Acts of Xanthippe, Polyxena, and Rebecca
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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The Acts of Xanthippe, Polyxena, and Rebecca is a work of New Testament apocrypha dating from the third or fourth century.
Regarding its place in literature, twentieth-century classicist scholar Moses Hadas writes: "Christians learned not only from pagan preachers but also from pagan romancers. The perfectly orthodox Acts of Xanthippe and Polyxena ... has all the thrilling kidnapings, deliveries, and surprises of the typical Greek romance".
The tale is set in the time of Nero and consists of essentially two almost completely separate stories: the tale of Xanthippe and the tale of Polyxena. Although a third woman named Rebecca is included in the title, she doesn't figure as a major character. The liturgical feast of these figures is Sept. 23.
