Zoë

The Byzantine empress Zoë (ca. 978-1050) and her sister, the last living members of the great Macedonian dynasty, prolonged their house through marriages and independent rule. The frivolities of their court, however, helped hasten the empire's rapid decline.

Zoë was the second of three daughters of Emperor Constantine VIII (reigned 1025-1028), younger brother and unworthy successor to the great Basil II (reigned 976-1025). Little is known of her early life. She remained unmarried until her father lay dying and, with no son to continue the dynasty, sought a son-in-law. Zoës elder sister, scarred by disease, had become a nun, while her younger sister, Theodora, was unattractive and uninterested in marriage. Zoë herself, still lovely despite her 50 years, eagerly accepted long-delayed conjugality. Her husband, the vain and incompetent aristocrat Romanus III Argyrus, soon tired of her, and his neglect drove her ardently to various lovers.

After Romanus's murder in 1034, Zoë arranged to make one of her lovers his successor as emperor and husband. This replacement, Michael IV the Paphlagonian (reigned 1034-1041), was not without ability and dedication, but he was also of poor health and, in his guilt and remorse, likewise came to neglect Zoë. Kept under careful watch this time, she grudgingly accepted her eclipse and then acquiesced in the succession of his nephew Michael V Calaphates (the Caulker, reigned 1041-1042).

The new emperor, misjudging his position, decided to dispense with this unpredictable old lady and had her bundled off into exile. But he reckoned without the irrational but profound love in which the populace held Zoë, as the last representative of the beloved dynasty. Ferocious rioting staggered Michael V's regime, and he tried the maneuver of bringing Zoë back. But it was too late: driven from the palace, he was murdered by the mobs. Meanwhile, Theodora had been brought out from the confinement into which her jealous sister had placed her, and she was set on the throne by one governmental faction. The two women confronted each other, reconciled, and agreed to rule together. But Zoë was frivolous and irresponsible, while Theodora was dour and aloof; despite some positive efforts, their disagreements prompted the desire within a month for another man at the helm. Theodora again declined marriage, but Zoë, though in her mid-60s, readily accepted a third husband in June 1042. The new choice was another docile aristocrat, a puppet of the civil bureaucrats: Constantine IX Monomachus (reigned 1042-1055), previously one of Zoë's lovers.

Genuinely well-meaning and not unintelligent, but imprudent, prodigal, and disastrously unperceptive as a sovereign, Constantine was Zoë's worst failure among her husbands. No more than politely fond of her, he longed desperately for his beloved mistress, Sclerina, and he soon arranged to bring her to court, installing her openly as his consort. Her ardor perhaps on the wane at last, Zoë accepted this public sharing of her husband and yielded herself to religious ecstasies or to her hobby of making perfumes in her apartments; while Theodora—theoretically also sharing power—settled into the background and devoted herself to hoarding money. After Sclerina died, Constantine replaced her with a new mistress, an Alan princess, who was likewise complacently accepted.

In this appropriately inane court setting, Zoë died in 1050. Constantine mourned her genuinely but consoled himself and reigned on disastrously for some 5 more years. At his death (January 1055) Theodora was left to rule alone, as sovereign in her own exclusive right, for 18 months, until her death in 1056 ended the Macedonian dynasty definitively.

Further Reading

Zoë figures prominently and vividly in the court memoirs of the contemporary scholar and official Michael Psellus, The Chronographia, which was translated into English by E. R. A. Sewter (1953). An illuminating commentary on this account by J. B. Bury, "Roman Emperors from Basil II to Isaac Komnenos," is reprinted in his Selected Essays, edited by Harold Temperley (1930). A lively sketch of Zoë is in Charles Diehl, Byzantine Empresses (trans. 1963), and she is also described in Joseph McCabe, The Empresses of Constantinople (1913). For the political context of her career see The Cambridge Medieval History, vol. 4 (1923), and the second edition, pt. 1 (1966); George Ostrogorsky, History of the Byzantine State (trans. 1956; rev. ed. 1969); and Romilly Jenkins, Byzantium: The Imperial Centuries (1966). □

