The Motif of Friendship

In Byzantium epistolary literature was among the most widespread literary genres of the Palaiologan period, owing both to its practical utility and its rhetorical dimension, as evidenced by the large number of surviving letters. It functioned as a means of communication, expression of opinions, and social networking, while also constituting a distinct literary genre that has been the subject of theoretical study. Friendship emerges as the most frequent theme addressed by letter-writers, as revealed by the surviving corpus. By examining this motif systematically, the social and rhetorical aspects of friendship are illuminated, and the tension between genuine and conventional human relationships is explored, at least as these are reflected in the letters themselves.