ABSTRACT

In De virginibus velandis (211), Tertullian states: “Seeing and being seen belong to the self-same lust” (“Ejusdem libidinis est videri, et videre”).1 He insists that consecrated virgins must be veiled not only for their own protection, but also for the protection of others whose chastity may be imperiled by looking. In this polemical text, Tertullian speaks forcefully about the female virgin: “Impose a veil externally upon her who has (already) a covering internally,” a statement which may allude to a metaphorical and/or a very material hymen.2 Thus a woman’s sartorial veil is made as integral to feminine and virginal identity as her hymeneal “veil.” At the same time, Tertullian must confront certain consequences of such a semiotics of gender difference (rooted in Judaic and Hellenistic custom, and here appropriated for Christianity). He argues that the veiled virgin should not be honored for such an obvious sign of her virginity (that is, the veil itself), first because women are subject to men, and second because such honor would not be fair to “so many men-virgins” (“viri autem tot virgines”), voluntary eunuchs (“spadones voluntarii”) who must necessarily “carry their glory in secret” (“cæco bono suo incedant”).3