Dying to Be Men: Gender and Language in Early Christian Martyr Texts

by L. Stephanie Cobb

At once brave and athletic, virtuous and modest, female martyrs in the second and third centuries were depicted as self-possessed gladiators who at the same time exhibited the quintessentially "womanly" qualities of modesty, fertility, and beauty. L. Stephanie Cobb explores the double embodiment of "male" and "female" gender ideals in these figures, connecting them to Greco-Roman virtues and the construction of Christian group identities.

Both...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0231144989
• ISBN13: 9780231144988
• Release Date: September 2008
• Publisher: Columbia University Press
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 1.00 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.0" x 9.0"