Borderline Virginities: Sacred and Secular Virgins in Late Antiquity by S. Undheim

Abstract

Reviewed by: Borderline Virginities: Sacred and Secular Virgins in Late Antiquity by S. Undheim Chris L. de Wet Undheim, S. 2018. Borderline Virginities: Sacred and Secular Virgins in Late Antiquity. London: Routledge. ISBN 978-0367495985. Pp. 238. $49.99. The notion of virginity in the ancient world has received a great deal of attention in the past decades. One aspect of virginity that tends to stand out in the majority of these works is its elusiveness to definition and conceptualisation. The present study of Undheim1 does a good job of problematising our understanding of virginity in its ancient cultural context even more. Undheim demonstrates convincingly that virginity cannot simply be understood in physiological terms, but that social, cultural and, indeed, religious aspects often undergird ancient constructions of virginity. Undheim’s focus is on sacral virginity—that is, virgins who have been "assigned" this status through an act of dedication or consecration in a religious context. The book does well to demonstrate both continuities and discontinuities of virginity in both Christian and non-Christian (Vestal) contexts in late antiquity. Rather than being a fixed phenomenon, virginity was something that was discursively negotiated. Undheim uses a helpful notion of demarcations or "borderlines" to demonstrate the fluidity of late antique constructions and negotiations of virginity. The most important contribution of this book is that the perceived dichotomy between physical and so-called "spiritual" virginity is problematised and rightly deconstructed. This is especially done by means of the critical comparison between Vestal and Christian virgins. The concept virgo (in Latin, but other ancient cognates should be included), in late antiquity, is a word that is used in various ways and to various [End Page 536] purposes. In this regard, aspects such as one’s age, family and social status and the virginal symbolism seen in a virgin’s clothing, all coalesce to shape the notion of "Roman virginity," as Undheim notes. In the church fathers, for instance, we see a curious interest in discerning the virgin, virgo, from the notion of the girl (puella) or woman (mulier). She quotes Ambrose in noting that "womankind is the sex; virgin is the species." Virginity was, therefore, a concept that was subject to intense classification and clarification. Sources from the theological texts of the church fathers are used, along with numerous other prose and poetic texts. She also does not disregard the epigraphical material, which lends to the strength of the book. In the second chapter, Undheim unpacks the notion of Roman virginity, especially how it is envisioned rhetorically and in terms of "ideals" and "realities." In this regard, a great deal of discussion focuses on social status and virginity, especially aristocratic virginity, as well as the possibility of virgin slaves. On the latter point, Undheim demonstrates that slave modesty and virginity—even though it might seem paradoxical in the Roman world—was complex and still embedded in the kyriarchal social structure. In other words, slave masters (in Christian contexts) still had the say whether a slave girl might become a virgin. Because late ancient Christianity made virginity more of a universal ideal, the fact that virginity could extend to individuals outside of the ruling classes is a real possibility. However, the metaphor of virginity did not do much to add distance between virginity and nobility. From church fathers like Ambrose and Jerome, we still see a common link between virginity and nobility also in early Christian discourse. Along with social status, the chapter also focuses on the age of virgins (the child virgins usually associated with the Vestals as opposed to Christian virgins admitted at a marriageable age), and virginal insignia, or clothing. In terms of clothing, most forms of Roman virginity had some type of external markers, especially because virginity was such an honoured state. This was the case in Christianity as well, showing that virginity, in this context, was not only a matter of the soul. Chapter 3 addresses the gendered aspects of Roman virginity, with some very interesting findings. Perhaps in no other chapter do we see the discursive variations of virginity as it relates to ancient concepts of gender. The fact that virginity moves away from the biological and physical realm...