1 The only exception is a small number of anthropological chapters in John of Damascus, Expositio fidei.

2 For Methodios’ biography and writings, Cf. Lilie, R.-J., Ludwig, C., Pratsch, Th., Rochow, I. and Winkelmann, F., Prosopographie der mittelbyzantinischen Zeit, 1.3: Leon — Placentius (Berlin/New York 2000) 233-9, no. 4977, with literatureGoogle Scholar.

3 The text of the Encomium was edited by Mioni, E., ‘L’encomio di S. Agata di Metodio patriarcha di Costantinopoli’, AB 68 (1950) 76–93 Google Scholar.

4 Scholia, ed. Usener, H., Acta S. Marinae et S. Christophori (Bonn 1886) 49.1–5 Google Scholar: δεικνύντος τοΰ λόγου ώς ό γνούς τάς λεπτότητας τώνύποκριτικών κατάρξεων καί οίονεί γενειάδας καί τρίχας τφ άσυγκαταθετφ του νοΰ προεκτίλας … τον δόλον αύτοΰάναιρεΐ καί έξοίφανίζει; cf. also 48.20-23: τό τε γένειον τουτου … δηλονότι то εϋσχημον τής κακίας αύτουκοά πρωτοφανές, and 50.5-7: ήμισυ γενειάδοςή πάσα παρόσον τής προσβολής τούέχθροΰκαί φαντασίας περιφάνειά έστιν.

5 Scholia, ed. Usener, 50.8-9: δεξιος δέ όφθαλμος ό τελεώτερος τής κακίας αύτού σκοπος öv πάνττι άπήμβλυνεν.

6 Methodios appears to have been the first author to furnish hagiographical texts with interpretative glosses. This innovation may be due to the growing importance of such texts in the debate about religious imagery ( van den Ven, P., ‘La patristique et l’hagiographic au Concile de Nicée de 787’, B 25-27 (1955-1957) 325-62)Google Scholar.

7 On the phenomenon of metaphrasis, cf.Krausmüller, D., ‘ Metaphrasis after the Second Iconoclasm: Nicephorus Skeuophylax and his Encomia of Theophanes Confessor (BHG 1790), Theodore of Sykeon (BHG 1749), and George the Martyr (BHG 682)’, Symbolae Osloenses 78 (2003) 45–70, esp. 60-62CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

8 For a detailed comparison of selected passages, cf.Krausmüller, D., ‘Some observations on the cult and hagiographical dossier of St Agatha in ninth- and tenth-century Byzantium’, forthcoming in Basilissa 2 (2006-2007)Google Scholar.

9 Cf.Krausmüller, D., ‘Divine sex: Patriarch Methodios’s concept of virginity’, in James, L. (ed.), Desire and Denial in Byzantium (Aldershot 1999) 57–65, esp. 58-9Google Scholar.

10 Cf. the comments by Gouillard, J., ‘La vie d’Euthyme de Sardes (+ 831), une œuvre du patriarche Méthode’, TM 10 (1987) 1–101, esp. 15-6Google Scholar, and Rosenqvist, J. O., Die byzantinische Literatur. Vom 6. Jahrhundert bis zum Fall von Konstantinopel 1453, tr. Rosenqvist, J. O. and Reinsch, D. R. (Berlin/New York 2006), 66 Google Scholar, who deplores Methodios’ ‘Mangel an Interesse für Logik, Konsequenz und chronologische Fakten’.

11 The Greek Passio of Agatha is edited in MPG 114, col. 1332–15. A new critical edition is being prepared by Maria Stelladoro ( Stelladoro, M.cf. , Agatha la martire dalla tradizione greca manoscritta [Donne d’Oriente e d’Occidente, 16] (Milano 2005))Google Scholar. For a discussion of the relationship between the Greek and Latin versions of the Passio, cf.Brusa, L., ‘Gli Atti del martirio di S. Agata’, Rivista di Cultura Classica e Medievale 1 (1959) 342-67Google Scholar; and Krausmüller, ‘Cult and hagiographical dossier of St Agatha’, passim.

