A desperate romantic gesture: sexuality and slavery in Joseph and Aseneth

Abstract

Joseph and Aseneth contains two scenes in which its protagonist, Aseneth, prays that God would allow her to become Joseph’s slave, and another instance where she appears to adopt this role by washing his feet (see 6.8; 13.15; 20.1–4). Recent scholarship has done much to demonstrate the utility of exploring Joseph and Aseneth in light of other ancient novels. However, analyses of Aseneth’s desire for servitude have not typically made use of this larger corpus, but have instead focused primarily on the gendered power dynamics operative in the text. This study seeks to understand Aseneth’s petitions for servitude in conversation with numerous parallels ranging across the extant body of ancient novels. These parallels suggest that Aseneth’s desire to become a slave is a stock expression of erotic longing, a desperate romantic gesture typical of characters, across diverse gender relationships, who find a major obstacle between themselves and their beloved.