(De)Mythologizing the Hymen

Augustine of Hippo, it is argued, shares more in common, on the topic of virginity testing, with the Rabbis of Babylonia than he does with other Church Fathers such as Cyprian and Ambrose. The latter are typical of late antique Christian authors, speaking in the mixed registers of faith and anatomy as found in works such as the Mishnah and the Protevangelium. Augustine, by contrast, utterly rejects gynecology as a means of establishing virginity. Although his move is quite different from that of the Babylonian Talmud, it seems that he and the Rabbinic work’s authorship share a set of concerns: an interest in subverting dominant norms of masculinity and rejecting the lust for dominance.