SUBVERTING SEXUAL VIOLENCE, CRITIQUING WORLDLY POWER: A READING OF THE ROMAN SYSTEM OF PUNISHMENT AND ENTERTAINMENT IN THE HYPOSTASIS OF THE ARCHONS E. MEAGHAN MATHESON CONCORDIA UNIVERSITY [email protected]

he Hypostasis of the Archons, also known and Zoë, and the rape of appears in other T as the Nature or Reality of the Rulers, is an Nag Hammadi texts such as On The Origin of early Christian1 retelling of the Genesis creation the World.3 However, what sets the Hypostasis story preserved in the Nag Hammadi codices.2 of the Archons apart from these comparable There are two clear sections to this text. The narratives is the central role that sex and gender first is the reshaping of the Genesis creation play in shaping the conflict between the archons narrative, and the second is ’s and spiritual protagonists. In the retelling of this to . In this manner the Hypostasis of the creation myth, the catalyst for human creation Archons echoes many themes found in other stems from the archons lust for the female Nag Hammadi texts. For example, the spiritual principle whose image they see is among those Nag reflected on the surface of a body of water. Hammadi sources that retell a similar creation From their desire for the female spiritual myth, Eleleth’s revelation includes familiar Nag principle, the archons try to fashion her likeness Hammadi figures such as Yaldabaoth, , out of dirt and subsequently create Adam. It is from Adam that Eve is formed, and upon seeing Eve the archons plot to rape4 her. From this assault Cain is born,5 although the moral 1 I am framing my discussion of this text as an early Christian source from an established reading of the text amongst Nag Hammadi scholars. However like many ancient sources, this text draws on ideas and thoughts 3 For an introduction into the Nag Hammadi codices that are not exclusively associated with early Christian and related gnostic thought, see Nicola Denzey Lewis, communities (notably Jewish thought) and I recognize Introduction to “”: Ancient Voices, that labelling this text Christian is not neat, nor is it Christian Worlds (New York: Oxford University Press, without debate. In order to draw out nuances of power 2013). and submission however, I have chosen to focus on this 4 It must be noted that the use of the word rape is not text as an early Christian source. In doing so I do not seamlessly transferable to discourses of sexual assault overlook the wealth of evidence of non-Christian in the ancient world. Sexual availability, and by traditions preserved in this ancient source, rather this extension consent, were bound to the social status of paper looks to develop a new reading of the source. For the assaulted be they freeborn or slave. Slaves’ bodies more on this topic please see the introduction to the were understood to be openly available to their masters translation in Marvin Meyer, trans. “The Nature of the complicating their ability to consent to any sexual Rulers,” in The Nag Hammadi Scriptures, ed. Marvin demand. As consent is the axis upon which our current Meyer (New York: HarperOne, 2007), 187-198. understanding of the rape turns, it is important to 2 The Hypostasis of the Archons is the fourth tractate of demarcate the limits of the term in this discussion since CG II. This copy is from the fourth century and both free and slave born persons are discussed. For a preserved in Coptic, although most scholars date the longer discussion on this dynamic, see Jennifer Glancy, origin of the text to the late second and early third Corporeal Knowledge: Early Christian Bodies centuries, where it was most likely composed in Greek. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010), 70-74. It is considered to reflect Sethian thought, one of the 5 As discussed in Anne McGuire, “Virginity and major forms of gnostic thought preserved in the Nag Subversion: Norea against the Powers in the Hammadi codices. Hypostasis of the Archons,” in Images of the Feminine

Symposia 7 (2015): 17-29. ©The Author 2015. Published by University of Toronto. All rights reserved. SYMPOSIA 18 consequence of his character is not played out. heroes conceived by divine rape.8 In imperial Instead, the text marginalizes the conflict Rome, sexual assault was a show of dominance, between Cain and Abel, and moves swiftly to a method of social ridicule, a comedic tool, and the birth of , but more importantly, Norea. a source of mass entertainment. By bringing In anticipated form, the archons see Norea and these themes together, the Hypostasis of the plan to rape her as they did Eve, but unlike Eve, Archons is playing on their social relationship Norea is able to thwart the archons’ attacks and as it was built into a system that demonstrated receive the revelation of Eleleth that announces imperial power. Gender performance in this text the salvific role of her offspring. So while the is not a characteristic of a Spiritual Woman, or expected male characters are present in this spiritual women, but rather is a synonym for the retelling of the Genesis creation myth, it is the domestically conquered, socially ridiculed, and sexual aggression of the archons for the female those generally dominated by Rome. In having characters that pushes the creation myth a female protagonist skirt dominant, virile, forward. In other words, male names are sexual pursuers, the text creates a cosmic reality secondary references next to the female where the imperial system of power, built on characters in this retelling of creation. similar methods of