Consent, rape and pollution: the context of Hrosvitha’s Dulcitius

The tenth century canoness Hrosvitha of Gandersheim’s The Martyrdom of the Holy Virgins Agape, Chionia, and Hirena (sometimes referred to as Dulcitius after the play’s villain) often represents medieval drama in survey classes, having been anthologized in textbooks such as The Bedford Introduction to Drama and The Norton Anthology of Drama. The play uses comedy to humiliate the villainous Roman officials Dulcitius and Sissinus who have been charged with torturing the young women into renouncing their faith and accepting marriage with pagans—or executing them should that tactic fail. As in most hagiography involving female virgin martyrs, the threat of rape, while never realized, is nearly constant. Toward the end of the play, Sissinus makes this threat explicit to Hirena: