A Virgin Conceived: Mary and Classical Representations of Virginity

Bodies and Selves

The repertoire of ancient images and meanings that readers may bring to their construction of the Virgin Mary depends largely upon what can be adduced from ancient literary sources about the signi¤cance and meaning of parthenos and parthenia. Thus it is not the imagined mindset of past readers but rather ancient cultural images associated with the language of virginity that serve as the object of inquiry. This chapter explores the contexts in which virginity was discussed and what virginity connoted in Greco-Roman, Jewish, and Christian literature of the ¤rst two centuries of the common era. The vast amount of literature in the ancient world that addresses sexual morals, conduct, and health betrays a pervasive concern for that aspect of self and society that today we identify as sexuality. Historians have posited several conceptual frameBodies and Selves Two works for understanding the signi¤cance of this widely varied discourse. As Michael Satlow demonstrates, certain trends distinguish recent study of sexuality in the ancient world.1 Since the late 1970s, historians of ancient Judaism, early Christianity, and imperial Rome have taken increasing note of the ways in which discourse on sexuality re®ects larger social dynamics. Among these, Michel Foucault’s history of sexuality provides an interpretive framework that has proven helpful to subsequent studies .2 Observing how the literature of the ¤rst and second centuries reveals “the existence, strength, and intensi¤cation of . . . themes of sexual austerity,” Foucault demonstrates the transformation of classical Greek notions concerned with the “care of the self.”3 He argues that Greco-Roman literature, with its intensi ¤cation and valorization of one’s relation to oneself, lends witness to a “culture of the self ” that was distinguished by a “greater apprehension concerning the sexual pleasures . . . a more intense problematization of aphrodisia.”4 Thus he describes an ancient sexual ethic that neither denigrated nor elevated sexuality , but rather located sexual activity within a comprehensive regimen more preoccupied with diet than sex. This relativization of sexuality in the early Empire counters popular stereotypes of a culture characterized by rampant excess and debauchery. A construct as sober as it is sensual, sexuality emerges here as one of several means of developing and maintaining agency, honor, and accountability. The overall application of Foucault’s argument can, of course, bene¤t from further re¤ning.5 Kate Cooper adds critical nuance to his reading by observing how ancient anxiety about sexual desire was rooted in a more general, and largely androcentric , concern for the social good. As Cooper sees it, antiquity’s conceptualization of the self was inextricably linked to that of the larger society. She writes, “though excessive indulgence in pleasure was perceived as a threat to the common good, so was its excessive repudiation.”6 Cooper rightly notes that the exercise of pleasure could be either limited or promoted in service to society. A word needs to be said about the literary sources I engage in this chapter. Just as androcentric texts should not be construed A Virgin Conceived
24 as reliable re®ections of actual woman’s life and experience, neither should ancient literary sources such as medical writings, philosophical literature, and dream handbooks be taken as evidence of widespread sexual practice. While they may certainly convey the idealized preoccupations of the privileged, we cannot simply assume the adoption of whatever sexual ethics they prescribe , nor can we infer mass adherence to those ethics and practices that such literature implicitly aims to supplant. On the other hand, the material examined in this chapter does re®ect, at the very least, ideals held and promoted by ancient literate culture . It is within this culture that parthenia and parthenos prove to be subjects of concern, and it is the range of idealized, if not always coherent, images of each that I examine here. Parthenos and Parthenia: Issues in De¤nition Before we explore the cultural connotations associated with parthenia and parthenos, we must ¤rst review the wider semantic range of these terms as well as the working de¤nitions of each employed by this chapter. By “working de¤nitions,” I mean understandings of these terms that will allow us to approach the extant primary material under consideration in a manner that remains focused but not rigid. Because this study is concerned with establishing the complex of cultural images associated with parthenos and parthenia, it is important to begin with general concepts that lend themselves to examination...