IMC 2026: Sessions
Session 512: StoryPharm, I: Embodied Histories - Memory, Medicine, and Suffering in Byzantine Culture
Tuesday 7 July 2026, 09:00-10:30
| Sponsor: | Horizon Europe Project: Storytelling as Pharmakon in Premodernity and Beyond: Training the New Generation of Researchers in Health Humanities (StoryPharm - 101169114, Grant Ref: EP/Z534523/1) |
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| Organisers: | Christian Høgel, Språk- och litteraturcentrum, Lunds universitet Laurence Totelin, School of History, Archaeology & Religion / Ysgol Hanes, Archaeoleg a Chrefydd, Cardiff University / Prifysgol Caerdydd |
| Moderator/Chair: | Shaun Tougher, School of History, Archaeology & Religion / Ysgol Hanes, Archaeoleg a Chrefydd, Cardiff University / Prifysgol Caerdydd |
| Paper 512-a | Reading the Past to Heal the Present: Temporalities and Historicities in the Kyranides (Language: English) Index terms: Byzantine Studies, Language and Literature - Greek, Medicine, Social History |
| Paper 512-b | Procopius' Medical Memories (Language: English) Index terms: Byzantine Studies, Historiography - Medieval, Language and Literature - Greek, Medicine |
| Paper 512-c | The Eyes of a Man Who Had Done No Wrong: Remembering Romanos IV Diogenes (Language: English) Index terms: Byzantine Studies, Historiography - Medieval, Language and Literature - Greek, Medicine |
| Paper 512-d | Pathography and Autopathography in Late Byzantium (Language: English) Index terms: Byzantine Studies, Historiography - Medieval, Language and Literature - Greek, Medicine |
| Abstract | This session explores the intersections of medicine, memory, and historiography in Byzantine tradition, foregrounding how past knowledge was remembered, reconfigured, and made meaningful in contexts of illness, healing, and suffering. The papers examine a diverse set of sources—from the magical-medical Kyranides to Procopius’ narratives of injury, from conflicting portrayals of the ill-fated emperor Romanos IV Diogenes to the pathographical self-representations of later Byzantine writers. Together, they trace how medical and historical texts both preserved and reshaped embodied experiences, revealing medicine not only as a set of practical remedies but also as a cultural and narrative practice tied to questions of temporality, authority, and identity. By attending to the ways in which healing, pain, and memory were inscribed in text, this session highlights the role of medical discourse in mediating the past and reimagining the self in Byzantine thought. |