Denderis 1 | Prosopography of the Byzantine Empire |
| Sex | M |
| Floruit | E/M IX |
| Dates | 829 (tpq) / 842 (taq) |
| PmbZ No. | 1325 |
| Locations | Constantinople (residence); Constantinople |
| Textual Sources | Pseudo-Symeon, Chronographia, ed. I. Bekker (Bonn, 1838), pp. 603-760 (history); Theophanes Continuatus, ed. I. Bekker (Bonn, 1838) (history); Zonaras = Ioannis Zonarae Epitome Historiarum, libri XIII-XVIII, ed. Th. Büttner-Wobst, (Bonn, 1897) (history) |
Denderis 1 is described as a mentally sub-normal dwarf kept at the court of the emperor Theophilos 5 for amusement; he had a speech defect and is said to have resembled the Homeric Thersites; he aroused Theophilos 5's suspicions that the empress Theodora 2 was a secret iconophile by telling how he had seen her playing with "dolls": Ps.-Symeon 629-630, Theoph. Cont. III 6 (pp. 91-92), Zon. XV 26. 10-16 (ἦν τι παρὰ τοῖς ἀνακτόροις ἀνθρώπιον καὶ τοῦ νοῦ πάσχον καὶ τῆς γλώσσης παρακοπήν, καὶ ἦν οἷον ἄθυρμά τι τῷ βασιλεῖ). The first two sources tell the story in almost identical words.
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