Madrid 1975)Google Scholar, trans. Gascou, J., Sophrone de Jerusalem: Miracles des saints Cyr et Jean (Paris 2006)Google Scholar and Booth, P., ‘Saints and soteriology in Sophronius Sophista’s Miracles of Cyrus and John’, in Clarke, P. and Claydon, T. (eds), The church, the afterlife and the fate of the soul (Oxford 2009) 52-63Google Scholar; For Demetrios: Lemerle, P., Les plus anciens recueils des miracles de saint Demetrius (Paris 1981) I, 50-241Google Scholar. Talbot also notes other popular healing saints such as Eugenios, whose cult took off in Trebizond between the ninth and fourteenth centuries (Talbot, ‘Healing shrines: the evidence’, 154-55). For a catalogue of miracles stories, see Efthymiadis, S., ‘Greek Byzantine Collections of Miracles: a chronological and bibliographical survey’, Symbolae Osloenses 74 (1999) 195-218CrossRefGoogle Scholar, though note Johnson’s corrections for Thekla in Johnson, Life and miracles, 239 n. 1. He also has an appendix of miracle collections but focuses on the early period (240-3).

37 Johnson, The Life and Miracles, 122.

38 For paralysis: Cyrus and John: miracle 12; Cosmas and Damian: miracles 4 and 14. Diarrhoea: Cosmas and Damian: 15. All numbers are taken from Festugière’s 1971 edition. For Aesclepius’ range, see Edelstein, Asdepius, 221-0 and Dillon, ‘The didactic nature’, 242-43.

39 Miracle 35.

40 Miracles 2, 5, 11, 20, 28, 31, 32, 39, 40, 42.

41 Miracles, 2, p. 80.

42 Miracle 5, emphasis added.

43 Miracle 6, emphasis added.

44 Miracles, p. 125, emphasis added.

45 Miracle 26.

46 Miracle 27.

47 Beck, ‘Early Christian miracle story’, 70.

48 Miracles, p. 131.

49 Miracles, p. 135.

50 Miracles, pp. 135-7.

51 Miracles, p. 137.

52 Miracles 1, 2, 5, 12, 13, 14, 29, 35, 36, 37, and 44.

53 The Seven Books of Paulus Aeginetta, 3 vols, trans. Adams, F. (London 1844—7)Google Scholar.

54 Paul of Aegina, trans. Adams, I, 591; CMG 2.3, sect. LIV, 265.

55 Miracles, p. 161.

56 Miracles, p. 125.

57 Grmek, M., Diseases in the ancient Greek world (Baltimore 1989, Eng. trans.) 145-6Google Scholar, 150-1. For modern descriptions of hernias, see Gray, H., Anatomy (London 1995; 38th ed.) 1788ffGoogle ScholarPubMed and Snell, R., Clinical anatomy for medical students (Boston 1981) 155-63Google Scholar.

58 Efthymiadis, ‘A day and ten months’, 15, 23-24 where he alludes to ‘saints [who] know symptoms, disease effects and medical treatment to perfection’. See also nt. 53 for bibliography.

59 Miracles, p. 81.

60 έν έπιγενητφ δε τον ΐτ/ρσθ συοτάνος: CMG 2, 102.

61 Paul of Aegina, trans. Adams II, 365; CMG 2.6, sect. LXII. See also Snell, 163: ‘Hydrocele: The formation of the processus vaginalis and its passage through the lower part of the anterior abdominal wall with the formation of the inguinal canal in both sexes has been described. The processus is subject to the following common congenital abnormalities, 1. It may persist partially or in its entirety as a preformed hernial sac for an indirect inguinal hernia, 2. It may become very much narrowed, but its lumen remains in communication with the abdominal cavity. Peritoneal fluid will accumulate in it, forming a congential hydrocele. The tunica vaginalis is closely related to the front and sides of the testis. It is therefore not surprising to find that inflammation of the testis may cause an accumulation of fluid within the tunica vaginalis. This is referred to, simply, as hydrocele ... To remove excess fluid from the tunica vaginalis, a fine trocar and cannula are inserted through the scrotal skin.’

62 Miracles, p. 81.

63 LSJ s.v. άνεύρυσμα.

64 έν τοΐς οαρτοΐς: CMG 2, 107.

