Exploring Gender Diversity

in the Ancient World

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 Intersectionality in Classical Antiquity
Series Editors: Mark Masterson, Victoria University of Wellington, Fiona
McHardy, University of Roehampton and Nancy Sorkin Rabinowitz, Hamilton
College

This series focuses on the intersection of gender and sexuality in the Greco-
Roman world, with a range of other factors including race, ethnicity, class,
ability, masculinity, femininity, transgender and post-colonial gender studies.
The books in the series will be theoretically informed and will sit at the fore-
front of the study of a variety of outsiders – those marginalised in relation to
the ‘classical ideal’ – and how they were differently constructed in the ancient
world. The series is also interested in the ways in which work in the field of
classical reception contributes to that study.

Editorial Advisory Board

Patty Baker, Alastair Blanshard, Susan Deacy, Jacqueline Fabre-Serris, Cristiana
Franco, Genevieve Liveley, Mark Masterson, Amy Richlin, Carisa R. Showden

Books available in the series

Exploring Gender Diversity in the Ancient World, edited by Allison Surtees and
Jennifer Dyer

Forthcoming books in the series

Women in the Law Courts of Classical Athens, Konstantinos Kapparis
Marginalised Populations in the Ancient Greek World: The Bioarchaeology of the
Other, Carrie L. Sulosky Weaver

Visit the series web page at: edinburghuniversitypress.com/series-intersectionality-

in-classical-antiquity

6254_Surtees & Dyer.indd ii 28/01/20 2:54 PM

 Exploring Gender Diversity
in the Ancient World

Edited by Allison Surtees and Jennifer Dyer

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 Edinburgh University Press is one of the leading university presses in the UK. We publish academic books
and journals in our selected subject areas across the humanities and social sciences, combining cutting-edge
scholarship with high editorial and production values to produce academic works of lasting importance.
For more information visit our website: edinburghuniversitypress.com

© editorial matter and organisation Allison Surtees and Jennifer Dyer, 2020
© the chapters their several authors, 2020

Edinburgh University Press Ltd

The Tun – Holyrood Road,
12(2f ) Jackson’s Entry,
Edinburgh EH8 8PJ

Typeset in 11/13 Adobe Garamond by

IDSUK (DataConnection) Ltd, and
printed and bound in Great Britain.

A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN 978 1 4744 4704 1 (hardback)

ISBN 978 1 4744 4706 5 (webready PDF)
ISBN 978 1 4744 4707 2 (epub)

The right of Allison Surtees and Jennifer Dyer to be identified as the Editor of this work has been
asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, and the Copyright and
Related Rights Regulations 2003 (SI No. 2498).

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 Contents

Acknowledgements vii
Notes on Contributors ix

Introduction: Queering Classics 1

Allison Surtees and Jennifer Dyer
I: Gender Construction
1. Gender Diversity in Classical Greek Thought 29
Walter D. Penrose, Jr
2. Blending Bodies in Classical Greek Medicine 43
Tyson Sukava
3. Birth by Hammer: Pandora and the Construction of Bodies 54
Anna Uhlig
4. Life after Transition: Spontaneous Sex Change and Its Aftermath
in Ancient Literature 67
K. E. Shannon-Henderson
II: Gender Fluidity
5. Neutrumque et Utrumque Videntur: Reappraising the Gender
Role(s) of Hermaphroditus in Ancient Art 81
Linnea Åshede
6. Intersex and Intertext: Ovid’s Hermaphroditus and the Early Universe 95
Peter Kelly
7. Que(e)r(y)ing Iphis’ Transformation in Ovid’s Metamorphoses 106
Rebecca Begum-Lees

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 vi co ntents

8. Ruling in Purple . . . and Wearing Make-up: Gendered Adventures

of Emperor Elagabalus as seen by Cassius Dio and Herodian 118
Jussi Rantala
III: Transgender Identity
9. Allegorical Bodies: (Trans)gendering Virtus in Statius’
Thebaid 10 and Silius Italicus’ Punica 15 131
Dalida Agri
10. Performing Blurred Gender Lines: Revisiting Omphale and
Hercules in Pompeian Dionysian Theatre Gardens 143
Lisa Hughes
11. The Politics of Transgender Representation in Apuleius’
Golden Ass and Loukios, or the Ass 157
Evelyn Adkins
12. Wit, Conventional Wisdom and Wilful Blindness: Intersections
between Sex and Gender in Recent Receptions of the Fifth of
Lucian’s Dialogues of the Courtesans 169
Rowan Emily Ash
IV: Female Masculinity
13. Christianity Re-sexualised: Intertextuality and the Early
Christian Novel 185
Brian P. Sowers and Kimberly Passaro
14. Manly and Monstrous Women: (De-)Constructing Gender in
Roman Oratory 197
Mary Deminion
15. The Great Escape: Reading Artemisia in Herodotus’ Histories
and 300: Rise of an Empire 209
Denise Eileen McCoskey

Selected Bibliography 222

Index 259

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 Acknowledgements

W e have a number of people to thank, people without whose help, support

or guidance this volume would never have come together.
First, we are grateful to the Women’s Network of the Classical Association
of Canada, the former for choosing the panel theme of ‘Gender B(l)ending in
Ancient Greek and Roman Culture and Society’ and the latter for including it
in the annual association conference held in Toronto, 2015.
We are indebted to the labour and time offered by our external reviewers.
Because the essays included in this volume cover new interdisciplinary terrain
in bringing together classical studies of literature, art and culture with queer,
trans and feminist theories of identity and embodiment, and because they cover
a broad array of topics, figures and histories from the ancient world, we required
many especially insightful external reviewers for the essays, and we are most
grateful to all of them: Sarah Blake, Sandra Boehringer, Marica Cassis, Fanny
Dolansky, John Gilbert, Allison Glazebrook, Judith Hallett, Adam Kemezis,
Rebecca Futo Kennedy, Sarah Levin-Richardson, Nikoletta Manioti, Hanna
Sigmund Nielson, Mark Nugent, Katharine von Stackelberg, Caroline Vout and
Connor Whately. Not surprisingly, with such an array of topics and temporali-
ties from our authors, we are also most grateful to our Greek and Latin editors,
Kathy Simonsen (Greek) and (again) Sarah Blake (Latin). We really could not
have done this without your knowledge, support, advice and patience.
Of course, we thank our authors for being a true joy to work with; putting
this collection together was a genuinely positive experience largely because our
authors were such excellent colleagues.
We thank our editors at Edinburgh University Press, Fiona McHardy, Nancy
Rabinowitz and Mark Masterson. Your support, advice and encouragement was
truly appreciated.

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 v i ii ack nowledg ements

We thank Joan Butler, who generously shared with us her knowledge and
skill with editing and formatting this project into a book.
And finally, as one editor to another, I thank Allison for asking me to join
her in developing this panel concept into a book. Not only did this answer to a
real need I’ve found in queer and trans history studies, but it allowed me to learn
and develop some profoundly interesting conceptual, historical and academic
connections amongst disciplines and motifs. Moreover, we have a lot of fun
working together, and that means a lot in this business!

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 Notes on Contributors

Evelyn Adkins is assistant professor in the department of classics at Case West-

ern Reserve University. She specialises in the study of Imperial Latin literature
and the ancient Greek and Roman novel, with particular interests in Apuleius’
Metamorphoses or The Golden Ass, discourse analysis, gender and sexuality, and
Roman social and cultural history.

Dalida Agri is a lecturer in classics at the University of Birmingham and has

published on gender, emotions and intertextuality. She is currently completing
a monograph on the textual representations of emotions in Flavian Epic within
the framework of Stoic thought and their impact on depictions of gender, power
and agency.

Rowan Emily Ash is pursuing a doctorate in classical philology at the Uni-

versity of Western Ontario. While she maintains broad interests in both Latin
and Greek literatures and their receptions, her current primary focus is her dis-
sertation project, a commentary on the so-called ‘Paris Handbook’ (PGM IV)
among the late antique Greek magical papyri.

Linnea Åshede earned her doctorate at the University of Gothenburg. In 2016,

her dissertation was awarded the Per Nyström prize for outstanding histori-
cal scholarship by the Royal Society of Arts and Sciences in Gothenburg. She
subsequently underwent a scholarly identity crisis, which resulted in her chang-
ing professional track. She is currently part of the editorial staff of the digi-
tal database project Swedish Women Online 2.0 (www.skbl.se). Dr Åshede is a
self-professed feminist, theoretical geek and librarian-in-training, usually found
wherever there are books.

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 x notes on contri butors

Rebecca Begum-Lees completed her PhD in classics at the University of

Cambridge in 2018. Before that she completed a master’s in classics at the
University of Durham and a bachelor’s in classics at the University of Oxford.
Her PhD thesis explored the relationship between grammatical gender, bio-
logical sex and social gender in Ovid’s Metamorphoses. Rebecca now works in
Diversity and Inclusion for the House of Commons in the UK Parliament.

Mary Deminion is a PhD candidate in the Department of Classical Studies at

the University of Western Ontario. Her research interests include ancient Greek
and Roman law and Roman political history. She is currently completing her
dissertation on gender in Justinian’s Digest of Roman Law.

Lisa A. Hughes is associate professor of classics and religion at the University

of Calgary. Her research focuses on visual representations of non-elites in the
late Republic and early Empire. Her latest SSHRC IG funded research project
examines the role of small-scale theatrical performances in the gardens of ancient
Roman residential contexts. The goal is to demonstrate how performances in
garden settings complete with mythic sculpture, wall paintings, mosaics and
architectural features can break down perceived social barriers between audience
and performers alike.

Peter Kelly is a visiting research associate in the classics department at the

University of Oregon, and is teaching in the Honors College at Oregon State
University. He completed his PhD in classics at the National University of
Ireland, Galway. His research explores parallelisms between cosmic and textual
structures in Greek philosophy and Augustan poetry. He is currently finalising
a monograph titled The Cosmic Text: from Ovid to Plato, and has published a
number of articles on related topics.

Denise Eileen McCoskey is a professor of classics and affiliate of Black World

Studies at Miami University (Ohio). She is the author of Race: Antiquity & Its
Legacy and co-author, with Zara Torlone, of Latin Love Poetry. McCoskey is cur-
rently serving as editor of a forthcoming volume on the cultural history of race
in antiquity, and is also at work on a project examining the role of eugenics in
early twentieth-century American classical scholarship.

Kimberly Passaro is a PhD student in classics at the University of Cincinnati.

Her research focuses on women, gender and sexuality, late antique literature and
early Christianity.

Walter Duvall Penrose, Jr is associate professor of history at San Diego State

University. He is the author of Postcolonial Amazons: Female Masculinity and

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 note s o n co n tr ibuto r s xi

Courage in Ancient Greek and Sanskrit Literature (Oxford University Press 2016).
Walter has also published essays and journal articles on Hellenistic queens, the
Tomb of the Diver Paintings, pedagogy in the classics classroom, conceptions of
disability in ancient Greece and the reception of Sappho, as well as homoeroti-
cism and gender diversity in South Asian history.

Jussi Rantala (PhD) is a researcher at the University of Tampere. His publica-

tions include The Ludi Saeculares of Septimius Severus: The Ideologies of a New
Roman Empire (Routledge 2017) and the edited volume Gender, Memory, and
Identity in the Roman World (Amsterdam 2019).

Kelly E. Shannon-Henderson is assistant professor of classics in the Depart-

ment of Modern Languages and Classics at the University of Alabama. She
holds a bachelor’s degree in classics from the University of Virginia, and a
DPhil in Greek and Latin languages and literature from the University of
Oxford. She is the author of Religion and Memory in Tacitus’ Annals (Oxford
University Press), a forthcoming commentary on Phlegon of Tralles’ On Marvels
(Brill) and various articles on aspects of Greek and Roman historiography and
paradoxography.

Brian P. Sowers is assistant professor of classics at Brooklyn College of the City

University of New York. His research focuses on early Christianity, late antique
literature and gender and reception studies. He has published on late Latin read-
ing communities and early Christian female martyrs, saints and poets, including
Perpetua, Felicitas, Thecla, Justina, Aelia Eudocia, Ausonius and Proba. His cur-
rent monograph project (forthcoming, Center for Hellenic Studies) examines
the poetry of Aelia Eudocia, one of antiquity’s best surviving female authors.

Tyson Sukava is assistant professor of classics at the University of Delaware.

His research interests revolve around Greek and Roman science and medicine.
He is currently concentrating on the transmission of ideas within and between
various groups in antiquity.

Anna Uhlig is associate professor of classics at the University of California, Davis,

where she is also a member of the Graduate Group in Performance Studies. She is
author of Theatrical Reenactment in Pindar and Aeschylus (Cambridge 2019) and
co-editor (with Richard Hunter) of Imagining Reperformance in Ancient Culture:
Studies in the Traditions of Drama and Lyric (Cambridge 2017).

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 For all our gender-diverse colleagues.
AS

For Fenna and Adrian, my favourite explorers.

JD

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 Introduction: Queering Classics
Allison Surtees and Jennifer Dyer

bringing together gender analysis and classics

T his volume was inspired by the recognition of two different yet connected
needs that we found through our work in classics and in gender studies.
In 2015, the Women’s Network (WN) of the Classical Association of Canada
(CAC) sponsored two panels at the CAC annual meeting, hosted by the Uni-
versity of Toronto. The topic, chosen by the WN membership, was ‘Gender B(l)
ending in Greek and Roman Culture and Society’ and the panels consisted of
seven papers – including both Agri’s and Begum-Lees’ contributions in this vol-
ume. The interest in and attendance at these panels indicated a need for analyses
of the ancient world that do not assume a cisnormative, masculinist and largely
heterosexual lens in order to better understand the various social and political
roles occupied by people who did not seem to identify as cisgender men. From
gender studies, we were driven by the need for a clear history of gender diversity
that reveals both the existence and successes of gender-diverse and transgender
people long before our current era’s emerging recognition. The authors of the
essays in this volume develop these concerns in their explorations of gender
diversity, sexual diversity and the politics of the power of representation in the
ancient world.
The discipline of classics has a long scholarly tradition which, for the bulk
of its history, has been a history of men. With the exception of a few early
works on women in the ancient world, women were treated largely as foot-
notes or extensions of the men to whom they were attached, if they were
mentioned at all. The rise of the second-wave feminist movement of the 1960s
and 1970s – a movement focused on labour rights, family structure, sexuality
and identity politics – had a broad and significant impact on academic work.
Not only did scholars increasingly focus on studying women’s history, women
and culture, and the socio-politics of sex and sexuality, but the discipline of

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 2 al li son surtees and jenni f e r d ye r

women’s studies was developed as a sustained critical response to this new

focus and became increasingly integral to understanding any aspect of aca-
demic enquiry.
One effect of the integration of gender analysis in scholarly enquiries has
been the recognition of the hyperbolic distinction between male and female
gender roles found in the ancient world; another is the new appreciation of the
considerable use of these roles in establishing and maintaining political identi-
fication and power hierarchies. Increasingly, particularly in the area of feminist
gender archaeology, there is the recognition not just of gender roles but of the
active construction of these roles. The more we recognise the social construc-
tion of gender or at least the biosocial interaction of biological sexes and social
environments, the more visible are those who challenged specific gender roles
and who challenged the oppositional gender binary itself.
The present work seeks to understand gender beyond the context of sex and
sexuality as a focus of study in its own right, where gender is the range of iden-
tifications people have with femininity or masculinity as personal characteris-
tics, comportments, sets of values or social roles. This volume explores these
challenges to normative gender and gender role histories through critical anal-
yses of texts and material culture. These essays work to (1) open a new under-
standing of the impact of under-recognised gender roles and gender diversity
on ancient social and cultural history and (2) show how this may affect our
understanding of gender in contemporary thought and society. More impor-
tantly, however, in exploring these challenges through specific analyses, this
volume goes further to challenge the very heteronormative and cisgendered
readings of the ancient world. These essays contest (mis)understandings of the
past that present power, lived time, desire and social order in terms of some
abstract and ahistorical norm that maintains a strictly naturalised, hierarchical
binary division of genders, a norm that tends to see instances of diversity as
outliers to an assumed norm. That is, these studies reveal that there is not only
a clear diversity of sexualities in the ancient world, but a diversity of gender
roles, of gendered bodies and of sexed bodies that have been overlooked or
marginalised due not always to masculinist, cisgender and heteronormative
lenses of the past, but often to those lenses the present brings to the past.
The essays in this volume show that classical Greek and Roman history is the
history of all genders, not just those of the cisheteronormative gender binary
that dominates today, a history that includes identities that are gender-fluid
or gender blending (varyingly feminine and masculine), non-binary (neither
masculine nor feminine), intersex (born with sex characteristics that do
not correspond with norms assigned to male or female) and transgender
(identifying with a gender that does not correspond to the sex assigned at
birth) (Halberstam 1998; Butler 1990). In this way, we bring together clas-
sics with feminist, queer and trans studies to reveal unexamined aspects of the

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 intro d uctio n 3

past, and to use that past to open new ways of considering gender diversity in
the present.
We put these theories in conversation with feminist, queer and trans theories
because they afford classics the capacity to do a different sort of gender work.
Specificially, queer theory, such as that put forward by Halberstam, Butler or
Dinshaw, is speculative in nature because it does not set out a series of meth-
ods, categories or concepts that determine its objects. Quite the contrary, queer
theory argues for the constructed, culturally situated and changeable nature
of things which are considered sexual behaviours, the concepts linking those
behaviours to certain identities, and the normative categories that are generated
when those concepts stick. In this sense, queer theory argues against universalis-
ing, normative and therefore biological models of sexual identity or of gender.
Any theory which prioritises, for instance, a two-gender model of society based
on two biological sexes ignores the complexity of sexuality and sexual identity
that involves far more than chromosomal variation, and it ignores the existence
of societies with historically more than two genders and the recognition of a
multitude of sexual identities. These differences must be construed as anomalies
to a norm, or outliers, in order for the norm to function as such. Amongst other
things, queer theory questions the construction of norms on these terms. In
this respect, queer theory puts an emphasis on abductive reasoning: reasoning
that moves from (an often surprising) observation to a theory that explains it
(Huffman 2013). In an abductive argument, the argument is not a deduction,
since it does not claim that its conclusion must be true if its premises are true
(Bradley 2009). It is not inductive, since the statement referred to in the conclu-
sion is not tested by sampling. Whereas induction tells us that a statement, true
in some cases, is likely to be true in unobserved cases, abduction allows us to
conclude to the likelihood of something unlike anything that is observed (Peirce
1992). It is inference to the best possible explanation. The procedure is fallibil-
ist: repeated application of abductive inference may lead to continued revision
of our hypothesis in the light of new observations, as has always been the case
with explanatorist theories of actualisation (Bradley 2009). And the hypothesis
is not just tested against experience. Experience is tested against the hypothesis,
which has the status of a critical principle: do the putative observations, or our
descriptions of the observed, display the characters posited by the hypothesis?
Ostensive demonstration cuts both ways. Or, more precisely, it moves in a virtu-
ous circle. In the context of this book, queer theory employs abductive reason-
ing to open the often surprising observations about the past that don’t fit into
the schemes by which we usually observe it. This then allows us to reconsider
the intersections of gender identity, expression and roles with sex, sexuality and
identity, and how those categories figure in what we (think we) know about the
past but also how we know it. The essays in this volume hold focus to issues
specifically of gender and sex in the ancient world in an intersectional way, such

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 4 al li son surtees and jenn if e r d ye r

that no category is taken to be homogeneous or essentialising, and no descrip-

tion asks identities, bodies or roles to subordinate one aspect of themselves in
favour of another. Each essay treats gender, sex and to some degree sexualities as
complex coalitions of differences – from other people, from oneself over time,
from social roles, from historical perspectives – that enact particular relations
to power. Our aim is to unpack some of those relations and explore the ways
they interact in order to come to those aforesaid surprising observations about
the past.

review of the literature

In classics scholarship, a tradition of scholars turning their attention to women,
sexuality and their respective roles in ancient society largely began with Sarah
Pomeroy’s 1975 book, Goddesses, Whores, Wives, and Slaves. This book repre-
sented a watershed moment for the study of women in antiquity. What followed
were several works aimed at centralising women in ancient studies and placing
the study of ancient women firmly in the classroom. Helene Foley (1981), Eva
Cantarella (1987), Elaine Fantham et al. (1995) and Sue Blundell (1995) are
key early exempla of this trend, followed more recently by Laura K. McClure
(2002), Fiona McHardy and Eireann Marshall (2004), Janet Tulloch (2016),
and Stephanie Lynn Budin and Jean MacIntosh Turfa (2016). Sourcebooks
exclusively focused on women further facilitated both research and classroom
study by making these sources accessible and contextualised (for example,
Lefkowitz and Fant 1982; MacLachlan 2012, 2013). As women in antiquity
became an accepted area of research, studies became more focused, speaking
to women’s role in specific aspects of the ancient world; such as, women as
authors (Snyder 1989; DuBois 1995; Plant 2004; Greene 2005), women and
theatre (Rabinowitz 1993; Stehle 1997; Foley 2001; McClure 2009), women in
literature (Keith 2000; James 2003; Gilhuly 2008), women in myth and reli-
gion (Lyons 1997; Kraemer 2004; Connelly 2007), women in law and politics
(Loraux 1981; Gardner 1986; Just 1989; Sealy 1990; Bauman 1992), women in
marriage and family life (Patterson 1986, 1998; Treggiari 1991; Dixon 1992).
This interest extended into material culture, as demonstrated by two roughly
concurrent museum exhibitions; the Walters Art Museum presented Pandora:
Women in Classical Greece (Reeder 1995), and the Yale University Art Gallery
organised I, Claudia: Women in Ancient Rome (Kleiner and Matheson 1996).
This new interest in women in antiquity coincided with the new focus on
studies of ancient sex and sexuality, beginning with Kenneth Dover’s 1978
study, Greek Homosexuality. This book was followed by a spate of new works on
ancient homosexuality or the male sexual experience. David Halperin’s influen-
tial One Hundred Years of Homosexuality and Other Essays on Greek Love (1990b)

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 intro d uctio n 5

was followed up with his 2002 work, How to do the History of Homosexuality.
Other key works include Cantarella (1992), Craig Williams (1999, 2nd edi-
tion published 2010), Thomas Hubbard (2003) and James Davidson (2007).
While much work focused on the male sexual experience, a number of works
focused on sex, sexuality and desire more broadly (Winkler 1990a; Richlin
1992b; Davidson 1997; Skinner 2005; Ormand 2009). Increasingly evidence
from material culture played a role in these works, resulting in a range of studies
on sexual imagery (Jones 1982; Kampen 1996b; Clarke 1998, 2003). Of par-
ticular note are a series of edited collections which, taken together, offer a vast
range of topics and evidentiary sources on sex and sexuality; Before Sexuality:
The Construction of Erotic Experience in the Ancient Greek World (Halperin et al.
1990), Roman Sexualities (Hallett and Skinner 1997), A Companion to Greek
and Roman Sexualities (Hubbard 2014), Ancient Sex: New Essays (Blondell and
Ormand 2015), and Sex in Antiquity: Exploring Gender and Sexuality in the
Ancient World (Masterson et al. 2015).
While much work still focuses on the male sexual experience, important
works aimed to draw out and understand the female sexual experience among
women (Rabinowitz and Auanger 2002; Boehringer 2007a), in sex work
(McClure 2003; Faraone and McClure 2006; Glazebrook and Henry 2011;
Glazebrook 2015), and as violence (Richlin 1983; Keuls 1985; Pierce and
Deacy 1997). Moreover, the increasing use of broader and more complex theo-
retical frameworks has pushed the boundaries of the gender binary to explore
the wider issues of women, sex and gender in more dynamic ways. Feminist
Theory and the Classics (Rabinowitz and Richlin 1993) brought together essays
that moved beyond the inclusion of and focus on women in scholarship to
question traditional readings of women and gender through a theoretical lens.
More recently, Lin Foxhall’s 2013 work, Studying Gender in Classical Antiquity,
applies a theoretical framework of gender to examine how gender itself shapes
experience and interacts at the intersection of other socio-political character-
istics (wealth, status, age). Brooke Holmes (2012), Jennifer Ingleheart (2015)
and Dorota Dutsch and Ann Suter (2015) each examine underexplored links
between ancient and modern notions of gender and sexuality.
As with the application of feminist theory, gender theory engages with the
interconnections of gender and power in antiquity, broadening the scholarly
scope of studies addressing women and sexuality in antiquity. The ties between
gender, sex and sexuality have been a topic of inquiry for some time, from
John J. Winkler’s 1990a The Constraints of Desire: The Anthropology of Sex and
Gender in Ancient Greece, to the recent volumes by Ruby Blondell and Kirk
Ormand (2015), and Mark Masterson, Nancy Sorkin Rabinowitz and James
Robson (2015). In these and other works, gender is understood as dynamic and
without singular expression. Luc Brisson’s Sexual Ambivalence: Androgyny and
Hermaphroditism in Graeco-Roman Antiquity (2002) examines the fluidity of

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 6 al li son surtees and jenn if e r d ye r

gender, while other scholars seek either to deconstruct gender representations

or to engage with asexual bodies and identifications, as Penelope Allison does in
‘Characterizing Roman Artifacts to Investigate Gendered Practices in Context
without Sexed Bodies’ (2015). In contrast, classical archaeologists are increas-
ingly studying gender construction, working through the framework of gender
archaeology (Gilchrist 1999, Sørensen 2000, Nelson 2007). Tied to the notion
of gender construction are a series of edited collections focused specifically on
the body. Two edited volumes by Maria Wyke, Parchments of Gender: Deci-
phering the Bodies of Antiquity (1998a) and Gender and the Body in the Ancient
Mediterranean (1998b) focus on the body and gender construction through an
interdisciplinary lens. Other collections aim to explore varied aspects, presenta-
tions and functions of bodies through liminality and embodiment theory, and
while the volumes as a whole do not focus specifically on gender, they include
individual essays that do (for example, Petersen, Lateiner and Lee in Fögen and
Lee 2009; King, Shapiro and Bremmer in Boschung et al. 2015). Still other
works challenge gender expectations through the exploration of transgender,
masculinity, female masculinity and gender ambiguity (Gleason 1995; Foxhall
and Salmon 1998a, 1998b; Valentine 2007; Penrose 2016; Campanile et al.
2017; Olson 2017). This review of sources is not exhaustive, but aims to high-
light the general trends and some of the major works in classics of the last several
decades that explore gender.
Concomitant with the development of feminist practices in classical inter-
pretation, feminist, queer and trans theory have developed their own fields of
study in the last two decades. Not only have these disciplines elaborated their
own histories, literatures, methodologies, conferences, journals and mono-
graphs, but they have opened other disciplines to new forms of analysis and
of self-critique. Thinkers such as Carolyn Dinshaw in medieval studies, Gayle
Salamon in phenomenology/new materialisms, Susan Stryker in history, Jose
Esteban Munoz in cultural studies and J. Halberstam in English literature, to
name only a very few, have radically altered not only the methods of enquiry,
the historical categories and the theories of representation in their own disci-
plines by bringing feminist, queer and trans theories into conversation with
them; they have opened contiguous and overlapping disciplines as well. These
theories take up concepts and methodologies introduced by thinkers such as
Judith Butler, Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, Michel Foucault, J. Halberstam, Eliza-
beth Grosz, Karen Barad and Sarah Ahmed. In this way, the means by which
we consider the past in classics – from notions of time to cultural forms to ideas
about authorship – change as well. They take up more social constructionist,
new materialist or culturally critical arguments about categories such as male
and female or cultural and natural, to show how these forms of representation
are neither universal nor naturally occurring (see Sukava, Uhlig and Åshede in
this volume).

