Hagneia
Hagneia is an ancient Greek concept that refers to ritual purity. Along with nostos, hagneia is a leitmotif of the ancient Greek novel.[1]
Ignatius uses the term hagneia in reference to "chastity" in Letter to Polycarp 1.2.[2] Methodius of Olympus promotes the virtue of hagneia in his best-known work, which is modeled after and influenced by Plato's Symposium. Methodius critiques encratism. [3]
Peter Brown notes that the idea carried significance in both pagan and Christian communities in the late third century and had an impact on Christian discourses of virginity and sexuality.[4] The concept of hagneia was central to the interpretive framework through which Church Fathers read ascetic practices back into early Christian texts. Elizabeth Clark argues that thinkers like Jerome, John Chrysostom, and Augustine utilized figurative and allegorical interpretation to transform the historical understanding of hagneia as temporary ritual purification before a sacrifice or battle into a mandate for permanent sexual renunciation.[5]
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ↑ Daniel Selden. "Greek Novel, Translation." Encyclopedia of Ancient Greek Language and Linguistics. Edited by: Georgios K. Giannakis. Brill Online, 2014. Reference. Daniel Selden [aff. University of California, Santa Cruz]. 28 February 2014
- ↑ Brown, Peter (July 2008). The Body and Society: Men, Women, and Sexual Renunciation in Early Christianity, Twentieth Anniversary Edition with a New Introduction. Columbia University Press. p. 58. ISBN 978-0-231-14406-3.
- ↑ Zorzi, Selene. "The Use of the Terms hagneia, parthenia, sophrosyne, and engkrateia in the Symposium of Methodius of Olympus : Vigiliae Christianae 63 (2009) 2, 138-168". Vigiliae Christianae.
- ↑ Brown, Peter (July 2008). The Body and Society: Men, Women, and Sexual Renunciation in Early Christianity, Twentieth Anniversary Edition with a New Introduction. Columbia University Press. p. 182. ISBN 978-0-231-14406-3.
- ↑ Clarke, Elizabeth (8 August 1999). Reading Renunciation. Princeton University Press.
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