Borderline Virginities: Sacred and Secular Virgins in Late Antiquity

by Sissel Undheim

Overview

How and why did virginity come to play such a crucial part in the Christian Church in the formative and defining period of Late Antiquity? Sissel Undheim analyzes the negotiations over what constituted virginity and assesses its socio-religious value in fourth-century Rome by looking at those at the very margins of virginity and non-virginity. The Church Fathers’ efforts to demarcate an exclusively Christian virginity, in contrast to the ‘false virgins’ of their pagan adversaries, displays a tension that, it is argued, played a larger role in the construction of a specifically Christian sacred virginity than previous studies have acknowledged.

Late fourth-century Christian theologians’ persistent appraisals of sacred virgins paved the way for a wide variety of virgins that often challenged the stereotype of the unmarried female virgin. The sources abound with seemingly paradoxical virgins, such as widow virgins, married virgins, virgin mothers, infant virgins, old virgins, heretical virgins, pagan virgins, male virgins, false virgins and fallen virgins. Through examining these kinds of ‘borderline virgins’ as they appear in a range of textual sources from varied genres, Undheim demonstrates how physical, cultural and cognitive boundaries of virginity were contested, drawn and redrawn in the fourth and early fifth centuries in the Latin West.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780367495985
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	02/25/2020
Pages:	238
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.19(h) x (d)

About the Author

Sissel Undheim is Associate Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Bergen, Norway. Her academic work focuses on sacred virginity in antiquity and Late Antiquity, and she has published various articles on this topic, as well as on New Age religion and the didactics of religion. She has edited a collection of translated texts on Roman religion for the Norwegian series Verdens Hellige Skrifter (Sacred Texts of the World).

Table of Contents

Preface ix

Abbreviations xiii

1 Introduction. Sancta virginitate: limits and border zones 1

Defining virginity 4

The Roman virgo 5

Virgo, virginitas and variations of chastity 8

Sacred virgins 11

Comparative virginiology: the echo of the Church Fathers 15

Fixity, flexity and fluidity 19

Borderline virginities 22

2 Roman virginities. Between rhetorics, ideals, and "reality" 31

Virginity at the cultural turn 33

The Social Value of Virginity 35

Felices nuptae: virgin and bride 37

The social status of virgins 40

The social status of Vestal virgins 41

Christian virgins and the Roman aristocracy 42

Slave virgins? 44

Libertae 48

Redefining noble virginity? 49

The Virgin Effect 50

Roman virgins and religious rituals 51

Virginal protection 1 52

Virginal protection 2 54

Sacrificial imagery 57

Chosen by the gods? 59

A family affair? The problem of free will 61

Age of Virgins 62

The age of virgins at consecration 64

Those who belong to the kingdom of heaven 66

Epigraphic evidence and the age of virgins 68

The age of Vestals at captio: virgins and children 70

A due date for virginity? 72

Agency, age and the consecration of virgins 74

Virginal Insignia 75

The official dress of the Vestal virgins 76

"The garments of Christ" 79

De habitu virginum - or "how to recognize a virgin" 1 81

Virginal appearance 83

The young and noble virgins of Rome 83

3 Ungendering virginity? Virginal paradoxes and paradoxical virginities 105

Becoming male? Gender-bending "female" virgins 106

Male Virgins and Genderless Virginity 108

Male virgins in non-Christian sources? 110

Like angels on earth 114

Eunuchs and male virginity 119

Virginity, Humility and Male Authority 122

Virginity and clerical celibacy 124

Virgin Fathers of the Church? 127

Male virgins in funerary inscriptions 129

Just like a virgin? 131

4 De lapsu virginum consecratarum. Crime and punishment of fallen virgins 145

The pontifex and the pope 145

Crime and Punishment 148

The name and nature of the crime: adultery and pollution 149

Crimen incesti 150

A context for the case of Primigenia? 152

Primigenia's crime 154

Susanna's fall 155

The spiritual sword and the living dead: punishment of unchaste Christian virgins 158

Whether willing or raped 161

Consequences of the crime 164

Negotiating death: death as metaphor and death as reality 166

Virginitatem Approbare 167

Fake virgins and feigned virginity 167

Locating virginity 170

Tangible evidence? 173

Virginity tests - or "how to recognize a virgin" 2 176

Acting the part: performativity and display 179

Losing What Cannot Ever Be Regained 180

A bodiless virginity? On flexity, fixity, and the identification of true virgins 183

Negotiating the value of virginity in Late Antiquity: borderline virgins and sacred virginity 185

Bibliography 203

Primary sources: translations and editions 203

Secondary sources 206

Index 221

Editorial Reviews

"Borderline Virginities convincingly demonstrates that examining Vestals and Christian virgins together is vital, and Undheim’s approach allows for the similarities and the distinctives of these “Roman virginities” to come into greater focus as constructions of a shared socio-cultural context of Romanitas. Undheim’s excellent book represents the fruit of the “cultural turn” in late antique studies, drawing upon a wide variety of theoretical approaches that attempt to cross the “ditch between representation and ‘reality,’ by focusing on ideology and social constructions as well as the importance of the textuality and literary character of the historians’ sources”." - Journal of Early Christian Studies 2019

"Undheim’s comparative approach, which questions the Christian authors’ teleological construction of their own superiority over pagan culture, is very welcome ... lucid and highly stimulating ... One of the great merits of this study is that it underlines the fact that today’s research must beware of making historical patterns of interpretation its own. The book will give many important impulses to those working in the field of late-antique religiosity, in particular because of its comparative perspective." - The Classical Review 2019

"Undheim... is to be lauded for having ventured out into the intersectional spaces between traditional polytheism and Christian positions in Late Antiquity, in order to gain further insights into the phenomenon of sacra virginitas in that period... [O]ne is offered a valuable contribution for further understanding the reciprocal relationship of Antike und Christentum and it is in the application of this twofold perspective where its indisputable merit lies." - Bryn Mawr Classical Review

"The book covers a wide variety of topics and cultural trends, making the work as a whole useful to specialists in this field." - Review of Biblical Literature 2019

"Undheim has read widely and situates her work within a broader conversation among scholars ... In the end, Undheim has accomplished much. Like other scholars in recent years, she has challenged us to reconsider the extent to which Christians abandoned old Roman traditions or whether we should think about them as merely adapting these old customs ... Undheim has explored the diverse meanings of late Roman virginity in skillful and innovative ways, and she has provided new insights and much food for thought." - Matthew Kuefler, San Diego State University, USA

From the Publisher