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 intro d uctio n 7

In particular, the essays in this volume take up ways by which traditional

binary notions of gender and of sexuality were challenged, subverted or ‘bent’
in the ancient world, ways that could only become recognisable when research-
ers took up these new methodologies in classical art history, literary analysis,
archaeology and history. Following Betsy Lucal’s (1999) descriptions, gender
bending can be understood to be an everyday performance of self by which we
code ourselves in culturally significant gender cues, traditionally as either man
or woman. We cannot choose to refuse participation in gender, which means
that even if one doesn’t present oneself (consciously or unconsciously) as gen-
dered, our society will nevertheless ‘gender’ a person by trying to read gendered
cues anyway. This gendering that codifies one’s actions, comportment, clothing
and behaviours tends to be normatively folded into biological sex, such that
one’s maleness and femaleness is determined by biological sex, and maleness
and femaleness appears inseparable from masculinity and femininity. To further
solidify this apparent double-helix of binary sex and gender, they are treated as
natural and irreducible. Now, we have known for some time that sex and gender
are non-identical; otherwise, there would be little distinction amongst ‘men’ and
amongst ‘women’. But there are certainly varieties of masculinity and feminin-
ity, and varieties of what we call maleness and femaleness (Ainsworth 2015), and
these are also historical and geopolitically variant. What seemed hypermasculine
in the fifth century bc would almost certainly not seem so today. Furthermore,
we know that the very binary categories of ‘gender’ support cisheteronormative
and patriarchal social forms, for it is masculinity and the male that demand the
least gendered coding work (Lucal 1999; Lorber 1996; Devor 1989) and that
gain the most (sometimes invisible) social privilege and power (see Agri, Ash
and Rantala in this volume). Bending the gender roles and blending gender
norms are ways by which traditional forms of social power can be challenged
and changed.

reflections of and challenges to gender expectations

in the olympic pantheon
The essays that follow in this book explore non-normative enactments of gender
bending and blending beyond the binary norms in ancient Greece and Rome.
For this reason, it is crucial to lay out what those norms have been taken to be,
based on both literary and material studies of the ancient worlds. They tend to
begin with the Greek Olympian gods (a few recent introductory texts to Greek
and Roman mythology include Buxton 2004; Harris and Platzner 2016; Mor-
ford, Lenardon and Sham 2018; on the portrayal of myth in art, see Carpenter
1991; Gantz 1993; Shapiro 1994; Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae
(LIMC )). The Olympians reflect the binary and hierarchical gender roles seen

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 8 al li son surtees and jenni f e r d ye r

in ancient Greece and they act as examples of expected behaviour. The Olym-
pic Pantheon from at least the early Archaic period is very much a patriarchy
that reflects the patriarchal structure of ancient Greek society. Male deities have
power primarily in the public realm as creators of laws and upholders of their
concomitant traditions. What are taken to be powerful, frightening and poten-
tially destructive physical realms, namely the sky, the sea and the underworld,
are ruled, not surprisingly, by the father gods Zeus, Poseidon and Hades. War
is a male activity ruled by Ares. Acts of creation for the public sphere, such
as literature and music, are attributed to Apollo, whereas Hephaestus oversees
metalwork and ceramics, and Hermes is the primary public voice of the gods,
relaying messages between gods and mortals (while the female Iris also acts as
a messenger, she is far less prominent). By contrast, matters pertaining to the
home and family are under the influence of female deities. These include Hestia’s
governance of the home, Hera’s overseeing of marriage, Aphrodite’s reign of
love and sexuality, Artemis’ dominion of rites of passage and childbirth and
Demeter’s of fertility. Even the earth itself from which life springs is in the
female form of Gaia. The set distinction between male and female biological
sex and its correlation with masculinity and femininity was further reinforced
by the fourth-century bc philosophers Plato and Aristotle, arguing firmly for a
biologically based norm that not only put masculine features solely in the male
body and feminine features in the female, but demarcated clearly what those
features were (see Ash, Kelly, Penrose and Shannon-Henderson in this volume).
Masculinity included not only strength and physical domination, but ratio-
nality, creativity, technical mastery, the manipulation of forms and structures
and a wilfully active existence. Features of femininity were considered to be far
more corporeal, materially based and passive, the matter to be moulded and
mastered by male masculinity. These hegemonic norms set out and naturalised
a biological basis for gendered social identities and actions, such that even when
the actions are not performed by the appropriately sexed person, the symbolic
meaning of that action would remain gendered (Barnett 2012). Yet within these
overarching binary structures, there are those within the divine pantheon who
challenge these defined gender roles, revealing their constructed nature and the
concomitant social powers that rely upon their maintenance. It is in this way
that Athena and Dionysus defy gender expectations, both with respect to their
physical embodiment and their actions.
Athena challenges gender expectations first of all by taking on both a mas-
culine appearance and the purview of male influence (some notable works on
Athena include Neils 1992, 1996; Clay 1997; Deacy and Villing 2001; Deacy
2008; Kennedy 2009). For while she identifies as a female goddess, she assumes
the normative presentation and comportment of a man and embodies key
aspects of the male gender role, such as the dynamic involvement in both the
rational and the physical combat of war (Neils 2008). Athena is at first glance

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 intro d uctio n 9

motherless, born from the head of Zeus fully armed. In the visual record, she
is portrayed as masculine, a soldier/warrior wearing a helmet and holding a
spear. Indeed, the most iconic visual attribute is her aegis emblazoned with
the Gorgoneion. The aegis has a specifically militaristic meaning and is mir-
rored, with the Gorgoneion, in images of hoplite shields. Athena is thereby
linked symbolically with a thoroughly male activity, here warfare, associated
with the male Ares. Unlike Ares, however, Athena’s form of warfare is not merely
through physical violence. Rather, Athena is the goddess of strategic warfare.
In this respect, she is more masculine than her male counterpart, for Athena is
the embodiment of wisdom, and it is through this wisdom that she engages in
the strategy rather than the sheer violence of war. This association of wisdom
relates to her birth from the head of Zeus, directly from the mind of the king
of the gods himself. Athena, a female goddess, is a masculine warrior. And the
very feature that makes her so totally masculine is, ironically, that which was
ultimately derived from her mother. For there is more to Athena’s origin story.
Her mother was Metis, the personification of wisdom, and the wisdom that is
Metis was swallowed by Zeus. So ‘motherless’ is not entirely accurate, because
given this information it becomes clear that Athena is born super-corporeally of
a male god, replete with a body and the accoutrements of fighting, but given the
masculine trait of wisdom by her incorporeal mother, who is now understood
to be fully identified with the immateriality of wisdom. Athena takes on both
a man’s gender role and a masculine gender expression, despite being assigned
female at her birth.
Athena presents herself in hyper-masculine terms. Not only does Athena
take on the male activity of war, it is Athena among all the gods who is most
closely associated with the heroes, the half-divine sons of gods who act as pro-
tectors of the mortal (public) realm. It is Athena who guides Perseus to defeat
the gorgon Medusa through strategy, a deed commemorated by the Gorgoneion
on her aegis. It is Athena who guides Heracles through his labours, leading
the mightiest hero through deeds that require more than merely brute strength
to accomplish. And it is Athena who forms a special bond with Odysseus, a
hero known for his cleverness and trickery, as his guide and companion. More-
over, Athena does not simply take on the roles and activities of maleness and
masculinity, but she eschews the primary expectations of women: marriage and
motherhood. Athena remains a virgin goddess, without romantic attachments
or interest in domestic activities (save weaving) and her virginity is connected to
her interest in male pursuits. This puts her in contrast with another virgin god-
dess, Artemis. For while Artemis is a virgin goddess who engages in a primarily
male pursuit (hunting), it is nevertheless the case that her virginity is associated
with her role in childbirth and female rites of passage (as seen, for example, at
the sanctuary of Artemis at Brauron). The distinction between these two vir-
gin goddesses is also seen in their respective portrayals: Athena in her peplos,

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 10 alli son surtees and jenn if e r d ye r

aegis and helmet, and Artemis in her short chiton. Artemis is appreciated for
her beauty, while Athena alone among the Olympian goddesses is not much
discussed in these terms. Unlike the other goddesses, Athena is not sexualised
or objectified as such;1 rather, she remains self-defining and self-actualising in
terms of the masculine self-presentation and identity at the time, and is only
known as female because of the sex she was assigned at birth.
While Athena identifies as male, Dionysus vacillates between male and
female gender performances and roles (a few of the many studies on Diony-
sus include Carpenter and Faraone 1993; Seaford 2006; Isler-Kerenyi 2007,
2014; Bernabé et al. 2013). Dionysus’ appearance is initially that of a father
god, an older, bearded man similar to Zeus, Poseidon and Hades. But even in
this strongly male incarnation, Dionysus is mixing things up, for he dresses in
a long chiton, which has been interpreted as a female garment (Jameson 1993;
see also Csapo 1997) and stands in contrast with the consistent full or partial
nudity of other gods. So already the god that will become most variable in
gender identities is also closest, symbolically, to the mortals reflected in them.
Yet by the mid-fifth century bc there is a significant shift in the god’s appear-
ance. The older Dionysus persists in visual representations through the end of
the fifth century, but a youthful, beardless, nude Dionysus co-exists with and
eventually largely replaces the older representation. By the fourth century, the
iconography of Dionysus is almost exclusively that of a young, beardless man,
often with long curly hair. He has shifted from the gravitas of a father god to a
beautiful young god, an appearance he is also ascribed in Euripides’ Bacchae, a
tragedy performed in Athens in 405 bc:

Your hair is much too long to be a wrestler’s

Flowing down to your cheeks that way, and full
Of lust. You’ve kept your skin quite fair, by staying
Out of the sun, and well in the shade, to hunt
For Aphrodite, pretty as you are.
Bacchae 541–5 (trans. Gibbons and Segal)

Dionysus changes now from masculine to feminine, for not only does he
appear truly feminine, with his long hair and white skin, but his appearance is
a result of his own specifically feminine actions. His long hair is untamed, as a
woman’s would be, rather than tied back and controlled for the masculine activ-
ity of wrestling. His skin is white from remaining indoors or under the shade,
as a woman’s would be, and he tends to his skin carefully, as women do. And
instead of hunting animals as a man, he hunts Aphrodite as a woman. Dionysus’
feminine appearance is carefully crafted, the result of undertaking female activi-
ties. His gender fluidity is unique to him amongst the gods, but it is not his only
fluid quality; he is very much a liminal figure with continually shifting identities

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 in tro d uctio n 11

across a variety of traditionally power-saturated realms. He is both male and

female, young and old. He is Greek and non-Greek, a god thoroughly embed-
ded in the Greek pantheon, but with mythologies describing him, and his cult,
as being newly introduced to the Greek world. He blends the divine, mortal
and bestial worlds through his human/animal hybrid followers, the male satyrs
and female maenads, while Dionysus walks the line between mortal and immor-
tal. As one of the Olympians, he is unquestionably divine, yet he alone of the
Olympians had a mortal mother. And in this liminal space of divine and mortal,
he crosses the boundaries between life and death as the twice-born god, having
been torn from his dead mother’s womb to be born again from the immortal
thigh of Zeus. Further, initiates to the mystery cult of Dionysus are able to find
new life through death. Thus Dionysus transforms throughout ancient Greece
from old to young, Greek to non-Greek, and from masculine to feminine, all
the while liminally balancing between god and mortal. Given that the gods both
reflect and set an example for their mortal counterparts, Dionysus’ shifting form
of being suggests something more historically meaningful than a mere accident
of representation: he embodies the dynamics of shifting identities and represen-
tations of social constructions of power that upset the precise institutions that
demand their fixity: sex, gender, race, class, proximity to the divine, and ethnic-
ity. For this reason, Dionysus is fully representative of the types of enquiries we
put to the ancient world.
Supporting the intentional change in Dionysus is the fact that he is also
the one male Olympian to be associated with fertility. Both he and Demeter
are associated with agricultural fertility, he with the vine and she with crops,
supplying the world with both food and drink. Fertility of crops, animals
and mortals is the realm of female deities; moreover, the worship is carried
out primarily by women. We can speculate that this association with fertil-
ity is foreshadowed in the story of Dionysus’ (motherless) birth from Zeus’
thigh. While Athena is born from his head and assumes the male attribute
of wisdom (that in fact comes from her mother), Dionysus is born from his
father’s thigh, a birth associated with genitals, generation and fertility due to
its bodily proximity. Unlike Athena, Dionysus has no maternal trace. In the
birth of Athena, Zeus absorbs Metis, who then becomes a fundamental part
of Athena herself. Dionysus’ mortal mother, Semele, on the other hand, is
removed entirely from the birth process, for when Dionysus is removed from
her dead body, all of Semele is left behind, both the mortal and the maternal.
Her female womb does not give birth to Dionysus, and it is only the memory
of his incomplete gestation therein that connects Dionysus to her. Dionysus
is his own maternal trace. In this way, Dionysus both protects his father from
that symbolic gender blending (for while Zeus is mother and father, here, he is
never associated with femininity), and takes on that symbolic gender blending
right from the get-go.

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 12 alli son surtees and jenn if e r d ye r

In addition to his fluid identities, Dionysus also has a unique relationship with
women. Other male deities take multiple lovers, whether the women consent or
not, and in fact consent is rarely a thought, let alone a requirement. Dionysus, on
the other hand, has only one consort, Ariadne, with whom he happily remains
and who happily remains with him. He found her alone, sleeping on the island of
Naxos, abandoned by the Athenian hero Theseus. Concomitant to the masculine
Athena who protects Theseus in his quest to kill the Minotaur and return to
Athens, Dionysus, in a rare turn of real pathos and loyalty towards a woman, pro-
tects the woman who helped but was abandoned by the hero.
Further, Dionysus’ unique relationship with women extends to his female
followers, the maenads. Maenads are regularly depicted with Dionysus in the
visual record, either alone or in the company of satyrs. Outside the visual tra-
dition, the Bacchae is the one literary source to provide a description of the
private rites, as opposed to public state festivals, of Dionysus. In this play set
in the city of Thebes, it is the women who are closest to Dionysus and perform
his rites correctly. Agave (mother of the King Pentheus and sister to Dionysus’
mortal mother Semele) leads the women into the mountains/woods, where they
transform into maenads through rites which include wine and dancing to enter
a state of ekstasis, another form of self-creation by ‘getting outside of oneself ’.
In order for men to participate in these rites, they must also become or at least
present as women. Cadmus (the former king, father of Agave, grandfather to
both King Pentheus and Dionysus) and the seer Tiresias (himself a figure who
switches gender – see Ash, Begum-Lees and Shannon-Henderson in this vol-
ume) accept the worship of Dionysus and accordingly dress as women for the
rituals. But when King Pentheus rejects Dionysus and as a result incurs his
wrath, the god retaliates. He convinces Pentheus to dress as a woman in order to
spy on the women’s secret worship. But while Pentheus appears to be a woman,
his male identity is seen by the women, who, under the influence of Dionysus,
subsequently tear him literally limb from limb as punishment for his attempted
deception and male intrusion into female space. His transformation was not
complete. Gender blending is an integral aspect of Dionysus, in a very different
way than it is for Athena.
Athena and Dionysus are two primary examples of how the Olympian gods
embody and enact the gender bending and gender blending addressed by the
essays in this volume, and they embody this gender diversity not as outcasts
incidental to their world but as fundamental figures within it. The Olympian
gods, we must remember, reflect the heteronormative, patriarchal structure of
society and simultaneously lead by example, much the same way twenty-first
century popular culture represents not only the ways mainstream culture wants
to see itself but also the dominant ways it makes available to understand itself.
Those identities and expressions (no matter how numerous!) that diverge too
far from the norm remain under- or unrepresented, which all too often means,

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 in tro d uctio n 13

as Gayatri Spivak (1999) argues, that the subaltern does not get a chance to
culturally ‘speak’. That is to say that, on the one hand, the Olympian gods are
reflective of ideals for their world, and as such both Athena and Dionysus repre-
sent the types of gender difference that can occur, albeit marginally, within that
social structure. On the other hand, and more importantly, it reveals that the
hierarchical binary social structures require gender differences like the gender
fluidity of Dionysus or the female masculinity of Athena in order to maintain
those social structures as normative ones at all. Olympus presents the norm of
a two-gendered society, where maleness and masculinity are primary to female-
ness and femininity and the social structure of the gods maintains and encour-
ages the reproduction of this social order. Yet the world of the gods also includes
differences – such as the occasional outlier like female masculinity or gender
fluidity – that must not be allowed into the forces of social reproduction, and
are thus contained through powerful social forces, such as the law of the gods,
so that the apparent outliers do not become the norm. Athena and Dionysus are
not merely symbolic of how those who may not fit so well into the social struc-
tures can still be recognised, but rather they represent the fluidity that lies under
the pretense of stability that is continually celebrated and must be continually
reaffirmed as divine, natural, ideal and normal. Indeed, one possible conclu-
sion is that if binary sex and gender were any of these things, they would not
require such constant upkeep. Whatever else these figures may tell us, it is clear
that Athena and Dionysus suggest that the ancient world was aware of gender
diversity and sought ways of representing it in and as part of ancient society.
For the reasons opened to us by Athena and Dionysus, we take gender diver-
sity to refer to a number of different ways by which individuals express their
gender, how they identify with gender and gender roles, as well as what it has
to do with how this relates to an individual’s assigned sex at birth, their physical
sex, and sometimes a person’s perceived gender. Athena, for example, is assigned
female at birth. Of that, there is no question. In addition, she is perceived as
female by everyone, but this is the end of the alignment between the sex she
was assigned at birth and her public presentation. For Athena does not express
her gender as feminine; her gender presentation is masculine, from her clothing
to her gender role to her comportment, and from her actions to the symbolic
meaning of her actions. She is very thoroughly a masculine example of someone
assigned female at birth. In fact, the most ambiguous feature of the figure of
Athena is that she is recognised clearly as female while she comfortably physi-
cally presents as masculine in her body, its behaviours and its abilities, combined
with her male gender role and her masculine gender expressions.
On the other hand, Dionysus represents gender fluidity: he identifies
differently as male and female, and as masculine or feminine. He takes up vari-
ously male gender roles in one context, and female gender roles in another. He
expresses himself as sometimes female and sometimes male; and while Dionysus

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 14 alli son surtees a nd jenn if e r d ye r

is always recognised with the pronouns ‘he’ and ‘him’, he is understood through-
out his narratives and visual representations to perform a gender-fluid or gen-
der-creative identity that rarely aligns with traditional interpretations of male,
masculine or man. Not surprisingly, Athena and Dionysus are the very models
of gender diversity in the ancient world because they clearly parse the differences
within gender expression, gender identity, assigned sex, physical sex, perceived
sex, as well different sexualities such as Athena’s asexuality and Dionysus’ hetero-
sexual consent-driven sexuality.

lifting the cisheteronormative methodology from

the ancient world
Reviewing the ancient world with attention to gender expressions and gender
identities leads to surprising observations that alter what we previously thought
about the past and, in turn, what we thought we understood about ourselves.
The feminist, queer and trans theories that these essays take up allow them to
open a number of ways of looking at the world – both ancient and contempo-
rary – beyond heteronormative ways of seeing and experiencing it (see especially
Hughes and Sowers and Passaro in this volume). One of those ways involves
distinguishing between gender identity, gender expression and the sex one is
assigned at birth. In Roman iconography, as the archaeologist Ashley Barnett
(2012) argues, parsing sex assignment from gender identity and gender expres-
sion allows us to see, for instance, that while the phallus is a strong cultural and
political symbol in ancient Rome, it is not necessarily determinate of one’s gender
identity. She uses the example of Priapus, god of fertility and the protection of
gardens, to argue that his phallic imagery is apotropaic, cathartic and metonymic
but above all synecdochal of masculine gender roles, Roman citizenry and the
Roman Republic itself. Further, phallic imagery was not limited to male bodies;
rather, it represented the power relations interconnecting a variety of identities
and experiences. There is, in ancient Rome’s phallic iconography, a differentiation
between the phallus and the penis itself, showing there to be a particular set of
power relations in ancient Rome that involved more than just men and women,
citizens and non-citizens. In her analysis, phallic iconography was utilised to
represent, encode, demarcate, protect and distinguish various types of person –
child, adult, citizen, freedman, soldier and woman. It had less to do with what
was between one’s legs than it did with who was in a position of power in Roman
society. Male sex is not identical with masculinity, for part of the purpose of the
iconography is to invoke strength, protection and masculine ideals despite the
gender expression (for example, smart, sacred, young, vulnerable, leader) of
the individual. Nor is it identical to the gender identity of the individual, such as
boy or girl or man or intersex; in fact, Barnett argues that gender roles were more
attached to class in ancient Rome than to sex or sexuality.

