Textual and Visual Intrusions: Abbasid Babylonia in the Palestinian Mishnah, Byzantium in the Greek Legend of Phaedra

The paper focuses on medieval descriptions and depictions of falconry in ancient texts and visual arts originally produced by cultures where this form of hunting with raptors was not practiced. A Mishnah in Tractate Kelim states that praqlimin of hunters are subject to midras impurity. According to the Babylonian Geonic commentary to Order Ṭaharot, this refers to a falconry glove. Subsequent commentators and scholars followed this interpretation, including Maimonides, both in his commentary and in Mishneh Torah. However, great rabbinic sages such as R. Yosef Caro and R. David Pardo raised serious difficulties with it. Towards the end of the 19^th century, the great Semiticist Sigmund Fraenkel proposed an alternative interpretation, leg coverings, which was accepted by Imaanuel Löw, J. N. Epstein and others.

Greek mosaic hunting scenes display leg coverings that have puzzled art historians. These provide hints as to the nature of the praqlimin Fraenkel described in the Mishnah. The transfer of the Palestinian Mishnah to Babylon resulted in the imposition of a falconry glove in their place, in accordance with local hunting practices.

Byzantine era Palestinian mosaics portray a parallel visual imposition of falconry into the Greek Legend of Phaedra, not found in ancient versions of the tale. Both a mosaic in Madaba, Jordan, and an Ekphrasis of Procopious of Gaza (based upon a lost mosaic there) add a falconer who plays an unclear, but prominent role as a friend of Hippolytus, emphasizing the hunt with the intrusion of falconry.