medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
When the subject of the brothers Graptoi was discussed on this list a
year ago, I observed that the general assumption is that the verses were
actually _tattooed_ and, for context, cited the web-based version of
Mark Gustafson's article, "_Inscripta in fronte_: Penal Tattooing in
Late Antiquity" at:
http://www.ucpress.edu/scan/ca-free/161/gustafson.161.pdf
Although the University of California Press no longer has this article
up at that URL, I was able to access it using the Wayback Machine at:
http://web.archive.org
As the latter's address for it is a bit on the long side, I've converted
that into a TinyURL:
http://tinyurl.com/cugx3
Or, you could read it in print at _Classical Antiquity_ 16 (1997), 79-105.
Gustafson's note 30 suggests that "Receding hairlines or forcibly shaved
heads ... might have aided the lengthy inscriptions."
Best,
John Dillon
On Monday, December 26, 2005, at 4:00 pm, Diana Wright wrote:
> > Theodore and Theophanes (d. 841 & 845) T and T were brothers, born
> > in Kerak. They grew up in Jerusalem and both became monks at St.
> > Sabas. They were the lucky ones chosen by the patriarch of
> Jerusalem> to go tell the emperor to stop his iconoclast policies.
> The emperor
> > was not amused: he had them flogged and sent to a cold,
> > ill-provisioned island at the mouth of the Black Sea. They were
> > released when Emperor Leo died, but soon scourged and banished again
> > by a new iconoclast emperor. After two years they were brought to
> > Constantinople, and when they still persisted in their stand, the
> > emperor had 12 lines of specially-composed iambic verse carved onto
> > their faces (a process that took two days). Then they were banished
> > again. When iconoclasm ended, Theophanes became bishop of Nicaea.
> > Both brothers are called "Graptoi"---"the written-on."
>
> I am just trying to envision how this was done & if the accent
> marks were
> included. Did they both get all 12 lines or were the lines split
> betweenthem?
>
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