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 intro d uctio n 15

Although the use of the Roman phallus demonstrates the distinction

between power, male sex and gender identity, Mary Weismantel (2012) argues
that the celebration of the divine dual-gendered Hermaphroditus suggests
there was a role or respect for a diversity of gender identities. However, the
space for this gender diversity was not always a positive one, for while the
divine dual-sexed body was worshipped, non-conforming mortal bodies were
not necessarily desirable and were at times treated with violence (Weismantel
2012: 320); there is one law for the divine gods, and quite another for mortals
who see themselves ideally reflected in the gods, but who can never become
god-like themselves. In this way, although nobody ever actually embodies the
norms of hyperfemininity and hypermasculinity, they remain unrealisable
goals that characterise masculinist and hierarchical socio-political systems such
as those of much of the ancient world, and of our own (Lugones 2016; Connell
and Messerschmidt 2005). According to Aileen Ajootian (1995), of the rare
accounts in ancient sources that discuss non-normative bodies, some describe
events such as two people identified as women but with non-conforming bod-
ies who were reportedly burned alive in the early first century bc, and another
of a series of ‘androgynous’ births in the mid–late Republic seen as sinister
portents, drowned at sea as an act of expiation (on these passages see Penrose
and Shannon-Henderson in this volume). So while the worship of divine Her-
maphroditus acts as a positive, protective force, the mortal non-conforming
bodies were seen as a direct threat to political and social stability that must be
destroyed (Shapiro 2015 makes a similar argument with respect to the posi-
tive androgyny of the immortal Dionysus versus the negative androgyny of the
mortal Athenian politician Alcibiades). This may seem to follow the theories of
gender bending put forward in the late 1990s, namely that bending the rules
of gender does not dismantle, and may even support hegemonic and binary
gender roles (Devor 1989; Lorber 1996; Phelan 1998). Yet we stand with femi-
nist, queer and anti-patriarchal thinkers such as Lucal (1999), Halberstam and
(in some ways) Butler to argue that these figures show that gender can be (and
has been!) done differently. In fact, the essays in this volume suggest that there
have always been attempts to ‘do gender’ otherwise, challenging norms. In the
case of the mortal non-conforming bodies, the disparate treatment of these
bodies demonstrates both a desire and a refusal to acknowledge and accept
their presence in society, and this twofold recognition underscores the ongo-
ing need of hegemonic society to maintain the strict binary gender difference
that keeps one group in power (on this point, see Deminion and McCoskey in
this volume). Hermaphroditus, as a divine figure, could be accepted as belong-
ing to another realm in which all manner of creatures existed. However, non-
conforming bodies within society itself could not be so easily accepted if the
symbolically phallic or masculinist order was to remain in power. One obvious
outcome of this research is that if we can identify in the ancient world acts

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 16 alli son surtees a nd jennif e r d ye r

of gender violence related explicitly to queer bodies, then there existed queer
bodies, whatever else we can say of them. From the point of view of trans and
queer theory, denying their very being both denies the fact of queer and trans
history, and also tells a very particular story of both the ancient world and of
where we came from, one that conveniently leaves out the experiences of bod-
ies we choose to invalidate. Part of the point of this volume, then, is to open
a historical trajectory of trans and queer identities and representations in and
through the scholarly research into ancient articulations of gender, sexuality
and social bodies.
In a similar vein, Rosemary Joyce (2005) has taken up in her research the
archaeological focus on the body as a site of renewed understandings of the
ancient world. Joyce holds that ancient bodies can be interpreted in terms of
modes of embodiment, rather than primarily in terms of symbolic features; she
argues that when we consider that the ‘biological person is both the medium
and product of social action’, then both the interiority of bodies that experi-
enced the ancient world and the symbols that adorned and surrounded them
must be understood in a new way. Her insights are important for classical schol-
arship because the material evidence may suggest more than the hegemonic
social norms of binary genders. Rather than seeing an ‘assumed stability of
bodily identity’, archaeological observation can attend to the objects, artworks,
adornments and environments relationally: they are not static representations of
an interiority, but part of the material world in which people engaged; they are
not mere signals of existing identities but active agents in identity construction.
These things are traces of material interaction and experience through which
body practices and representation work together, either systems through which
concepts and social orders became naturalised, or contested sites of agency and
cultural production and reproduction. The upshot of Joyce’s analysis is that
when archaeologists use ‘broader theories of embodiment and materiality’, they
can see traces of the body as a point of social action rather than an inert rep-
resentation of existing social structures. Not surprisingly, Barbara Voss (2008)
has championed this broader lens of viewing and interpreting material traces of
the past.
Voss starts from the historically self-reflective position that any assumptions
that past peoples held to the relatively modern, Western tradition of the het-
eronormative, cisgender, monogamous coupling of people for primarily repro-
ductive purposes is without foundation. The proliferation of sexually explicit
artefacts, jokes and stories from the ancient world denies that sex was primarily
for reproduction (Voss 2008: 318). The historically and culturally shifting ideas
of what counts as ‘sexual’ further confound our assignation of particular sexual
norms onto the past. And the focus on bodies, interactions between various
bodies and the celebration of bodies that used to be interpreted in terms of
fertility rites has been opened by theories of embodied experience and material

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 in tro d uctio n 17

culture studies, such as Joyce’s, to show that sometimes a naked body is just a
naked body, even in ancient Greece and Rome. Given that people have been
using tools, plants, acts and ideas to regulate and affect sexuality and reproduc-
tion since at least 5000 bp, all of which is material evidence that reproduction
is both culturally managed and involves a fraction of ‘sexual activities and rela-
tionships’, it should come as no surprise that it’s not only sexuality that is at
issue in understandings of the ancient world, but the representation of bodies
and genders as well (Voss 2008: 320). Further, just as it does more justice to the
ancient world to consider the different circumstances of the past and present
viewers of bodily or sexual images when we are trying to identify what and why
they are, it is equally important to consider the ideological basis of who created
these images, for what purpose, and in what context. For instance, when there
is a thing hanging between the legs of a figure in an image of a body, it does not
necessarily suggest male. Nor does it necessarily suggest masculinity. Following
Barnett’s analysis, sometimes the image of a phallus actually represents power,
whether it is attached to a female, a woman, a non-citizen, an intersex person
or a man. Sometimes it is ambiguous and the researcher has to look beyond
the iconography to the audience, the maker, the materials and the provenance
generally.
One of Voss’s points is that when studies of prehistory find that sex and
gender are varied, have varying representations and intervene continually in
political power formations, and when we can recognise that this happened in
the historical moments shortly after ancient Rome (as Dinshaw shows to be
the case in medieval Europe in her 2012 book How Soon is Now), then there is
little reason to assume that the ancient worlds of Greece and Rome are the lone
anomaly that hold to a lack of gender and sexual diversity (Voss 2008: 322).
Voss argues that recent interpretations of kinaidoi/cinaedi suggest that their
identity was less determined by their sexual acts than by their gender liminality;
looking at the iconography of penetration without ignoring the outlier images
where they do the penetrating suggests a hitherto unrecognised gender diversity
and shared identity (on kinaidoi/cinaedi see Adkins and Penrose in this volume;
on the question of penetration in gender identification see Adkins, Åshede,
Begum-Lees and Shannon-Henderson). And finally, Voss makes the point that
those interpretations of sexuality in ancient Greece and Rome that tend to focus
on the radical difference of this past from the present – effectively erasing the
queerness of the past (even if the only similarity between queer past and present
is queerness itself !) – are the interpretations which read contemporary hetero-
normative gender structures into the past. Yet those who read images of sexual-
ity, gender and the political structures that intersect them from the standpoint
of feminist, queer, trans or gender-diverse theories overwhelmingly tend to find
a real continuity between past and present forms of violence, objectification,
subjugation and erasure.

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 18 alli son surtees a nd jennif e r d ye r

As mentioned, Ajootian demonstrates that the evidence which reports vio-

lence against ambiguously sexed bodies in both ancient Greece and Rome is
minimal, and aside from discussions of how they were killed, they generally dis-
appeared from history. However, she goes further to argue that although these
people have been called ‘hermaphrodites’, after the divine Hermaphroditus, there
was no connection between the divinity and the human ‘monsters’ (monstra),
before Ovid’s account of the joining of Hermaphroditus and Salmacis (Ajootian
1995; on Ovid’s account see Kelly in this volume). Hermaphroditus is dual-
sexed, and represents both a threat to dominant forms of masculinity and an
apotropaic power, similar to Priapus. Yet lives which we would now call queer
were still subaltern in the ancient world, and didn’t always participate in the
powers of their namesakes: those intersex individuals identified as ‘hermaph-
rodite’ were understood in terms of their divergence from the norm and not
their similarity to the god. Queer and trans theory intersects with classics when
they indicate the cultural bias by which many scholars read the ancient worlds,
opening new methodologies (such as gender archaeology, embodiment theory
and ethnographic studies) by which to consider and reconsider the evidence of
the past, both that already well-documented and that formerly relegated to the
status of anomaly.
Queer theory carries with it a strong focus on identity, for when we are
considering the ways by which we behave, organise ourselves and identify our-
selves, one’s identity tends to determine how those behaviours will be under-
stood, in what social groups we will be organised and what identities might be
open (or not open) to us, even if we phenomenologically know we identify as
a certain kind of being. This focus on identity might seem anachronistic when
applying it to the ancient world, for the social categories by which we organise
ourselves now may not at all have existed in the past – categories such as homo-
sexual, transgender, femme or queer. Yet that is part of the point: categories
such as nuclear family, male masculinity and essential femininity, for example,
are also twentieth-century identities that may not translate so perfectly into
the past. Further, queer theory integrates other social identifiers into consider-
ations, such as class, nationality, race and citizenship, suggesting that when we
look at the past we can indeed find non-heteronormative ways by which people
came together. Queer theory therefore opens the analysis of the past towards (1)
observing the past in surprising new ways, and thus opening abductively new
ways of understanding the social structures of the past, and (2) new ways of
considering what we have already observed about the embodied behaviours of
the past (Dinshaw 1999; Halberstam 1998). For this reason, a reconsideration
of those activities, behaviours and bodies that tend not to be universalised or
brought into history – namely, gender-bending bodies, gender-blending behav-
iours and differently gendered identities – can unfold a new way of observing,
considering and relating to the past.

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 in tro d uctio n 19

notes on gender, grammar and translation

Throughout this volume, we have employed a number of grammatical terms
and translations that hold to the rigorous reconsideration of bodies, behaviours
and histories for which the essays in this volume argue. First, we have translated
androgynos/androgynus (in both Greek and Latin) as androgynous. We do not
accept its common translation as ‘hermaphrodite’, a translation found in most
(if not all, to our knowledge) Greek and Latin dictionaries, because the term is
both derogatory and carries with it a pejorative connotation and negative value
that, quite simply, the original languages do not support. The use and presence
of the term in Greek and Latin dictionaries is a function of old ideas which did
not recognise gender diversity; our aim is to assist in updating the canon with
thoroughness and respect.
Secondly, we have taken especial care with the use of pronouns to ensure
that the subjects of the following essays are not misgendered. For this reason,
we use gender-neutral pronouns for Hermaphroditus (Åshede) except when
discussing pre-transformation Hermaphroditus in Ovid (Kelly) because at
that point, he is a boy until fused with the female nymph Salmacis. Begum-
Lees also uses different pronouns for pre- and post-transformation of Iphis,
as she explains in her contribution. Adkins uses feminine pronouns when
she discusses the priests of Lucius’ narration because they identify as ‘girls’,
even though Lucius himself uses derogative terms and masculine pronouns to
describe them. Finally, in bringing into dialogue the contemporary queer and
intersectional theories with Lucian’s dialogues, Ash is able to not only use but
discuss in detail the shifting gender identities presented, adopted and identified
in the Dialogues.
Finally, and in the same vein, we have found that Hermaphroditus tends to
be referred to as ‘he’ in translations, but only because the Latin uses the mascu-
line pronoun as default for mixed groups (as does French, for example). We hold
that this use of masculine pronouns compromises the judicious presentation of
Hermaphroditus and skews our understanding of hir because of the immediate
default to the masculine. As Åshede indicates in her essay, the explanation for
this is clearly articulated by Groves (2016: 350):

. . . the literary text must portray him as male, in grammatical gender, if

not fully in biological sex. Hermaphroditus is a male name after all, and
the words used to describe the god and intersex people in both Greek
and Latin (ἀvδρόγυvoς, androgynus, semimas) are unfailingly masculine
in gender . . . just as a group of mixed gender defaults to the masculine in
Greek and Latin, so an individual of mixed gender does as well. There is
no reason, however, for the detached reader to suspect that the masculin-
ity of the god is anything more than a linguistic convention.

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 20 alli son surtees a nd jenn if e r d ye r

Groves (2016: 351) also notes that visual representations of Hermaphroditus

are found to depict hir primarily as female (a controversial point for Åshede)
and in that female presentation ze is often attacked by male satyrs or Pan. Yet
in Ovid, Hermaphroditus is a boy ( puer) and is attacked by a woman. The
overarching point here is that there is no comprehensive or coherent history
of Hermaphroditus’ presentations that suggest one or the other gender iden-
tity or sex. For this reason, we use the pronouns ‘ze’ and ‘hir’ in reference to
Hermaphroditus; while it may be more common to use the gender-neutral pro-
nouns ‘they’ and ‘them’, this presents sometimes impassable difficulties when
translating gender and tense in classical texts and for clarity and ease, we have
stuck with gender-neutral ‘ze’ and ‘hir’.

notes on the essays in this volume

The essays presented in this volume are grouped according to themes that
abductively develop ways to observe ancient Greece and Rome anew and anal-
yse those observations in hitherto unconsidered ways. This book is not meant
to offer comprehensive coverage of all aspects of antiquity, which would be an
impossible task for a single volume. Rather we seek to open up a conversation
on ways to tease out gender diversity from our available sources. To this end,
we have chosen to focus on a selection of literature, historical texts and material
culture, each of which offers a different set of cultural representation affecting
notions of gender identity and formation. We feel this represents a sufficiently
broad array of sources, while still offering a variety of approaches within each
grouping. One important area of study largely omitted from this volume is
that of cult practice (while Adkins does address religion broadly, she does not
explicitly examine cult practice). Religious rituals and practice provide particu-
larly rich sources for the study of gender variance and would undoubtably yield
valuable discussion. Interpretation of cultic practice, however, is complex and
exploring the sources and interpretations of cult satisfactorily would require
more space and attention than is available here. We have also included only
sources which have a clear temporal/cultural context. Since the goal is to tease
out gender variance within specific cultural contexts, it seems prudent to focus
on sources, both textual and visual, that can be securely connected to a specific
time and place for which we have a reasonably secure cultural understanding.
By necessity, this means excluding prehistoric sources (such as Mycenaean and
Minoan) as well as texts such as Homer, where it is unclear precisely what cul-
tural context is being depicted.
The book begins with Walter Penrose’s exploration of the virtues of courage
and intelligence as locators of ancient Greek gender diversity and construction.
Those with courage and intelligence – women or men – are markedly masculine,

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 intro d uctio n 21

within ancient Greek heteropatriarchal notions of gender. Penrose argues for a

strong distinction between gender and sexuality, holding that courageous and
intelligent men are manly and masculine, and that courageous women such as
Clytemnestra are not to be seen as lesbians, but as masculine women: strong,
bold, dominant and ready to act with violence when needed. Men without
courage, such as Aegisthus, are feminised, but are not to be seen as gay; rather,
they fail to meet the requirements of male masculinity. Courage and intelli-
gence are male qualities; thus men who bear too little are ridiculed (such as the
kinaidoi) and women who bear too much are distanced from regular Athenian
society, and both groups are considered unnatural and unAthenian. With this
analysis, Penrose takes up Butler’s argument that gender intersects with politi-
cal and cultural formations of identity and shows how gender is produced and
maintained with citizenship, status, class and nationality in a constant process of
identity production that sustains the rule of particular groups. Gender identity
is not born, but made in the ancient world.
Tyson Sukava reinterprets the so-called sexless body in Greek medicine and
healing, by arguing for a spectrum of bodies between the two poles of male-
ness and femaleness through his analysis of the blending role of bodily fluids
or humours. That is, ancient physicians were less interested in anatomy than
physiognomy, and the way humours mixed in a body determined one’s sex. In
Sukava’s analysis, the category of human or anthrōpos downplays both sex and
gender to focus specifically on an ill body part, which was considered undif-
ferentiated in human bodies that are themselves only differentiated by humoral
make-up. Sukava also looks at the flip side of the unsexed body, which was the
dual-sexed body, but he argues that this body appeared primarily only when
reproductive organs were at issue. Sukava’s analysis of a spectrum of sexed
bodies – one which bears relations to current theories – suggests that notions of
gender and sex were more complex in the past than they appear at first blush,
and that healing practitioners actually presented new ways to consider the con-
structed nature, shared human nature, or at least the non-biological roots of sex
and gender.
Anna Uhlig also takes up Judith Butler’s performative notion of gender con-
struction in her analysis of Pandora’s ‘birth by hammer’, linking it with Karen
Barad’s post-humanist and radically materialist theory of open corporeal bound-
aries that are always in the process of becoming. Through a reading of two frag-
ments of the Pandora story – Sophocles’ Pandora or Hammerers and Pheidias’
sculptural depiction of the birth of Pandora – both of which present Pandora
as hammer-wrought from the earth itself, Uhlig argues against the strict and
misogynistic binarism of Hesiod, who reviles her crafted body, and for a reading
of her symbolism of the ambiguity of human existence. Humans are both born
and made, natural and artificial; Pandora shatters the mythic binary between
earth-born goddess and constructed object when she is found to construct herself

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 22 alli son surtees a nd jennif e r d ye r

out of the materials around her. Similarly, Uhlig finds the representations of
Pandora surrounded by ambiguous figures such as satyrs, also wielding ham-
mers and thereby supporting the hybrid materiality she represents in both her
being and her gender. For the figure of Pandora as a woman also celebrates a
body that is constructed artificially and whose artifice is her strength.
Kelly Shannon-Henderson analyses a literary device, namely the spontane-
ous transformation of women into men, to determine what they reveal about
gender difference in the ancient world, only to find that these stories simulta-
neously offer alternatives to the masculinist binary norm and uphold rigorously
these gender norms of the time. In the scenarios Shannon-Henderson examines,
such transformation is not desired, leaving the characters the need to renegotiate
family roles, legal relationships and gendered social norms. Moreover, Shannon-
Henderson finds that these texts also reveal an ideological fascination with geni-
talia and sexual expression as determinate of both strict gender identity and male
superiority. While there is no doubt, in her analysis, that the women completely
transformed into men, there is also no hint that this indicates a fluidity to sex or
gender, and there is no implied moral that liminal gender identities have a place
in cisheteronormative patriarchal societies. The upshot of these tales is that those
who transform are viewed negatively; in fact, these stories reveal the centrality of
the gender binary and the social drive to destroy those who don’t fit the binary
gender norms because they make those who do fit the norms feel uncomfortable.
Once gender construction is situated as a fundamental theme, gender fluidity
is explored in the second section of essays, beginning with two enquiries into the
figure of Hermaphroditus. First, Linnea Åshede examines the visual tradition
of Hermaphroditus, rejecting the conventional reading as a female figure who
is surprisingly and humorously equipped with a penis. Instead, Åshede takes
up the gender roles Hermaphroditus presents and argues for Hermaphroditus’
gender fluidity. Åshede also takes up Karen Barad’s posthumanist theory of rela-
tional construction to analyse how the anatomy, apparel, behaviour, reception
and intended display contextualise the figure, showing how Hermaphroditus
is best understood to be an amalgamation of conventional representations of
beautiful women and boys in a gender-fluid whole.
Turning to literary sources, Peter Kelly similarly argues that the representa-
tion of Hermaphroditus in Ovid’s Metamorphoses emerges out of the descriptions
by Lucretius and Plato, but develops in a more cosmological line. Hermaphro-
ditus is an embodiment of universal retrogression, which in this context means
Hermaphroditus is a liminal figure symbolic of both universal history and of
human development. The key to Kelly’s argument is the gender fluidity of
Hermaphroditus, for it is only as a fluid blend of sex and gender identities that
the figure is representative of the discursive complexity of cosmological views in
Ovid, where transformational and relational cosmic structure is played out in
Hermaphroditus’ transformational selfhood.

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 in tro d uctio n 23

The theme of gender fluidity continues with Rebecca Begum-Lees’ discus-

sion of the character Iphis, again in Ovid’s Metamorphoses. Iphis was assigned
female at birth, but lives as a man who sexually desires women. Begum-Lees
argues that Iphis’ name is gender neutral, as are Iphis’ actions, but rather than
acting on same-sex desire, Iphis insists on acting as a man who loves Ianthe.
Ovid clearly deals with the constructed nature of gender norms in this character,
speaking solely about social gender and never referring to biological sex, to show
ultimately the inadequacy of strict social norms when Iphis is transformed as a
character into the much-longed-for male body to consummate marriage.
Jussi Rantala explores historical rhetoric around the intersection of gender
ambiguity and ethnicity in the complex figure of Elagabalus. Rantala shows
how this ambiguity is used as a rhetorical device by two contemporary Greek
historians, Cassius Dio and Herodian. Both authors use the emperor’s gender
ambiguity as an entry point to explore questions of Greek ethnicity in the
Roman Empire. For Herodian, Elagabalus’ strange behaviour underscores the
foreign, Eastern and therefore ‘othered’ nature of the emperor in relation to
Greek culture in the eastern part of the empire. His presentation and actions
were odd, but hardly dangerous. For Dio, however, Elagabalus is a much more
transgressive figure. As a Roman senator who identified strongly with the
Roman state, Dio views the emperor’s ‘womanly’ presentation and behaviour
as something alien to Roman identity and an insult to Roman values, values
which demanded the strict binary difference of masculinity and femininity,
ultimately revealing the ongoing need in Roman culture to maintain continu-
ally one’s binary gender expression.
From gender fluidity, we open in section three the differences explored
amongst cisgender and transgender women and men, and representations of
transgender identity in general. The theme of gender ambiguity is developed
in Dalida Agri’s study of Flavian epic. Agri examines the allegories in the divine
Virtus in Statius and Silius, linking gender liminality with forms of moral rea-
soning. On the one hand, Statius complicates the divine figure Virtus through
a simile of Virtus as transvestite Hercules: a feminine figure with masculine
meaning, dressed in female attire who seems to be reconstructing her gender
deceptively. On the other hand, Silius contrasts a sternly moral and gender
ambiguous Virtus with a yielding and feminine Voluptas. There is a double-
coding gender analysis at work here which Agri holds points to a larger gender
ambivalence that cuts through notions of a strict cultural gender binary.
Lisa Hughes revisits the characters of Omphale and Hercules in Pompeian
domus. Normally, the representations of the domineering queen Omphale and
the subordinate Hercules are figures of mockery and derision; in certain din-
ing contexts in Pompeian domus, however, the figures are treated positively.
Hughes argues that this is not a mistake but rather a mode of understanding
difference in Neronian theatre. She argues that the blurred gender lines in these

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 24 alli son surtees and jenn if e r d ye r

representations break down social and cultural barriers, consider the experience
of those outside the binary gender norms and ultimately construct new ways
to empathise and identify with the everyday domestic and public lives of those
who diverge from gender norms.
Evelyn Adkins considers the transgender experience of the priests of the
Syrian goddess in second century ad Roman culture, as depicted in Apuleius’
Golden Ass. While the priests identify as female and use feminine grammatical
forms, Lucius discusses them using only derogatory and male grammatical
forms. In an argument that resonates strikingly with those of the contemporary
world, Adkins holds that the key to their contested identity is in their speech:
their words, grammatical forms, voices and intentions in speaking are derided by
Lucius but are determinately feminine for the priests themselves. Lucius denies
the priests’ transwoman identities and instead he redefines them to conform to
Roman gender expectations, where gender, class and power are all fought within
the terrain of discourse and the politics of representation.
In a related argument but about a different text, Rowan Emily Ash examines
Lucian’s Dialogues of the Courtesans, and in particular the character of Megil-
los, who is assigned female at birth and identifies as a man. With reference to
Halberstam’s notion of ‘female masculinities’, Ash argues that the way that the
audience reads emphatic particle, syntax and plot motif determines whether
Megillos comes across as a lesbian or a transgender man. While at first blush the
story seems to assert prevailing gender norms by showing what happens once
they are defied, Ash argues that reconsidering the text with an eye to ethnicity
and economic class, as well as to gender and sex, offers a stronger, intersectional
reading of Megillos’ gender diversity.
Female masculinity is the focus of the fourth section, beginning with Brian
Sowers and Kimberly Passaro, who look at the Acts of Paul and Thecla to reveal
a second-century ad Christian ideal of sexual asceticism that actively inhabits
fluid gender identities. Thecla renounces marriage, contrary to both Greco-
Roman and Jewish norms: she becomes increasingly masculine as she renounces
more and more feminine duties, such as motherhood and women’s clothing, to
become a model Christian disciple and the ideal literary woman, who seems to
identify as a man. Sowers and Passaro hold that Thecla’s story reveals an unex-
pectedly nuanced understanding of the plurality of sexual identities promoted
in the ancient Mediterranean.
Mary Deminion takes the notion of female masculinity in another direction,
examining women’s challenges to political gender norms in Rome. Three orators
who also, and unusually, happen to be women, appear in Valerius Maximus and
are presented as either gender non-conforming or even inhuman for their trans-
gression into the masculine domain of the Roman courtroom. In arguing success-
fully and with courage and rhetorical skill, the three individuals are considered an
androgyne, a monster and a mere vessel for her father’s voice, respectively; that is,

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 in tro d uctio n 25

they are ridiculed for their defiance of heteronormative gender roles and denied
propriety of their own masculinised abilities. Nevertheless, Deminion argues that
the reaction to these women reveals the real anxiety about shifting gender bound-
aries evident in Roman public life.
Finally, Denise Eileen McCoskey examines the character of Artemisia both
in Herodotus and in the 2014 film 300: Rise of an Empire. As a Greek woman
serving as advisor and commander in Xerxes’ Persian fleet, Artemisia crosses
boundaries of both gender and ethnicity. For Herodotus, Artemisia’s role as a
warrior is transgressive, crossing accepted gender roles, but he does not treat
this transgression as exclusively dangerous. Rather he stresses her Greekness to
set her up as a mirror of Themistocles, offering a complex calibration of gender
difference and racial sameness. By contrast, the film shows Artemisia as all dif-
ference. Her gender-transgressive behaviour is now dangerous, and made even
more explicit by contrast with the feminine figure of Gorgo. Her racial differ-
ence is made overt, and she herself denies her Greekness and instead identifies
most closely with a black character in the film. While Herodotus’ Artemisia is
a remarkable and respected figure, in the film version she is only to be feared
and hated. As a figure of unacceptable difference, Artemisia must be destroyed,
a sentiment reflected in the brutality inflicted on her body and her eventual
violent death.

note
1. The one exception is Hephaestus’ attempted assault on Athena, which led to the
birth of the Athenian hero Erichthonios, with Athena as his nominal mother.
But this is specifically an Athenian story, and even here Athena eschews the
conventions of both sex and motherhood. The child is born from the ejaculate
Hephaestus spills on Athena’s leg, which she then flings to the earth (Gaia) from
which Erichthonios will later be born. Thus Athena, the mother, remains a virgin
and the child is neither conceived nor does it gestate in her womb. Nor does she
take on the role of caretaker, as she hands the child immediately upon his birth
over to the daughters of Kekrops to be cared for (on motherhood and Athenian
autochthony see Loraux 1981; Shapiro 1995; Rauchle 2015; Surtees 2019; but see
Llewellyn-Jones 2001).

