Preface

The number of studies on joy and other positive emotions in ancient Greek literature, the Greek Bible, early and Byzantine Christianity is relatively small. It gives the misleading impression that negative emotions were more important than positive ones in antiquity. This book aims to fill a gap in current research on ancient emotions and to initiate an in-depth discussion on the topic of joy, its many undertones, its fragility, its concrete and metaphorical enemies, and its degree of legitimacy in different texts from classical Greek literature to Byzantine Christianity.