corporeal punishment, is While this text centralizes its female overturned by those it seemingly dominates. By characters, their presence is always framed by framing its cosmic conflict in gendered terms, the archons’ sexual desire, or aggressive sexual the Hypostasis of the Archons draws on the pursuit. The characterization of Eve and Norea established gendering of the Roman punitive are especially defined by the archons’ system to disrupt, and critique its application of rape/attempted rape of each. In this sense, power. female gender in this text is bound to the motif of aggressive sexuality; one does not stand Considering Gender in the Ancient World independent of the other in this text. So, as the According to Judith Butler, a postmodern female protagonists in the Hypostasis of the philosopher and modern pioneer in gender Archons are vital to its theological agenda, so theory, gender is not something that one has, too is the motif of sexual aggression a central rather it is something one does. It is a set of participant in the cosmic reality unfolding in the actions that only in performing them does one narrative. This paper looks to further explore come to understand oneself as masculine or this thematic connection in the text in light of feminine. This is the foundation to Butler’s idea the Roman system of corporeal punishment and that gender is performative.9 In this sense, entertainment. This was a system that feminized gender is not as a naturalized category inherited the conquered,6 sexually assaulted its slaves,7 through biological forms, but instead is a set of and whose imperial ruler aligned himself with a “norms that endlessly compel us to participate mythic pantheon littered with narratives of in the practices corresponding to one gender or the other.”10 These actions are not performed at a level of consciousness, but are regulated

in Gnosticism, ed. Karen L. King (Harrisburg, PA: 8 Elaine Pagels, Adam, Eve, and the Serpent (New Trinity International Press, 1988), 239-258. York: Vintage Books, 1989), 40. 6 Natalie Boymel Kampn, Family Fictions in Roman 9 For more on Butler’s understanding of gender as Art (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2009). performance, see Judith Butler, Gender Trouble: 7 Jennifer Glancy, “Early Christianity, Slavery, and Feminism and the Subversion of Identity (New York: Women’s Bodies,” in Beyond Slavery: Overcoming its Routledge, 1999). Religious and Sexual Legacy, ed. Bernadette J. Brooten 10 Alison Stone, An Introduction to Feminist (New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2010), 143-158. Philosophy (Malden, MA: Polity Press, 2007), 62. 19 MATHESON / SUBVERTING SEXUAL VIOLENCE through bodily practices mandated by social difference, but it does so only by conventions. Gender, then, is created by actions reinscribing the traditional gender informed by social expectations. hierarchies of male over female, With Butler’s turn in theorizing gender, masculine over feminine; the possibility contemporary scholars of antiquity have applied that women can ‘become male,’ para- this understanding of gender as performance to doxically however, also reveals the ancient sources in order to develop our current tenuousness and malleability of the understanding of the ancient social world. naturalized categories of male and These studies have disrupted the presumed female. That feminine gender identity stability of ancient gender performance and can be set aside in the process of demonstrated the dynamic reality of gender in spiritual advancement both reiterates the the ancient world. By uncovering a variety of dominant understandings of gender gender identities, and conceptualizing fluid differences (in the insistence that move- gender frameworks in the ancient world, ment from female to male is a sign of contemporary historians have returned to development and progress, a movement ancient sources to uncover instances of ancient from the lesser to the greater) and gender slippage.11 One such example is the undercuts the dominant understandings work by Elizabeth Castelli. In her essay “‘I Will of gender differences (in the recognition Make Mary Male’: Pieties of the Body and that they are not fixed).13 Gender Transformation of Christian Women in What Castelli points to in her examination Late Antiquity,”12 Castelli navigates the of these holy women is the complex set of complexities of gender performance in the meanings created through gender performance ancient world so as to examine instances where where instances of holy women becoming holy early Christian holy women transform into men men are ancient moments where gender and explores the function of gender slippage expectations are both affirmed and undercut. within these ancient texts. Through her case Butler points to similar realities concerning study of the early Christian martyr Perpetua, gender slippage in her 2004 work Undoing Castelli demonstrates that these moments of Gender14 where she stresses that these moments gender slippage (where Perpetua emulates of rupture emphasize the malleable and fluid masculine characteristics) function to both nature of gender. What both of these reaffirm the text’s naturalization of a male over discussions point to are the naturalized female gender hierarchy all the while frameworks of expected gender performances demonstrating the flexibility within that system and the reality that these expected performances given women’s ability to transition. She states, are ruptured; there is the expectation, and the ‘Becoming male’ marks for these schism from that expectation. The analysis in thinkers the transcendence of gendered this article is informed by both layers of this understanding of gender. It considers the naturalized framework from which the Hypostasis of the Archons is working, ident- 11 Here gender slippage is used to refer to seemingly ifying it as a top-down gender model informed paradoxical moments when a person’s gender and informing of political roles and imperial presentation includes characteristics typically found in institutions where the male dominates, and the the opposite gender. 