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6254_Surtees & Dyer.indd 26 28/01/20 2:54 PM
 CHAPTER 1

Gender Diversity in Classical

Greek Thought
Walter D. Penrose, Jr

I n hir groundbreaking work Transgender Warriors, Leslie Feinberg advises that

the terms ‘transvestite’ and ‘cross-dresser’ can be offensive to transgender folks
because they reduce a person’s entire being to clothing choice (1996: xi). In the
1990s, Feinberg’s work served as activism not only by rethinking the vocabulary
of gender diversity, but also by writing a history of transgender individuals. In
this essay, I would like to expand upon Feinberg’s analysis by underscoring that
gender diversity among the ancient Greeks of the Classical Period (490–323 bc)
was understood to be about more than outward appearance. While clothing
choice was one factor by which the Greeks measured gender queerness, and
physiognomy another, classical-era Greek authors also factored an individual’s
intelligence and courageousness (or lack thereof ) into their gender makeup. Any
one of these characteristics, or some combination thereof, may have been used
to denote gender diversity. The Greeks’ intentions were not always as noble or
inclusive as those of Feinberg, however, as such markers were generally used to
gauge transgression from perceived norms. Among the Greeks, such perceptions
of gender variance were tied to misogynist, normative constructions of gender,
within which men were, more often than not, expected to be courageous and
intelligent, but women were often not. Within such a paradigm, women who
were courageous, intelligent and also loyal could be called masculine, whereas
men who lacked the characteristics of courage and strength, among other quali-
ties, could be perceived as feminine. While Greek authors often describe the
crossing of gender boundaries in a negative or pejorative fashion, occasion-
ally we do find positive assessments, more so with respect to women who were
perceived to be ‘masculine’ than with respect to men who were perceived to
be ‘feminine’ (Penrose 2016: 34–61; Carlà-Uhink 2017: 9). From Greek texts
we also gain insight into the attitudes of others, such as the Scythians, who,
although they did not record their own histories, refreshingly seem to have
revered gender-diverse individuals as shaman-type religious figures.

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 30 walter d. penrose, jr

I will begin this essay with an analysis of prescribed gender norms in classi-
cal-era Greece. Next, I will discuss how female masculinity and male femininity
were constructed in relation to those norms. I will then explore variations in
usage of the term androgynos, a term that literally translates as ‘man-woman’ but
more often than not, meant ‘feminine man’. I will also discuss how the terms
androgynos and kinaidos could be used as synonymous slurs, and how both terms
related to cowardice. I will then explore the very different contexts in which the
term androgynoi was used to describe Scythian Enarees who were described as
what we today would call male-to-female transgender women but were possibly
also female-to-male transgender men, non-binary or intersex. Where possible,
I will emphasise inconsistencies in Greek thought both with regard to the con-
struction of normative gender roles and, correspondingly, gender diversity.

ideal womanhood and female masculinity

In Xenophon’s Oeconomicus (7–10), a fourth-century bc Socratic dialogue on
estate management, the Athenian aristocrat Ischomachus describes the ideal
woman, his wife, in a discussion with Socrates. Ischomachus’ wife is an aristocratic
woman who capably manages the household, after having been trained by her
husband to do so. Ischomachus justifies the prescription of household duties to his
wife by telling her that: ‘since the god [Zeus] had delegated to the woman the duty
of guarding the produce that had been brought into the house, he measured out a
greater portion of fear to her than to the man. And knowing that the man, work-
ing outdoors, would have to defend against intruders, he gave him a greater share
of courage’ (7.25, ed. Pomeroy – all translations are my own). Xenophon does
not see women as completely devoid of courage, however, as they must have some
modicum of this trait to guard the valuables inside the house (Penrose 2016: 25).
In Xenophon’s understanding, prescribed gender roles are ordained by the god
Zeus, and thus considered natural. In Xenophon’s Symposium (2.12), however,
Socrates asserts that courage can be taught ‘even’ to a woman (see further Pomeroy
1994: 303). Plato’s Socrates goes further in asserting that men and women can
have the same virtues, including courage (Rep. 5). According to Aristotle, Socrates
argued that men and women did have the same andreia, although Aristotle
himself disagreed, arguing in one instance that women had a lesser andreia than
men, and, in another, that tragedians should not represent women as andreiai
(Ar. Pol. 1260A 20–4; Ar. Poet. 1454A). Socrates was a radical; pseudo-Aristotle,
in tandem with his alleged mentor Aristotle, emphasises that women are ‘less cou-
rageous’ than men ([Phyn.] 809a–b) (on the Socratic idea of andreia as a trait
shared by men and women, see Penrose 2016: 43–7).
Xenophon also asserts that women can be intelligent, even though he sees
intelligence, interestingly, as a masculine trait that the ideal woman possesses:

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after Xenophon’s Socrates hears about what a capable household manager

Ischomachus’ wife has become, he exclaims ‘By Hera, Ischomachus, you demon-
strate what a masculine intelligence your wife has’ (Oec. 10.1). This is a compli-
ment, whereas when a man is called feminine, the opposite is implied (Pomeroy
1994: 303). Xenophon here shows that he is more broad-minded than other
misogynist Greek authors, but nonetheless, like Semonides of Amorgos, he
genders intelligence as a male trait. Semonides argues in On Women (1–2, ed.
Lloyd-Jones) that ‘In the beginning the god made the female mind separately.’
(I here follow Lloyd-Jones (1975: 63–4), who persuasively argues that Semonides
compares the female mind to the male mind.) Semonides goes on to classify
women into different types, as though he were creating a taxonomy of animals.
One of these kinds of women, he argues, ‘often calls a good thing bad and a bad
thing good’ (10–11). Of course, Greek conceptions of gender did not neces-
sarily match up to the reality portrayed in Greek historical accounts or even
myth, where women do show intelligence. In the Odyssey, for example, Homer
does portray Penelope as clever, and hence the gendering of intelligence as a
male trait is not universal among Greek authors. In extant classical Athenian
literature, however, there is a tendency to view intelligent women as masculine.
The Athenian playwright Aeschylus presents the character of Clytemnestra as
a masculine woman due to both her intelligence and her boldness in his tragic
trilogy the Oresteia, which was first performed at Athens in 458 bc. The three
plays of the Oresteia centre around the murder of the Greek hero Agamemnon by
his wife, Clytemnestra, upon his return from the Trojan War. At the beginning
of the first play, Agamemnon, Clytemnestra is called androboulos ‘manly-minded’
because she is capably ruling Argos in her husband’s stead (Ag. 11, ed. Page).
Despite this compliment, Clytemnestra is ultimately viewed negatively for tak-
ing on other masculine prerogatives when she kills her husband in revenge for
his murder of their daughter, Iphigenia. As revenge was considered to be the
domain of men in ancient Greece, Clytemnestra’s actions are ascribed to tolma,
or audacity that is improper for a woman (1231–3; see further Burnett 1998:
144; McHardy 2004, 2008: esp. 37–42; Penrose 2016: 27–34).
Clytemnestra’s actions disrupt the social and political order. Aeschylus’
portrait of Clytemnestra negatively inscribes classical-era Athenian gender
norms: Clytemnestra usurps power reserved for men, and she pays the ultimate
price for doing so: death. The same may be said for Sophocles’ Antigone, in the
tragedy of the same name that was written in c. 441 bc (Penrose 2016: 35–7).
Unlike Clytemnestra, however, Antigone is a parthenos (a virgin or unmar-
ried girl). Judith Fletcher (2007: 25) argues that the ‘social construct’ of the
parthenos signified ‘a temporary period of wildness in a young woman’s com-
ing of age’. The ancient Greeks thought that parthenoi possessed ‘a remarkable
potency’ which had to be ‘incorporated within the state if the state’ was to
survive. The unmarried woman was considered to be adamatos, or ‘untamed’,

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and the only way that she could be tamed was via marriage. Fletcher (2007:
26) asserts that, in Greek thought ‘when the parthenos becomes nubile she can
turn nasty or even suicidal; the final stage of virginity, right before marriage
and integration into society, is a dangerous period . . . The virgin is a powerful
creature, full of a latent fecundity and incipient sexuality which cause prob-
lems unless properly channeled.’ Although Fletcher focuses upon the choruses
in Aeschylus in her investigation, her theoretical apparatus can be applied to
Sophocles’ Antigone (if not to Aeschylus’ Clytemnestra, who disrupts order
even after marriage). Sophocles’ Antigone, betrothed but yet unwed, disrupts
the social and political order by disobeying the orders of her uncle Creon, who
represents patriarchal authority in the play Antigone. Hence she is called a man
by Creon (484–5). Yet she is also called a man by her father, Oedipus, for her
loyalty to him in Sophocles’ Oedipus at Colonus (1365–9). In both plays, the
reader is left to sympathise with Antigone, and thus Antigone’s masculinity
is held in a positive light (Penrose 2016: 35–8; see also Starkey 2012: 171).
Conversely, in the Oresteia, the audience is led to sympathise with Clytemnes-
tra’s son, Orestes, who has killed his own mother.
While Clytemnestra and Antigone are fictional characters who transgress gen-
der boundaries and are ultimately killed, Artemisia I of the ancient Greek city of
Halicarnassus (modern Bodrum, Turkey) was a historical personage who chal-
lenged gender boundaries in real life, especially from an Athenian perspective.
According to Herodotus (7.99.1), Artemisia participated in the battle of Salamis
due to her andreia (masculinity or manly courage) and lēmatos (daring), fighting
on the side of the Persians, even though she was the Greek tyrant of Halicarnas-
sus in Asia Minor (see further Penrose 2016: 152–64; McCoskey in this volume).
Artemisia, unlike Clytemnestra and Antigone, was not killed off and stands as
a historical example of a powerful Greek woman who was perceived to be mas-
culine, albeit one who was somewhat of an ‘other’ due to her role in the Persian
army. Artemisia was certainly bold and outspoken in Herodotus’ Histories (7.99,
8.69, 8.87–8), and those are the two characteristics that are used by the fourth-
century bc Hippocratic author to define a masculine woman, as I will discuss
below. What the Hippocratic author seems to describe, furthermore, may not
be just a ‘stage’ that a parthenos traversed through, a ‘tomboyism’ if you will, but
rather a more enduring characteristic: the bold and outspoken woman was seem-
ingly considered to be imbued with a permanent state of masculinity.

gender diversity and the hippocratic theory

of conception
The unknown Hippocratic author of On Regimen viewed courage as a mas-
culine trait, and notes that women who were bold and outspoken were called

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‘masculine’ by his contemporaries. On Regimen, written in the Attic dialect in

c. 400 bc (Jouanna 1999: 408–9), is a text that describes how human concep-
tion causes gender diversity (see also Sukava in this volume). Unlike Aeschylus
(Eum. 657–66) and Aristotle (Gen. An. 727A–729A), who thought that only
the male contributed seed to a human foetus, the Hippocratics understood that
both men and women provided reproductive matter at the time of conception
(Hippoc. On Generation 6–7; Ps.-Hippoc. On Regimen 1.26–9).
The author of On Regimen (1.28–29.1, ed. Joly) begins by explaining that
men and women alike both produce male and female seed. Thus a man will
either emit male or female semen, and a woman will similarly provide either
male or female reproductive matter to mingle with the father’s semen and pro-
duce a child. If both the father and mother emit female seed, the infant will be
a girl, and will grow up to be ‘most feminine and graceful’ (thēlukōtata/euphues-
tata) (1.29.1, ed. Joly). If the mother secretes female reproductive matter but
the father contributes male semen, then the two types of seed will battle in the
womb. If the mother’s female seed wins, the child will be a girl, but will grow
up to be bolder (thrasutera) than in the first case but just as orderly or quiet
(kosmia). In the case where the father emits female sperm but the mother con-
tributes male reproductive matter and the father’s female seed wins, the child
will turn out to be a girl who is more audacious (tolmērotera) than the other two
types of girls. The author notes that such women are called masculine (andreiai)
(see further Penrose 2016: 38–43).
If the father emits male seed and the mother secretes male matter as well,
the offspring will grow up to be male, and will be ‘brilliant with respect to the
soul and strong-bodied’ (1.28.2, ed. Joly). If the father emits male semen but
the mother female seed, then a battle ensues in the womb. If the father’s male
matter masters the female, the child will be male, but will be ‘less brilliant’ than
the first case but still ‘manly’ (andreios) (1.28.3). Conversely, if the mother emits
male seed but the father emits female seed, and the mother’s male seed wins
the battle, the child will be an androgynos: ‘If male seed is emitted from the
woman, and female from the man, and the male seed wins the battle, the foetus
grows in the same manner as the former, while [the latter] is lessened. These
become androgynoi and are rightly called so’ (1.28.4). In other words, the child
grows up to be male, because the mother’s male seed has predominated in the
battle of the womb but is nonetheless labelled an androgynos, literally a ‘man-
woman’. The term androgynos here has generally been understood to refer to a
feminine man rather than an intersex individual due to the context of the entire
passage, which concludes with the following sentence: ‘These then . . . are the
three origins of men’ (Hanson 1992: 44; Gleason 1995: 62–3; Penrose 2016:
41, 41 n. 90). Greek children who were intersex were probably exposed, as the
ancient Greeks perceived such infants to be ominous prodigies of ill-fate to
come (Ogden 1997: 14; Brisson 2002: 2–23, 32, 37–40). In at least one case, an

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 34 walter d. penrose, jr

intersex infant was burned alive at Athens (Diod. Sic. 32.12.2). By the Roman
imperial period, Brisson (2002: 38–40) argues, more tolerance towards intersex
individuals developed. Garland (2010: 66, 2nd edition of Garland 1995) asserts
that the burning of the intersex child at Athens in the first century bc took place
under the direction of Roman authorities, and further suggests that the practice
of burning intersex children was Roman, not Greek.
In any event, the Hippocratic author here understands gender diversity
as related to courage/boldness, strength/weakness and possibly intelligence.
While the author does not explicitly define the term androgynos, it is implic-
itly defined in contrast to both the most masculine woman and man. The
masculine woman is described as bold, bolder than other women, in contrast
to the feminine man, the androgynos, who would not have been considered
bold. The most masculine male is described as both strong and lampros tas
psychas, ‘brilliant of character’. Conversely, the feminine man, the androgynos,
would have been considered physically weak and not brilliant of character.
The question that immediately arises is this: what did the Hippocratic author
mean by the phrase lampros tas psychas (brilliant of soul or character)? And,
perhaps more importantly for the purposes of this paper, what would the
opposite be?
In Aeschylus’ Oresteia, Clytemnestra’s partner in crime, Aegisthus, is called
a ‘woman’ (gynē) and accused of ‘having a cowardly soul’ (psychē kakē) by
the chorus because he did not serve in the Greek army that attacked Troy,
and, furthermore, because he allowed Clytemnestra to kill Agamemnon rather
than do the deed himself (1625–7; 1643–5, ed. Page). Similarly, the ‘female’
(thēlu) is accused of having a soft or cowardly soul (psychē malakē) by Pseudo-
Aristotle in the fourth century bc ([Phgn.] 810a). The coward at Sparta could
be forced to shave half of his beard (Plut. Ages. 30.3), thus perhaps identifying
him as an androgynos of sorts (see further Penrose 2016: 56–7). That term is
not used in descriptions of Spartan cowards, however, who are either called
tresantes (runaways) or kakoi (cowards) (e.g. Hdt. 7.231; Xen. Lac. Pol. 9.4).
The latter correlates to the psychē kakē, however, the ‘cowardly soul’ of Aegis-
thus, as mentioned above.
The Athenian speech-writer Lysias (10, ed. Hude) records that one soldier
by the name of Theomnestus had been prosecuted for speaking in front of the
assembly after he allegedly committed the supreme act of perceived cowardice,
having thrown away his weapons (ta hopla apobeblēkota) (10.1). Both Theom-
nestus and his father are described as ‘strong in body but not well with respect
to their souls’ (somasi dunantai tas de psychas ouk <eu> echousin) (10.29). The
‘illness’ of their souls is explicitly related to cowardice, even though both men
are able-bodied. Comparison of this phrase to the terminology used by the
Hippocratic author of On Regimen (1.28.2), lampros tas psychas suggests that
the latter could, in contrast, mean courageous.

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ANDROGYNOI and KINAIDOI

Hence, based upon the Hippocratic text itself as well as outside compari-
son, we can see that the term androgynos, like the slur kinaidos, could, at least
in some instances, be used as an epithet to denote a coward. A lost play of
Eupolis, entitled Astreteutoi (Men Who Have Not Been on Military Service) was
alternatively entitled Androgynoi (Etym. Magn. 174.50–5 (s.v. aphados), ed.
Gaisford=CAF fr. 34, ed. Koch; Dover 1989: 144, revised edition of Dover
1978), and provides an important point of comparison. The interchanging
of the titles Astreteutoi and Androgynoi further suggests that a man considered
cowardly could be called androgynos (Brisson 2002: 61). Cowardice in battle
was mocked in Athenian comedy, and comedy’s approbation against cowardice
mirrored real life. Although Eupolis’ Androgynoi is no longer extant, analysis of
Aristophanes’ comedy Clouds helps to fill in the blanks. In the Clouds (353), one
Cleōnymus is called a ‘shield-thrower’ (rhipsaspis). Throwing away one’s shield
amounted to deserting the ranks of the phalanx and retreating, and was seen
by the Greeks as a true act of cowardice (see Rademaker 2003: esp. 115–16).
Cleōnymus becomes the butt of a joke when the character Socrates instructs
his pupil Strepsiades to write Cleōnymus’ name with a feminine ending, thus
changing it to Cleōnymē (Clouds 680). Thus the comic ‘coward’ is named as
an androgynos of sorts. In the Timaeus (90E–91A), Plato equates the man who
lacked courage, and thus failed to live up to the ancient Greek ideals of man-
hood, with a woman when he asserts that the cowardly man who lives a bad life
will be reincarnated in the second generation as a woman. An Athenian soldier
who deserted or left his post could be fined, disenfranchised and stripped of all
civic rights, including the right to address the assembly (Andocides 1.74).
The term kinaidos was, at least in some cases, a synonym for the term
androgynos – both could refer to men perceived to be cowardly and/or feminine
(Gleason 1990: 396). In his invective against Demosthenes, the Athenian orator
Aeschines (2.151, ed. Schultz) directly contrasts hoplites, sound of body and
mind, to kinaidoi: ‘Which of the two would you expect they will pray for – ten
thousand hoplites like Philon, so well-conditioned with respect to his body and
so disciplined with respect to his soul, or thirty-thousand kinaidoi like you?’ The
manly hoplite as described by Aeschines was strong and had something akin to
a ‘brilliant soul’, that is to say a ‘disciplined soul’ (psychē sophrōn). Like Pseudo-
Hippocrates’ androgynos, the kinaidos is presented here as the antithesis of the
strong, brave, disciplined, manly male. He is thus weak and cowardly.
The author of the Physiognomics found in the corpus of Aristotle describes
the qualities of both the deilos or coward and the kinaidos. While the author
does not directly equate the deilos with the kinaidos, he lists weak eyes as a
characteristic that kinaidoi and cowards share; hence it would seem possible,
in Pseudo-Aristotle’s mind, for the coward to be a kinaidos and vice versa. The

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 36 walter d. penrose, jr

author asserts that the cowardly man gives himself away by his weak eyes, soft
hair, a weak body, long thin hands, and a high and slack voice (806b; 807b).
The author further asserts that the semeia or signs of the kinaidos include not
only weak eyes, but also knocked knees, a tilted head, limp wrists, his gait
(either wagging his hips or else holding them still), and finally his roaming
eyes (808a). (These characteristics are almost identical to those of the androgy-
nos as described by the second-century ad physiognomist Polemon. The Greek
text of Polemon is only preserved in an Arabic translation and a Latin sum-
mary, making it difficult to draw definitive conclusions; the term androgynos
may have appeared in the original Greek but we cannot be certain; see further
Gleason 1990: 395; Rantala in this volume.) Pseudo-Aristotle further relates
that the one characteristic shared by both the coward and the kinaidos, weakness
of the eyes, also indicates a man who is feminine (thēlus) and soft (malakos),
as well as downcast (katēphēs) and lacking in spirit (athumos) (808a). Further-
more, Pseudo-Aristotle asserts that ‘the soul and the body are sympathetically
affected by one another’ (808b, ed. Hett), a statement that could help to explain
the relationship between the ‘brilliant’ soul and strength of the most mascu-
line man in Pseudo-Hippocrates (On Regimen 1.28.2) as well as the bad soul
(psychē kakē) and weakness of the coward such as Aegisthus, as described above
(Oresteia 1625–7; 1643–5).
Various etymologies of the term kinaidos have been handed down to us,
including derivation from kinein ta aidoia (to move one’s shameful parts) or kenos
aidous (empty of shame) (Etym. Magn. 514.15–16 (s.v. kinaidos), ed. Gaisford;
Kamen and Levin-Richardson 2015a: 453, 458 n. 22). If the former is correct,
the term may have originally referred to a male dancer who shook his buttocks,
perhaps to attract sexual attention (Williams 2010: 175, 335 no. 81), but if
the latter is correct, the term may have had a broader meaning, one that could
include cowardice. Regardless of its origin, the term was used to refer to cowardly
men in the classical era. Although John J. Winkler (1990b: 171–209, esp. 177)
tends to focus upon sexual passivity and sex work as defining markers of the
kinaidos, he nevertheless notes that the kinaidos was perceived as a male whose
behaviour deviated completely from the social norms laid down by the dominant
culture. Matthew Fox (1998: 7) criticises Winkler for overemphasising the sexual
passivity of the kinaidos, arguing that the defining sexual characteristic of an
individual labelled as such was a lack of sexual restraint.
More recently, Marilyn Skinner has harkened back to Winkler’s description
of the kinaidos as an ‘unreal, but dreaded, anti-type of masculinity behind every
man’s back’ (Winker 1990b: 46; Skinner 2005: 125). Skinner further elaborates
upon this, asserting that ‘it is conceivable . . . that there were no actual kinaidoi’,
noting that some would argue that we can only call someone a kinaidos who
self-identified as such. That said, Skinner (2015: 125–32) identifies the tragic
playwright Agathon, a historical character, as a possible kinaidos. Not only was

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Agathon the erōmenos (passive beloved) of Pausanias when already a mature

man, making him, at least from an outside vantage point, the quintessential
‘passive’ partner, he is also presented as dressing in women’s clothes in Aristo-
phanes’ Thesmophoriazusai (Women at the Thesmophoria) (111–60), first staged
in 411 bc in Athens. In the play, the character Agathon claims that he dresses as
a woman in order to feel the roles of the women characters for whom he writes
parts (see further Medda 2017). In contrast to the character Euripides, who does
drag very badly and is called a gynnis, a ‘feminine man’, Agathon is called a gynē
or ‘woman’. Demosthenes, another historical personage, is called a kinaidos and
is accused of wearing feminine clothing, particularly undergarments, by his rival
orator Aeschines (1.131, 2.151; see further Ormand 2009: 49–51).
But can we use any of this as evidence? Skinner (2005: 128) is sceptical
of using comedy as historical evidence, and Amy Richlin (1993) is leery of
taking invective as fact. Tom Sapsford (2015), on the other hand, has identi-
fied historical kinaidoi in Hellenistic Egyptian inscriptions and papyri. In two
inscriptions of the first century bc, kinaidoi self-identify. In Egypt, it would
appear that being a kinaidos was an occupation that involved singing, dancing
or entertaining . Like the kinaidos, the androgynos appears in an historical con-
text as well, albeit a non-Greek one. The plural of androgynos, androgynoi, was
used by the fifth-century bc Greek historian Herodotus to describe feminine
men among the Scythians, or what perhaps might be better understood from
our twenty-first century vantage point as intersex persons or male-to-female
transgender women.

scythian and persian ANDROGYNOI

Herodotus asserts that androgynoi are to be found among the Scythians, who
call them Enarees (4.67.2) (on the Enarees, see Adkins in this volume). The
Enarees were androgynous shaman-type priestesses who took on a role simi-
lar to that of two-spirits in North America (Feinberg 1996: 21–9; see also
Williams 1986; Roscoe 1998). Herodotus does not attribute the femininity of
the Enarees to conception but rather to a female disease that had been cast down
upon them by the goddess Aphrodite after they pillaged her temple at Askalon
(1.105.4). The Hippocratic author of Airs, Waters, Places (22.1, ed. Jouanna)
further notes that ‘Most of the Scythians become impotent [eunouchoi] . . .
and are called Anarieis.’ I translate eunouchoi here as ‘impotent’ rather than as
‘eunuchs’ because the preceding passage of the text (21) asserts that they become
eunouchoi [impotent] due to several reasons, which include riding horses, the
moistness of their constitution, the flabbiness of their bellies, and, after onset,
the cutting of veins behind their ears to try and alleviate the condition (see fur-
ther Lieber 1996: 455). The author lists neither castration nor intersexuality as
reasons for their impotence.

