Introduction The date was June 7th, 421 CE, and Theodosius II had just married. His choice of bride would have scandalized the Constantinopolitan court and church, had she not been hand-picked by his sister and chief advisor, Pulcheria. Theodosius’ bride neither came from the local aristocracy, nor did she secure a marriage alliance between the eastern and western halves of the empire. In fact, she was hardly well-born at all—she… Read more
1. Homeric Euergetism Introduction In 1981, Yizhar Hirschfeld and Giora Solar published an initial report on their first three seasons of excavations at Hammat Gader, a site located along the Yarmuk River on the eastern border of modern-day Israel. [1] While their initial investigation of the epigraphic evidence was cursory, they claimed to have discovered a previously unknown poem by the empress Aelia Eudocia. Read more
2. The Homeric Cento: Paraphrasing the Bible Eudocia is better known for her Homeric cento than for her Antiochene euergetism or her ekphrastic poem from Hammat Gader. This chapter examines Eudocia’s Homeric cento alongside her prefatory poem that explains how and why she paraphrased the Bible with lines from the Iliad and Odyssey . After briefly introducing centos as a poetic form, I contextualize Eudocia’s poetic agenda against those of… Read more
3. The Conversion: Constructing the Feminine Ideal Introduction By the middle of the fourth century, stories about a fictional Christian bishop and martyr, Cyprian of Antioch, began to circulate throughout the eastern half of the empire. According to these stories, a lovelorn Antiochene aristocrat, Aglaidas, hires a local magician, Cyprian, to seduce a young Christian woman, Justa, who had rejected his advances. Cyprian conjures three demons, whom he orders to… Read more
4. The Confession: Competing with Magic Introduction In the previous chapter, I argue that the Conversion depends on early Christian prose narratives, especially martyrologies and acta that depict exceptional women. My approach in that chapter focuses on how Justa intertextually engages these exceptional female characters, particularly Thecla and Perpetua. In fact, despite the Conversion’s ostensible interest in Cyprian, Justa receives far more attention and emerges as the story’s main character. Read more
Conclusion When Judy Chicago’s installation piece, The Dinner Party, debuted in 1979, it was rightly hailed as a tour de force of feminist art. Choosing which women to represent at the thirty-nine settings around the table must have been so difficult that the names of another 999 women were written on porcelain tiles and displayed on the ground under the table. For someone to be considered for the Heritage Floor,… Read more
Appendix. Eudocia’s Martyrdom of Cyprian Book 1: The Conversion Proem 1* [1] When God in heaven brought light to earth and the true voice of wondrous men was accomplished, a life-producing radiance filled the whole world through the words of (other) prophets, the evangelists.5* For all… Read more
Bibliography Accorinti, D., ed. 2016. Brill’s Companion to Nonnus of Panopolis. Leiden. Adams, J. N. 1981. “Ausonius, Cento Nuptialis 101–131.” Studi italiani di filologia classica 53:199–215. Addey, C. 2014. Divination and Theurgy in Neoplatonism: Oracles of the Gods. Farnham. Aerts, W. J. 1997. “Das literarische Porträt in der byzantinischen Literatur.” Groningen Colloquia on the Novel 8:151–195. Afonasin, E. 2016. “Pythagorean Numerology and Diophantus’ Arithmetica: A Note… Read more