12 Elizabeth Castelli, “‘ I Will Make Mary Male’: Pieties of the Body and Gender Transformation of Christian Women in Late Antiquity,” in Bodyguards: 13 Castelli, “‘I Will Make Mary Male’”, 33. The Cultural Contexts of Gender Ambiguity, ed. Juila Epstein and Kristina Straub (New York: Routledge, 14 Judith Butler, Undoing Gender (Boca Raton, FL: 1991), 29-49. Routledge, 2004), 216. SYMPOSIA 20 female is deficient.15 It also considers the gaps, text’s application of gender difference through a and spaces in the expectations of this top-down social lens where the categories of masculine gender performance to better understand how and feminine came to code all aspects of ancient the text established its political critique. In the life. For example, strength, courage, instruction, words of Karen King when considering a and wealth were all coded masculine, whereas gender analysis of early Christian sources (and obedience, nurture, shyness, and weakness were arguably, any ancient source) one must ask, coded feminine.17 The gender division of these “how was gender organized and performed in character traits not only appeared to assign early Christian literature in ways that show us social roles based on nature (women to child how Christians were both presupposing wide- rearing, for example), but when these charact- spread ancient notions of gender and chal- eristics appeared in the opposite sex they lenging them?”16 suggested something abnormal, unnatural, and As demonstrated in the following section, therefore, false and untrustworthy. So while the the gender performance employed in the text affirms ancient gender roles according to Hypostasis of the Archons is reimagining King, it also uses this division to comment on political space by working out of the an the dominant powers in the social world by established understanding of Roman gender feminizing their masculine station and coding relations. By playing on those expectations, the their power as flawed. The archons, with their text ultimately makes a farce of the system. In hyper-aggressive sexuality, which is ancient this view, the text is not making a critique about social code for masculine, are made the fool ancient misogynistic practices, but instead when despite their sexual dominance both Eve making a comment on its contemporary and Norea’s spirituality are unhindered by their political situation. advances. This narrative power play is not a critique of male dominance over females, but Gender and Subversion in the Hypostasis of instead a social comment on the influence of the Archons ruling forces over those they seem to dominate. Works by both Karen King and Anne McGuire King says, have established a gender analysis of the This image is an extremely Hypostasis of the Archons, which argue in their straightforward indication of the text’s own way, that the text’s application of gender view of totalitarian political power. The and subversion are intended critiques of the title of the text—the Nature of the imperial dominance that permeated the ancient Archons—further emphasizes that world. Karen King, in her article “Ridicule and exposing the nature of absolute power is Rape; Rule and Rebellion,” takes up the issue of the central topic of the text. The text’s gender and rape. In this article, she explains the covert social criticism is aimed directly at (Roman) totalitarianism, not patri- archy, though patriarchy does provide 15 For more details on this top-down gender model the text’s model for the misuse of presented in the text, see Karen King, “Ridicule and power.18 Rape; Rule and Rebellion: The Hypostasis of the Archons,” in Gnosticism and the Early Christian King argues then that the use of gender play in World: in Honor of James M. Robinson, ed. James E. this narrative is a critique of Roman power, and Goehring and James McConkey (Sonoma, CA: not a comment on gendered stations and should Polebridge Press, 1990), 6. be read as such. 16 Karen L. King, “Gender Contestation as a Political Critique: Four Cases from Ancient Christianity,” in Doing Gender, Doing Religion, ed. Angela 17 King, “Ridicule and Rape; Rule and Rebellion,” 5. Standhartinger and Christine Gerber (Tubingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2013), 80. 18 King, “Ridicule and Rape; Rule and Rebellion,” 22. 21 MATHESON / SUBVERTING SEXUAL VIOLENCE