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 38 walter d. penrose, jr

The Anarieis ‘speak like women’ (22.1, ed. Jouanna), wear women’s garments,
act like women, and work with other women doing women’s work (22.1, 7).
Pseudo-Hippocrates’ Anarieis are undoubtedly the same persons whom
Herodotus identifies as Enarees (Littré 1840: xxxix–xlviii; Vendryes 1934: 331).
The term is probably of Scythian, not Greek, origin (LSJ s.v. Enarees). Pseudo-
Hippocrates asserts that the majority of Scythians were Anarieis, but probably
overstates how many Anarieis there were. Today, intersex persons comprise up
to 1.7 per cent of the population, and transgender individuals account for up
to 0.6 per cent of the population (Blackness et al. 2000; Flores et al. 2016). So
if the Anarieis included both intersex and transgender individuals, they could
have made up to 2.3 per cent of the population (by no means a majority, but
still a significant presence).
The author of Airs notes that these individuals are revered by others in Scythian
society, who prostrate themselves before the Anarieis and attribute the cause
of their femininity to divine ordinance (see further Lieber 1996). Similarly,
Herodotus (4.67.2) notes that the Enarees said that Aphrodite endowed them
with the gift of prophecy, further suggesting that the Anarieis and Enarees were
the same group of persons. Anthropological studies of the Chukchi nomads
of north-eastern Siberia conducted in the early twentieth century have been
used to understand the Enarees (Halliday 1910/11: 97; cf. Vendryes 1934).
Among the Chukchi, intersex, male-to-female and female-to-male transgender
persons served as ‘diviners’ or ‘shamans’ in roles that seem to correspond to
those of the ancient Scythian Enarees (Bogaras 1901: 98–9). It would appear
that, like the Chukchi, Scythian society created a safe space for transgender
and/or intersex individuals that ancient Greek society of the classical period
did not. Although instances of Greek cross-dressing are recorded in both tex-
tual and iconographic evidence, they are usually linked with rituals (see further
Lissarrague 2002: 11–13; Carlà-Uhink 2017; Facella 2017; La Guardia 2017).
Gender-queer eunuch priestesses of the goddess Cybele do appear in a Greek
context in Apuleius’ second-century ce The Golden Ass (8.24–30; see Adkins in
this volume). They wander from town to town, seemingly without a home, and
Apuleius writes of them in a pejorative manner. One suspects that Scythians
may have been more tolerant of gender non-conforming persons.
The question which immediately arises is this: were some or all of the Scyth-
ian Enarees intersex, and, if so, is this why they were called androgynoi by Greek
authors? Or, since they were alleged to have been men inflicted with a ‘female
disease’, were they the ancient Scythian equivalent of male-to-female transgen-
der women? The answer may be both (Hart 2017). Archaeological evidence
may suggest that the Scythians, unlike the Greeks, raised intersex individuals
rather than exposing them. I make this hypothesis by drawing a comparison
to the noted presence of grown disabled individuals among the Scythians in

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the archaeological record, which suggests that the Scythians did not practice
infanticide as did the Greeks. Eileen Murphy has proven that Scythians did
raise children with genetic abnormalities by comparing several accounts of such
persons in Herodotus to burials in Amyrlag, Siberia. Herodotus (4.13) describes
a race of the one-eyed Arismaspians who lived at the ‘furthest edges’ of the
earth, but his claims were dismissed as sheer fantasy until excavations at Amyr-
lag unearthed individuals who were born with genetic differences from other
Scythians. Specifically, they had one eye rather than two due to cebocephalus
or Cyclops malformation (Murphy 2004: 179). Herodotus must have heard
reports of these individuals, who lived among other peoples rather than being a
race unto themselves, and exaggerated them (Murphy 2004: 177–80). Similarly,
persons with clubfoot have been found at Amyrlag, and serve to explain the
basis of Herodotus’ description of a ‘goat-footed’ race in this region (4.25).
Whereas the Greeks are thought to have had a tendency to commit infanti-
cide because they saw deformities as marks of divine disfavour (Ogden 1997:
9–14; Penrose 2015: 509–11; Garland 2010: 13–16; cf. Rose 2003: 29–40),
the Scythians and related peoples did not (Murphy 2004: 181). The same may
have been true of intersex children – whereas the Greeks tended to expose them,
perhaps the Scythians did not. (And it should be here noted that not all infants
who were disabled were necessarily exposed by the Greeks, as Patterson (1985:
114), Garland (2010: 13–16), Ogden (1997: 16–17), and Rose (2003: 29–40)
have discussed).
In any event, archaeological evidence suggests that disabled children were
raised by the Scythians, and thus intersex individuals may have also been reared
by them. A burial of what may have been an Enaree has been found at Tilya
Tepe in Afghanistan, but the individual was male to female, not intersex accord-
ing to Jeanine Davis-Kimball (2000: 226–7). Another burial discovered in the
permafrost of Siberia is of even more interest. The deceased was buried with
both weapons and fertility amulets and other objects deemed to be ‘feminine’ by
Russian archaeologists (Moss 2015). At first, it was assumed that the burial was
of an ‘Amazon’ warrior woman. DNA testing has revealed that the interred had
XY chromosomes, however, and thus must have been intersex, a male-to-female
transgender woman, or otherwise ‘gender non-binary’. The grave goods suggest
that the remains are of an elite warrior.
Was the deceased a male-to-female transgender ‘Amazon’ or an armed Enaree?
As noted above, Pseudo-Hippocrates tells us that the Enarees spoke like women.
Could this indicate that at least some of them were intersex? This remains a pos-
sibility. It has been suggested, however, that the Enarees may have been trans-
gender women who drank mare’s urine to help them transition from male to
female. Pregnant mare’s urine contains high levels of oestregen and is still used
today to make a hormone replacement therapy drug called premarin. The name

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 40 wa lter d. penrose, jr

of this drug is a contraction of ‘pre(gnant) mar(e’s ur)in(e)’, and it is widely

used today by female-to-male transgender individuals to transition (Savage
2006: 74–5; Taylor 1996: 212–13). According to Timothy Taylor (1996: 213),
it is ‘not at all unusual for pastoralist people to drink the urine of their animals’.
Thus the Enarees may have transitioned to womanhood by drinking an extract
of pregnant mare’s urine. That said, other theories have been posited. Murphy
suggests that the Enarees may have had slipped femoral capital epiphysis, a con-
dition in which sexual characteristics in males are delayed, or an ‘abnormality of
the sex chromosome’ (Murphy 2004: 180). Additionally, queer persons today
may exhibit speech patterns that differ from others (Bigham 2014), and so per-
haps did the Enarees. Stephanie West (1999) asserts that Pseudo-Hippocrates’
understanding of the Scythians is far from reliable, yet the ‘female disease’ of
the Enarees may have been a Greek way of understanding intersex individuals,
transgender women or otherwise gender non-binary persons who were Scythian
Enarees. What is clear is that the Scythians not only tolerated, but celebrated
sex/gender diversity in a way that the Greeks did not.
Not surprisingly, the Greeks tended to understand gender diversity as some-
thing foreign, whether among the Scythians or others. Ctesias (Excerpta de
Virtutibus et Vitiis I: 330, 5, ed. Büttner-Wobst=Nicolas of Damascus FGrHist
90 F4), a Greek physician and historian who lived at the Persian court in
ca. 400 bc, tells us that the Babylonian satrap Nanarus was called an androgynos
by his rival Parsondes. Nanarus, Ctesias tells us, lived in luxury wearing feminine
clothing, shaving himself and using cosmetics, but nonetheless took offense to
being called an androgynos by Parsondes (see further Hart 2018: 62–6). Ctesias
suggests that the term androgynos held bad connotations for Nanarus, but of
course, if there is any truth to this story, the conversation was probably not
conducted in Greek. What is important here is that Ctesias’ usage of the word
confirms that an androgynos may have been a person who engaged in cross-
dressing and other gender non-conforming behaviours.
Filippo Carlà-Uhink (2017: 10) has recently asserted that among the
Greeks and Romans there was a ‘widespread idea that cross-dressing’ was ‘prac-
ticed by other barbarian cultures’, which were ‘victims of their tryphe [luxury]
and unable to correctly draw the distinction between male and female’. While
truly gender-queer individuals, the Enarees, are located by the Greeks among
the Scythians, when we hear of ‘cross-dressing’ among the Greeks, it is often
described or portrayed in a ritual context, or on the stage (e.g. Lissarrague
1990: 11–13; Miller 1999; Smith 2010: 191; Surtees 2014; La Guardia 2017;
Facella 2017; Medda 2017; Carlà-Uhink 2017: 12–13), rather than as part of
an ongoing, transgender-type identity. Nevertheless, androgynoi are understood
in the Hippocratic text On Regimen as existing universally, both in Greece and
beyond its shores.

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 g ender di versi t y i n cl a s s ica l gre e k th o ugh t 41

conclusion
The term androgynos, from a Greek point of view, referred to feminine men or
male-to-female transgender women. In extant texts of which I am aware, the
term is used in two ways: (1) to problematise ‘feminine men’ who were perceived
as weak and lacking in courage, and (2) to describe intersex persons or male-to-
female transgender persons, such as the Enarees. The Greeks understood male
femininity as a defect of character or ‘illness’ of sorts of the soul. Similarly, they
understood the Scythian Enarees as men who have a ‘female disease’. While
we cannot know what the Scythians themselves would have thought, the fact
that they revered the Enarees suggests that they were more tolerant and under-
standing of intersex and transgender persons than the Greeks. According to
Judith Butler (1999: 6), ‘it becomes impossible to separate out “gender” from
the political and cultural intersections in which it is invariably produced and
maintained’. Extant literary descriptions of the Enarees or Anarieis, however,
were ‘produced’ in the cultural and political intersections of Greece, even if the
Enarees were Scythians. Whereas the Scythians created a space for intersex or
transgender individuals to occupy within society, the ancient Greeks appear to
have been less tolerant of sexual and gender diversity, and less understanding of
it when viewed in others such as the Scythians or Persians. It would be the Greek
understanding of Enarees that would be recorded for posterity, not the Scythian.
In ancient Greek sources, we see early vestiges of the Western medicalisation of
intersexuality and transgender identification as diseases or abnormal conditions,
a phenomenon that is still, unfortunately, occurring today (on contemporary
medicalisation of transgender and intersex bodies, see further Holmes 2008,
2009; Feder 2014; Johnson 2015).
In a different, more Greek context, the term androgynos could be used as a
synonym for the epithet kinaidos. Both words were pejoratively hurled as slurs
against men perceived to be cowards. While the terms kinaidos and deilos could
also be used as synonyms, the differentiation drawn by the Aristotelian author
of the Physiognomics between the two types of men is of interest. Both had ‘weak
eyes’ (a condition that was associated with femininity), but otherwise could be
recognised by other bodily characteristics and movements which were not the
same. This suggests that the two were not necessarily the same, even if a coward
might be called a kinaidos.
In correlation, courage was a primary factor in identifying masculinity
in women. Halberstam (1998: 46) suggests that we avoid prevalent modern
assumptions that historical female masculinities ‘simply represent early forms of
lesbianism,’ and rather search for ‘meanings of early female masculinity within
the history of gender definition and gender relations’. Female masculinity in
classical Athens was apparently measured by the presence of both courage and

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 42 wa lter d. penrose, jr

intelligence in women, because courage and intelligence were considered male

qualities, that, when manifested in women, were often perceived as anomalies
by male authors. We must also avoid positing our own associations between
homosexuality and femininity on the ancients as well. The gender-deviant
kinaidos may have been marked in part by either passive sexuality or sexual
excess, but he could also, like the androgynos, be marked by cowardice and/or
transgender behaviour.

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 CHAPTER 2

Blending Bodies in Classical

Greek Medicine
Tyson Sukava

I n his influential book Making Sex: Body and Gender from the Greeks to Freud
(1992), Thomas Laqueur posited that the binary sexual classifications of
male and female are relatively recent concepts in the Western world.1 In antiq-
uity, females were imagined as imperfect versions of males; female genitalia,
key markers of sex, were reductively envisioned to be inverted versions of male
sexual organs. The product, Laqueur argues, was a ‘one-sex body’ model. This
claim has been successfully critiqued by Helen King (2013b), who has pointed
out, among other problems, Laqueur’s reliance upon the relatively late physi-
cian Galen (second century ad) when examining ancient material. King argues
instead that both one-sexed and dual-sexed concepts of the body have existed
concurrently since antiquity.
The purpose of this paper is to examine how classical Greek physicians, in
their attempts to create workable models of both one-sexed and dual-sexed bod-
ies, produced spaces for sexual classifications to be complicated. For them, the
internal body was a complex mass of vaguely understood parts, and physicians
often obscured sexual distinctions to simplify their models. As well, following
versions of the humoral theory, physicians tended to emphasise physiology over
anatomy to a greater extent than in modern Western medicine. They envisioned
the body primarily as a receptacle for fluids. Hidden beneath its surface were
parts for production and storage of fluids, and channels for fluid transportation.
Much excellent scholarly attention has been paid to how male physicians devel-
oped theories and techniques to control, regulate and subordinate the female
body. Physicians’ principal justification for this was a perceived overabundance
of fluid in the female body, a result of the womb, relative to the male body
(see for example, Hanson 1992; Dean-Jones 1994; King 1998). I am especially
interested here, though, in exploring how an emphasis on bodily fluids in medi-
cal theories encouraged physicians to imagine sex, and along with it gender, as
a process of blending. Although the presence of male or female genitalia could

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 44 t yson suk ava

be binary anatomical indicators of sex, different types and quantities of fluids

determined where an individual existed between these extremes. These differ-
ences ultimately affected one’s physical state and behaviour.
I turn first to blended bodies in some classical treatises within the Hippo-
cratic Corpus that pay special attention to bodily structures, particularly On the
Nature of Man, On the Places in Man and On Regimen. A unifying theme held
in these works, and most treatises within the Hippocratic Corpus, is that the
human body is primarily a physician’s area of authority and control. It is impor-
tant to stress, though, that they were still members of a society and tended to
align their theories to agree with cultural norms (Hanson 1992: 31–3; Dean-
Jones 1994; 41–55). In early Hippocratic medicine, roughly from the mid fifth
to early fourth centuries bc, physicians were concerned with justifying their
right to these powers (Jones 1946; Van der Eijk 2005). For example, the author
of On Ancient Medicine is particularly committed to demonstrating that phy-
sicians are better suited than natural philosophers to determine ‘what sort of
thing a human is’ (ho ti estin anthrōpos; all translations are my own) (VM 20).
The term anthrōpos (human) here and elsewhere is important because it encom-
passes both sexes. The author adds that a physician must limit his attention
to aspects of this nature (physis) that are relevant to medicine, namely one’s
regimen (see further Schiefsky 2005: 293–4). This sentiment is echoed in
On Regimen I, a work that examines the relationship between a human’s nature
(physis) and lifestyle in health. The first part of the work is dedicated to an
account of the formation and construction of the human body. Here, the
author claims that one must begin to assess a patient’s regimen by thoroughly
understanding ‘the nature of a human’ (physis anthrōpou), which he restricts to
the knowledge of the body’s material composition and the parts that control it
(Vict. 2; see also Loc. Hom. 2).
There was significant disagreement among Hippocratic physicians concern-
ing what this material is and what parts of it are important in medicine; however,
the impetus for most Hippocratic writers was to reduce the number of elements
that they needed to consider in the clinic, which encouraged a simplified work-
ing model of the clinical body. A common byproduct was the elision of sexual
differences. Yet a persistent question for physicians was where to begin a study
of the human body per se: every part of the body could potentially be significant
for the promotion of health. The author of On the Places in Man mentions this
crux at the outset of his treatise: ‘It is my opinion that there is no beginning
to the body. Rather, all [parts] are equally its beginning and all [parts] are its
end, just as you cannot find the beginning of an inscribed circle’ (Loc. Hom. 1).
Implied here is that any attempt to describe the medical body, by which I mean
a certain lens through which a physician views a patient with an aim to diag-
nosis and treatment, is to a degree arbitrary. Ideally, the starting place would be
those parts that are most important to restoring health. But what might these

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 blendi ng bodi es i n cl a s s ica l gre e k me d icin e 45

be? The author of Epidemics 6, a collection of physicians’ notes, articulates some

of the frustration practitioners felt: ‘For good physicians, similarities [produce]
wanderings and obstacles, but so do opposites [when investigating] what sort
of actual cause there is [for a phenomenon]. But this is difficult to comprehend
even for one knowing the method [of medical practice]’ (Epid. 6.8.26; see also
Loc. Hom. 41). He follows this comment with a list of observable features and
habits – a sharp head, flat nose, difficulty with vomiting, decadent lifestyle –
and questions how these could possibly be connected. A patient assails the
physician with an overwhelming number of observable details: the problem is
identifying those that matter.
One important way of limiting important details in the medical body was
to adopt some variation of the humoral theory, the notion that health (both
physical and mental) was promoted through the regulation of fluids, or occa-
sionally other elements, within the body. Different bodies contained different
proportions of fluids that allowed for multiplicity in individual natures, which
we shall see has some important ramifications. The material body, on the other
hand, is composed of parts that provide structure, locomotion and a means to
refine, store and convey the humours within the body (Gundert 1992; Craik
2009). As Mirko Grmek (2002: 248) writes, ‘For nearly all Hippocratic authors,
disease was the expression of a disorder – not in the primary constituents, but
in the fluid components of the human body.’ In other words, most Hippocratic
interest in the body emphasised physiology over anatomy.
Although traces of the humoral theory are evident throughout the Hippo-
cratic Corpus, the fullest articulation of the humoral theory is contained in On
the Nature of Man. The work is especially notable for its authorship. Aristotle
attributes it to Polybus, the son-in-law of Hippocrates, which offers the secur-
est connection between a Hippocratic treatise and the theories of the historical
Hippocrates (Arist. HA 512b with Langholf 2004). At sections 4 and 5 of the
treatise, the author explains that the human body (sōma anthrōpou) contains
four types of fluid: blood, phlegm, yellow bile and black bile (on the Hippo-
cratic humoral theory, see further Jouanna 1999: 314–17 and Schöener 1964).
Importantly, the author does not say that these are only components of the
body’s nature; they are the essence of it (taut’ estin autōi hē physis tou sōmatos).
At the conclusion of section 5, we find that all of these fluids are contained
within every body at birth. Furthermore, one is born from and nurtured by a
human being (anthrōpos, specifically a woman) who contains all of these ele-
ments within her.
The author of On the Nature of Man follows through with this reductionist
approach in his study. The humoral method he adheres to is an elegant one,
which is a large reason for its enduring popularity: instead of being overwhelmed
by the vast array of possibly extraneous details, a physician can focus on observ-
ing expelled fluids and restoring the balance of a patient’s four humours. There

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 46 t yson suk ava

is an important derivative from such an approach. In the attempt to simplify

much of the medical art to a harmonisation of bodily fluids, the sexualised body
becomes obscured and, at times, nearly erased (see also Loc. Hom. 42). The
author of On the Nature of Man is obligated by his explanation for the origin
of these fluids to hold that both males and females contain each of the four in
varying proportions. At its base, the nature of a body is defined by the fluids it
contains. Since the ratios of these fluids can differ (whether between individu-
als or across time in the same person), there is the potential for a spectrum of
human natures. That is, the emphasis on blended bodily fluids in Hippocratic
medical thought allowed for fluidity in any one person’s constitution, whether
male or female.
We shall see later how this becomes used in other works as a means to place
individuals on sexual spectrums. In On the Nature of Man, though, there is vir-
tually no trace of a sexualised body. The author created a homogenised medical
body to explain why humans as a class respond to natural stimuli and treatment
in similar predictable ways. To treat male and female bodies separately within
the treatise would be akin to fighting a battle on two fronts: he would need to
provide different accounts for the humours in each sex for each external factor
explored (for example, the seasons and climate). This is messy science. The only
place where the treatise explicitly contrasts men and women is in a passage that
elides any differences. In section 9, the author makes a distinction between
diseases caused by regimens (diaitēmata) – that is, diet and lifestyle – and those
caused by the air. Diseases caused by regimen are idiosyncratic, but those caused
by air affect everyone – younger and older, men and women – equally. Later
in the same section, the author provides a similar list of factors important to
a physician in the case of regimen: the kind of disease, the patient’s constitu-
tion and age, the season and the patient’s nature (physis anthrōpou). This last
criterion, the patient’s nature, could perhaps be interpreted as some hint of sex
distinction, but this could equally apply to the spectrum of humour ratios across
human bodies, regardless of sex.
Two more examples of possible yet superficial sexual distinctions in On the
Nature of Man are worth noting for the sake of completeness. Near the end of
the work in a description of bloodletting, the author traces the jugular veins
(sphagatides) from the neck to the testes (orchies) and thighs (11). The use of
the word orchies might suggest that the author is defaulting to a male body as
his model; however, it is clear from the context that mention of the testes was
intended as a reference point for the path of the veins and has little to do with the
author’s theory (see also Oss. 15 with Harris 1973: 67). As Vivian Nutton (2004:
100) correctly notes, the gynaecological treatises in the Hippocratic Corpus were
written by and for men; we can probably extend this comment to all writings in
the collection. It would therefore make sense for the author to refer to anatomical
parts of the intended readership to guide their understanding. In the following

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 blendi ng bodi es i n cl a s s ica l gre e k me d icine 47

section, another set of vessels are neutrally described as terminating at the private
parts (to aidoion), a term regularly associated with both male and female genitals.
The final instance of possible sexual distinction appears in section 12. Here, the
author begins by remarking that after the age of thirty-five, people become softer
from decreased physical activity, which contributes to disharmony within the
body. He continues to remark that children are susceptible to kidney stones, but
men (andres) are not. The reason for this is the body is its hottest at birth (heat
is necessary for growth, he explains) but as the body decays, it necessarily cools.
But, perhaps as a correction to his default to the male body, the author then gen-
eralises his account by including the term anthrōpos (human) when clarifying his
statement. Here too, we see an impulse towards generalising the human body:
both male and female bodies apparently undergo similar changes as they age.
Certainly, Hippocratic medicine did not always gloss over the distinctions
between male and female bodies. Physicians were quite aware that there are
important anatomical distinctions that affect health problems specific to the sex.
Female anatomy tended to receive the greatest attention, owing mostly to the
phenomenon of menstruation and women’s role in childbirth. A passage from
King, who has explored this topic thoroughly in several places (for example, King
1998; 2013b; 2015), is worth citing in full:

In Hippocratic gynaecology, to be a woman is to menstruate. This poses the

problem of women who do not menstruate: they may be ill, in which case
drugs or mechanical procedures can be used to induce menstruation; they
may be pregnant, in which case there is no danger to their health because
the excess blood is contributing to the foetus; or they may be past the meno-
pause, that natural process of ‘drying out’ which transforms even a wet and
spongy female body into something that does not bleed. (1998: 76)

The locus classicus for classifying a female body in Hippocratic writings

is at On the Diseases of Women 1.26. Here, the author uses the comparatives
araiosarkoterē (more spongy) and apaloterē (more soft) to describe the female
body in relation to the male body. Similar comments can be found elsewhere
in the Corpus (see for example, Gland. 1 and 16 with King 1998: 28–9, and
Hanson 1992: 36). What is notable for our purposes is that the distinction here
is one of quality, not of kind.
Gynaecology for the Hippocratics is mostly limited to the study and treat-
ment of the womb (hysterē or mētrē). Because of their limited access to the
internal body, physicians were encouraged to examine bodily effluence – for
example, faeces, urine and vomit – as indications of internal health (see for
example, Prog. 11 and 12). The coincidence of the womb and process of men-
struation offered reasons to inflate the effects of both upon the sex (Hanson
1992: 38–9). The author of On the Places in Man concisely limits this sphere of

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 48 t yson suk ava

treatment: ‘The so-called women’s sicknesses: [their] wombs are the cause of all
of these sicknesses’ (46; see also Arist. HA 497b). Indeed, the treatments that are
described in gynaecological works such as On the Diseases of Women and sections
of On Generation/On the Nature of the Child leave the impression of a polarised
distinction between female and male bodies. (It is notable that the author of On
the Diseases of Women I is probably the same author of On Generation/On the
Nature of the Child [Jouanna 1999: 385, 392].) Other anatomical differences
are incidental to the presence of the womb: the author of On Airs, Waters, and
Places, for example, notes that females are less inclined to have kidney stones
because they have shorter and wider urethras (9). Such circumscribed attention
to the womb in delineating anatomical differences left opportunities for signifi-
cant overlap between the sexed bodies.
Indeed, the author of On the Nature of Women argues that there is also a
spectrum of body types for women that can intersect to some degree with the
qualities of male bodies. In the introduction to this work, the author is care-
ful to use the plural ‘women’s natures’ (hai physies tōn gynaikōn) to denote the
object of his study, thereby suggesting diversity among them. He then con-
tinues to describe three types of women’s natures based on their complexions
(chroai): extremely white women are moister (hygroterai); women with dark
complexions are drier (xēroterai); and wine-coloured women are a blend of
the two previous types (meson ti amphoterōn echousin). As a woman ages, she
becomes drier and has less blood, an explanation likely based on the process of
menopause (Nat. Mul. 1). This fluidity of female body constitutions provides
the opportunity for a spectrum of classification that, beyond the hypothetical
asexed medical body, can allow for significant overlap with male bodies.
We can see this more clearly in three other Hippocratic works, On the
Places in Man, On Regimen 1 and On Generation. Just as with On the Nature
of Man discussed above, the author of On the Places in Man concentrates on
a homogenised model of the body. At its outset, the author states that bodies
that are dry are more susceptible to sickness than wet bodies. The reason is that
a moist constitution compels the sickness to flow more readily throughout the
body and weaken, since it lacks an opportunity to become fixed in one place.
If the author of this treatise adheres to the common Hippocratic belief that
women are ‘wetter’ than men, this would commit him to the belief that female
bodies are healthier than males. There is, however, no explicit trace of this in
the work. What follows is a series of anatomical, physiological and pathologi-
cal accounts that contain no mention of sexed bodies. Only at the conclusion
is there specific attention to sex anatomy, the aforementioned comment that
‘women’s sicknesses’ are a product of the womb (47). The incongruent addition
of this section has been seen by some as intrusive, though, and convincing argu-
ments have been made for it being a later addendum to a work on an otherwise
exclusively asexed medical body (Craik 1998: 218–19 with bibliography).

