#dissertation stuff

Goal is to be up to the end of my handwritten notes by the end of the day, which isn't much since it should only be about 500 or a thousand more at most? But I also need to draft the rest by hand so that I can type up another thousand or two tomorrow, so needs to be done asap.

Under Roman law this would be illegal; the minimum age that a Roman girl could become engaged to marry was 10 and even then under Augustan law she would be required to wait two more years, making 12 the accepted minimum age at which a marriage could take place. This is not to say that 12 was the common age of marriage for Roman girls, just the earliest allowed age by law.

But why would Petronius depict a 7 year old girl here? I don’t think it is a coincidence that Pannychis’ age is exactly within the age range when a young girl would be chosen to become a Vestal Virgin, between the ages of 6 and 10. This fits with the religious atmosphere of the scene involving the priestess of Priapus, Quartilla, as she conducts her ritualistic orgy that was prefaced as required for the atonement of a sacrilege. Quartilla says that it is the perfect time for Quartilla to be “devirginatur”, and thus, perhaps, become initiated as a priestess of Priapus herself, which is the exact opposite of the Vestals who remained chaste for their 30 years of service. The act of selecting a Vestal Virgin was called “captio”, the girl was ceremonially taken from her family to become a Vestal Virgin, whereas here it is Pannychis’ virginity that is “capta”.

Lastly, Pannychis’ name means “all-nighter” which while it can be interpreted as sexually suggestive can refer to the role of a Vestal as one who keeps vigil over the eternal flame and sacra (sacred items) in the temple of Vesta.

- Someone claimed that the (very burnt/generally damaged) manuscript was used as a chopping board by a past owner;

- Someone else claimed that the elegy does not exist in Old English literature, and then proceeded to compare the poem to elegiac conventions in Old English literature, somehow;

OOH THIS WOULD BE AMAZING

if it’s this year

if it’s early next it might be too late to actually be useful because my dissertation will be due in like april so i’ll need to have done it by then

but maybe i could convince someone to let me read it early and cite it as “forthcoming” (academics do that all the time and i’m like… wow you got a sneak preview of the thing, how do i do that)

hi all! sorry to do this but i’ve gotta do my best to focus on my dissertation proposal and finish it asap so i won’t be doing anywhere NEAR as much blogging for like the next week and perhaps longer. so pls don’t expect as fast responses on things as usual and i will space out my queue more so that i don’t have to fill it with as much (although tbf, i will be filling it mostly with the #CareBearStare so be prepared for that lol)