Anne McGuire’s gender analysis of Eve, Daphne, and Arena Recreations Hypostasis of the Archons takes into account The strongest demonstration of sexual ag- the feminization of spiritual power in the text, gression and assault by the archons is focused and how the role of Norea as “the virgin the around their rape of Eve. In the text, upon forces did not defile” supports the text’s seeing Eve speaking with Adam, the archons uncovering of false, worldly domination in the proceed to rape her. In order to escape from archons. In the article “Virginity and their advances the spiritual Eve separates from Subversion: Norea Against the Powers in the her fleshy self and becomes a tree. So while the Hypostasis of the Archons,” McGuire states, “I archons continue to attack the fleshy Eve, her want to suggest that the meaning and power of spiritual self is beyond their reach. The text gender imagery in the Hypostasis of the reads, Archons resides in its projection of an image of The authorities approached their Adam. subversion…[and] that the unmasking of When they saw his female partner illegitimate male domination by female figures speaking with him, they became aroused of spiritual power proved to be a powerful and lusted after her. They said to each vehicle for the expression of the gnostic other, “Come, let’s ejaculate our semen revolt”.19 According to McGuire, the power in her,” and they chased her. But she subversion at play in this text, through its laughed at them because of their organization of gendered characters, served as a foolishness and blindness. In their grasp potent trope for gnostic communities to express she turned into a tree, and when she left their challenge to worldly powers. Gendering for them a shadow of herself that looked here becomes a narrative choice that works to like her, they defiled it sexually. They emphasize the duplicitous nature of worldly defiled the seal of her voice, and so they rulers in light of the truly powerful spiritual convicted themselves through the form reality. In contrasting the feminine spiritual they had shaped in their own image.20 powers over the masculine worldly ones, the Hypostasis of the Archons works to bring this This scene confirms that while the assault was dominating false reality to the fore. real and explicit, it was not an attack on the The following analysis builds from both of spiritual nature of Eve. Instead, the archons these studies and looks to add to the discussion ended up assaulting the ensouled image of of gender and the subversion of worldly powers humanity that they themselves had created. So in the Hypostasis of the Archons. By exploring despite the archons desperate attacks, the most the text’s understanding of ancient “rape potent and desirable aspect of Eve, her spiritual culture” as it reflected and reinforced imperial self, escapes. In this sense the text explains that domination, this analysis suggests that the the rash and foolish exploits of the archons, power subversion emphasized in the narrative while threatening, did not impact spiritual by its gender play was informed by the imperial reality. Instead their rule only influenced the system of corporeal punishment, and corporeal, fleshy world. entertainment. This paper argues that the sexual This narrative of Eve’s rape by the archons aggression in the text is not merely a vehicle carries with it allusions ancient readers would that emphasizes ancient gender difference, but have associated with the myth of Apollo and instead were acts grounded in a social reality of Daphne as told in Ovid’s Metamorphoses.21 In sex, gender, and power.

20 Meyer, “The Nature of the Rulers,” 193. 21 Stephen L Harris. and Gloria Platzner, eds., Metamorphoses, in Classical Mythology: Images and Insights, 4th ed. (Sacramento: McGraw-Hill, 2001), 19 McGuire, “Virginity and Subversion,” 257. 972-975. SYMPOSIA 22 this narrative, Apollo insatiably lusts after worldly powers made in the Hypostasis of the Daphne, a water nymph, who desperately tries Archons. to fend him off in order to preserve her chastity. A second possible reading of the allusion In order to successfully avoid Apollo’s made between Eve and Daphne rests in the advances, Daphne turns into a laurel tree.22 Roman arena. As Sheila Briggs explains in her What is most interesting about this allusion in examination of the technology of the light of this analysis is not the peculiar amphitheatre and the construction of early characterization of two ancient women’s escape Christian moral imagination, the Roman arena from would be sexual attacks, but the braiding was a locale where state justice and mass together of Christian and imperial narratives in entertainment collided. Judicial punishment a text preoccupied with political subversion. surfaced in the arena as a way to assuage the As examined above in the work of King and masses through gross spectacles where slaves McGuire, the Hypostasis of the Archons is a and criminals would fight to the death with text primarily concerned with the subversion of gladiators and wild animals. The public death of worldly powers, so it seems peculiar that within these criminals in the arena became an it, there would be allusions to narratives of the opportunity for dramatic reenactments of mythic histories of the state. There are two mythic legends of the Roman pantheon. As possible readings of this connection in light of Briggs writes, the text’s emphasis on the fictitious nature of Capital punishment became a way to worldly powers. The first is that the Hypostasis recruit gladiators to satisfy the insatiable of the Archons draws on the myth as a possible public appetite for blood in the arena. insult to the station of the emperor, the head of Carrying out executions in the amphi- the Roman dominion. The narrative of Apollo theater served that desire and radically and Daphne can be read as a farce on the first changed the way they were conducted. emperor who was especially fond of the deity The critical moment came in the reign of Apollo. Augustus is said to have had a Nero, when he decided to combine “particular