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 blendi ng bodi es i n cl a s s ica l gre e k me d icine 49

A comparable approach is adopted by the author of On Regimen 1, yet here

we see the spectrum between male and female bodies more carefully articu-
lated. As with other works explored above, the author here argues that his
study of bodily regimen must begin with an assessment of a human’s nature
(physis anthrōpou, section 2). Because his work concentrates on a person’s daily
habit, he goes on to clarify that both natural and artificial exertion can pro-
duce changes in one’s fleshes (sarkes). In other words, every body is subject to
fluidity. As an extension of this, the author states that the flesh of both male
and female bodies – one of the distinguishing qualities mentioned in On the
Diseases of Women – can become increased or reduced. In sections 1 and 4, the
author diverges from the four-humour theory to claim that all living beings,
including humans, are composed of two things: fire and water. Each is needed
to exist within a person, and each contains specific qualities. Fire is hot and
dry, whereas water is cold and wet. Both elements, however, can share in each
other’s qualities of moistness and dryness. This communication between bina-
ries is what produces the various things in the universe. Hynek Bartoŝ (2015: 98
and n. 424) observes that the balance of these opposing elements becomes the
author’s core theory of dietetics. Therefore, there is no specific distinction made
between male and female bodies in his account of regimen, with one exception.
In section 27, he recapitulates the common Hippocratic belief: female bodies
incline towards water, and are therefore best suited to cold, wet and soft food
and drinks, whereas male bodies, inclining toward fire, are drawn to dry and
warm ones. He then explains that both sexes contribute secretions (apokrithes)
to the production of offspring. The sex of children can therefore be altered prior
to conception by both the male’s and the female’s intake of food and drink with
specific qualities. An increase of the ‘fire’ element within a parent promotes a
male child; that of ‘water’ promotes a female.
This ability to increase female and male qualities within a body regardless
of sex has interesting repercussions. In the following section (28), the author
claims that both the female (thēlu) and the male (arsen) can be fused together
(synistasthai . . . pros allēla), since defining elements of both sexes are contained
within each. A further reason for this fusion is that the soul (psychē) is of a
similar synthesis within all animate things. The specific qualities of the soul
are determined by the admixture of secretions from the male and female: the
strongest children are those from male secretions from both partners; blend-
ing of male secretion from male and female from female produces a male (for
the stronger absorbs the weaker); female from a male and male from a female
produces androgynes (literally ‘men-women’). A similar process occurs with the
production of females. Most notable are instances when a male secretes female
material and a female contributes male. The products of such unions are manly
(andreiai) women (29). This theory of blended elements, a fluidity of body/soul
types, therefore is disruptive to sexual polarisation. Nevertheless, there are still

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 50 t yson suk ava

strong traces of cultural gendered power dynamics here, since, everything being
equal, male elements will consistently subjugate the female.
The author of On Generation, a shorter work concentrating on the process
of procreation, posits a similar account of the contest between male and female
secretions in the production of children. This is the only other work in the
Hippocratic Corpus to articulate such a theory explicitly (Dean-Jones 1994:
168–9; on this passage, see also Penrose in this volume). In section 6 of the trea-
tise, he posits that each partner possesses both male and female seeds (spermata),
although only one type of seed is contributed by each partner during copulation.
It is taken as axiomatic that the male is stronger (ischyroteron) than the female,
and he concludes from this that it is a necessity (anagkē) that the male seed will
overpower the female during copulation. If a male and female both contribute
male seeds, then a male is produced; if only female, then a female is produced.
He continues to posit, though, that if either the male or female contributes more
of the female seed than male, then the weaker seed (female) will overpower the
stronger (male) by its volume. The product is then a female. It is clear from the
sections that follow, though, that he does not mean that a partner’s victorious seed
completely displaces the losing seed; rather, there is a blending of the two during
which the stronger becomes more dominant in the formation of the child. The
author, exhibiting his fondness for demonstrable analogies, explains that this is
clear from the admixture of fat and wax. When both are combined and melted
and more fat than wax is present, the ratio is unclear; however, when the mixture
cools, it is apparent which substance has the greater proportion. We can extrapo-
late from this that bodies, outside of pure male/male and female/female seed com-
binations, are blends of sexual elements in different proportions.
There are several conceptual difficulties in this account, at least prima facia
(see Lonie 1981: 125–6; Dean-Jones 1994: 168 for useful comments). The most
relevant one here is the problem of what is meant by a ‘stronger’ (viz. male) seed,
if the amount of the contribution seems to be the deciding factor. A probable
solution for this can be found by looking outside of the work itself. As Iain Lonie
has observed, the same author writes in On the Nature of the Child that the male
seed is thicker (pachyterē) and the female is moister (hygroterē) (Nat. Puer. 20). If
the author is being consistent across the two treatises, by ‘stronger’ he probably
means that it would take a greater contribution of the female seed to overpower
the male because it is less concentrated (Lonie 1981: 128–30). Once again, this
author aligns his theory with the common Hippocratic belief that the male sex
is naturally denser, thus stronger. By analogy, he transfers these attributes to the
primordial elements of ancient embryology: the seeds of sexual determination.
Unlike On Regimen 1, On Generation does not elaborate upon the possible
offspring that arise from various pairings of seeds; however, in section 8 the
author does observe that children tend to have specific features that appear more
similar to either the father or the mother. This, he argues, is proof that a child

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 blendi ng bodi es i n cl a s s ica l gre e k me d icin e 51

is produced from a mixture of material from both parents. When a child has a
feature that appears to be more like the father’s, it is because more from that part
of the father’s body has entered the seed than the mother’s, and vice versa. Never,
he asserts, does it occur that a child is entirely similar to one or the other par-
ent. The author here thus posits a version of pangenesis: the belief that the seed
produced by either a male and female is derived from every part of the body (see
also Aër. 14). The resulting blending and struggle of male and female elements
therefore lead to results similar to those in On Regimen 1. As Ann Hanson (1992:
43–4) remarks, following the classifications in On Regimen 1, ‘the sexually biva-
lent seeds from the father and mother vied for mastery within the womb to result
either in the “masculine boy” and the “feminine girl”, or in the “wimpy boy” and
the “manly girl”’. She further notes that this spectrum of potential outcomes
allowed for medical intervention to prevent and correct aberrant outcomes of
males presenting female qualities, or females presenting male ones.
So far, we have seen medical descriptions of didactic, hypothetical ‘human’
bodies where sex markers have been all but erased; we have also seen attempts
to explain the messier business of real-world differences between people. The
practising physician would have been inundated with the latter in his clinic, and
navigating the spectrum of body types was often difficult. King (2015: 260) has
demonstrated this in her analysis of a certain Phaëthousa of Abdera, described
in Epidemics 6 (6.8.32) (on Phaëthousa and Nanno, see Shannon-Henderson
in this volume). Phaëthousa had stopped menstruating (presumably earlier
than menopause) some time after having children. Following this, her body
became masculine (to te sōma ēndrōthē): she became hairy and grew a beard,
and her voice became rough. The author notes that a similar thing happened to
Nanno of Thasos, who could become re-feminised (viz. normalised) only if her
menstruation started again. King concludes that because Phaëthousa had given
birth, she still must have been considered a woman by physicians because she
possessed a womb and had menstruated; no complete revolution in sexual clas-
sification had occurred. The note therefore may be a caution that a doctor can
be misled by external observations.
Here was a crux for physicians: does the existence or absence of a specific
body part, the genitalia in particular, or physiological process affect how a
patient should be classified and treated? At least in some cases this is not so. In
one example from Aphorisms (3.11), the author describes illnesses that follow
dry winters and rainy springs. In such years, the summers produce acute fevers,
eye disease and dysentery, ‘especially in women and men with moist natures
(physes)’ (see also Aër. 19–20 and Aph. 3.17). In other words, men who display
female qualities of moistness are inclined to suffer similar health issues and,
presumably, would receive similar treatment. We see then that both in concep-
tions of the idealised medical body and in practice, there are opportunities for
overlapping male and female qualities.

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 52 t y s on suk ava

I conclude with a brief example to illustrate how these representations of bod-

ies in classical Greek medicine might have influenced broader concepts of sex.
There unfortunately is little evidence external to the Hippocratic writings; how-
ever, a possible glimpse of diffusion among at least some members of the larger
community can be found in Plato’s Republic. It is clear that Plato was interested
in medicine and its relationship with his ethical philosophy (Levin 2014). There
appear to be traces of this in his description of Guardian types – overseers in his
ideal city – in Book 5 (5.451c ff.). Here, Plato’s Socrates explores the potential
contribution of both men and women in the Guardian class. The example of
hunting dogs is first introduced, in which the interlocutor Glaucon is compelled
to say that there is no sexual difference influencing the abilities of dogs: the
distinction rests on training. Glaucon claims that they are similar in every way
(koinēi . . . panta) except in degree: the female is weaker and the male is stronger
(451e1–2), qualities that the Hippocratics have cast back to the seeds of life itself.
Socrates next offers that the same can be said for humans: there is a differ-
ence between a female’s and male’s nature (physis, 453a), but this alone does not
preclude them from sharing pursuits (453e). Indeed, the traditional male/female
binary possibly obscures important similarities between the natures (454b). To
illustrate this, Socrates offers an analogy comparable to individual body classifi-
cations we have seen in the Hippocratic Corpus: if a man is bald and a cobbler
in the city, he asks, does this exclude long-haired men from the profession? Do
these sorts of extraneous differences between individual natures matter? The
answer is ultimately ‘no’. Likewise, that a female bears children and the male
begets – or generative physiology – has no bearing on their topic. As we might
expect from Plato, it is the soul (psychē) that matters. By way of further proof, he
observes that a female can possess a physician’s soul (iatrikē psychē) just as a male
can (454c–e). Socrates concludes from the discussion that similar natures are
distributed to both sexes; one (the female) is just usually weaker than the other
(the male), a notion very similar to On Regimen 1 and On Generation above. A
person must decide whether such a male/female distinction is significant in a
specific context, and in this case it is not. Thus, as in Hippocratic theories, both
nature and lifestyle can influence a person’s definition.
As with others that we have seen, Plato’s assessment of sex and gender here
clearly falls short of the equality we today would want to see. Socially derived
gender distinctions attached to the sexualised body seem to have directed his
theory, as they directed medical concepts. It is unfortunate that we have such
limited evidence of ancient medical debate on this issue and of the public’s reac-
tion to these ideas. Nevertheless, Greek medical approaches to sex and gender
do help to illustrate two strong factors in the development of a scientific idea:
an impetus towards classification and generalisation, even in the face of great
multiplicity; and a successful idea’s alignment with broader cultural beliefs. Some
Hippocratic authors appear to have explored the practicality of dogmatic binaries

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 blendi ng bodi es i n cl a s s ica l gre e k me d icin e 53

between male and female bodies for their medical theories and practices. From a
cultural perspective and superficial observations there are differences; but exactly
what are they and how do they come to be? Physicians observed that there is
significant overlap between male and female anatomy that allowed them to speak
of a ‘human nature’. Moreover, beyond the polarisation of sex organs, differences
become fluid: female bodies are generally wetter, colder and softer than males,
but here too there are opportunities for specific bodies to overlap boundaries.
Such phenomena created perceived problems, but also explanations, when one
sex displayed qualities of another; the humoral theory also provided avenues for
doctors to assess the seriousness of the problem and develop corrective treat-
ments. Even in descriptions of a sexual spectrum, individual bodies still found
placement in relation to extremes, producing such classes as ‘manly women’ and
‘effeminate men’ that satisfied cultural views.
There is always a risk of making too close an analogy between antiquity and
today; however, there do seem to be points of similarity in how Western science
has regularly attempted to quantify and control sexual and gender differences.
Nelly Oudshoorn (1994), for example, has examined modern medical theories
of dynamic sex hormones used to categorise individual bodies. Although this
hormonal spectrum allows for greater diversity than a dogmatic male/female
dichotomy, a disproportionate amount of this attention, she observes, has been
directed towards explaining female bodies and the gender attributes assigned to
them. Perceived aberrations from the norm can be identified and corrected. In
terms of intervention, this is not far off from the Hippocratic humoral models:
both admit spectrums of body/behaviour types and both leave space for medi-
cal manipulation to restore bodily aberrations to perceived normality. Chandler
Brooks et al. (1962) have even proposed that ancient medical concepts of the
balanced humours were early crude versions of modern endocrine homeostasis.
Although any similarities are probably incidental, both ancient and modern
Western medical models of sexual spectrums are products of individual bodies’
resistance to being pigeonholed into any one group, which complicates both
culturally determined categories and attempts at scientific simplicity.

note
1. I would like to express my gratitude both to the editors of this volume, Jennifer
Dyer and Allison Surtees, and to the anonymous reviewer for their excellent
suggestions, challenging questions and keen insights. I also single out Allison
Surtees specifically for her encouragement and advice from the very inception of
this project. What follows hopefully does some justice to the time and effort that
each has expended on bringing it to light; any errors of course remain my own.

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 CHAPTER 3

Birth by Hammer: Pandora and the

Construction of Bodies
Anna Uhlig

I f gender, as Judith Butler (1993) has persuasively argued, is a performance

played out with and through the body, the study of gender in the ancient
world is, in important respects, dependent upon the bodies that have left their
traces in the historical record. That this record is partial, biased and prone to
the erasure of non-normative forms should come as no surprise. Nevertheless,
the broad diversity of ancient bodies to which we still have access is, as the con-
tributions to this volume make clear, something to celebrate. The specific form
of celebration that I pursue here does not seek to retrieve previously disregarded
figures from the margins of our historical record, but rather to recover, and
reflect on, the often-unacknowledged corporeal diversity of ancient representa-
tions of Pandora, the ‘first woman’ whose body has shaped our modern notions
of ancient gender for over a century. The complicated picture of Pandora that
emerges serves not only as a prompt to revisit other apparent exemplars of
‘traditional’ ancient gender structures, but also as a bridge between the diversity
of ancient gendered bodies and those we construct in our own contemporary
societies.
First, a brief explanation of my approach. Building on the insights of her
earlier work (Holmes 2012) on the fertile intersection of ancient and mod-
ern in twentieth- and twenty-first-century gender studies, Brooke Holmes has
recently called on classicists, particularly those interested in questions of sex
and gender, to be more explicit about the contemporary concerns that motivate
our engagement with ancient models of (what we call) gender and sexuality
(Holmes 2019). Such a foregrounding of scholarly motivations helps to more
overtly situate our engagement with the past in the concerns of the present, a
gesture that has been something of a taboo amongst classicists for some time –
even if the influence of contemporary society is no less powerful a force in
academic endeavour now than it was a century ago, when scholars unabash-
edly viewed ancient texts through the filter of modern society. The interpretive

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 pa ndora a nd the co ns tructio n o f b o d ie s 55

spirit that I follow here is, quite emphatically and I believe productively, moti-
vated by concerns of contemporary society, specifically by the increasing promi-
nence of trans studies, and the transgender movement more broadly, in political
and intellectual debates, particularly in the United States. I have been especially
moved by the sophisticated theoretical interventions of trans scholars and activ-
ists who challenge us to revisit (once again) the apparent boundary between
gender (understood as a socially constructed identity) and sex (understood as
a biological, or at least corporeal fact) – a boundary already seriously destabi-
lised by the work of Butler and Carolyn Dinshaw (especially Butler 1993 and
Dinshaw 1999) – inviting us to see the intersection of sex and gender as a criti-
cal locus for reflection on what bodies are, and what it means to have one. The
complex role of body modification, particularly through medical technologies,
in the lives of many (though by no means all) trans individuals invites reflection
on the way that categories such as ‘natural’ and ‘artificial’, ‘agency’ and ‘subjec-
tivity’ shape, and potentially inhibit, our understanding of the way that sex and
gender now function in our society, both for those who identify as trans and for
those who do not.
One of the most compelling responses to this new landscape has found
form in a strain of post-humanist theory that discards traditional boundaries
of the (human) body in favour of definitions that better reflect the way that
our somatic experiences and identities are bound up with other, often inert,
material. This notion of a composite body, consisting of both human and
non-human elements at once, has found expression in a variety of fields, most
notably in the explicitly feminist cyborg reflections of Donna Haraway (1991)
as well as in the radical sociological work of Bruno Latour (2004: 210), who
rejects conventional subject–object relationships and, instead, speaks of collec-
tive bodies that are continuously (re)formed through the power of new ‘artificial
and material components’. In her own variation on post-humanist materiality,
the feminist and queer philosopher of science Karen Barad notes the particular
power of developing ‘alternative ways to conceptualise matter’ to create a new
space for thinking about bodies that do not conform to, or are not well under-
stood through, traditional notions of causation. ‘Holding the category “human”
fixed’, Barad (2003: 826) argues, ‘excludes an entire range of possibilities in
advance, eliding important dimensions of the workings of power’.
Like Haraway and Latour, Barad is principally concerned with what is to
come. Her model is one which celebrates a future that is ‘radically open at every
turn’ (2003: 826). But these emphatically contemporary definitions of the body
can also help us to imagine the past in new ways, and thereby to bring that past
into productive dialogue with the world around us. I believe that there is no
more fitting ancient body through which to begin such a dialogue than that of
Pandora. The experiment that I would like to undertake here seeks to reframe
the contested, reviled and unfailingly theorised body of Pandora through the

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 56 anna uhli g

lens of contemporary reassessments of corporeal boundaries. By so doing, I

hope to suggest a way of productively untangling the twin binaries of male/
female, natural/artificial that stand, at least at the moment, as the most endur-
ing legacy of her appearance in Hesiod.

pandora and her hammerers

Rather than begin from the canonical twin narratives of Hesiod, passages that
now stand as talismans of sexual binary in ancient Greece (an excellent overview
of scholarship is offered by Holmes 2012: 17–22), I turn instead to two fifth-
century bc Pandoras preserved only in fragments. These uncertain glimpses of
now-lost bodies are a useful reminder that the established narratives of con-
temporary scholarship are often built on the foundations of untold omissions.
More than that, I believe that the destabilising presence of these shadowy fig-
ures, of Pandoras not quite seen, can also invite us to think about new models
for thinking about bodies from the past in relation to the present. I begin with
Sophocles’ often-overlooked version of the myth in his now highly fragmentary
satyr drama Pandora or Hammerers. Little is known about the play, which was
staged in Athens at some point in the fifth century, beyond the fact that it dra-
matised some facet of Pandora’s life through the raucous and ribald lens of satyr
drama (Krumeich et al. 1999: 375–80). Satyr drama comprised a fourth and
final performance following the three tragedies submitted by each of the play-
wrights competing at the City Dionysia, and was distinguished by the recur-
rent presence of its chorus of satyrs, half-human half-equine followers of the
god Dionysus whom the plays inserted into familiar mythical scenarios such as
Odysseus’ encounter with the Cyclops or Heracles’ enslavement to Omphale
(on which see Hughes in this volume). Each outlandishly humorous scenario
emerges from the basic and oft-quoted recipe of François Lissarrague (1990:
236): ‘take one myth, add satyrs, observe the result’. The five surviving frag-
ments of Sophocles’ play provide little foundation for philologically defensible
interpretation (though the ribald tone of fr. 483 suggests an embrace of erotic
discourse that contrasts with Hesiod’s stark avoidance of such matters). But it is
precisely the elusive quality of the fragments that marks the play as particularly
suitable to the kind of self-conscious scholarly reflection called for by queer
unhistoricism. Indeed, the heart of my interest in the play comes not from
the fragments themselves, but from its alternate titles, Pandora or Hammerers
(Παvδώρα ἢ Σφυρoκόπoι), and the imaginative trajectories that they have and
can inspire in modern critics.
My reflections emerge from the collateral role of Sophocles’ play in the
treatment of Pandora by first-wave feminist scholars, particularly in the work
of Jane Harrison, a pioneering female scholar whose life and career have been

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 pandora and the co n s tructio n o f b o d ie s 57

deftly explored by Mary Beard (2000). In her ground-breaking Prolegomena

to the Study of Greek Religion, Harrison (1908) sought to uncover evidence of
the matriarchal, chthonic ritual figures that (she claimed) predated, and had
been displaced by, the patriarchal system of Olympian gods. Harrison believed
that the vicissitudes of history had wrongly privileged the rational structures
of the Olympian order as the authentic expression of Greek religious practice.
Fortunately, Harrison contended, this error could be corrected by a rigorous
analysis of ancient evidence to reveal the true chthonic and magical nature of
ancient Greek religion and thought. In the figure of Pandora, Harrison saw the
superlative expression of the opposition between chthonic magic and Olympian
rationality, a paradigm for the displacement of the more ancient (and genuine)
matriarchal structure by a new (artificial) patriarchal order.
In heady and spellbinding prose, Harrison (1908: 284) claimed to have
uncovered evidence that the Pandora story familiar from Hesiodic epic – the
story in which Zeus instructed Hephaestus to mould Pandora out of earth as a
punishment for mankind – was in fact a late innovation, a ‘bourgeois, pessimis-
tic’ refashioning of the earlier, authentic myth (Harrison 1908: 284). Behind
Hesiod’s hollow and contemptible Pandora, Harrison claimed to have found
a powerful chthonic goddess who was not an artificial object crafted by the
Olympians but an autonomous, self-possessed goddess, born from the earth
itself. In support of this view, Harrison adduced a series of vase paintings repre-
senting a female figure emerging from the earth, welcomed by a figure or figures
in various configurations. Harrison dubbed this topos the ‘anodos of the god-
dess’, claiming that the images were all variations on a basic, ‘primitive’ motif of
a female goddess, whom she dubbed kore, emerging from her mother, the earth.
On one of these vases, now in the Ashmolean collection (Oxford G 275, BAPD
275165, Bérard 1974: Pl. 19, fig. 71 (A)), the figures are labelled with the names
Pandora and Epimetheus, respectively, leading Harrison to the conclusion that
the image preserved traces of an ‘earlier and more primitive’ tradition in which
Pandora was in fact ‘a real goddess of the earth’ rather than ‘the handiwork of
Olympian Zeus’ (Harrison 1908: 284).
Harrison’s identification of the anodos (‘ascent’) motif bears on Sophocles’
play in two important respects. Firstly, many of the anodos vases contain satyrs
(though none that explicitly identify the female figure as Pandora), and sec-
ondly, the figures attending to the emerging female figure in these images,
whether they are satyrs or not, often carry hammers (Bérard 1974). The motif
finds exuberant expression on the neck of a fifth-century Athenian volute cra-
ter, now in Ferrara, which depicts a band of hammer-wielding satyrs dancing
around a female figure as she emerges from under the ground (Fig. 3.1). The
iconographic pairing of anodos motif with satyrs and hammers is particularly
enticing when one considers, as Harrison herself did, the play’s alternative title,
Hammerers, which suggests that the satyr chorus of this play were possessed of

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 58 an na uhli g

Figure 3.1 Satyrs wielding hammers dance around a female figure emerging from the
ground. The aulete at left suggests a dramatic performance. Neck of an Athenian volute
krater, c. 450 bc, Ferrara T 579, BAPD 207095.

hammers, and that they employed these hammers in an extended and conspicu-
ous enough fashion that someone, whether Sophocles or a later critic, consid-
ered the objects essential to the dramatic narrative. Although Harrison herself
drew no firm connection between the hammering satyrs of the anodos vases and
those of Sophocles’ play, subsequent interpreters showed less restraint. Not long
after the publication of Harrison’s Prolegomena, it became common to strongly
suggest, and even to assert outright, that the vases were evidence that Sopho-
cles’ play depicted Pandora as born from the earth, not crafted by Hephaestus,
and that the hammer-wielding chorus employed their tools as ‘clod busters’ to
facilitate her emergence (Robert 1914; Guarducci 1929; Brommer 1959: 51–2;
Trendall and Webster 1971: 33–6; Simon 1982: 145–6).
There are a number of reasons to be hesitant about such claims, not least
in light of fr. 482, where the instruction to begin moulding clay (πηλὸν
ὀργάζειν) points strongly towards a fashioning of Pandora rather than an
autonomous anodos. Recently, the critical pendulum seems to be swinging in
this sceptical direction, with Christina Heynen and Ralf Krumeich declaring
the claim that Sophocles’ Pandora emerged from the earth ‘extremely hypo-
thetical’ (Heynen and Krumeich 1999: 379). Although I tend to agree with
the growing consensus that Sophocles’ Pandora was, in the main, cast in the
mould of her Hesiodic predecessor, there nevertheless remains much to be
said about the largely unacknowledged legacy of Harrison’s work in the way
that we think about this play, and the body of Pandora more broadly. Again,
it is the play’s double title that motivates my thinking, since one of the most
confounding features of the twofold description (Pandora or Hammerers) is
the degree to which both of the paired terms stubbornly resist resolution. In

