eight bits
Graduate Poster
- Joined
- Sep 5, 2012
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pakeha
Consider the Acts of Perpetua and Felicitas, surely a work of hagiography, dated to very shortly after the time of the events reported, and mostly attributed to eyewitness, directly or by authorial interview. On the one hand, much of what happens in the story seems plasuible (especially if we take the protagonists to be, ironically, adherents of the later-condemned heresy of Montanism, which the text supports but does not assert).
On the other hand, there is a pronounced supernatural dimension to the story, especially a series of four visionary dreams by Perpetua during her imprisonment (supposedly told in her words). The last of these is "symbolically fulfilled" in her supposedly factual death (unexpectedly by sword, as parallels her dream, rather than by animal combat, as she was sentenced).
So, hardly any time seems to have elapsed between event and narration, and there is already supernatural content. How can this be? The story is being told for nearly the first time, and it has already acquired "improvements." Let us assume arguendo a historical Perpetua.
The events, as they (by assumption) happened, were undertaken with conscious supernatural intent. BTW, supernatural intent is displayed "on both sides" in the story. The authorities wanted the execution to be a pagan religious ritual, with the Christians cast in the roles of priests of Saturn and priestesses of Ceres. (That didn't happen - was it really ever proposed?)
As the events happened, a "meaning" was imputed to them, and that supernatural meaning "stuck" to the factual narration. For example, Perpetua's animal combatant was a "mad" cow, a rare and unexpected treat for the crowd in the arena, whose availability despite her rarity was attributed to the intervention of supernatural forces. (And yet unusual female animal combatants are a prominent feature in female martyrology of less secure historicity, compare Thecla.)
If events as they happen are taken to be meaningful indications of supernatural activity, then the narration of them can be expected to contain supernatural elements, along with claims of the miraculous (for events that are merely rare and uninvestigated).
So, you tell me, was there a real Perpetua? If so, do we more reliably arrive at her biography by "scraping away" indigestible parts of the hagiographical narrative, or instead by imagining the worlds, and the Christian women in them, where those elements are expected to appear in a narrative like this?
I think the problem is trickier than you give it credit for being.
Consider the Acts of Perpetua and Felicitas, surely a work of hagiography, dated to very shortly after the time of the events reported, and mostly attributed to eyewitness, directly or by authorial interview. On the one hand, much of what happens in the story seems plasuible (especially if we take the protagonists to be, ironically, adherents of the later-condemned heresy of Montanism, which the text supports but does not assert).
On the other hand, there is a pronounced supernatural dimension to the story, especially a series of four visionary dreams by Perpetua during her imprisonment (supposedly told in her words). The last of these is "symbolically fulfilled" in her supposedly factual death (unexpectedly by sword, as parallels her dream, rather than by animal combat, as she was sentenced).
So, hardly any time seems to have elapsed between event and narration, and there is already supernatural content. How can this be? The story is being told for nearly the first time, and it has already acquired "improvements." Let us assume arguendo a historical Perpetua.
The events, as they (by assumption) happened, were undertaken with conscious supernatural intent. BTW, supernatural intent is displayed "on both sides" in the story. The authorities wanted the execution to be a pagan religious ritual, with the Christians cast in the roles of priests of Saturn and priestesses of Ceres. (That didn't happen - was it really ever proposed?)
As the events happened, a "meaning" was imputed to them, and that supernatural meaning "stuck" to the factual narration. For example, Perpetua's animal combatant was a "mad" cow, a rare and unexpected treat for the crowd in the arena, whose availability despite her rarity was attributed to the intervention of supernatural forces. (And yet unusual female animal combatants are a prominent feature in female martyrology of less secure historicity, compare Thecla.)
If events as they happen are taken to be meaningful indications of supernatural activity, then the narration of them can be expected to contain supernatural elements, along with claims of the miraculous (for events that are merely rare and uninvestigated).
So, you tell me, was there a real Perpetua? If so, do we more reliably arrive at her biography by "scraping away" indigestible parts of the hagiographical narrative, or instead by imagining the worlds, and the Christian women in them, where those elements are expected to appear in a narrative like this?
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