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In 1 Clement, the author says Christian women were persecuted as Dircae. Pliny describes a famous statue in Rome of Dirce tied to a bull, which shows how familiar the image was in the city where the women may have been killed in imitation of her death.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Pliny the Elder, Pliny Natural History 36.4
Classical
Asinius Pollio, a man of a warm and ardent temperament, was determined that the buildings which he erected as memorials of himself should be made as attractive as possible; for here we see groups representing, Nymphs carried off by Centaurs, a work of Arcesilas: the Thespiades, by Cleomenes: Oceanus and Jupiter, by Heniochus: the Appiades, by Stephanus: Hermerotes, by Tauriscus, not the chaser in silver, already mentioned, but a native of Tralles: a Jupiter Hospitalis by Papylus, a pupil of Praxiteles: Zethus and Amphion, with Dirce, the Bull, and the halter, all sculptured from a single block of marble, the work of Apollonius and Tauriscus, and brought to Rome from Rhodes. These two artists made it a sort of rivalry as to their parentage, for they declared that, although Apollodorus was their natural progenitor, Menecrates would appear to have been their father.
Clement of Rome, 1 Clement 6:2
First Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians
Early Christian
1 To these men of holy lives was gathered a vast multitude of the elect, who, through many indignities and tortures, being the victims of jealousy, set a brave example among us. 2 Because of jealousy, women were persecuted, and after suffering cruel and unholy insults, like the Danaids and Dircae, they safely reached the goal in the race of faith and received a noble reward, though they were weak in body. 3 Jealousy has estranged wives from their husbands and reversed the words of our father Adam: ‘This now is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh.’ 4 Jealousy and strife have overthrown great cities and uprooted great nations.
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Notes and References
“... So too with one of the most famous emendations in the texts of the Apostolic Fathers, this one in 1 Clement’s reference to women who were martyred as Δαναΐδες καὶ Δίρκαι (1 Clem. 6. 2). The author’s meaning is unclear. Some scholars have suggested that he is referring to Christian women martyred under Nero, who was known for his creatively brutal excesses. If so, women executed as Dircae may have been dragged to death in the arena, bound to the horns of a bull, like Dirce of Greek myth. ...”
Ehrman, Bart D.
"Textual Traditions Compared: The New Testament and the Apostolic Fathers" in Gregory, Andrew F., and Christopher M. Tuckett, editors, The Reception of the New Testament in the Apostolic Fathers
(pp. 17-18) Oxford University Press, 2005
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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