Art History Faculty Lecture | Caitlin Elizabeth Mims
November 4th, 2025 at 5:30 pm
Date & Time
November 4th, 2025 at 5:30 pm
– November 4th, 2025 at 7:00 pm
Location
Lamar Dodd School of Art | N100
Type of Event
Faculty Research Lecture Series
Lectures
Academic Area
Art History
About the lecture: “Birthing Byzantines”
“Men say that we live a life free from danger at home while they fight with the spear. How wrong they are! I would rather stand three times with a shield in battle than give birth once,” laments the eponymous Medea in Euripides’ 4th century BCE play. Centuries later, in the Byzantine Empire, women continued to fear the dangers of giving birth, understandably so, as they faced rates of maternal and infant mortality possibly as high as fifty percent. “Birthing Byzantines” explores the ways women sought to protect themselves while giving birth by wearing amulets. These amulets, which take a variety of forms, were understood to protect or encourage fertility and/or successful childbirth. This lecture investigate what these objects reveal about the lives and rituals of women who used them and what they indicate about the methods by which female health was safeguarded in Byzantium.
About the lecturer
Caitlin Mims is a doctoral candidate in art history at Florida State University. She specializes in the art and material cultural of the Middle Byzantine period (843-1204). Currently, she is in the final stages of her dissertation project, which examines the medieval material culture of motherhood.
