Bringing together scholars from diverse periods and disciplines of Hellenic and Byzantine studies, this volume explores the shifting shapes and functions of laughter and tears, with consideration given to visual, performative and musical arts, as well as to written records.

Preface; List of Illustrations; Notes on contributors; 1. Introduction, Margaret Alexiou and Douglas Cairns Part I. Ancient Keynotes: From Homer to Lucian; 2. Laughter and Tears in Early Greek Literature, Richard Seaford; 3. Imagining Divine Laughter in Homer and Lucian, Stephen Halliwell; 4. Parody, Symbol and the Literary Past in Lucian, Calum Maciver; Part II: Ancient Models, Byzantine Collections: Epigrams, Riddles and Jokes; 5. 'Tantalus Ever in Tears': The Greek Anthology as a Source of Emotions in Late Antiquity, Judith Herrin; 6. 'Do you think you're clever? Solve this riddle, thenl'The Comic Side of Byzantine Enigmatic Poetry, Simone Beta; 7. Philogelos: An Anti-intellectual Joke-book, Stephanie West; Part III: Byzantine Perspectives: Tears and Laughter, Theory and Praxis; 8. 'Messages of the Soul': Tears, Smiles, Laughter and Emotions Expressed by them in Byzantine Literature, Martin Hinterberger; 9. Towards a Byzantine Theory of the Comic?, Aglae Pizzone; 10. Staging Laughter and Tears: Libanius, Chrysostom and the Riot of the Statues, Jan R. Stenger; 11. Lamenting for the Fall of Jerusalem in the Seventh Century CE, loannis Papadogiannakis; 12. Guiding Grief: Liturgical Poetry and Ritual Lamentation in Early Byzantium, Susan Harvey; Part IV: Laughter, Power and Subversion; 13. Mime and the Dangers of Laughter in Late Antiquity, Ruth Webb; 14. Laughter on Display - Mimic Performances and the Danger of Laughing in Byzantium, Przemesfaw Marciniak; 15. The Power of Amusement and the Amusement of Power: The Princely Frescoes of St. Sophia, Kiev, and their Connections to the Byzantine World, Elena Boeck; 16. Laughing at Eros and Aphrodite: Sexual Inversion and its Resolution in the Classicising Arts of Medieval Byzantium, Alicia Walker; Part V: Gender, Genre and Language: Loss and Survival; 17. Comforting Tears and Suggestive Smiles:To Laugh and Cry in the Komnenian Novel, Ingela Nilsson; 18. Do Brothers Weep? Male Grief, Mourning, Lament and Tears in Eleventh- and Twelfth-Century Byzantium, Margaret Mullett; 19. Laments by Nicetas Choniates and Others for the Fall of Constantinople in 1204, Michael Angold; 20. 'Words Filled With Tears': Amorous Discourse as Lamentation in the Palaiologan Romances, Panagiotis Agapitos; 21. The Tragic, the Comic andTragi-Comic in Cretan Renaissance Literature, David Holton; 22. Belisarius in the Shadow Theatre: The Private Calvary of a Legendary General, Anna Stavrakopoulou; 23. Afterword, Roderick Beaton; Appendix: Chyrogles or The girl with two husbands; Bibliography; Index.

Includes an international cast of 25 distinguished contributors.Prominence is given to performative arts and to interactions with other cultures. Transitions from Late Antiquity to Byzantium, and from Byzantium to the Renaissance, form focal points from which contributors look backwards, forwards and sideways. Highlights the variety, audacity and quality of the finest Byzantine works, and at the extent to which they anticipated and contributed to the Renaissance.