interest in reviving the worship of executions with theatrical displays. Apollo along with other elements of Greek Condemnation to the beasts became culture.”23 Scholars read this portrayal of increasingly common. The executions Apollo in his lust for Daphne as an remaining distinct from the hunts in the inflammatory jab at the emperor by portraying program, but the use of wild animals and his god of choice as a disorderly deity in heat. machinery of the amphitheater allowed These characteristics are, of course, the exact the emperors to turn executions into opposite of those Apollo exemplified. As the gruesome reenactments of myths and god of ancient Athens, he was the epitome of legends.25 rationality, good health, and bodily discipline. Apollo was the ancient man par excellence.24 In As the technology of the amphitheatre this sense, the irrational lust by Apollo for developed, it shaped the possible narratives for Daphne becomes a satirical comment on the state executions where the deaths of criminals supreme head of Rome, and of course, this farce served to recreate the mythic narrative of the on the imperial office heightens the critique of state. So not only was a criminal’s execution a demonstration of state power, but the staged

22 Karen King takes up a further examination of the connection between Eve and Daphne in “Ridicule and 25 Sheila Briggs, “Gender, Slavery, and Technology: Rape; Rule and Rebellion,” 12-15. The Shaping of the Early Christian Moral Imagination,” in Beyond Slavery: Overcoming its 23 Harris and Platzer, Classical Mythology, 958. Religious and Sexual Legacy, ed. Bernadette J. Brooten 24 Harris and Platzer, Classical Mythology, 230. (New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2010), 163. 23 MATHESON / SUBVERTING SEXUAL VIOLENCE history of the pantheon worked at a secondary political power in the ancient world. This level to affirm the influence of the state through subversive comment on worldly powers is its claimed history. similar to the Hypostasis of the Archons in its Christians were certainly among the affiliation with Roman deities; both Eve and criminals who were put to death in this fashion Perpetua find themselves affirming their as odes to Roman gods. In the third century religious worldview while alluding to Roman martyrology, The Martyrdom of Perpetua and deities, disrupting imperial power. It is possible Felicity, the group of Christians martyred in the then to read these radical acts as a sort of double arena were initially dressed in garbs of priests social comment, at once creating a new and priestesses of Roman deities. As the text religious identity while making a farce of records the martyrs were given these garbs to Rome’s supreme beings in their escape from put on as they entered the arena. The narrator Roman power in death. states, “they were led up to the gates and the The characterization of spiritual Eve’s great men were forced to put on the robes of priests escape from the lusting archons is layered in of Saturn, the women the dress of the possible readings in its association with Daphne priestesses of Ceres. But the noble Perpetua and her transformation into a tree. Above I have strenuously resisted this to the end.”26 Perpetua, offered two possible readings of this connection as the text’s heroine, refused to die in the as it relates to power and subversion given the garment of a priestess given that she was being objective of this Nag Hammadi source. The put to death for refusing to recognize Roman theme of subversion in the Hypostasis of the religious tradi-tions, and as the text tells us, Archons is fortified by its association with the Perpetua’s protest won. Even in light of her Daphne myth through the emperor’s idolization objection, this martyrdom harbours evidence for of Apollo, and through the recreation of like the theatrical style of execution described by myths in the arena by gladiators, prostitutes, Briggs. In the arena Christian bodies were criminals, and Christians. While it is impossible forced to take on the appearance of Roman gods to argue for the author’s intent to draw on these and symbols of the imperial cult for the purpose associations, it is productive to draw out these of execution. It has been established by many allusions as they were a part of the framework scholars of ancient Christianity, such as Brent of power and domination in the ancient world. Shaw,27 that through the willful act of Given that the Hypostasis of the Archons is a martyrdom, early Christians used the text by its very name looking to disrupt the performance of imperial punishment to subvert nature of worldly powers, these Roman its social expectations, and overturn the power associations should be read as such. and authority that ultimately put them to death. The act of dying in the arena, for early Rape, Entertainment, and Female Modesty Christians, was an act of defiance to worldly in Imperial Rome powers, and an affirmation of their religious After rejecting the garbs of priests and reality. It is a potent demonstration of the priestesses, Perpetua and Felicity are thrown dynamic intersection of religious identity and naked into the arena, only to be returned and dressed in loose clothing.28 Their naked bodies are rejected from the gaze of the onlookers, and returned only when modestly dressed. The 26 Bart D. Ehrman, ed., “The Martyrdom of Perpetua martyrdom of Perpetua and Felicity, and the and Felicitas,” in After the New Testament: A Reader in Hypostasis of the Archons are not the only early Early Christianity (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999), 48. 27 Brent Shaw, “Body/ Power/ Identity: Passions of the Martyrs,” Journal of Early Christian Studies 4:3 28 Ehrman, “The Martyrdom of Perpetua and Felicitas,” (1996): 269- 312. 49. SYMPOSIA 24

