Chapters in this book

1. Frontmatter i
2. Contents vii
3. Introduction 1
4. 1. The Invention of Virginity on Olympus 13
5. 2. The Virgin Choruses of Aeschylus 24
6. 3. The Hippocratic Parthenos in Sickness and Health 40
7. 4. Why Were the Vestals Virgins? Or the Chastity of Women and the Safety of the Roman State 66
8. 5. ‘Only Virgins Can Give Birth to Christ’: The Virgin Mary and the Problem of Female Authority in Late Antiquity 100
9. 6. Virgo Fortis: Images of the Crucified Virgin Saint in Medieval Art 116
10. 7. Amplification of the Virgin: Play and Empowerment in Walter of Wimborne’s Marie Carmina 128
11. 8. Christ from the Head of Jupiter: An Epistemological Note on Huet’s Treatment of the Virgin Birth 149
12. 9. ‘Sew and snip, and patch together a genius’: Quilting a Virginal Identity in Margaret Atwood’s Alias Grace 156
13. Works Cited 177
14. Index 197
15. Backmatter 205