65 Paul of Aegina, trans. Adams, II, 371; CMG 2.6, sect. LXIV.

66 Miracle 22. See Efthymiadis, ‘A day and ten months’, for discussion of this miracle, esp. 13-15. Also see Snell, Clinical anatomy for medical students, 155-6: ‘indirect inguinal hernia is the most common form of hernia. The hernial sac ... enters the inguinal canal through the deep inguinal ring ... it may extend part of the way along the canal or the full length ... if the processus vaginalis has undergone no obliteration, then the hernia will be complete and will extend ... down into the scrotum ... an indirect inguinal hernia is about twenty times more common in males than females ... it is more common on the right .. . the right testis descends later than the left. It is most common in children and the young adult.’

67 Paul of Aegina, trans. Adams, II, 372; CMG 2.6, sect. LXV.

68 Paul of Aegina, trans. Adams, I, 589; CMG 2.6, sect. LXVI.

69 Paul of Aegina, trans. Adams, I, 589; CMG 2.3, sect. LIII.

70 Miracles, p. 91.

71 Paul of Aegina, trans. Adams, II, 372; CMG 2.6, Sect. LXV.

72 Miracles, p. 205. For a modern example, see Paul Auster’s autobiography, Hand to mouth: A chronicle of early failure (London 1997) 15 where he describes Joe Mansfield’s misadventure. Joe was ‘the assistant repairman with two hernias and a ravaged Chrysler ... The hernias had come ... when he and two other men were carrying a jumbo refrigerator up a narrow flight of stairs. The other men had lost their grip, leaving Joe to bear the entire weight of the thing himself, and it was exactly then, as he struggled not to be crushed ... that his testicles had shot out of his scrotum. First one ball, he said, and then the other. Pop ... pop. ’

73 Paul of Aegina, trans. Adams, II, 373; CMG 2.6, sect. LXV.

74 Miracles, p. 159.

75 Miracles, p. 207.

76 LSJ, s.v. βοτρυοειδής: ‘like a bunch of grapes, clustering’.

77 Paul of Aegina, trans. Adams, II, 370; CMG 2.6, sect. LXIV.

78 Miracles, p. 221.

79 Miracles, p. 221.

80 Miracles, p. 223.

81 van Dam, R., Saints and their miracles in late antique Gaul (Princeton 1993) 84 Google Scholar; Theissen, Miracle stories; Beck, ‘The early Christian miracle story’, 69-71.

82 van Dam, Saints and their miracles, 84.

83 van Dam, Saints and their miracles, 84.

84 J. Haldon, ‘Supplementary Essay’ in The Miracles of St. Artemios, 33-73, esp. 42-54; Haldon, J., Byzantium in the seventh century (Cambridge 1990)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Haldon, J., ‘Some considerations on Byzantine society and economy in the seventh century, BF 10 (1985) 75-112Google Scholar. For a valid criticism of this approach, see Efthymiadis, S.’ review in JÖB 49 (1999) 348-9Google Scholar. For more on seventh-century chaos, see Ward-Perkins, B., From Classical Antiquity to the Middle Ages (Oxford 1984)Google Scholar; Foss, C., ‘The Persians in Asia Minor and the end of Late Antiquity’, English Historical Review 90 (1975) 721-42CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Foss, C., ‘Archaeology and the “20 cities of Asia”’, American Journal of Archaeology 81 (1977) 469-86CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Herrin, J., The formation of Christendom (London 1989) 131–44Google Scholar; Cameron, A. and Conrad, L. (eds), The Byzantine and early Islamic Near East, vol. 1: problems on the literary source material (Princeton 1992)Google Scholar.

85 van Dam, Saints and their miracles, 84.

86 See Sontag, S., Illness as metaphor and AIDS and its metaphors (London 1991)Google Scholar.

87 See van Dam, Saints and their miracles, 84; Davies, S., Jesus the Healer: possession, trance, and the origins of Christianity (New York 1995)Google Scholar; Moore, R., ‘Between sanctity and superstition: saints and their miracles in the age of revolution’, in Rubin, M. (ed.), The work of Jacques Le Goff and the challenges of medieval history (Woodbridge 1997) 55-67, esp. 59-61Google Scholar; Nugent, P., ‘Bodily effluvia and liturgical interruption in medieval miracle stories’, History of Religions 41/1 [2001] 49-70CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

88 Douglas, M., Purity and Danger: an analysis of the concepts of pollution and taboo (London 1966)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

89 Douglas, M., Natural symbols (London 1970) vii–viiiGoogle Scholar, xii; Montserrat, D., ‘Experiencing the male body in Roman Egypt’, in Foxhall, L. and Salmon, J. (eds), When men were men: masculinity, power and identity in classical antiquity (London 1988) 153-64Google Scholar.