Christian texts where the sexually objectified While the arena was notorious for its female body finds itself in front of Roman gruesome fights between male gladiators, and powers and onlookers. The proto-martyr its executions by wild animals, women also Thecla, in the Acts of Paul and Thecla, through played important roles in these staged fights. her rejection of marriage and the Roman family According to Sheila Briggs, women took part in system, finds herself thrown to the beasts in the the gladiatorial fights, and their gendered bodies arena. Being stripped of her clothes and brought with them the aspect sexual titillation.31 baptizing herself in a pool of vicious seals, By adding female bodies to these already Thecla is miraculously saved from death. Not carnally charged battles, sexual violence only is her life saved, but the miracle likewise became an expected part of the show. In this preserves her modesty by sending a cloud to sense, these female performers were equated cover her naked body from the eyes of the with the social status of prostitutes as both crowd.29 In the way that spiritual Eve escapes categories of women used their bodies for the archons rape by leaving only her fleshy self, public recreation. These shows thrived on and Perpetua while rejecting the clothes of the debasing the female sex. In the recreation of religious cult still manages to die modestly Roman myths mentioned in the previous dressed, Thecla manages to preserve the section, no perversion was off limits. For uncompromised nature of her feminine body example, there are records of the myth of through an opaque cloud. What these texts Pasiphae mating with a bull having been speak to collectively is not just the desire to reenacted in the arena.32 Viable female preserve a woman’s sexual modesty,30 but the gladiators and slaves in the amphitheatre threat that Roman power posed to their allowed for the possibility of the most deviant gendered bodies. demonstrations of death. Bestiality, for example, was not out of moral bounds in these spectacles. 29 Wilhelm Schneemelcher, ed., “The Acts of Paul and Moral concerns do appear in recollections of Thecla,” in New Testament Apocrypha, vol. 2 these events, but not as it concerns the deviant (Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1964), 362. women and her sexual perversion. Instead, 30 morality surfaces when individuals of the elite The ancient Mediterranean world functioned on a moral code rooted in the establishment of shame or find themselves caught up in these trans- honour. While men established their honour through gressions. For example the work of Apuleius exertion of authority over family, for women, their which recounts a fictitious story of a high moral worth was weighted in their ability to embody an ranking male citizen turned into an ass who was idealized sexual nature: chastity. This sexual category put into the arena with a female serial killer as was dynamic including not just sexual acts, but ruled part of her dramatic execution, shows strong the entire presentation of ones body within a modesty framework called pudor, a word not easily translated concern for the elite male’s predicament, but into English. Female honour, and by extension female little sympathy for the female who is put to 33 shame, was bound to exhibitions of female sexuality, death in the most disgraceful manner. What and as such, the presentation of the female body was a narratives like Apuleius’s demonstrate, is that performance bound to sexuality and class which the spectators of these events were not ultimately determined a woman’s worth. For more on concerned with the debasement of their human the honour and shame society that governed the ancient entertainment, but wanted to see their world, see Carolyn Oisek, Margaret Y. MacDonald, and Janet H. Tulloch, A Women’s Place: House Churches in Earliest Christianity (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2006) and Jennifer Glancy, Slavery in Early Christianity, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 31 Briggs, “Gender, Slavery, and Technology,” 162. 2002). For more on the concept of pudor, see Jennifer 32 Briggs, “Gender, Slavery, and Technology,” 164. Glancy, “Early Christian Slavery and Women’s Bodies,” 148. 33 Briggs, “Gender, Slavery, and Technology,” 164. 25 MATHESON / SUBVERTING SEXUAL VIOLENCE expectations of social class and nobility women, in ways that would not compromise protected. Briggs explains: their virtue, manage to skirt the system of power that would demoralized their beings The reputation of women performers as through the debasement of their bodies. In sex workers was not an ancient version avoiding this discrimination these women not of a contemporary celebrity scandal. only preserved their virtue, but disrupted Entertainment in the Greco-Roman Roman expectations and its system of power. society was the public display of the

