If you enjoy this episode, we’re sure you will enjoy more content like this on The Occult Rejects. In fact, we have curated playlists on occult topics like grimoires, esoteric concepts and phenomena, occult history, analyzing true crime and cults with an occult lens, Para politics, and occultism in music. Whether you enjoy consuming your content visually or via audio, we’ve got you covered - and it will always be provided free of charge. So, if you enjoy what we do and want to support our work of providing accessible, free content on various platforms, please consider making a donation to the links provided below.
Thank you and enjoy the episode!
Links For The Occult Rejects
https://linktr.ee/theoccultrejects
Occult Research Institute
https://www.occultresearchinstitute.org/
Substack
https://substack.com/@theoccultrejects?r=7auau0&utm_campaign=profile&utm_medium=profile-page
Cash App
https://cash.app/$theoccultrejects
Venmo
@TheOccultRejects
Buy Me A Coffee
buymeacoffee.com/TheOccultRejects
Patreon
https://www.patreon.com/TheOccultRejects
Primary Ancient Sources
Ambrose of Milan. De Virginibus / Concerning Virgins.
Aristophanes. Lysistrata.
Euripides. Iphigenia at Aulis.
Euripides. Iphigenia among the Taurians.
The Homeric Hymn to Demeter.
Jerome. Against Helvidius: On the Perpetual Virginity of Blessed Mary.
The Gospel According to Matthew, chapters 1–2.
The Gospel According to Luke, chapters 1–2.
Ovid. Fasti.
Pausanias. Description of Greece.
Philo of Alexandria. On the Contemplative Life.
Plutarch. Life of Numa.
Protoevangelium of James / Infancy Gospel of James.
The Acts of Paul and Thecla.
Core Academic Sources
Burkert, Walter. Greek Religion. Translated by John Raffan. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1985.
Castelli, Elizabeth A. “Virginity and Its Meaning for Women’s Sexuality in Early Christianity.” Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion 2, no. 1 (1986).
Cole, Susan Guettel. Landscapes, Gender, and Ritual Space: The Ancient Greek Experience. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2004.
Foskett, Mary F. A Virgin Conceived: Mary and Classical Representations of Virginity. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2002.
Harvey, Susan Ashbrook. Ministries of Song: Women’s Voices in Ancient Syriac Christianity. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2025.
Harvey, Susan Ashbrook. “Revisiting the Daughters of the Covenant: Women’s Choirs and Sacred Song in Ancient Syriac Christianity.” Hugoye: Journal of Syriac Studies 8, no. 2 (2005).
Lillis, Julia Kelto. Virgin Territory: Configuring Female Virginity in Early Christianity. Oakland: University of California Press, 2022.
Parker, Robert. Miasma: Pollution and Purification in Early Greek Religion. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1983.
Sissa, Giulia. Greek Virginity. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1990.
Sourvinou-Inwood, Christiane. Studies in Girls’ Transitions: Aspects of the Arkteia and Age Representation in Attic Iconography. Athens: Kardamitsa, 1988.
Wildfang, Robin Lorsch. Rome’s Vestal Virgins: A Study of Rome’s Vestal Priestesses in the Late Republic and Early Empire. London and New York: Routledge, 2006.
Greek Women, Ritual, and Sacred Maidens
Beard, Mary. “The Sexual Status of Vestal Virgins.” Journal of Roman Studies 70 (1980).
Beard, Mary, John North, and Simon Price. Religions of Rome. Vol. 1, A History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998.
Connelly, Joan Breton. Portrait of a Priestess: Women and Ritual in Ancient Greece. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2007.
Dillon, Matthew. Girls and Women in Classical Greek Religion. London and New York: Routledge, 2002.
Pomeroy, Sarah B. Goddesses, Whores, Wives, and Slaves: Women in Classical Antiquity. New York: Schocken Books, 1975.
Mary, Virginity, and Christian Asceticism
Brown, Peter. The Body and Society: Men, Women, and Sexual Renunciation in Early Christianity. New York: Columbia University Press, 1988.
Clark, Elizabeth A. Reading Renunciation: Asceticism and Scripture in Early Christianity. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1999.
Cooper, Kate. The Virgin and the Bride: Idealized Womanhood in Late Antiquity. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1996.
Elm, Susanna. Virgins of God: The Making of Asceticism in Late Antiquity. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1994.
Limberis, Vasiliki. Divine Heiress: The Virgin Mary and the Creation of Christian Constantinople. London and New York: Routledge, 1994.
Rubin, Miri. Mother of God: A History of the Virgin Mary. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009.
Shoemaker, Stephen J. Mary in Early Christian Faith and Devotion. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2016.
Also want to remind people about the website, if you're into reading we have tons of information by multiple contributors, and we got t-shirts up on the site if you're interested. Fun fact, the art is all based on the eyeball.