12 This is not to exclude other reasons why Methodios might have written this speech. He states that he wrote his speech in order to celebrate a recurring miracle of overflowing lamps in honour of the saint. For a discussion of these aspects, cf. Krausmüller, ‘Cult and hagiographical dossier of St Agatha’.

13 Encomium of Agatha, 2-3, ed. Mioni, 76-7.

14 For a more detailed discussion of this passage, cf. Krausmüller, ‘Divine sex’, 59-60.

15 The reference to ‘wall’ in this context suggests that Methodios identifies this reward with concrete depictions of Agatha on church walls, which would have been accompanied by the name of the saint.

16 Cf.Clark, E., Reading Renunciation: Asceticism and Scripture in Early Christianity (Princeton 1999) 90-2, 105-6, 360Google Scholar.

17 In the East, the most detailed discussion of this theme in found in Basil of Ancyra’s De virginitate, 57-58, MPG 30, 785A-C. Cf.Burgsmüller, A., Die Askeseschrift des Pseudo-Basilius [Studien zu Antike und Christentum 28] (Tübingen 2005) 147-56Google Scholar. For Western parallels, cf. Clark, Reading Renunciation, 142.

18 Cf., e.g., Encomium of Agatha, 17, ed. Mioni, 85.

19 Cf.Harrison, V. F., ‘Male and female in Cappadocian theology’, Journal of Theological Studies, n.s. 41 (1990) 441-71CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Harrison, V. E. F., ‘Gender, generation and virginity in Cappadocian theology’, journal of Theological Studies, n.s. 47 (1996) 38–68 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Harrison, N. V., ‘Women, human identity and the image of God: Antiochene interpretations’, journal of Early Christian Studies 9 (2001) 205-49CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Gasparro, G. Sfameni, ‘Aspetti di “doppia creazione” nell’antropologia di Massimo il Confessore’, in Polyanthema. Studi di letteratura cristiana antica offerti a Salvatore Costanza [Studi tardoantichi 8] (Messina 1992), II, 461–501 Google Scholar.

20 Encomium of Agatha, 18, ed. Mioni, 85.

21 Passio of Agatha, 11, MPG 114, 1340BC.

22 The first part of the passage, which is not discussed here, contains an address of Agatha’s dry tongue and empty belly, which as Methodios avers were eternally sated by Christ (cf. Encomium of Agatha, 19, ed. Mioni, 85-6). These statements, too, are developed out of the narrative: the Passio records that after her mutilation Agatha was left without water and bread.

23 Encomium of Agatha, 19, ed. Mioni, 85-6. I have deviated from Mioni’s text in two instances: I have changedèairucòtoèaDTÓ because this reading is suggested by the juxtaposition with the rest of the body (despite the fact that the use of the reflexive pronoun is evidently ungrammatical), and I have replaced the nominative προεμένη with the genitive προεμένης since it is dependent on τομής and parallel with the previous participle συμπηγνυσης.

24 Cf., e.g., Gregory of Nyssa, In diem natalem Christi, ed. Mann, F., Gregorius Nyssenus, Sermones, III [Gregoru Nysseni Opera 10.2] (Leiden/New York/Cologne 1996) 262.8-10Google Scholar: ή δειλαία μήτηρ … τήν θηλήν έπεΐχε τφ τοΰ νηπίου στόματι.

25 Encomium of Anastasia the Virgin, MPG 105, 362B, based on Song of Songs 3:5.

26 In the Passio this is expressed through the verb προσφερειν, the technical term for the offering of a votive gift.

27 This is not the only case of such an interpretation. In his Passio of Denys the Areopagite Methodios interprets the kepbalopboria of the saint as the culmination of the saint’s role as officiating bishop by equating the severed head that the saint carries with the host that he used to carry during the Eucharist (cf. Passio of Denys, 12, ed. Westerbrink, J. C., Passio S. Dionysii Areopagitae, Rustici et Eleutberii, uitgegeven naar het Leidse Hs. Vulcanianus 52 (Alphen 1937) 58.3-6)Google Scholar.