social hierarchy: there were those who Phallic Satire, Rape, and Reversal paid for the entertainment, those who While the previous two sections have grounded watched the entertainment, and those themselves in discussions of Roman punish- who were the entertainment. The elite ment and power as it was manifest in the held civic offices that included the honor amphitheatre, a space where early Christians and financial obligation of putting on defined much of their emerging identities, at its public shows. The public display of the core the Hypostasis of the Archons is a satirical elite’s wealth and nobility needed a foil and comedic text.35 Its rebellion against worldly the social, and often sexual, degradation powers is created through a farce, given that the of the entertainer supplied it. The sexual powers the text looks to subvert are availability of the female entertainer characterized as completely foolish and absurd. served to contrast her dishonor with the The archons embody the exact reversal of chastity of the honorable citizen’s wives characteristics expected in great rulers. For and daughters.34 example, in a moment of passion the archons The women’s bodies that took part in the attempt to recreate the image of Incorrupt- Roman spectacle worked to reinforce the social ibility36 by making Adam. However, their hierarchy by contrasting their abhorrent creation lays on the ground motionless for days sexuality with the virtuous women of the until the Spirit descends onto the mud man. The aristocracy. These shows of women did not just archons, despite having already claimed their serve entertainment purposes, but they also superiority over the entire reality, are clueless in acted to enforce the status quo of the elite. In their creation and ignorant of the power of doing so, these displays ensured the stability of spiritual animation.37 In the scene of Eve’s rape, the emperor and the stations of power which the spiritual Eve laughs38 at the lusting archons supported him. despite their sexual dominance over her fleshy Returning to Thecla, Perpetua, and Eve, all self because of their “foolishness and blindness” of these women found themselves and their to the fact they are defiling a mere “shadow” of sexuality under the guise of the ruling power, but in each instance, these women were spared the indignity typical of women under public watch. Spiritual Eve transformed into a tree 35 leaving her fleshy self subject to the lustful King, “Ridicule and Rape,” 10. archons in an act of spiritual preservation; 36 Incorruptibility is another name for the female Perpetua’s negotiations resulted in modest robes spiritual principle in this literature. Light is also another for both her and Felicity during their execution; possible reference to this spiritual quality in the Hypostasis of the Archons. and a strategic cloud found its way to Thecla’s body at the moment she would have been 37 Meyer, “The Nature of the Rulers,” 192. displayed to all those watching. All of these 38 The trope of laughter is well established among other Nag Hammadi sources. For an introduction to this use of laughter, see Ingvild Saelid Gilhus, Laughing Gods, Weeping Virgins: Laughter in the History of Religion 34 Briggs, “Gender, Slavery, and Technology,” 162. (New York: Routledge, 1997), 74-81. SYMPOSIA 26 what they desired.39 In a similar sense, the As explored in the previous two sections, archons are not able to exert their force over the the system of imperial crime and punishment virgin Norea who instead of submitting to their was fused with demonstrations of advances names the archons for what they are: entertainment. This style of performance relied “the rulers of darkness.”40 As a group of heavily on shows of gruesome carnal dominant men, they cannot even tame a young transgressions, such as disembowelments and girl into submission. In all of these scenarios the sexual violence. The arena was not the only archons present an empty power, one that when form of Roman entertainment where the threat contrasted with the spiritual power of the world of sexual assault loomed large as a tool that above, is void of any veritable influence, a fact reinforced Roman expectations of power. As to which the archons remain oblivious. Amy Richlin explains in her book The Garden In their inability to conquer the female of Priapus, Roman satire worked through a characters, the archons become “caricatures of model of a dominant male sexual assailant. ideal masculinity.”41 Their hyper sexuality, and Richlin refers to this model as the Priapus uncontrollable lust characterize them as model. She explains that this Priapus figure abnormal, and unnatural men given that in this stands at the centre of all Roman sexual text’s gender framework the female is naturally humour. She states: subservient to the male and they are unable to The general stance of this figure is that achieve this gendered dynamic.42 So not only of the threatening male. He is anxious to are they ignorant of the true power at play in defend himself by adducing his strength, their world, they also fail at simple top-down virility and all traits that are considered gender domination. As Apollo, in his quest for normal—and this is the appeal of the Daphne, embodies qualities contrary to his ideal joke teller to his audience, as if both are masculinity, so too do the archons epitomize the confirming and checking with each other reversal of the Roman masculine ideal. This that they are all right, despite the play on Roman masculinity distinguishes this existence of abnormalities in other text as a satire, a humorous ridicule so as to people. Hence the central persona or expose and criticize the ruling forces. protagonist or narrator is a strong male of extreme virility…This figure is active rather than passive and does not always restrict himself to foul