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to corrupt the virgin saint, he did so by forcing upon her the company
of a prostitute, Aphrodosia. However this evil scheme of his fails and
Agatha remains the chaste virgin she is. In order to get back at her
determined will, he sentences her to torture and orders her breasts to be
cut off. However, Agatha perceives this physical agony itself as a spiritual
triumph, thus retaining her (physical and spiritual) chastity.
“But I have my breast sound in my soul / with which I shall at any rate feed
my understanding” (Skeat 202).
Horner presents an analysis of the above event that focuses on this
spiritual triumph in her essay on the violence on the bodies of Ælfric’s
saints.
Agatha’s identity thus lies in both the essential materiality of her female body
and the spiritual truth veiled by that body. Quintianus believes that the outer
breast matters; Agatha asserts that it does not, drawing attention away from
the literal body to the spiritual breast … Agatha reconfirms the idea that
the breast to which both she and Aphrodosia refer is spiritual, not corporeal.
(Horner 32-33)
While I admit to the superiority of the metaphorical, such an
oversimplification of the physical entity of the body risks missing the
physical connotations of the breast, especially under the lens of a masculine
gaze. Why did Quintianus command that her breasts specifically be cut
off in retaliation of her rebellion? In such an execution, Quintianus
believes he asserts his masculine superiority borne out of anatomical
difference, for the man cannot be penalized in a similar way. In addition,
the removal of the breast signifies his triumph over Agatha’s inability now
to serve as a maternal figure, a nourisher of humanity.
The infliction of punishment on the breasts takes an interesting
turn when it is viewed in juxtaposition to the ancient South Indian epic
168 | Sivaraman
poem, Silapathigaram (having alternate spellings), penned by Ilango
Adigal. The exact date of the origin of this written work is contested, but
most scholars place its authorship around the early first century, which
makes it a precursor to the literary themes of the medieval era. Even
though the poem is set in an epoch much earlier, the plot of the narrative
poem contains a relevant imagery that inverts the relationship between
punishment and chastity.
Silapathigaram follows the journey of Kovalan, who is happily
married to a woman, Kannagi, the epitome of wifely loyalty. Their joy,
however, is short-lived when Kovalan indulges in an extra-marital affair
with a dancer, Madhavi, and soon blows away his wealth on her. Once
impoverished, he falls into a petty quarrel with Madhavi and repentantly
returns to Kannagi, who welcomes him with open arms. They travel in
search of a better life and reach the city of Madurai, located in southern
India, where Kovalan tries to pawn the anklets belonging to his wife.
However, he is falsely accused of stealing them from the queen and is
hanged. In rage, Kannagi confronts the king and his queen at the court
and proves that the anklets indeed belong to her. The king dies of guilt
and shame, and to avenge her husband’s unjustified death, Kannagi rips
off her left breast and throws it on the ground. The city of Madurai burns
down under the power of her curse (Zvelebil 132).
This fable, in comparison with that of St. Agatha, generates interesting
and opposite results. Firstly, the female protagonist here becomes the
giver of punishment, unlike Agatha, who is the receiver. Secondly, the
meanings of the breast in the two instances differ; for Agatha, the breast
signals its “nourishing capabilities” (Horner 32), while for Kannagi, the
breast is the “seat of an occult, magic power, and the symbolisms suggest
a truly internal source of fire” (Zvelebil 134). The former takes on a
religious tone (as Horner relates the breast as a site of nursing to Christ),
while the latter obtains a supernatural one.
Sivaraman | 169