Rich insights into the range and complexity of human emotions and interactions, and their transmission across cultural traditions What makes us laugh and cry, sometimes at the same time? How do these two primal, seemingly discrete and non-verbal modes of expression intersect in everyday life and ritual, and what range of emotions do they evoke? How may they be voiced, shaped and coloured in literature and liturgy, art and music? Bringing together scholars from diverse periods and disciplines of Hellenic and Byzantine studies, this volume explores the shifting shapes and functions of laughter and tears. With a focus on the tragic, the comic and the tragicomic dimensions of laughter and tears in art, literature and performance, as well as on their emotional, socio-cultural and religious significance, it breaks new ground in the study of ancient and Byzantine affectivity. Margaret Alexiou is George Seferis Professor Emerita of Modern Greek Studies and Professor of Comparative Literature at Harvard University. Douglas Cairns is Professor of Classics in the University of Edinburgh. Dancing Towards Death in the fire of Eros and Agape, Katerina Samara, 40 x 40 cm, mixed media with earth pigments, 2014 (c) Katerina Samara/Meg Alexiou Cover design: [EUP logo] edinburghuniversitypress.com ISBN 978-1-4744-0379-5 Barcode

Margaret Alexiou is Professor Emerita of Modern Greek Studies and of Comparative Literature, Harvard University.