In Plato’s Symposium, gender is the result of human beings’ bisection that leads them to a life seeking their other half. In Plotinus’ Enneads, this endeavour is accomplished through the One, from which derives love as the love of beauty and it is addressed to love of the One, turning the soul towards its creator…
It is often said that no matter how women play active roles in a story, it is just a manifestation of the male author’s desires. In the classical Greek dramas, or in the medieval hagiographies, female characters often play prominent roles. However, they should be interpreted as some symbols of male political or religious missionary…
An ambiguity lays at the heart of late antique religious literature, and in particular in the vitae of monachopartenoi: the celebration of what is ordinarily prohibited in both canon law and imperial legislation. These popular hagiographic narratives include the little-studied anonymous Life and Passion of Susanna, which depicts a literary character of a trans monk,…
As Empress, Regent and Queen Consort, Galla Placidia was a pillar in the construction of the visual and political power of the Byzantine and Roman empires. While her patronage has been discussed by many scholars, few have analyzed her biographical works as inhabiting markers of both her role as a powerful woman, but also her…