This volume offers a new translation of the Pseudo-Clementine family narrative here known as The Sorrows of Mattidia. It contains a full introduction which explores the obscured origins of the text, the plot, and main characters, and engages in a comparison of the portrayal of pagan, Jewish, and Christian women in this text with what we encounter in other literature. It also discusses a general strategy for how historians can utilize fictional narratives like this when examining the lives of women in the ancient world. This translation makes this fascinating source for late antique women available in this form for the first time.
List of figures
Acknowledgements
Part One
Chapter 1: What is The Sorrows of Mattidia?
A. Introduction
B. Obscured Origins
C. An Ancient Romance
Chapter 2: Women of the Clementina
A. Overview
B. Women of the Clementina
i. Mattidia
a. Historical Background: Mattidia the Elder and the Younger
b. Mattidia, the mother of Clement
ii. Mattidia and the Widows of Arados
iii. Mattidia and the Wife of Peter
iv. Justa and her Daughter, Bernice
v. Helena and Female Prophecy
Chapter 3: Women and Gender Relations in the Community of Peter
A. Feminist Historiography and The Sorrows of Mattidia
B. Peter, Paul, and Women
C. Jewish, Christian, and other Women in the Ancient Mediterranean World
Chapter 4: Sylvia’s Gift
Part Two
Chapter 5: The Sorrows of Mattidia: Author, Text, Bibliography, and Translation
Chapter 6: The Sorrows of Mattidia: The Translation by Jenni Irving with Curtis Hutt
A. Introduction: The Sorrows of Mattidia (Homilies 12.8 – 12.14)
B. The First Recognition: Mattidia on Arados (Homilies 12.15 – 12.24)
C. The Second Recognition: Matthida and Her Twins (Homilies 13.1 – 13.7)
D. An Interlude: Concerning Justa and Simon Magus (Homilies 2.19 – 2.25;
3.73 – 4.1)
E. The Third Recognition: Mattidia and Faustus (Homilies 13.8 – 13.13;
13.20 – 14.10)
F. Mattidia and the Magi (Homilies 20.11 – 20.23)
Chapter 7: Albertus R. M. Dressel’s Revised Greek
Bibliography
Index
Biography
Curtis Hutt is Associate Professor of Judaic Studies at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, USA, and the Founding Executive Director of the Leonard and Shirley Goldstein Center for Human Rights.
Jenni Irving is an epigrapher and lecturer of Ancient Languages and Classical Studies at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia, and the University of Nebraska at Omaha, USA. She also is an instructional designer for a Fortune 500 company.
"The Sorrows of Mattidia is a fictional story in the Ps-Clementine writings that narrates the adventures and conversion of a noble woman to Christianity. The authors’ approach to these texts with their complex conceptual and methodological problems is well argued, and a new translation based on a text-critical reconstruction of the Greek Homilies is a welcome addition. These texts from the Ps-Clementines are generally interesting and will hopefully generate worthwhile discussions among scholars and students."
- Annewies van den Hoek, Harvard University, USA