28 Cf. Krausmüller, ‘Divine sex’, 62–3.

29 Unlike the Passio of Agatha and Nicetas the Paphlagonian’s Encomium of Anastasia where the breasts are referred to as μαστοί, Methodios uses the much more indeterminate μέλος, which can refer to any part of the body and in particular to the membrum virile.

30 For this concept of virginity, cf.Atkinson, C., ‘Precious balsam in a fragile glass: The ideology of virginity in the later Middle Ages’, Journal of Family History 8 (1983) 131-3CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

31 Passio of Denys, 11, ed. Westerbrink, 56.10-2.

32 In his glosses on the Passio of Marina, Methodios comments that the inner struggle between Marina and the devil would not have been believed by others if it had not been duplicated at the level of sense perception (Scholia, ed. Usener, 50.13-5): πώς δέ καί είχε πιστεύεσθαιή άγία διά τής χάριτος νικώσα τον έχθρον νοητώς, εί μή καί φανταζόμενον έξενεύρου αίσθητώς. From there it was only a short step to making the reality of the inner dimension dependent on the existence of a sensible parallel. This is evident from a passage in Methodios’ Life of Euthymios of Sardes where he starts by saying that the discharge of myron from the corpses of saints gives credence to the continuing activity of their souls in heaven, but then takes the absence of such discharge in corpses of ordinary human beings as proof that their souls are not active after death (cf. Life of Euthymios of Sardes, 24, 26, ed. Gouillard, 55.476-86, 59.531-7). A similar shift can be found in the writings of Theodore of Stoudios (cf. Antirrhetikos III, MPG 99, 433A): το γάρ μή προβήναι είς ϋλης άποσφράγισμα καί το είνοα αύτον [τον Χριστον] άνθρωπόμορφον άναιρεΐ, and 436A: το γάρ νοερώς δι’ άπουσίας βλεπόμενον καί αίσθητώς διά περιγραφής εί μή βλέποιτο, άπολέσειεν αν καί το νοερώς όπτάνεσθοα. Theodore makes his statements in order to prove the necessity of icon production and there can be little doubt that Methodios was influenced by such reasoning.

33 Life of Theophanes, 13–14, ed. Latyšev, V. V.: Methodii patriarchae Constantinopolitani Vita S. Theophanis Confessons [Zapiski rossijkoj akademii nauk. viii. ser. po istoriko-filologièeskomu otdeleniju 13.4] (Petrograd 1918) 9.32–10.20 Google Scholar.

34 This can be concluded from the statement that her new breasts were ‘more hale’ than they had been before (cf. Encomium of Agatha, 23, ed. Mioni, 88; Passio of Agatha, 13, MPG 114, 1341B). A similar statement is found in a seventh-century sermon on the Transfiguration, which describes the faces of the resurrected prophets Moses and Elijah as ‘more florid’ than during their life-time ( cf.Krausmüller, D., ‘Timothy of Antioch: Byzantine concepts of the Resurrection, Part II’, Gouden Hoorn 5.2 (1997-1998) 11–26, esp. 24)Google Scholar.

35 Here the previous tradition is less unanimous. The Cappadocians clearly believed that the resurrection body was sexless (cf. V. F. Harrison, ‘Male and female in Cappadocian theology’, 465). Epiphanius, Jerome and Augustine, on the other hand, insisted on sexual differentiation ( cf.Clark, E., The Origenist Controversy: The Cultural Construction of an Early Christian Debate (Princeton 1992) 88 Google Scholar; Bynum, C. Walker, The Resurrection of the Body in Western Christianity, 200-1336 (New York 1995) 91, 100)Google Scholar.

36 Encomium of Agatha, 19, ed. Mioni, 85–6. Methodios continues with a discussion about Agatha’s reward for feeding Christ in the Last Judgement, which has no direct bearing on the issue of gender and gender-related activities and will therefore be left aside in the discussion.

