Gender in Revelations: Frilingos Chapter 4

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Educating Daphnis

Daphnis and Chloe is a Greek romance from around 200 c.e.

Daphnis and Chloe do not know what they are supposed to do to have sex, so a woman, Lycaenion teaches Daphnis what he is supposed to do. When he wants to go find Chloe, who he loves, to do the same the woman offers him a warning of the harm he will do to her.
At their wedding the crowd outside sings to them as they consummate the marriage, showing that sex is not a private act, nor is it childish or play. Frilingos says that Winkler's

Not Far from the Intercourse of Bodies

Roman sexuality divided into a grid of active and passive. Active considered masculine while passive was considered feminine. Not dependent on gender. Penetration was seen to be dominant, so gender and sexuality were reflections of dominance. Not simply mastery over others, self mastery was a masculine trait Viewing can be considered a gendered act with both the masculine gazer and the feminine objectified gazee.

The Feminized Lamb

The lamb as it appears in chapter 5 can be considered feminine. the chapter accents the passivity of the Lamb, effectively feminizing the character.(76) The lamb is seductive to the viewer, testing their self control.

Arrested Masculinity

Later in the book the Lamb takes the masculine, active role in the destruction of Babylon. The lamb presides over punishment delivered to the prisoners(81) The lamb is transformed from the viewee to the viewer. While in chapter 5 the Lamb has looked-at-ness in chapter 14 the lamb does the viewing as a many eyed all seeing God.

Viewing in the book is a relation of power and visual activity constructs diverse subject positions for the characters. The followers of the beast are made vulnerable by looking at the creature's amazing appearance and deeds; others, like the heavenly spectators that cheer on the destruction of Babylon, participate in an exercise of domination.(81-82) In relation to the penetrations grid, then, the glimpse of the Lamb's manhood afforded by Revelations is fleeting; indeed, the Lamb's masculinity shows signs of arrested

Questions

In ancient Rome the feminine was viewed as the submissive and the male as the dominant sexuality. Frilingos says that the lamb of revelation is both feminine (in chapter 5) and masculine (in chapter 14). Why does this seem significant in light of a more traditional reading of the lamb as a subversive power symbol derived from femininity alone as a derivation from the Roman norm?

On page 77 Frilingos writes, At the same time , the display of passive flesh, in all of it's forms, remained, first and foremost, seductive and could guide the viewer away from masculinity,