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c h a p t e r t e n “Friendship and Physical Desire” The Discourse of Female Homoeroticism in Fifth-Century ce Egypt* Terry G. Wilfong Taêse and Tsansnô, two women living in the White Monastery in Southern Egypt sometime in the fifth century ce, were sentenced to beatings by Shenute, their monastic superior , for engaging in homoerotic activity. Shenute ordered the punishment of these women (and provided a justification for it) in a letter to the women of his monastic community. He described Taêse and Tsansnô as “running after” other women in “friendship and physical desire.” Although Shenute’s letter, with its specific listing of individual women to be punished for homoerotic activity, is unique in many ways, his language and attitude are typical of contemporary Coptic monastic writing on the subject. Shenute’s letter provides an entry point into the discourse of female homoeroticism in the work of Late Antique Egyptian writers—a discourse shaped by the attitudes and concerns of the (male) heads of the monastic communities in which women lived. Other contemporaneous authors used this discourse to describe—and condemn—homoerotic activity between women. Moreover, their writings described recognizable groups of individuals within the monastic communities who engaged in homoerotic activity. This evidence from Egypt is of considerable relevance to the more general study of sexuality in antiquity. These Late Antique Egyptian sources not only provide a different set of data and a different perspective on the subject , but they also offer evidence of a sort unparalleled for much of the ancient world. Late Antique Egypt and the Monastic Background Life in Late Antique Egypt was the product of a variety of cultural, political , and religious influences, both internal and external.1 By the end of the fourth century ce, the majority of Egyptians could be called Christians of 304 some kind, although the sectarian and doctrinal divisions were such that there was no single, unitary Christianity in Egypt. Pagan cults were not yet gone from the scene, but they were entering their final phases of active worship . Greek was the language of administration in Egypt at this time and was also the language of business and culture for a significant portion of the population. The indigenous Egyptian language was known as Coptic, the final phase of ancient Egyptian, written in an alphabet based on Greek and Demotic Egyptian characters, using both Egyptian and Greek vocabulary.2 Coptic served as a language of everyday life for much of Egypt’s population and had come into its own as a vehicle for literary expression (largely through the Coptic translation of the New Testament). Many Egyptians of this period were bilingual, although the full extent of Coptic/Greek bilingualism in this period remains uncertain. The great majority of the sources relevant for the present essay were written in Coptic, which means that they were intended for an audience in Egypt, as opposed to Greek works written in Egypt that could be understood by a wider Mediterranean audience. Evidence for the discourse of female homoeroticism in Late Antique Egypt comes largely from monastic contexts, not surprising considering the predominantly homosocial environments of the monasteries and their importance in shaping general discourse in this period. While most monasteries were self-contained and often self-sufficient units, such establishments were also part of larger regional communities. Monasteries were integral elements of local economies, and the heads of monasteries often exerted considerable influence with local authorities through their control of monastic landholdings and production. Monastic superiors were often important spiritual leaders outside the monastery, while monitoring and commenting on the activities and morals of the nearby secular population. Monasteries were also important cultural centers in Late Antique Egypt not just for their inhabitants but also for the nearby towns and villages. Production and distribution of books and the teaching of both Coptic and Greek often centered on monasteries, which resulted in a significant monastic influence on both language and literature. Through these interconnected spheres of influence , monastic leaders were in a unique position to shape discourse outside their community walls as well as within them. The monastic origin of nearly all the evidence relating to female homoeroticism does not, therefore, imply that these sources were exceptional but rather suggests that the discourse of this evidence would have been typical even outside the monasteries. The most extensive Late Antique Egyptian evidence relating to female homoeroticism comes from two religious communities: the...

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