Revealed for Her Pleasure: Ontological Permanence of Female Ecstasy in Christian Erotic Metaphysics
Date
2024
Authors
Vannan, Eleanor
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of Victoria
Abstract
This work explores depictions of women’s pleasure in Late Antiquity and examines linguistic similarities between representations of women’s sexual gratification in pre-Christian Latin and Greek literature and physicality in portrayals of Christian women’s spirituality. This work concentrates on the poetry of Ovid and Catullus, the ancient Greek novels Chaereas and Callirhoe and Leucippe and Clitophon, and New Testament Apocrypha, including Acts of Xanthippe, Polyxena, and Rebecca and Acta Andreae. Further, this research argues that the process of genre transmission shows that the roots of medieval erotic theology and affective spirituality can be found in the classical world by examining the late antique literary transition from women receiving pleasure from a lover to women receiving satisfaction through a relationship with Jesus Christ as a bridge between the classical and medieval worlds.
Description
Keywords
Latin love elegy, ancient Greek novels, New Testament Apocrypha, eroticism, women’s erotic pleasure, Roman history