H.D. wrote the novel Pilate’s Wife in 1929, revised it in 1934, but then put it away, having been told it could never be published because of its inversion of the story of Jesus Christ: he no longer rises from death on the third day, he never dies at all but is saved by the wife of Pilate. This novel was finally published in 2000 and it is fascinating read.
H.D. takes one line from the Gospel of Matthew in which the wife of Pilate is mentioned, no name, just “the wife of Pilate”, and hence the title of the book. From this one line, H.D. weaves a layered story about a woman whose one problem is, as she describes it to Mnevis, a soothsayer she visits, “satiety” and about the time she lived in, a time of religious turbulence, with the old gods reinstated by Caesar but new and ancient sects lurking everywhere, drawing adherents. Veronica, the name that H.D. gives Pilate’s Wife, no longer feels love or desire, has no pleasure in the abundance of her lovers or her surroundings or interest in the reach of her influence (because Pilate does seek her counsel, albeit subtly). H.D. does a wonderful job displaying the competing religious philosophies of the times through the long conversations Veronica has with her lovers about the variety of religious cults and myths, and of the differences and similarities between theologies. We sense that Veronica is looking for some kind of truth: she looks to her own Etruscan background as well as Egyptian mythologies and Roman and Greek traditions. Veronica is accessible to us, her emotions shared freely with the reader, as well as the very interesting details of her domestic and public life.
When Mnevis mentions a man who preaches a new vision, one based on many old themes of light, rebirth, and love, but who also includes women in his version of piety and religious commitment, Veronica becomes interested. When she sees Jesus, brought before Pilate’s house and tortured by the guards, she becomes entranced. It is his beauty that bewitches her, that opens her to the message he preaches. Using a potion similar to the one used by the apothecary in Romeo and Juliet, Veronica is able to slip the unwitting Jesus into a sort of trance to endure his crucifixion, and then transports him from his entombing cave to a boat that will take him to safety.
It is an interesting inversion on the myth of Jesus but I found it an even more interesting inversion of old story of a threatened beauty being saved from sacrifice by a powerful admirer, a common enough story but always with a woman in the beautiful victim role and a powerful man in the savior role. This time it is a woman who saves the man, while promoting his myth, thereby reassuring his followers, as well as satisfying those who clamored for his crucifixion. Pilate is manipulated by his wife, but he knows it: the politics work for him, the sudden faith works for Veronica, and Mnevis leaves to follow and take care of Jesus, ensuring that his message of love and fellowship for both man and woman, flourish. Early Christianity did include a basically equal footing for the genders. Only later did the male-dominated hierarchy flourish.
This book is not always easy to read, with its long sentences that often include three or four thoughts all flying off in different directions, and its intense internal searchings of Veronica, as well the strange interludes of pseudo-erotic encounters between Veronica and Mnevis. But it is always a fascinating read, and a must read for fans of H.D, as well as those interested in the times in which Jesus lived and his teachings were formed. It was then, as it is now (and isn’t it always?), a time of searching for answers, by both those impoverished in material goods, and those impoverished in spirit.
