Byzantine Intersectionality: Sexuality, Gender, and Race in the Middle Ages

V The Ethiopian Eunuch

161 V. The Ethiopian Eunuch This chapter focuses on a single image, the figure of the Ethiopian eunuch in the Menologion of Basil II (fig. 5.1), a text commissioned for the Byzantine emperor around the year 1000.1 In this painting, we glimpse two episodes in the life of the Apostle Philip, who is being commemorated in the scene. On the right, we encounter the elderly Philip, who as the text above the image tells us would eventually become the bishop of Tralles in Asia Minor. On the left, we encounter a scene from the Acts of the Apostles (8:26–­ 40)—­ the moment Philip encounters a powerful eunuch who served as the treasurer of Queen Candace, the ruler of the Ethiopians (plate 1). The eunuch is sitting on a chariot reading the prophet Isaiah, while on pilgrimage to Jerusalem. Hearing them read from Isaiah, Philip joins the eunuch. They ask Peter to be their tutor, showing them how the words of the prophet became manifest in Christ, and together continue on the eunuch’s pilgrimage to Jerusalem. Upon encountering a source of water on their way, the eunuch asks to be baptized. Philip agrees, and after doing so, Philip is swept away by the spirit of God and continues on his own to Asia Minor. One of the most striking details of the manuscript is its depiction of the eunuch as a black person. The artist, a man named Georgios (identified by the inscription to the left of the image), has chosen to depict the moment when Philip agrees to baptize the eunuch. There is an intimacy between the two figures as the eunuch stares intently into Philip’s eyes. Philip looks back with a gaze that seems slightly awry, apparently captured as he is in the midst of considering the eunuch’s request for baptism. In his right hand, Philip carries a tied-­ up scroll that intimates his impending response and speech act, commanding the chariot to stop so that the eunuch may be baptized . Note the way that the eunuch’s right hand rises from the reins and gestures toward the stream before them, while the other hand almost seems to pull at those reins, suggesting Philip’s command to stop the chariot. The horses’ front left legs are raised, while the right ones are firmly planted on the ground and their back left legs are bent, all indicating to the viewer that 5.1. Philip and the Ethiopian Eunuch. Vatican City, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, ‘Menologion’ of Basil II (Vat. gr. 1613), fol. 107. © 2019 Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana. The Ethiopian Eunuch / 163 the horses are abruptly stopping in their tracks. The gray horse closest to the viewer captures our attention, the only figure in the scene to stare directly at the viewer while also anchoring the center of the composition. The drama of the Ethiopian’s conversion and baptism is thereby heightened though the image is dedicated to the life of Philip; the eunuch demonstrates the success of the Apostle’s evangelical mission to Ethiopia and the conversion of its people to Christendom. While it is impossible to use a term like “race” uncritically in the context of the premodern world, we must nevertheless ask how skin color operated in the late antique and Byzantine worlds. Relevant questions include: Can we perceive any systematic oppression of people whose skin color was noted as different? Do we observe the use of skin color in art and literature to code figures as other? And, more broadly, how and when does skin color manifest itself as a form of identity? In other words, given that geopolitical , cultural, and social identity are often not directly tied to variations of skin color in the ancient and medieval worlds, in what cases do we find skin color used as a marker of identity or as a site for self-­ identification? Obviously, these are matters that merit an entire study of their own, particularly because too brief an inquiry risks perpetuating skin-­ based definitions of race. Nevertheless, I will use these questions to consider how these issues intersect with the other identities already discussed in this volume. My goal is to bring out the ways in which race thus far has quietly entered into these various intersectional identities and, furthermore, to consider how the texts evidence a certain degree of racial fluidity. The Depictions of the Ethiopian Eunuch The image of Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch most commonly appears in Byzantine art in...