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 pandora and the co n s tructio n o f b o d ie s 59

the case of Pandora, the idea of a double figure – at once earth goddess and
artisan craft, ‘natural’ body and ‘artificial’ object – is the heart of Harrison’s
argument. Even if one does not accept Harrison’s outdated developmental
model, the iconographic evidence of an earth-born Pandora cannot be gain-
said. The duality of the second title, Hammerers (Σφυρoκόπoι), is (to me at
least) somewhat more surprising, and it is this discursive tool that I will use
as my own ‘clod buster’ in aid of bringing a queer, unhistorical body to light.
References to the sphyra, the substantive that lends the ‘hammer’ element to
the title of Sophocles’ play, reflect a twofold usage of the instrument, as a tool
of metallurgy on the one hand, and of agricultural labour on the other. Like the
artisanal Pandora which it would signal, the former is far more common, and
gives rise to a number of compounds relating to smithery. The familiar adjecti-
val form sphyrēlatos is regularly used to describe armour and, more pertinently
for the discussion at hand, metal sculpture produced by hammering sheets of
metal (rather than through the lost-wax technique). Although it has been sug-
gested that the hammering satyrs of Sophocles’ play may have used their tools
to fashion Pandora’s clay form (Jebb 1917: 136), given Hephaestus’ role in craft-
ing Pandora’s crown in Hesiod (Theog. 578–80), and the frequent association
of satyrs with the fiery work of the god (Jebb 1917: 136; Simon 1982: 134–6;
Hedreen 1992), one might plausibly conjecture that the hammers of Sophocles’
play were put to such a metallurgical use, with the chorus endeavouring to fash-
ion the elaborate adornments for the newly born first woman. However, since,
as I have said, my interest here is not to reconstruct the details of Sophocles’
fragmentary drama, but rather to consider the implications of its double title for
our understanding of Pandora, I will resist dismissing the agricultural resonances
of the tool, even if I think it unlikely that the sphyrai of the play were used in
such a way. Whatever their specific purpose in the drama, the presence of the
implements activates a range of associations that extend not only to (presumably
unseen) the rural sphere, but to the anodos iconography in which the tools so
frequently appear. Indeed, it is easy to imagine that an audience familiar with
images of an earthborn Pandora surrounded by hammer-wielding figures, often
satyrs, would have perceived this tradition as a subtext to the hammer-wielding
chorus of Sophocles’ drama. The suspicion that this duality was intentionally
cultivated by the playwright gains some weight in light of Aeschylus’ pointedly
paradoxical description of (Pandora as) a ‘mortal woman [born/created] from a
seed of moulded clay’ (ἐκ πηλoπλάστoυ σπέρματoς θvητὴ γυvή fr. 369).
More importantly for my present concerns, the double function of the sphyra
calls our attention to the fact that artisan tools – indeed, the same artisan tools –
are central to the Pandora narrative in both of its configurations. As a crafted
object, Pandora gains her additional adornments through the manipulation of
the sphyra, but/and, in her guise as an earthborn goddess, she is brought to the
light by the same. Hammers are, as Harrison herself made clear, a recurrent

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 60 anna uhli g

motif in anodos imagery. What Harrison does not say, although it is an inescap-
able implication of this fact, is that the presence of hammers – of craftsman’s
tools – within the anodos tradition falsifies the rigid binary between earthborn
goddess and manufactured object, and between the oppositional spheres of
nature and culture to which Pandora’s two bodies are said to belong.
One need not rely on Sophocles to arrive at this observation. But Sophocles’
play, with the inbuilt duality of its double title mirrored in twentieth-century
critical discourse, offers a particularly productive window through which to
reflect on the implications of Pandora’s non-binary bodies. The value of the play
stems in part from its highly fragmentary nature, which demands an unusu-
ally acute sensitivity to the motivations behind our modern speculations about
the text. But the power of Sophocles’ drama also lies in the figures with whom
Pandora shares the theatre and the play’s title: the chorus of satyrs whose
hammer-wielding antics are somehow critical to, and synonymous with, the
appearance of the first female body. As I have argued elsewhere, the satyrs of
fifth-century Athenian drama provided the theatre-going audience with an
unusually charged site for reflecting on bodies, especially the way that bodies
articulate the unstable binary of ‘nature’ and ‘artifice’ (Uhlig 2018). In the the-
atre, the satyrs’ own hybrid form – part human, part horse or donkey – finds
material expression in a composite costume that highlights the combination
of ‘natural’ and ‘artificial’ elements in order to transform Athenian choreuts
into the mythical slaves of Dionysus. Critical to this metamorphosis are the
distinctive shorts, or perizomata, that reveal the choreuts’ own nude limbs and
torsos (likely for the first time in their nearly completed performances) while
providing them with fabricated genitals and equine tail. This unsettling con-
junction of inborn and constructed elements is a persistent theme of somatic
reflection in fifth-century Athens, both within satyr dramas themselves and in
vase painters’ frequent depictions of conspicuously costumed theatrical satyrs.
The iconographic power of the perizoma is highlighted by the ease with which
the distinctive contours of the satyr costume can be identified, even on highly
fragmentary figures such as those found on a group of fifth-century Athenian
sherds, now in Bonn (Fig. 3.2). The large circular marks (possibly horse brands)
commonly adorning the side of perizomata in fifth-century vase illustrations call
attention to the complex conjunction of human and animal, flesh and artefact.
The costumed nudity joins the living flesh of the choreut with the tanned and
sewn skin of a dead animal to produce a new, composite form; a naked body
that is at once more ‘natural’ and more ‘artificial’ than the other bodies of the
theatre, performers and audience alike.
The composite form of theatrical satyrs – part living flesh, part fabricated
skin and organ – calls the nature of their bodies into question, and in doing so
opens the boundary of their somatic forms to further artificial amplification. As
the familiar satyrs, with their familiarly composite bodies, fill the orchestra at the
close of each day of tragic competition, they invent themselves anew, taking on

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 pandora and the co n s tructio n o f b o d ie s 61

Figure 3.2 Fragments show the headless, but nonetheless clearly identifiable bodies
of an aulete and three choreuts wearing perizomata to portray satyrs in the theatre.
Athenian, c. 450 bc, Akademisches Kunstmuseum Bonn 1216.354-357, 1216.183,
1216.185, BAPD 215629.

new roles and new identities to match the particular demands of each individual
drama (Seidensticker 2003: 103; Lämmle 2013: 245–91). Material objects are
often critical to this transformation. The satyrs of the chorus take up new cos-
tumes – goat skins in Euripides’ Cyclops, or women’s dress in Ion’s Omphale –
or new tools – nets in Aeschylus’ Nethaulers, wrestling gear in his Cercyon or
hammers in Sophocles’ Pandora – and thus become the figures of a new drama.
The physical objects grant the chorus a new identity, and with it new bodies
that conform to their role in each specific play. Sometimes the transformation is
marked within traditional somatic boundaries, as when the chorus of Aeschylus’
Theoroi adopt the physique of athletes to participate in the Isthmian games
(fr. 78a 29–31). But seemingly external accessories such as robes or nets also
result in corporeal shifts. If we take seriously the expanded definition of the body
put forth by contemporary theorists, the fabricated objects that theatrical satyrs
wield and wear are no less a part of their somatic identity than the fabricated
perizomata that produce their naked, hybrid form (Uhlig 2018).
The conjunction of Pandora and a chorus of theatrical satyrs in Sophocles’
play helps to foreground certain parallels between these two types of con-
spicuously crafted bodies. The satyr chorus are a kind of somatic analogue to
Pandora herself. The double body of her two birth narratives finds its match in
the satyrs’ material hybridity. Both have bodies that inhabit an uncertain territory

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between nature and artifice, between organic body and constructed form. At
the same time, both simultaneously unsettle and epitomise what it means to
have a (human) body and both are explicitly defined by sexual identity (if not
function). This somatic symmetry finds its most compelling symbolism in the
hammers by which both of their bodies are crafted, and which, consequently,
form part of the corporeal identity of both, since the transformative effect of
these tools on Pandora integrates them into her body – on which they work,
or for which they help to fashion adornments – no less than for the satyrs who
wield them.

other hammerers, and another pandora

Hammers, as we have seen, are central to Sophocles’ understanding of Pandora,
though their precise role in the drama remains nebulous for modern critics. The
broader connection between hammers and corporeal generation is attested by the
striking regularity with which the implements appear in anodos images, whether
in depictions of Pandora or of other earth-born figures. The role of hammers
in the creation of bodies is, in a somewhat different register, also underlined
by the frequent description of metallic sculpture, whether of bronze or gold, as
sphyrēlatos (wrought by hammer). The two perspectives, corresponding to the
‘natural’ and ‘artificial’ bodies of Pandora, underline the shared properties of both
through their common reliance on instrumental intervention.
Two further instances of generative hammers help to round out the picture.
The first emerges around the unusual birth of Helen from an egg. A well-known
fourth-century bc Apulian crater depicts a comic staging of the moment of
her ‘delivery’, in which the new-born Helen, still standing inside the egg, is
attended to by a male figure (generally thought to be Tyndareus) holding a ham-
mer above his head (Fig. 3.3). Notably, the comic costumes in the image recall
the perizomata of the performing satyrs; their prominently displayed prosthetic
phalloi and artificially nude limbs accentuate the ways by which dramatic bod-
ies are constructed. A similar theme – without costumed figures, though with
the presence of a satyr – is struck by another fourth-century Italian vase, now in
Boston, on which Helen’s brother carries the unhatched egg in one hand and a
hammer in the other (Boston 07.862, Padgett 1993: no. 167). The suggestion
in both images is that the hammer has been or will be used to break open the
shell, much as the same implements serve to break open the earth to facilitate
the emergence of earthborn goddesses. Helen, whose extreme bodily beauty and
corresponding destructive powers align her in important ways with Pandora
(Blondell 2013: 26–8), replays the double birth of her predecessor by merging
‘natural’ and ‘artificial’ elements in the unusual genesis of her body.
The hammer that frees Helen from the egg is mirrored by another ham-
mer familiar from the iconographic tradition: that wielded by Hephaestus at

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 pandora and the co n s tructio n o f b o d ie s 63

Figure 3.3 Tyndareus(?) stands wielding a hammer after helping(?) Helen to emerge from
her egg. Apulian krater attributed to Dijon painter, c. 350 bc, Bari 3899; De Agostini
Picture Library/G. Dagli Orti/Bridgeman Images.

the birth of Athena. The popular motif of Hephaestus’ instrumental assistance

in the goddess’s unusual birth is nicely illustrated by a fifth-century Athenian
pelike, now in the British Museum, which shows the craftsman god, tool in
hand, standing immediately to the left of Zeus and the new-born Athena
(Fig. 3.4). Scholars often refer to the implement as a double axe, perhaps under
the influence of Pindar’s O.7, where Hephaestus makes use of a ‘bronze axe’
(χαλκέλατoς πέλεκυς 36) to free Athena from the head of Zeus. The icono-
graphic tradition, however, does not distinguish between the instrument used
to extract Athena and the familiar hammer, often paired with tongs, that marks
Hephaestus as a worker of metal (on two-sided hammers, see Raubitscheck
1998: 120 n. 8). Like Pandora, the new-born Athena is marked as a craft prod-
uct, fully clad in the metal armour – another material/corporeal product of the
hammer – that signals not only the goddess’s martial nature but her unsettling
masculine qualities. Where Pandora’s material artifice is thought to align her
with the race of women, Athena’s ornamentation is traditionally assimilated to
her rejection of female concerns, a position that finds its clearest expression in

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Figure 3.4 Hephaestus stands with his hammer after helping Athena emerge from the
head of Zeus. Athenian pelike, c. 450 bc, British Museum E410, BAPD 205560.

her famous claim, in Aeschylus’ Eumenides, to side with the masculine in all
things (τὸ δ’ ἄρσεν αἰνῶ πάντα 737).
The parallels between the crafted, hammer-born bodies of Athena and
Pandora did not, it seems, go unnoticed in fifth-century Athens, though the
conjunction of the two – like that of Pandora and the hammering satyrs of
Sophocles’ play – survives only in fragmentary traces of bodies that were once
on full view. By contrast with Sophocles’ satyr drama, the pairing of Athena and
Pandora was on permanent display in the heart of the city, inscribed into the
base of Pheidias’ great chryselephantine statue of Athena Parthenos, the cult
image located inside the Parthenon. This often-overlooked fact is recorded by
Pausanias in his description of the sculptural program of the Parthenon, where
he notes that the birth of Pandora (Πανδώρας γένεσις) was worked onto the
support for the towering sculpture (1.24.7). Pausanias gives no details about
the scene, connecting the image to the accounts of Pandora as the first woman
found in ‘Hesiod and others’ without further elaboration. But even if we cannot
speak with confidence about the form that the depiction took, we should not
underestimate the significance of Pandora’s inclusion, confronting viewers at
eyelevel, in the preeminent representation of Athena in Athens.
As Jeffrey Hurwit, one of the few contemporary scholars to consider the role
of Pandora in the complex iconography of the Parthenon, has elegantly observed,

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the import of such a powerful and surprising juxtaposition cannot be reduced

to a single definitive interpretation (Hurwit 1995: 182). Hurwit argues that the
inclusion of Pandora is primarily motivated by a desire ‘to say something about
her gender – “the race of female women,” as Hesiod puts it’ (Hurwit 1995: 178).
Following the binary, misogynistic logic of Hesiod’s account, the Parthenon
Pandora stands as a ‘visual articulation of the male-female antithesis’, a reminder
that the city of Athens, like Athena herself, was defined by the subjugation and
exclusion of women (Hurwit 1995: 185). In the self-replicating iconographic
patterns of the Parthenon, Pandora stands as a correlate to the Amazons so con-
spicuously subdued on the temple’s west metopes. But there is, as Hurwit also
acknowledges, another discourse of the Parthenon imagery into which Pandora
just as readily fits, one which is emblematised by the depiction, now lost, of the
birth of Athena that adorned the east pediment. ‘Anyone entering the temple
from the east could not have missed the parallel’ between the miraculous births of
these two female figures (Hurwit 1995: 182). The crafted body of Pandora thus
takes on another form, as a celebration of Athena Ergane, an artificially crafted
mortal body replicating the corporeal artifice of Athena herself. The presence of
Pandora on the sculpture base points to the analogy between the technical accom-
plishment of Pheidias’ chryselephantine Athena, with its radical proportions and
complex manipulation of material, and the crafted body it represents. The temple
encourages visitors to contemplate hammer-born figures brought to life in forms
that are quite literally sphyrēlatos (‘hammer-wrought’).

learning from pandora’s fragmented bodies

The fragmentary Pandoras of fifth-century Athens, the theatrically constructed
body of Sophocles and the sculpted form of Pheidias, suggest a further alterna-
tive narrative of Pandora. They do not present us with a prior, more ‘authentic’
or ‘natural’ body born from the earth, but rather a body whose artificiality is
celebrated as a source of power, whose construction through tools is not a sign
of dependence but a deliberate means of bringing a new form into the light.
The hammer-wielding Hephaestus remains a shadowy figure in the Parthenon
images, his presence, and that of his tool, presumed but never confirmed. But
his counterparts, the dancing satyrs in the theatre of Dionysus, invite us to con-
sider the ways in which the construction of bodies establishes a certain corporeal
symmetry between craftsman and craft object, a shared somatic experience that
is effected through the tools common to both. It is surely not by chance that
Athena, the virgin goddess, produces her only offspring together with Hephaestus
(Hurwit 1995: 183). The son of two artisan gods, the new-born Erichthonius
is regularly figured in fifth-century Athenian vases emerging from the earth in a
scene that mirrors the female anodos images linked to Pandora by Harrison. In
place of hammers, the skilled hands of Athena, the mother who gave him form,
aid his passage up from the ground.

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These alternative narratives of female (and male) bodies blended together

with tools and ornament do not erase the deep-seated misogyny that charac-
terises Hesiod’s canonical versions of the Pandora story, but they do suggest
that the rigid binaries that structure his narratives can be reimagined in ways
that open a productive dialogue with contemporary thinking about trans bod-
ies, and bodies more broadly. Such a reading would allow us to view Hesiod’s
disdain for Pandora’s crafted body, and not the body itself, as a product of his
misogynistic binary. Rather than posit a purer, ‘natural’ Pandora whose true
form is obscured in Hesiod’s account, we could redeem the artificial woman of
his accounts, reclaiming the beauty so demonised there as something truly and
authentically valuable, not despite but because of its fabricated nature. In his
seminal interpretation of Hesiod’s Prometheus, Jean-Pierre Vernant (1996: 199)
observed that the central role of Pandora in both accounts stems from the fact
that her ‘double nature is, as it were, the symbol of the ambiguity of human exis-
tence’. This symbolism is all the more pointed when one considers that Hesiod
provides no account of the creation of man to contrast or complement that of
woman in his poems. Pandora’s birth, the artificial creation of the human form,
stands for all. Indeed, as Vernant notes elsewhere (1989: 47–8), tradition often
attributed to Prometheus the creation of both men and women from clay. It is
this inclusive perspective that seems to inspire Ovid, in the otherwise strongly
Hesiodic opening narrative of the Metamorphoses, when he recounts the creation
of mankind, sown into earth by the craftsman of things (ille opifex rerum) and
shaped by Prometheus as moulded clay (Met. 1.79–83). In his pointed revision
Ovid not only negates the gender binary of Hesiod’s narratives, but with it the
opposition between ‘natural’ and ‘artificial’ generation.
In the final chapter of the Generation of Animals, Aristotle interrupts his
lengthy consideration of the form and purpose of teeth to reflect on the many
ways that breath works within bodies. ‘It is fitting,’ he observes ‘that many things
are worked by breath, as by a tool (hōs organō); just as certain tools of the crafts
serve many purposes, like the hammer and anvil in metalwork, so too does breath
in those things formed by nature’ (789b8–12). Aristotle draws the connection
between differently constructed bodies by means of the broad resonances of the
term organon, which can connote both artisanal instruments and the mechanisms
of living creatures. But in invoking the hammer, and its partner the anvil, in the
elaboration of this correspondence, Aristotle inadvertently calls to mind a tool
which, perhaps more than any other, served to underline the complex interdepen-
dence of animate and inanimate bodies in Classical Athens. It goes without saying
that hammers no longer hold such a place in our twenty-first century somatic
imaginations, but we too rely on bodily tools that are as powerful as breath itself.

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 CHAPTER 4

Life after Transition: Spontaneous

Sex Change and Its Aftermath in
Ancient Literature
K. E. Shannon-Henderson1

T here are several well-known characters in classical mythology who experi-

ence a change of sex, such as Tiresias (see Brisson 1976; Ugolini 1995) and
Hermaphroditus (Ovid, Metamorphoses 4.285–388, with Robinson 1999). But
there are also reports of girls and women who spontaneously acquire anatomical
markers of maleness, not in myth but in real life, at specific times and places
(Doroszewska 2013a: 224–5). It is these accounts of ‘real-life’ change of sex, par-
ticularly as related by authors active between the first century bc and the second
century ad, that will be my focus in this essay. Their stories differ not only from
mythical accounts of sexual transformation, but also from accounts of intersex
children found in Roman historians’ reports of prodigies (e.g. Livy 27.11.4–5,
27.37.5–7, 31.12.6–10; Julius Obsequens 46, 81, 92, 94, 96, 107, 108, 110;
see Krauss 1930: 130–3). Whereas the birth of intersex children inspired fear
in a Roman population that viewed them as signs of severe divine displeasure
(MacBain 1982: 127–35; Allély 2003), the reports of sexual transformation
I consider are different. Intersex people – born with genitals that appear to
combine masculine and feminine characteristics – display ‘simultaneous dual
sexuality’; people born with one set of genitalia that change to the opposite
exhibit ‘successive dual sexuality’ (Brisson 2002: 2). Unlike the intersex infants
drowned at sea during the Roman Republic, the people I will discuss were born
as and assigned female at birth but transitioned across the gender boundary,
lived to tell the tale, and even lived openly as men after transformation.
Reports of spontaneous sexual transformation are relatively rare in ancient
literature. The most detailed narratives appear in the fragments of book 32 of
Diodorus Siculus (32.10–12), written in the first century bc and preserved in
the Bibliotheca of Photius, written in the ninth century ad (on Photius as a
reader of Diodorus, see Botteri 1992: 28B9; Wirth 2008: 9B10; Rathmann
2016: 152). There are also shorter reports in Pliny the Elder’s Natural History
(7.36), a massive first-century ad work on aspects of the natural world, and the

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 68 k. e. sha nnon-henderson

Περὶ θαυμασίων (On Marvels) by Phlegon of Tralles, a freedman of Hadrian

active in the mid-second century ad. Scholars have attempted to explain what
the ancient texts present as spontaneous transformations in terms of modern
medical diagnoses, for example as disorders of sexual differentiation misunder-
stood by ancient observers (e.g. Hansen 1996: 124). My goal in examining these
accounts is to understand what they reveal about ancient conceptions of gender
difference. I will analyse these texts from several angles: their attitude to the
anatomy and the gender and sexual expressions of the transformed individuals;
the interpretive frameworks through which they seek to understand them;
and their descriptions of the transformed individuals’ attempts to re-navigate
community and family life after transformation. People who spontaneously
change from female to male would seem like the perfect place to look for gen-
der nonconformity in ancient culture. But, as we shall see, these stories broadly
confirm rather than challenge three widespread ancient ideas: (1) that there are
two distinct sexes, male and female; (2) that a person must belong to one sex or
the other; and (3) that of those two sexes, the male is definitively superior.

phaëthousa and nanno: change and die

I begin with an older case study: a report in the Hippocratic text Epidemics,
composed substantially earlier than my other source texts (fourth century bc),
of two women, Phaëthousa and Nanno, who suddenly develop male character-
istics. The way this text discusses how Phaëthousa and Nanno’s bodies change
is fundamentally different from, and provides an instructive contrast with, the
later stories of sexual transformation. In the later stories, the women truly and
fully become men; but Phaëthousa and Nanno remain fundamentally female
throughout the changes they undergo.

