Toxicity of Purity Culture: Publius Maenius and his daughter, Valerius Maximus 6.1.4

Name: Valerius Maximus Date:  1st century CE Region:  Unknown Citation:  Memorable Deeds and Sayings   6.1.4

What a stern guardian of [his daughter’s] chastity Publius Maenius was! When he found out that his favorite freedman had kissed his debutante daughter, Maenius put him to death even though it was done as a lapse in judgment and not done romantically. Maenius thought that the importance of chastity was best ingrained into his tender girl’s mind through the severity of the punishment, and with this awful event taught his daughter that she owed not only purity of her womb, but also unkissed lips to her future husband.

P. Maenius quam severum pudicitiae custodem egit! in libertum namque gratum admodum sibi animadvertit, quia eum nubilis iam aetatis filiae suae osculum dedisse cognoverat, cum praesertim non libidine sed errore lapsus videri posset. ceterum amaritudine poenae teneris adhuc puellae sensibus castitatis disciplinam ingenerari magni aestimavit, eique tam tristi exemplo praecepit ut non solum virginitatem illibatam sed etiam oscula ad virum sincere perferret. 

Valerius Maximus [1st century CE] Little is known about the life of Valerius Maximus except that he wrote during the reign of the emperor Tiberius. His work, Memorable Deeds and Sayings, is a collection of examples from Roman and world history categorized by theme for the purpose of rhetorical exercises.

 

A Rejection of Purity Culture: A Christian Author Lambasts Vestal Virgins, Prudentius Contra Symmachum 2.1064-1079

Rejecting Purity Culture: A Christian Author Lambasts Vestal Virgins

Name: Prudentius Date:  4th century CE Region:  Tarraconensis [modern Spain] Citation:  Against Symmachus 2.1064-1079

Now I’ll discuss the honor given to the chastity of the Vestal Virgins,

And how this “honor” reflects all of their [Roman polytheists’] “respect” for chastity.

First of all, little girls are taken in their tender years

Before they are old enough to understand and consent.

All hyped up with religious zeal and purity culture,

They reject the natural bonds of matrimony.

They become slaves to their chastity and are dragged to ungrateful altars.

These poor girls lose their sense of bodily pleasure

Not because it’s the right thing to do,

But because their free will was taken from them.

Their bodies might remain chaste,

But their minds are not kept pure.

They stay up at night restlessly and sigh in their unwed beds

The blind wounds and the wedding denied to them.

And since their secret hope doesn’t extinguish their fire completely

(For they can get married in their old age)

They run to the altar as gray-haired women.

Vesta demands purity for her maidens

For an allotted time,

but they immediately reject her as old maids.

Rejecting Purity Culture: A Christian Author Lambasts Vestal Virgins

Quae nunc Vestalis sit virginitatis honestas

discutiam, qua lege regat decus omne pudoris.

ac primum parvae teneris capiuntur in annis,

ante voluntatis propriae quam libera secta,

laude pudicitiae fervens et amore deorum,

iusta maritandi condemnet vincula sexus,

captivus pudor ingratis addicitur aris,

nec contempta perit miseris sed adempta voluptas

corporis intacti: non mens intacta tenetur,

nec requies datur ulla toris, quibus innuba caecum

vulnus et amissas suspirat femina taedas;

tum quia non totum spes salva interficit ignem,

nam resides quandoque faces adolere licebit

festaque decrepitis obtendere flammea canis;

tempore praescripto membra intemerata requirens

tandem virgineam fastidit Vesta senectam. 

Prudentius [Aurelius Prudentius Clemens; 348 – 413 CE, modern Spain] was a Christian author from Roman Hispania who had great influence in the court of Emperor Theodosius I. Most of his works deal with using his Christian beliefs to counter Roman polytheism and mythology.