Empress Theodora: Prostitute, Empress and Saint

One often hears rags to riches stories, but that of Empress Theodora’s is an especially unique one. She was born into poverty but died one of the wealthiest women in the Byzantine Empire. Theodora was a woman was at the bottom of the empire’s social ladder, but eventually saved it from its own destruction. Empress Theodora was a courtesan turned empress who was finally ordained as a saint by a Greek Orthodox Church after having a great hand in reforms in the Byzantine Empire.

Theodora was born about 500 C.E. to a man named Acacius and a woman whose name is unknown. Her father was a keeper of the bears for the Greens at the Hippodrome in Constantinople and died when Theodora was a young child. Theodora’s mother was exceptionally involved in her church, so when Acacius died she was able to maintain her lifestyle without having to become a “Bride of Christ” (Cesaretti 30). Theodora and her older sister Comito and her younger sister Anastasia were raised to be devout Christians, and were each given names of religious connotation. Theodora’s name means “gift of God” (Cesaretti 30).

What is commonly referred to as the “plea of the Kynêgion” is considered the conception of her relationship with the Blues before and throughout her reign as empress, and her hostility to the Greens (Cesaretti 55). Comito, Theodora, and Anastasia came before those in the Kynêgion and beseeched the Blues and Greens for protection since their father had died. The leader of the Greens, Asterius, gave no reaction despite the fact that her father had worked for them. The Blues replied assuring that they, and also God would protect them (Cesaretti 55).

Theodora quickly became well-known in Constantinople due to Theodora’s beauty, charm and humor...

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...marriage and in her careers as a courtesan and actress led to laws that gave women in the Byzantine Empire more rights than other females in Europe. Her transformation from a courtesan to a saint models not only her change in character, but her rise to power.

Works Cited

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The Archdiocese of Western USA. "Theodora- The Syriac Empire of Byzantine." Soc-wus.org. The Archdiocese of Western USA, n.d. Web. 7 Mar. 2014.

Cesaretti, Paolo. Theodora: Empress of Byzantium. New York: Vendome, 2004. Print.

Skinner, Marilyn B. "The Archaic Age: Symposium and Initiation." Sexuality in Greek and Roman Culture. Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2005. 58-99. Print.

Procopius. Secret History. S.l.: University of Michigan, 1961. Print.