37 For Gregory of Nyssa, (cf. V. E. F. Harrison, ‘Gender, generation and virginity in Cappadocian theology’, 63-5; for Maximus, cf.Thunberg, L., Microcosm and Mediator: The Theological Anthropology of Maximus the Confessor (Lund 1965) 342-4Google Scholar.

38 De Caeco et Zacchaeo, 4, MPG 59, 605.

39 A parallel can again be found in the Passio of Denys where the equation of the saint’s head with the host implies its ‘transsubstantiation’ and thus its divinisation, an interpretation that is corroborated through Methodios’ reference to Paul’s dictum in I Corinthians 11:3 that Christ is the head of each man (cf. Passio of Denys, 12, ed. Westerbrinck, 58.14-5).

40 Passio of Agatha, 15, MPC 114, 1341D.

41 Encomium of Agatha, 25, ed. Mioni, 89: τόν τε οίκεΐον παραδεικνύσης μαζον τον οπως άνέθηλεν έκ θελήματος του έφ’ öv ήλπισε κυριον. That Methodios regarded the two verbs as synonymous is evident from a passage in his Life of Theophanes Confessor, 2, ed. Latyšev, 2.1–2, where he uses βλαστάνει and τεθηλεν in parallel statements. For Methodios this may have been more than a mere word play: the etymological lexica of his time derived θηλή from θάλλειν (cf., e.g., the Etymologicum Gudianum, ed. Sturzius, F. (Leipzig 1818) 253.50-3)Google Scholar.

42 It is worth noting that the same reversal of the temporal sequence appears in the proem where Agatha’s rejection of breastfeeding precedes her rejection of pregnancy.

43 See Ephesians 4:16: ϊνα μηκέτν ώμεν νήπιοι.

44 Pseudo-Denys, , Epistula IV.1.19 Google Scholar, ed. Heil and Ritter, 161.8-10.

45 Cf., e.g., Symeon the New Theologian, Hymn 15.204–5, ed. Kambylis, A., Symeon Neos Theologos, Hymnen [Supplementa Byzantina 3] (Berlin/New York 1976) 108 Google Scholar:άνήρ τέλειος πάντως ό δέ αύτος θεός έστιν ολως; and Andrew of Crete, Canon on the Epiphany, 6.324–6, ed. Proiou, A., Analecta Hymnica Graeca, V, Canones Januarii (Rome 1971) 137 Google Scholar: θεος ού γυμνοςάλλ’ ούδέ ψιλος άνήρ άλλ’ είς κατ’ άμφω τέλειος.

46 Cf. Harrison, ‘Male and female in Cappadocian theology’, 458.

47 It is worth mentioning that a similar conceptual framework can be found in Gnostic texts: cf. the collection of articles in King, K. L. (ed.), Images of the Feminine in Gnosticism [Studies in Antiquity & Christianity] (Harrisburg 2000)Google Scholar. However, it seems unlikely that Methodios would have drawn his inspiration from authors whom he must have considered heretical.

48 Future research may be able to establish a link between Methodios’ interest in Christ’s gender and the growing interest in the maleness of the incarnated Word during the Iconoclast period ( cf.Harrison, N. V., ‘The maleness of Christ’, St Vladimir’s Theological Quarterly 42 (1998) 111-51, 122-3Google Scholar; Karras, V. A., ‘The incarnational and hypostatic significance of the maleness of Jesus Christ according to Theodore of Stoudios’, in Livingstone, E. A. (ed.), Papers Presented at the Twelfth International Conference on Patristic Studies Held in Oxford 1995 [Studia Patristica 32] (Leuven 1997) 320-4)Google Scholar.

49 An extreme case can be found in the Gnostic Gospel of Thomas, where Jesus states that he will make Mary a man so that she can have a living spirit and enter the Kingdom of Heaven (cf. Logion 114, in Guillaumont, A. et al. (ed. and trans.), L’Évangile selon Thomas (Paris 1959) 57)Google Scholar. However, the problem of unconscious androcentrism was widespread throughout Late Antiquity. See Harrison (‘Women, human identity and the image of God’, 235–237) on the view that ‘maleness is the “default mode” of humanity’.