descriptions of 39 Meyer, “The Nature of the Rulers,” 193. his victims but sometimes threatens 40 Meyer, “The Nature of the Rulers,” 195. them with punishment, usually by exposure or rape.43 41 King, “Ridicule and Rape; Rule and Rebellion,” 9. In this model of ancient humour, the scale of 42 King draws on images of half-man/ half-beast in her discussion of the archons hyper sexuality. She speaks normality is a sexually potent male who of images of satyrs, for example, and their threatens social deviants with rape. In this characterization as sexual fiends. An interesting aside humorous dynamic, the virile male establishes that cannot be followed through here is the association the boundaries of normal and abnormal through of the archons sexuality with animal-like qualities. his heightened masculinity. So while the satire Ruth Padel notes that prostitutes were associated with plays with social abnormalities, its central panthers, and lionesses: Ruth Padel, “Women: Model figure maintains the status quo in respect to for Possession by Greek Daemons,” in Images of Women in Antiquity, ed. Averil Cameron and Amelie Kurt (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1993), 5. A further consideration of animal nature, human sexuality, and social debasement inside of this text 43 Amy Richlin, The Garden of Priapus: Sexuality and would be interesting given the discussion in this paper Aggression in Roman Humor (New Haven: Yale of sexual assault in the arena and prostitutes. University Press, 1983), 58. 27 MATHESON / SUBVERTING SEXUAL VIOLENCE gender through his masculine sexual the ultimate weapon of social enforcement,45 dominance. Roman social expectations are and it is this phallus that the Hypostasis of the maintained. Archons, through its satirical comment on This model is oddly similar to that of the worldly powers, demonstrates is impotent. archons in the Hypostasis of the Archons who are at once virile, and believe themselves to be sexually dominant. Unlike the Priapus model, Conclusion however, the archons only believe themselves to The Hypostasis of the Archons is a retelling of be the dominant force in the text. They are the Genesis creation myth preserved within the completely unaware that their attack is flaccid. Nag Hammadi codices. While this retelling The archons are the Priapus figure gone wrong. does not stand-alone among these texts, its Their masculinity is heightened to the point that centralization of female characters does make they no longer control their virile nature and are this particular retelling unique. The above perpetually clueless to the actual source of analysis chose to focus on the gendered aspect power in the text. Instead of the supreme of the text in order to highlight ways in which masculinity Richlin describes in the Priapus ancient texts relied on systems of gender to model, the archons are absurd and out of create meaning and shape worldviews. In this control. They exemplify the exact opposite set case, the narrative challenges social expect- of virtues expected in a Roman man. ations of gender when the female characters There is a second reversal on the ancient manage to skirt the sexual attack of the archons, satirical form in the Hypostasis of the Archons disrupting the reader’s expectation of female and it is in the role of the audience. The submission to male sexual dominance. In audience of a Roman satire is expected to see reading this instance of gender slippage, when themselves in the role of the Priapus figure, or the feminine deflects the masculine in a sexual at least associate with it. As the Priapus figure encounter, this analysis is informed by an enforces the social standard, so to does the understanding of gender as a performance. audience in their desire to be included in the Performance, in this context, means that gender norm.44 In the Hypostasis of the Archons, identity is established through a regulated set of however, the reader is expected to relate to the repeated actions, instead of biological prescript- female characters, to the women performing the ions. By approaching gender as a set of actions sexual subversion against the “virile” and instead of a biological fixture, it is possible to “masculine” archons. The reader is expected to consider dissonance within gender perform- participate in the text’s rebellion through their ances and consider its meanings. In this case, association with Eve, Norea, and the female the split from expected gender roles in the text spiritual principle. As the audience of a Roman is a political comment about worldly powers. A satire is expected to participate in reinforcing comment that frames the text’s worldview in Roman social standards, the readers of the subversion and rebellion against said powers. Hypostasis of the Archons are likewise By framing this analysis with the work of participants in the text’s rebellious objective. both Karen King and Anne McGuire, this article The Hypostasis of the Archons is not only a has been able to further develop the under- play on the Roman worldly rulers through its standing of rebellion and subversion in the text application of gender and punitive subversion, it by demonstrating its affiliation with the is also a play on Roman expectations of imperial system of power and dominance. humour. It was a humour that grounded itself in Tracing the social framework associated with a dominant male attacker, whose phallus was ancient rape culture and sexual assault, this

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