In medieval Easter plays and resurrection poems, harrowing of Hell starts with repentance. Then Jesus frees captive souls and renews the earth. … Read the post Christian hope for release from Hell implies repentance
Apollonius of Tyana rightly believed that eunuchs can passionately love women, but wrongly believed that they must forever suffer lovesickness. … Read the post Apollonius of Tyana on eunuchs’ passion
In the Carmina Burana‘s Christmas play, an angel and a devil compete to persuade shepherds about a virgin mother and baby in a manger. Angelic singing wins! … Read the post shepherds, angel, and devil converse about Jesus’s birth
Valerius Maximus’s sacrificial father & repentant, parricidal son suggests a Jewish recasting of Isaac’s binding into a story like the Prodigal Son parable. … Read the post Valerius Maximus on a sacrificial father and his repentant son
Abishag the Shunammite warmed King David in bed, but they didn’t have sex. Guillaume de Machaut’s Voir Dit shows that David wasn’t necessarily impotent. … Read the post Abishag & David: Guillaume de Machaut’s Voir Dit shows possibilities