Redefining Diaspora as Home through Realised Metaphor

The Polisification of Aseneth

Abstract

The renaming of Aseneth as Polis Kataphugês (City of Refuge) is a climactic moment in the ancient Jewish novel Aseneth. In this article, I argue that this narrative ultimately accomplishes a redefinition of ‘diaspora’ as ‘home’ by activating the metaphor polis is woman. To accomplish this analysis, I introduce a neologism, ‘polisification,’ which means: the process by which a person becomes a polis. In Aseneth, this metaphor and process redefine the boundaries between Heaven and Earth, Zion and diaspora. Aseneth is transformed into an ambulatory polis, Polis Kataphugês, which not only brings the heavenly into the earthly sphere, but crucially makes it possible to encounter the divine wherever Polis Kataphugês travels. This shifting of the locus of divine encounter decentralises the importance of geographic location in identity (re)formation while simultaneously relying on the authority of biblical imagery to legitimise this rhetorical strategy. Through conceptual and realised metaphor, Aseneth transforms the immobile into the mobile, using Aseneth’s body to establish a home for the displaced household of Jacob, and inviting a reconsideration about this early Jewish story’s provenance.