The present volume offers twelve studies dealing with feminine figures in Gnosticism and Manichaeism.
In Part One (“Images et symboles”), the Author unveils the hidden meaning of some feminine figures having played a role on the mythical scene of those trends. Some of these figures, borrowed from other traditions, have been deeply reworked by Gnostics or Manichees assuming thereby a new significance. An intermezzo (“Passages”) investigates the presence of women names in titles preserved in the Nag Hammadi Library and the relationship between a female protagonist and a specific literary genre. Part Two (“Histoire et réalité”) reconstructs the portraits of some women, especially Manichaean, to whom the historical inquiry gives life again, thanks to a fresh reading of first hand sources, as well of heresiological or archeological testimonies.
Some of these studies have been previously published and have now been significantly updated and expanded. Some others are lectures on Feminine in Gnosticism and Manichaeism given by the Author in Sorbonne, Paris, since 1994.