90 Miracles 5, 7, 8, 15, 17, 35, 37.

91 Miracles, p. 87.

92 Miracles, p. 185.

93 Miracles, p. 91.

94 For example, Euripides, Trojan women, 643-58 (Andromache speaking); Semonides, On women, trans, Lloyd-Jones, H., Female of the species: Semonides on women (London 1976)Google Scholar, for the persona of ‘the bitch’. Paul demands that women be silent in church: 1 Corinthians 34–7.

95 Miracles, p. 213.

96 Miracles, p. 87.

97 As Artemios approaches Isidore, he (Isidore) ‘arose from his bed and ran towards the image, and holding up his outstretched hands, he hung suspended ... hovering one cubit above the floor ... So after hanging for a considerable time and foaming at the mouth, finally he cried out in a loud voice and fell onto his mattress on the floor.’ Greenfield points out that epilepsy ‘was also regarded as being a result of demonic possession and was perhaps the affliction most frequently attributed to it.’ [ Greenfield, R., Traditions of belief in late Byzantine demonology (Amsterdam 1988) 92 Google Scholar]. See also Matthew 17:15-20, Mark 9: 17-29, Luke 9: 38-42.

98 Miracle 10.

99 van Dam, Saints and their miracles, 85, 89; Douglas, Natural symbols, 101-6.

100 Matthew 9: 2-9, Mark 2: 2-13, Luke 5: 18-27.

101 For unscrupulous doctors, see, for example, miracles 27, 32 and 36.

102 Whitby in The Miracles, ixx.

103 Nesbitt, ‘Introduction’ to The Miracles, 27.

104 Johnson, The Life and Miracles, 214.

105 See, for example, Miracle 33, where the story shifts into the first-person narrative: ‘After the working of the miracle the man recounted how, “I woke up immediately at the saint’s words ...’”. Also, Miracle 32. In Miracle 29, the author explicitly states: ‘as that very same man told me’.

106 Miracle 33 for evidence for the vigil; Miracle 18 for Romanos.

107 Seidler, V., Unreasonable men (London 1994) 7-12Google Scholar, 23-34.

108 Seidler, Rediscovering masculinity, 14, 16.

109 Seidler, Unreasonable men, 23-5.

110 Much has been written on the domination of women but other men suffer as well; those of ‘other’ races for example; Brittan, Masculinity and power, 5, 9-14; Seidler, Unreasonable men, 15, 23-7; Seidler, , ‘Men, bodies, identities’, in Ervø, S. and Johansson, T. (eds), bending bodies: moulding masculinities, vol. 2 (Aldershot 2003) 77–91 Google Scholar, esp. 80-2.

111 For example, Miracles 1, 2, 6, 17, 29, 35, 44.

112 For example, Miracles 5, 21, 22, 33.

113 For example, Miracles 1, 14, 15, 19, 25, 26.

114 Miracle 4. Hippocrates. Virg. 1.

115 Miracle 5. LSJ s.v 2. II: of the mind; ‘confound’ or ‘trouble’. Hippocrates. Virg. 1.

116 Miracles 17 and 30.

117 Miracle 9.

118 Miracle 41. Aeschylus, Suppliants, 513; Sophocles, Electra, 255.

119 Miracle 44.

120 Miracle 13.

121 Miracle 7.

122 Miracle 33.

123 Miracle 30.

124 Miracles 5, 31, 33, 40.

125 Efthymiadis, ‘A day and ten months’ 22 notes the ‘hero’s psychological ups and downs’.

126 Miracle 5. Euripides, Andromache, 397.

127 Miracle 5.

128 Miracle 5. Aeschylus, Persians, 1046; Eumenides, 788; Sophocles, Philoctetes, 917; Euripides, Alcestis, 199.

129 Miracle 12. Sophocles, Oedipus, 401, 1152.

130 Miracles 29 and 35.

131 Miracle 35. Sophocles, Antigone, 1226.

132 Miracle 30.

133 Miracles 41 and 44.

134 Efthymiadis, ‘A day and ten months’, 11-12; 20 for another form of mental pain; the pain of isolation.

135 Gleason, ‘The semiotics of gender’, 389-415; Gleason, Making men.

136 G. Clark, ‘The old Adam: the fathers and the unmaking of masculinity’, in L. Foxhall and J. Salmon (eds), Thinking men, 170-182, esp. 171-2; Kuefler, The manly eunuch, 19-36.