Octoroon, The (1859), a play by Dion Boucicault.[Winter Garden Theatre, 48 perf.] George Peyton (A. H. Davenport) will inherit the Southern plantation Terrebonne on the death of his aunt, Mrs. Peyton (Mrs. W. R. Blake), if his late uncle's mismanagement does not cause his aunt to lose her property. He would like to settle on the estate, where he has met and fallen in love with the regal octoroon Zoe ( Agnes Robertson). But the villainous Yankee overseer, Jacob McClosky ( T. B. Johnston), murders the slave who is sent to pick up a letter bringing Mrs. Peyton assurances of the money she needs to save her land. McClosky also learns that on a technicality Zoe was never legally freed, and he demands she be put up for sale. Dora Sunnyside ( Mrs. J. H. Allen), who loves George but understands his feelings for Zoe, offers to buy Zoe's freedom, as does a kindly overseer, Salem Scudder ( Joseph Jefferson). McClosky outbids them. Zoe takes poison rather than become McClosky's property. At the same time McClosky's murder of the slave is unmasked and he is forced to flee. George and Dora rush to Zoe's side. She tells George as she dies, “O! George, you may, without a blush, confess your love for the Octoroon.” Boucicault derived the main story from Mayne Reid's novel, The Quadroon, and the incidents relating to the murder of the slave from Albany Fonblanque's novel, The Filibuster. For theatrical effect he added a spectacular scene in which a riverboat burns. Although Boucicault emphasized the absurdity of Southern racial laws by making Zoe an octoroon instead of a quadroon (that is, one‐eighth instead of one‐quarter black), he basically attempted to balance the rights and wrongs of sectional division. As Joseph Jefferson noted of the play, “The truth of the matter is, it was non‐committal. The dialogue and the characters of the play made one feel for the South, but the action proclaimed against slavery and called loudly for its abolition.” The melodrama has enjoyed successful revivals, including a fine 1961 mounting by the Phoenix Theatre.

Zoë , c.978–1050, Byzantine empress (1028–50), daughter and successor of Constantine VIII. Zoë was first married when she was 50 years old at the request of her father to insure stability in the empire. Her husband, Romanus III , soon neglected her and in 1034 was found murdered, probably by Zoë and her lover Michael. The same evening she married Michael, and he became Emperor Michael IV. He proved a capable ruler and eliminated Zoë from state affairs. Much of the government was exercised by his elder brother John, a eunuch of the court and a thoroughly corrupt man, but an able administrator and diplomat. On Michael's death (1041), his nephew, Michael V, became joint ruler with Zoë. He promptly sent his uncle John into exile and in 1042 banished Zoë to a convent. In response the people rose in rebellion, Zoë was recalled, and Michael was blinded and banished. At the same time Zoë's younger sister, Theodora, was crowned joint empress. A few months later (June, 1042), Zoë married Constantine IX, of a distinguished Byzantine family, who ruled jointly with the two sisters until Zoë's death. Under their rule the Byzantine court was a source of scandal but nontheless of intellectual brilliance. The chief event of the period was the final schism between the Eastern Church and the Western Church, brought about by the attacks of Michael Cerularius, patriarch of Constantinople, on the papacy and by the attacks of the legates of Pope Leo IX on the patriarchate. This resulted in mutual excommunication (1054). After Zoë's death in 1050, Constantine continued to rule jointly with Theodora; he died in 1055, and Theodora in 1056; Michael VI, a Byzantine nobleman who was chosen her successor, was forced to abdicate in 1057 in favor of Isaac I , founder of the Comnenus dynasty.

Zoë ♀ From a Greek name meaning ‘life’. This was already in use in Rome towards the end of the classical period (at first as an affectionate nickname), and was popular with the early Christians, who bestowed it with reference to their hopes of eternal life. It was borne by martyrs of the 2nd and 3rd centuries, but was taken up as an English given name only in the 19th century. It has been consistently popular in Britian since the 1970s.

Variant: Zoe.

Octoroon, The, melodramatic play about slavery by Dion Boucicault, produced in 1859. It was based on The Quadroon by Mayne Reid.

Zoë •blowy, doughy, joey, showy, snowy, toey, towy, Zoë •shadowy • meadowy • echoey •sallowy, tallowy •yellowy •billowy, pillowy, willowy •arrowy • furrowy • tomatoey