by Zeynep Olgun, @Fall_of_Zeynep
The life of Theodore of Sykeon, an ascetic who lived in the Eastern Mediterranean around sixth-seventh centuries, was documented by his disciple George shortly after Theodore’s demise.[1] The narrative includes two intriguing episodes of exorcism involving rodents and maritime culture. To analyse these episodes, we can briefly turn our attention to two shipwrecks to contextualize the relationship between rodents and ships.
A royal vessel within the palatial networks of the Bronze Age Eastern Mediterranean, the Uluburun shipwreck had amongst its rich cargo of 15,000 artifacts, ranging from copper ingots to elephant tusks, had also small pieces of bone, which were identified as a house mouse.[2] This is the earliest direct evidence of stowaway transport for a commensal species in this region.
Fast forward to the seventh and eighth centuries CE, we encounter the Ma‘agan Mikhael B shipwreck, a near contemporary of Theodore, found on the coast of Levant. While only six black rats were identified as having sunk with the ship, gnawing marks on food refuse suggest a widespread infestation on board.[3] Rodents in the Eastern Mediterranean had a long and enduring history of seafaring. Shifting focus to Theodore’s encounters with demons, his Life recounts two exorcisms linked to maritime culture. In one episode, a captain afflicted by a demon visits the saint in his monastery, while the second episode depicts a man showing symptoms of possession while aboard a ship with Theodore.[4]
However, the maritime nature of these episodes is not the only commonality. In both cases, the demon which is exorcised by the saint appears as a mouse! It might as well be a coincidence that the hagiographer, out of hundreds of demons, represented only the ones associated with seafaring as mice, but it might also reflect a cultural association, subtly woven into the narrative as a distinctive detail.
Cover Image: Fresco of St Theodore the Sykeon, c. 1547., Public domain, available on Wikipedia.
References:
[1] The text was edited by André-Jean Festugière, Vie de Théodore de Sykéon, vol. I-Texte Grec (Brussels: Société des Bollandistes, 1970).
[2] Thomas Cucchi, “Uluburun Shipwreck Stowaway House Mouse: Molar Shape Analysis and Indirect Clues about the Vessel’s Last Journey,” Journal of Archaeological Science 35, no. 11 (2008): 2953–59.
[3] Sierra Harding et al., “Stowaways: Maritime Ecology of the Oldest Commensal Ship Rats (Rattus Rattus) Found on a Mediterranean Shipwreck,” Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 49 (2023): 103947.
[4] Georgios, The Life of Saint Theodore of Sykeon (BHG 1748), 123, 132.
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