137 Miracles 4 and 37. Sophocles, Oedipus at Colonus, 744; Euripides, Andromache, 240; Aeschylus, Agamemnon, 571.

138 Miracles 28, 36, 42, 45.

139 Miracle 11.

140 δακρύω (Miracle 12), κράζω (Miracle 28), όδΰρομαι (Miracle 42),

141 H. van Wees, ‘A brief history of tears: gender differentiation in archaic Greece’, in L. Foxhall and J. Salmon (ed.), When men were men, 11-12.

142 I am very grateful to Stephanos Efthymiadis for drawing this to my attention.

143 For example, Miracles 25-27.

144 Miracle, p. 125.

145 Vincent Déroche has pointed out to me that the more common understanding of this phrase is ‘to relax’, or here, more simply, ‘go to bed’. However, this still carries the connotation that pain is ignored and being endured. For ideas on male self-control, see Plato, Phaedo 117 c5-e4 and Republic 388 a4—d7 where Plato goes so far as to propose the deletion from Homer of the verses describing Achilles’ tears and Priam’s rolling in the dung since they set a bad example and might induce young men ‘to chant lots of dirges and laments about petty mishaps, without inhibition or control’ (van Wees in When men were men, 16).

146 Miracle 20.

147 Miracles 26 and 37.

148 Miracles 29, 30, 38, 41.

149 Miracles 5 and 33.

150 For disease as pollution, see Hippocratic author, On Breaths 14. 48, ed. E. Littré (Harvard 1923-31), 2: 250. For references to this in Greek tragedy, see Padel, R., In and out of the mind: Greek images of the tragic self (Princeton 1992) 54 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

151 Hippocrates, Aphorisms 7.5 (ed. Littré 4, 194).

152 Padel, In and out of the mind, 52-3; 83.

153 Miracles 5, 9, 11, 12, 16, 17, 23, 24 (a woman), 26, 29, 33, 35, 36, 37, 45.

154 Padel, In and out of the mind, 55-9; 84.

155 Reynaud, E., Holy virility: the social construction of masculinity (London 1983)Google Scholar.

156 Possible reasons for the disorder are given in miracles 21, 28, 30, 32 and 40. In Miracle 21 for instance, the patient declares, ‘I suffered a rupture, whether from shouting acclamations or from a heavy weight, I cannot really say’. Or in Miracle 28, ‘A child fell out of bed and his intestines were ruptured and his testicles came to rest over his stomach’. Miracle 30 starts with, ‘Another man ... stretched too far while running and suffered a rupture in his intestines and his testicles became swollen’. A last example is Miracle 40, ‘As he was lifting and setting a stone in place, he was troubled in his intestines and a loud noise and sound originated in them ...’ Thus, generally, the lifting of heavy objects or a bad fall is seen as a reasonable cause for the affliction; in fact any form of violent action. As the deacon Stephen says in Miracle 21, he suspects he was shouting too loudly.

157 Within the narrative there are also four instances of Artemios creating hernias. The first occurs in miracle 8 when he threatens a babbler with a hernia unless he ceases to speak. In both miracles 17 and 37, Artemios transfers hernias from a patient to a healthy man. In 17, the healthy man (an actor) has committed sacrilege by urinating in the church, ‘and after urinating he developed a hernia which reached below his knees. He cried out in pain ... “by the fear of God, this saint is an impostor. He creates hernias!” ...’. In Miracle 37, the hernia is transferred to a certain Peter, who was previously very reluctant to accompany the sufferer (Andrew) to the church. He eventually does but pays for his error after just one night: ‘Peter woke up and was groaning with pain in his genitals while Andrew himself was praying cheerfully ... Peter showed him his own genitals and they were swollen.’ The deliberate creation of a hernia in miracle 15 is because a blasphemous man incurs the wrath of Artemios: Narses has been warned but is blithely ignorant of what is about to happen to him: his genitals become swollen and so he begins to repent. Artemios has not finished with him however: Narses dreams that Artemios visits him and upon waking, discovers that his testicles have ‘ruptured to the length of three fingers and the wetness of his legs and his robes caused by blood and pus.’ Not surprisingly, he immediately faints. He is helped to his bed by the other patients who apply the patent wax salve and he eventually recovers.

158 Note the significant divide caused by nobility in Byzantium, rather than gender. See D. Smythe, ‘Women as outsiders’, in James (ed.), 149-67.