Clement and the Language of Gender in the Greco-Roman World
In this section Clement draws heavily on the classical philosophical tradition, on Plato and especially the Roman Stoic Musonius Rufus. There is a general similarity of theme with the discussion in book 5 of Plato’s Republic (451c-455a), in which Socrates argues that women of the guardian class should receive the same education as men in music, poetry, gymnastics, and warfare.
The stated purpose of this training is so that the state can take full advantage of women’s potential contributions, not the benefit of the women themselves.[1232] One point of Clement’s argument that is especially close to what Plato says is his immediate qualification of the claim that women should “cultivate the philosophical life” by pointing out “that men are better at everything.” Plato reports that Socrates, although he advocates the education of female guardians, concedes: “Do you know of anything practiced by human beings in which the male sex isn’t superior to the female in all these ways?” (Repub. 455c)[1233]According to Clement, males are superior in all things “unless they become effeminate” (or “soft”, KaTapaXaKioGeiev). Such use of gendered language to express moral judgments is common in ancient authors. Diana Swancutt argues that this “gender ideology” was pervasive in the Roman world during the republic and the early empire, especially among medical writers, Stoic philosophers, and their critics.[1234] Ancient authors envisioned a cosmic hierarchy, a continuum with masculinity at the top of the scale and femininity at the bottom. Males were seen as naturally superior, but there was a constant threat of their falling into feminine weakness. Various activities such as style of dress or walk, shaving the hair, or pederasty could emasculate them.
Greek and Roman males/men were consequently described with cultural superlatives that reflected their perfect “natural” state: physical and political strength, rationality, spirituality, superiority, activity, dryness, and penetration.
Females/women, on the other hand, were said to embody humanity’s negative qualities (physical and political weakness, irrationality, fleshliness, inferiority, passivity, wetness, and being penetrated).[1235]On this view, each person had both more perfect “male” elements and inferior “female” elements, and movement from one end of the spectrum to the other was possible.[1236]
In Dying to Be Men Stephanie Cobb shows the influence of such gender ideology on one body of early Christian literature, the martyr acts. She argues that authors of these works appropriate Greco-Roman constructions of sex and gender in order to model a set of acceptable Christian identities. She focuses especially on how the martyrologies seek to show that Christian martyrs, women as well as men, “exceed all others in manliness.”[1237] An obvious illustration of this tendency is the fourth vision account in the Martyrdom of Perpetua and Felicity, which climaxes in Perpetua’s statement, “I became a man” (4.1). Cobb shows other ways in which this work as well as the Letter of the Churches of Lyons and Vienne[1238] and the Martyrdom of Carpus, Papylus, and Agathonike emphasize the masculine strength, resolve, and self-control displayed by women martyrs.[1239] Narrative techniques that reinforce this image include portraying female and male martyrs as athletes, soldiers, and triumphant gladiators.
Clement’s familiarity with such gender symbolism is clear from his use of gendered language in other parts of the Stromateis as well as in the Paidagogos. The verb KOTapaXaKi^opai (“to become effeminate or soft”) used in Strom. 4.8.62.4 also appears in Strom. 4.3.14.4, where Clement reports the Greek view that those who die in battle are superior to those who die emasculated[1240] by illness. In Strom. 7.7.36.4 he describes the Gnostic (i.e., the ideal Christian) as a royal priest, who avoids the theatre, perfume, luxurious food and drink, and fragrant wreaths that “make the soul effeminate” (eK^qXwouoas).
In a text we have already examined from Stromateis 3, however, he rejects the assertion of the radical ascetic Julius Cas- sian that the soul was originally divine and fell into this corrupt world after it became effeminate (0pXu0eloav) through desire - a view Clement calls “rather Platonic” (Strom. 3.13.93.3).[1241] In Strom. 2.18.81.3-4 he follows Philo in interpreting a law about clothing in Deut 22:5 as designed to encourage male virtue:Why does the law forbid a male to wear female clothes (Deut 22.6)? Is it not that it wants us to be masculine/courageous (dv3pEi^EO0ai) and not to become effeminate (ek^^Xu- vopsvous), in our bodily appearance, our actions, and our thoughts and reasoning? It wants the one who is devoted to truth to be manly (pppEVMO0ai) in patience and endurance in his life, manner, thought and discipline.[1242]
Such language also appears in the Paidagogos. In 2.8.66.2, for example, Clement says that soft oils such as myrrh emasculate (eK0qXuveiv) noble character.[1243] The same verb is used in 2.1.3.2 to criticize gourmands who “emasculate” common bread, apparently referring to eating white bread that does not incorporate the rougher and more nourishing parts of the
wheat. In another context the verb characterizes Athenians and lonians as “effeminate” because of their lavish dress (2.10.105.3), and in 2.10.99.1 Clement quotes from Sibylline Oracle 5.166-168 a criticism of “unlawful consorting with men and wicked effeminacy” (avSpwv aGsopos
GqXnyevqs aSiKos te).
In chapter 8 from Stromateis 4 the phrase “unless they become effeminate” (62.4) is the only clear reference to this gender ideology, though Clement does assume the traditional division of gender roles (58.4-60.1) and the “headship” of the husband over the wife (60.2; 63.5-65). His primary concern in this chapter, however, is the cultivation of virtue and the pursuit of perfection, and in these matters he stresses the equality of women.
F.