In Abdera, Phaëthousa the wife of Pytheas, who kept at home, having

borne children in the preceding time, when her husband was exiled
stopped menstruating for a long time. Afterwards, pains and reddening
in the joints. When this happened, her body became manly (ἠνδρώθη)
and grew hairy all over, she grew a beard, her voice became harsh, and
though we did everything we could to bring forth menses they did not
come, but she later died after surviving (βιώσασα) a short time. The
same thing happened to Nanno, the wife of Gorgippus, in Thasos.
All the physicians I met thought that there was one hope of becoming
feminine (γυναικωθῆναι): if normal menstruation occurred. But in her
case (ταύτῃ), too, it was not possible, though we did everything, but she
died quickly. (Epidemics 6.8.32; trans. adapted from Smith 1994: 275)

This account shows some similarities with the later sex change stories, but
the Epidemics’ discussion of Phaëthousa and Nanno’s bodies suggests that their

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 spontaneous sex c h a n ge a n d its a f te r math 69

experiences are a fundamentally different type of change from the complete

transformations of the later accounts. Phaëthousa loses some biological markers
of femaleness (menstruation) and acquires markers of maleness (beard, body
hair, deep voice). These two symptoms are connected, according to the princi-
ples of Hippocratic thought about menstruation: women’s menstrual blood was
thought to be a way of expelling excess moisture from the body, whereas in men,
who were constitutionally hotter and physically more active than women, such
moisture would be consumed by the body and manifested as hair (e.g. Aristotle
GA 582b30–583a4; Dean-Jones 1994: 133–4; King 1998: 56–7, 154–5, 163).
The claim that Phaëthousa’s body ‘became manly’ probably indicates not that a
change occurred in her genitalia (such as the growth of a penis or testicles), but
that her body lost the wet, spongy nature characteristic of women and became
firmer, drier, hotter – i.e. more masculine (King 2013a: 129).
Helen King has shown that two details are key to understanding Phaëthousa’s
ailment: her husband’s absence, and her previous experience of childbearing. The
text suggests that Phaëthousa’s menses cease because she has no husband around
to ensure she experiences frequent sexual intercourse and possibly conception
(King 1998: 56–7). Nevertheless, Phaëthousa’s essentially female reproductive
anatomy remains unchanged: she may have a beard, but she still possesses a
womb that has borne children (King 2013b: 111). So, although Phaëthousa’s
body changes in ways that make her appear less feminine and ultimately lead to
her death, she does not actually become male (King 2015: 256). Indeed, even
at the moment of death, both she and Nanno remain grammatically feminine
in the text (βιώσασα, ταύτῃ); this indicates that the author does not consider
either of them to have truly become men, but to have retained their female iden-
tity throughout (King 2013a: 128). The Hippocratics saw sex as a continuum,
with male and female at opposite poles; on this rationale, it was possible to be a
manly woman or a womanly man without fully transforming into the opposite
sex (Regimen 1.28; see Gleason 1990: 390–1, 394–5; Cadden 1993: 15–21;
King 1998: 9; Dreger 2000: 32). Yet ultimately both Phaëthousa and Nanno
die as a result of their conditions. Losing female traits (especially menstruation)
in exchange for male characteristics is not the same as becoming a man; but it
is also impossible for a woman to continue living in such a state. The boundary
between male and female cannot be crossed, and even attempts to approach
it are deadly. The story, in other words, suggests the ultimate impossibility of
exactly the types of sexual transformation that occur in the later texts.

diodorus, pliny and phlegon: a penis makes a man

The stories in Diodorus, Pliny and Phlegon are also concerned with physical
changes, but of a different type. The Epidemics passage mainly focuses on sec-
ondary sexual characteristics (beard, body hair, timbre of voice), and the women
never acquire male sex organs. This is a vast point of difference between the

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 70 k. e. sha nnon-henderson

Hippocratic text and our later authors, who focus on anatomical changes to the
genitals of the women who transform. These anatomical details – specifically,
the sudden presence of a penis and testicles where none had been visible before –
are the key to assigning a new identity to the transformed person. In all cases, it
is male genitalia that come first, and a new gender identity and social role that
follows the physical changes. The individuals who transform are not viewed as
an intermediate category in the no-man’s-land between male and female, but
cross the gender boundary completely thanks to their altered genitalia.
Not all of our texts provide much detail on the physical aspect of the trans-
formation, but even the sparest accounts make clear that male genitalia do
appear. Pliny, citing Licinius Mucianus (an author from the Flavian period, on
whom see Ash 2007), describes a man named ‘Arescon, who had been called
Arescusa and had actually gotten married, but . . . eventually a beard and a penis
came forth (barbam et virilitatem provenisse) and he took a wife’ (HN 7.36, all
translations are my own unless otherwise stated). Arescusa, like Phaëthousa and
Nanno before her, grows a beard; this time the transformation does not stop
there, but proceeds to the appearance of virilitas, indicating a penis and/or tes-
ticles as the male sexual organs par excellence (OLD s.v. virilitas 1b and ancient
references there cited; Adams 1982: 69–70). Similarly, in Phlegon’s shorter
narratives of sexual transformations (Mir. 7–9), he specifically states that the
woman acquired male anatomy. In ad 53, Philotis, a girl betrothed to be mar-
ried, ‘became a man when male genitals appeared on her’ (Mir. 7, μορίων αὐτῇ
προφανέντων ἀρρενικῶν ἀνὴρ ἐγένετο). Note that Philotis is described using
a feminine pronoun, but immediately upon the appearance of male μόρια, a
word frequently used to denote genitalia (LSJ s.v. μόριov A.II.2; Adams 1982:
45, 58), she transforms into a man. Similarly, in ad 116 the married woman
Aitete ‘changed her shape (μετέβαλε τὴν μορφὴν) . . . and upon becoming a
man (ἀνὴρ γενόμενος) changed her name to Aitetos’ (Mir. 9). In Mir. 6, the
sudden appearance of a penis is part of a more detailed narrative. In ad 45, a girl
from Antioch suffers severe abdominal pains for several days before her transfor-
mation; the symptoms perplex her physicians, until ‘suddenly male parts burst
forth on her and the girl became a man’ (Mir. 6, ἄφνω αὐτῇ ἀρσενικὰ μόρια
προέπεσεν καὶ ἡ κόρη ἀνὴρ ἐγένετο).
This focus on genitalia underlines the idea that, for Phlegon and Pliny,
there is no physical middle ground between male and female: the sudden
appearance of a penis is enough to make someone a man. Phlegon refers to
the women with feminine pronouns up until the moment the male genitals
appear, but from that point forward he says simply that they ‘became men’
using the language ἀνὴρ ἐγένετο (Mir. 6, 7) or ἀνὴρ γεvόμεvoς (Mir. 8, 9);
Pliny the Elder similarly says that they were changed into men or boys
(HN 7.36 puerum/virum factum or mutatum/mutari in marem). For both writ-
ers, women who spontaneously become men are distinct from individuals who

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 spontaneous sex c h a nge a nd its a f te r math 71

possess both male and female genitalia simultaneously. Pliny describes what he
calls hermaphroditi or androgyni, who possess ambiguous genitals from birth,
in a separate chapter (7.34) alongside other portentous births (e.g. women who
give birth to snakes or elephants). Phlegon similarly distinguishes transform-
ing women from infants born with two sets of genitalia mentioned elsewhere
in his text. Compare, for example, Phlegon’s description of a child, born in
Boeotia in the fourth century bc (Mir. 2), as ‘possessing two sets of genitals,
male and female (αἰδοῖα ἔχον δύο, ἀνδρεῖον τε καὶ γυναικεῖον), which dif-
fered amazingly in their nature: The upper parts of the genitals were com-
plete and masculine, but the parts around the thighs were womanly and softer’
(Mir. 2.3). In this unusually detailed description, almost medical in character
(Doroszewska 2013b: 382–3), Phlegon gives far more information about the
appearance of the child’s genitals than he does about the transformed women’s
new male genitals. This suggests that he views the women not, like the two
infants (whose unusual genitals need to be carefully explained for the audi-
ence), as being of indeterminate sex, but as having thoroughly unambigu-
ous and unremarkable, and thoroughly male, genitalia. For both Pliny and
Phlegon, then, these women who spontaneously change sex are viewed as a
decidedly different category of being from people born with genitals that dis-
play both male and female characteristics simultaneously: women who sponta-
neously grow penises are not intersex, but male.
Diodorus’ narratives offer a more complex account of spontaneous trans-
formation, in that his characters Heraïs and Kallo (whose transformations
are said to have occurred in 145 bc and 115 bc respectively) require medi-
cal intervention to bring manhood to physical completion. Nevertheless, his
descriptions suggest that these women truly become men. Heraïs’ transfor-
mation is preceded by several days of abdominal pain and fever that stymie
her physicians (32.10.3), until the problem solves itself with the appearance
of new genitals: ‘There burst forth from Heraïs’ female parts (ἐκ τῶν τῆς
Ἡραΐδος γυναικείων) a male organ with testicles attached (αἰδοῖον ἀνδρεῖον
ἔχον διδύμους προσκειμένους).’ Later, after Heraïs begins to live as a man,
doctors again examine her new genitals and offer an interpretation, along with
surgical intervention:

They believed that the masculine organ (φύσις ἄρρεvoς) had lain hidden
in an egg-shaped space within the feminine organ (φύσεως θηλείας),
and that, since skin was surrounding the organ (τὴν φύσιν) in an unusual
way, a passage had formed through which excretions could exit; for this
reason, they had to make an incision and cicatrise the perforated area,
and after putting the man’s organ in good order (τὴν . . . ἀνδρὸς φύσιν
εὔκοσμον ποιήσαντας) they received credit for giving treatment as per-
mitted by the situation. (Diodorus 32.10.7)

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 72 k. e. sha nnon-henderson

Heraïs’ case displays certain similarities with the Hippocratic Phaëthousa:

both transformations occur during a period when a woman’s husband is absent
(King 2008: 162–3; King 2013b: 106–7) and are accompanied by fever (King
2008: 162). This suggests that the intellectual underpinnings of Diodorus’
story lie in the Hippocratic notions of higher male body heat and the necessity
of regular intercourse for women. But whereas Phaëthousa’s fever was accom-
panied only by the growth of a beard, Heraïs is explicitly stated to transform
fully into a man thanks to the presence of male genitalia: φύσις, the word
Diodorus repeatedly uses, designates genitals in medical, magical and literary
texts (Winkler 1990a: 217–20; LSJ s.v. φύσις 7.2). The adjective εὔκoσμov,
‘well-ordered’, used to describe Heraïs’ new penis after the doctors’ interven-
tion, suggests that the surgery is merely cosmetic: the doctors did not create
these new genitalia, but only helped to make them more visually perfect
(Garland 1995: 131).
King argues that the doctors’ interpretation of Heraïs’ case – that her penis
had been there all along, but had lain concealed – amounts to an assertion that
Heraïs did not truly transform, but had secretly been a man all along (King
2008: 165–6). But this interpretation papers over the nuances of Diodorus’
account. The doctors never explicitly say that Heraïs was always a man, and
indeed acknowledge that she possessed female genitalia (φύσις θηλεία) before
the incident in question. Indeed, when her illness first begins, doctors assume
that the cause is an ulceration ‘at the neck of the uterus’ (32.10.3 περὶ τὸν
τράχηλον τῆς μήτρας); whatever they saw between Heraïs’ legs, it was evidently
not so unusual in appearance as to lead them to believe that she possessed any-
thing other than the typical female anatomy of vagina and womb. Furthermore,
the way Diodorus tells Heraïs’ story suggests he views her as female: even after
the moment her penis first appears, he continues to refer to her as Heraïs, using
feminine pronouns and participles (e.g. 32.10.4 ἀπολυθεῖσαν, 5 ἐκείνης, 6
δεινοπαθοῦσαν) and even calling her a woman (32.10.5 γύvη). Only in the
sentence after the doctors’ surgical intervention, with the change of name, does
her grammatical gender change: ‘Heraïs, changing her name to Diophantus
(τὴν δ᾽ Ἡραΐδα μετονομασθεῖσαν Διόφαντον), enlisted in the cavalry, and after
serving with the king (παραταξάμενον) retired with him to Abae’ (32.10.8). In
Diodorus’ portrayal of her, then, Heraïs was not secretly a man, but a woman
whose anatomy was for all intents and purposes female, and later suddenly
replaced by male genitalia and perfected with medical help, at which point she
transitioned to a fully male identity. When male genitals become apparent, she
becomes male just as completely as she had once been female.
Kallo’s story follows a similar pattern: she suffers from a tumor that causes
abdominal pain and perplexes her doctors (32.11.1). Instead of bursting spon-
taneously to reveal the male genitalia inside, Kallo’s tumor must be cut by
an ‘apothecary’ (φαρμακοπώλης), who also operates on Kallo’s new penis to

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 spontaneous sex c h a nge a nd its a f te r math 73

perforate it and performs catheterisation to release trapped secretions (32.11.3).

Diodorus’ description does not suggest that Kallo is at an indeterminate stage
between male and female before the surgery, but rather that she has a decidedly
male physical appearance which has not quite attained perfection on its own.
Kallo’s new genitalia are explicitly described as ‘man’s parts’ (ἀνδρὸς αἰδοῖα),
enumerated as ‘testicles and a penis’ (δίδυμοι καὶ καυλὸς), albeit an imperforate
one (32.11.2). As with Heraïs, this is a full and unambiguous physical transition
from one sex to another.
Also reinforcing the idea that these transformations represent a complete
shift from female to male is the texts’ suggestion of a relatively smooth transition
to life as a man. After the transformation of their genitalia, the women adopt
various markers of male gender to accompany the ‘biological’ markers of male
sex, apparently with relatively little difficulty. Diodorus’ Heraïs is typical in that
she changes her name, taking on the name of her father Diophantus. Other
women adopt masculine versions of their old feminine names: Kallo becomes
Kallon (Diodorus 32.11.4), Arescusa becomes Arescon (Pliny HN 7.36),
and Sympherousa becomes Sympheron (Phlegon Mir. 8). The transformed
women also abandon female pursuits and take on male occupations. Heraïs
exchanges her female clothing for masculine dress (32.10.7) and joins the mili-
tary (32.10.8), the masculine occupation par excellence. Kallo similarly adopts
male costume, gives up wool-working, and discards her weaving equipment
(32.11.4). Phlegon’s bare-bones account of Sympherousa/Sympheron includes
the detail that he works as a gardener after his transition (agricultural labour
ideally being a male occupation, especially since women’s menstrual blood was
thought to harm plants; see Boatwright 1998: 72). Pliny even says that Arescusa
took a wife (HN 7.36 uxorem duxisse) after becoming Arescon. These examples
suggest that the sudden appearance of male genitalia pushes these individuals
decidedly over the gender boundary from female into male: rather than being
somewhere in the middle, they live fully as men, performing all the actions to
which men are entitled.
Our texts’ interest in and descriptions of the genitalia of the transformed
women serve an additional purpose: underlying these physical descriptions is
the notion, sometimes explicit but mostly implicit, that male genitalia are supe-
rior to female. Aristotle claims that a woman is an infertile male because her
inferior anatomy prevents her from producing semen (GA 1.728a 17–20), and
even views being a woman as the first step on the path to monstrosity (τέρας,
GA 4.767b 8–10; Garland 1995: 153). Changing from female to male is there-
fore an improvement in status (Doroszewska 2013a: 236). Diodorus makes this
explicit in a quip from the apothecary who treats Kallo: ‘For healing her in this
way, he demanded double wages: for he said that he had received a sick woman
but had made her a healthy young man’ (32.11.3). The same idea is inherent in
the other stories of transformation: with the exception of Phlegon’s discussion

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 74 k. e. shannon-henderson

of Tiresias – a mythical figure and therefore a special case (Forbes Irving 1990:
150) – who changes from male to female, these texts offer only examples of
transformations from female to male. Our authors do not include stories of men
becoming effeminised, for example by castration, a situation fundamentally dif-
ferent from spontaneous sex change (Flemming 2000: 152 n. 54). (In fact, there
is only one example in ancient literature of a man spontaneously transforming
into a woman: Ausonius, Epigr. 76, a playful poem in which the poem’s speaker
recites examples of female-to-male transformations, including those recorded
by Pliny, and only at the end reveals her identity as a transformed former boy.)
But for Phlegon, Pliny and Diodorus, who are all seeking to report marvels, it
seems that men becoming female would not be worthy of interest; it only makes
a good story when the worse spontaneously becomes the better. These stories
thus reveal the stamp of an ideology that believed not only in men’s distinctness
from, but also in their superiority to, women.

sexuality and voyeurism: fear and scepticism

Although the women in these stories cross the gender barrier into the societally
privileged and biologically superior status of manhood, this does not mean that
their transformations are entirely unproblematic. At best, their transitions give
rise to calamities in their personal relationships, and a voyeuristic tendency to
objectify them. At worst, their transformations cause widespread panic because
of the threat of divine anger they represent. The negative consequences of their
transitions suggest that our authors believe it is possible, but not necessarily
advisable or desirable, for a woman fully to become a man.
Some of our texts show a prurient interest in the women’s sex lives in a way
that reinforces the idea of male superiority. Phlegon and Pliny, whose accounts
are more compressed, do not explicitly discuss how the transforming women
have sex, beyond noting that before their transformations many of them were
married to men; a reader would naturally assume that they consummated those
marriages (Garland 1995: 130). Only Diodorus’ more detailed account consid-
ers how the women’s genitalia might have dictated the types of sexual intercourse
they had while living as wives. Diodorus, who believes that it is impossible
for someone to have both male and female genitals (32.12.1), assumes that
they engaged in some type of non-vaginal sex with their husbands. Although
Kallo is described as having a fistula that enabled excretion (32.11.1), Diodorus
nevertheless says that she ‘did not admit womanly union (τὴν . . . γυναικείαν
ἐπιπλοκὴν), but was compelled to undergo unnatural intercourse (τὴν . . . παρὰ
φύσιν ὁμιλίαν)’. The same is true of Heraïs: people assume she must have been
incapable of ‘natural intercourse’ (τῆς κατὰ φύσιν ἐπιπλοκῆς) while living as
a woman, and was therefore forced to have ‘male intercourse’ (ταῖς ἀρρενικαῖς
συμπεριφοραῖς) with her husband (32.10.4). This sort of salacious gossip shows

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 sponta neous sex ch a n ge a n d its a f te r math 75

the prurient interest of the public in Heraïs’ private life because of her shocking
transformation. What is striking, however, is that Heraïs herself shares the gos-
sipers’ implicit assumption that it is abnormal for two men to have sex. After her
transformation, Heraïs avoids her husband Samiades out of shame (32.10.5);
when Samiades sues her father in an attempt to get his wife back, Diodorus
describes a dramatic courtroom scene in which Heraïs removes her clothes (a
motif in other ancient ‘gender-reveal’ scenarios; see Swancutt 2007: 22; King
2013b: 207–8) to show ‘the maleness of her organ (τὸ τῆς φύσεως ἄρρεν), and
spoke out in bitter complaint (δεινοπαθοῦσαν) that anyone should force a man
to cohabit with another man (συνοικεῖν ἀνδρὶ τὸν ἄνδρα) (32.10.6)’. Although
she has only recently become male, Heraïs has fully adopted male identity;
Diodorus may still refer to her with a feminine participle, but in her own mind
she is a man, made so by her male genitals. With that male identity, Heraïs has
also adopted the idea, widespread in antiquity (see Williams 2010: chap. 5),
that being penetrated is a feminine sexual role, demeaning for the man she has
become. Immediately upon becoming male, Heraïs has internalised traditional
notions of the superiority of the male anatomy, with its ability to penetrate, to
the female, which must suffer being penetrated. Thus Diodorus’ concern for
the sex lives of Kallo and Heraïs is another way in which transformation stories
actually reinforce the separation between the sexes, and the superiority of the
male. When a woman married to a man suddenly becomes a man herself, to
maintain sexual relations with her husband she must undergo a type of sex that
undermines her new male status. If one is a man, one must become fully a man;
to retain the inferior feminine sexual role is an insult to newfound masculinity.
Our texts also suggest that anyone who falls outside a strict male–female
division is worthy of fear, objectification or scepticism. These transforming
women are not the same as the intersex babies traditionally seen as harbingers of
disaster in the Roman religious system; Diodorus, who elsewhere in his works
emerges as a moralist encouraging clemency (Sacks 1990: 6), reacts against the
religious interpretation in very strong terms, claiming that those who view the
intersex as monsters are falling into superstition (32.12.1 δεισιδαιμονοῦσιν),
and denounces as inhumane the custom of burning such people alive: ‘So some-
one who shared a nature like ours, and was not in truth a monster (τέρας), per-
ished undeservedly through ignorance of his illness’ (32.12.2). But some trace of
the religious interpretation persists in our other authors. Phlegon, in noting that
the transformation of the girl from Antioch prompted the emperor Claudius to
build an altar to ‘Zeus the averter of evil’ (Mir. 6), is inscribing her into that reli-
gious tradition by showing that society, even in its uppermost reaches, viewed
her transformation as religiously worrisome (Garland 1995: 131). Pliny likewise
notes that a maiden who became a boy in 171 bc was abandoned, presumably
to his/her death, on a desert island on the advice of the haruspices (HN 7.36),
but does not condemn this as Diodorus did. In his chapter on intersex births

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 76 k. e. shannon-henderson

(HN 7.34), Pliny does suggest a modern shift in attitudes away from the tra-
ditional religious panic: ‘There are born people of both sexes (utriusque sexus),
whom we call hermaphrodites; they were once called androgynes and were
considered prodigies, but now they are held as darlings (in deliciis).’ Even this
apparently more enlightened attitude is a type of objectification: the word deli-
ciae is also used to describe a pet animal (Catullus 2.1), art object (Cicero Verrines
2.4.52) or object of sexual desire (Virgil Eclogues 2.2), suggesting that intersex
individuals are valued only for the pleasure or excitement their exotic bodies
bring to the viewer (see Adams 1982: 196–7; Pomeroy 1992: 46–9; King 2015:
255). Several ancient authors attest to this view of people with abnormal bodies
as pleasantly titillating, a sensationalist attitude that some of them strongly con-
demn (see Barton 1992: 85–8; Garland 1995: 52–4; Chappuis Sandoz 2008:
32; Charlier 2008: 80–8; Gevaert and Laes 2013: 221–3).
An emphasis on firsthand viewing of these individuals’ bodies similarly
suggests voyeurism. Pliny cites Mucianus’ firsthand observation of Arescusa/
Arescon (HN 7.36 Licinius Mucianus prodidit visum a se . . .), and also claims
to have seen for himself one Lucius Constitius from Africa, who allegedly was a
woman before transforming on her wedding day (ipse in Africa vidi). Similarly,
Phlegon claims firsthand observation of Aitete, who became Aitetos (Mir. 9
τοῦτον καὶ αὐτὸς ἐθεασάμην; see further Shannon 2013: 5). Diodorus does
not claim firsthand observation in the same way, but his detailed ekphrases of
the genitals of Heraïs and Kallo are designed to make the story more believable
by giving the reader the feeling that s/he is looking at their bodies firsthand
(Langlands 2002: 94). Diodorus’ doctors, who carefully inspect the women’s
genitals, also serve as a stand-in for the autoptic reader or author (King 2013b:
165–6). On the one hand, autopsy is simply a way authors, especially histori-
ans, can verify that the information they transmit is accurate, especially when
dealing with unusual phenomena (Marincola 1997: 82–3). Using this motif
suggests that these people are marvels outside the realm of anything a reader
might normally experience. For Phlegon, they are as wondrous as a centaur, the
preserved corpse of which he also claims to have seen (Mir. 35; on Phlegon’s
use of autopsy, see Shannon-Henderson 2020). But autopsy also reinforces the
notion of objectification, by implying that transformed people must be visually
inspected to prove their maleness. So even where our authors reject traditional
religious interpretations of individuals who transgress the anatomically defined
boundary between male and female, the objectification implicitly or explicitly
directed at their bodies nevertheless suggests their abnormality. Changing from
female to male does not make you a sign of divine wrath, but it still makes you
a curiosity worthy of attention.
Finally, our authors describe or imply negative effects on marriages, families
and society produced by these transformations. All of our texts include examples
of women who transform after they have already married men (Pliny HN 7.36;

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 spontaneous sex c h a n ge a n d its a f te r math 77

Diodorus 32.10.3, 11.1; Phlegon Mir. 6–7, 9). Mostly the details of this
unusual situation are not remarked upon and the reader must fill in the gaps
using his/her imagination. But the fact that our authors mention the women’s
wifely status suggests that the relationship between gender identity and mar-
riage is an important part of the thought-world in these transformation stories.
For Diodorus’ Heraïs, the transition from female to male causes conflict and
tragedy (Garland 1995: 130). Her husband Samiades ultimately cannot cope
with losing her and commits suicide, ‘with the result that she who was born a
woman (τὴν μὲν γυναῖκα γεγενημένην) took on the renown and courage of
a man (ἀνδρὸς), while the man became weaker than a woman’s soul (τὸν δ᾽
ἄνδρα γυναικείας ψυχῆς ἀσθενέστερον γενέσθαι)’ (32.10.9). Diodorus
explicitly draws attention to the reversal of gender norms: Heraïs becomes a
bold and manly soldier, while her former husband’s suicide reveals his underly-
ing effeminacy. Masculinity and femininity are a zero-sum game: in order for
Heraïs to become a man, her husband has to become more feminine. Spon-
taneous sex change therefore has consequences for familial relationships that
are destructive and tragic, reinforcing the fundamentality of the gender binary.
When a married woman becomes a man, the societal fabric can be torn in ways
too immense to overcome. Similarly, Diodorus notes that some of his sources
claim that Kallo was put on trial for impiety because she had been a priestess
of Demeter while living as a woman, and therefore saw mysteries which were
forbidden to male eyes (32.11.4). This tantalising snippet of information reveals
that, to some at least, after her transformation Kallo was considered to have
been a man all along, further evidence that a transformed woman is viewed as
fully male and not some intermediate sex. But the story also provides another
example of the potentially destructive religious consequences of crossing the
male–female divide. If Kallo had never transformed, the goddess would have
had no cause to be upset at the profanation of her mysteries.

conclusions: the binary alive and well

I hope to have shown how these stories of spontaneous female-to-male trans-
formation shed light on ancient conceptions of gender difference. These stories
are extraordinary for the matter-of-factness with which the transformations
are described. Even if the transformations cause social upheaval or sometimes
require medical intervention, what is not in doubt is that the women concerned
are truly thought to have changed completely into men. Neither medicalising
nor religious discourse is able to diminish that fundamental fact. Nevertheless,
the fact that women sometimes become men does not, in the authors’ minds,
mean that the boundary between the sexes should be fluid, or that women are
the equals of men. Notably absent from these accounts is any consideration of

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 78 k. e. shannon-henderson

how the transformed women feel about their own transformations. Our texts
are not interested in their perspective; this fact on its own is suggestive, imply-
ing that these individuals are worth writing about as objects, primarily for what
others think of their abnormal situations. Transition is complete (those who
transform are able to fully cross the boundary), but the dehumanising, prurient
gaze of the author and the negative consequences (overt or implied) of these
transitions for the broader society reinforces the notion that transformations are
fraught, since crossing the gender boundary can have destructive and traumatic
effects. Even in these most apparently gender-b(l)ending of stories, the gender
binary is alive and well.

note
1. Portions of this paper were initially presented at the 2017 meeting of the Society for
Classical Studies in Toronto, in a panel on the theme ‘[Tr]an[s]tiquity: Theorizing
Gender Diversity in Ancient Contexts’, sponsored by the Lambda Classical Caucus;
I am grateful to the audience there for their helpful comments, to Walter Penrose
and Tom Sapsford for organising the panel, and to LCC for its sponsorship. I am
immensely grateful to the editors of this volume, especially Allison Surtees, and to
the anonymous reviewer for their helpful critiques and feedback.

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 CHAPTER 5

Neutrumque et Utrumque Videntur:

Reappraising the Gender Role(s) of
Hermaphroditus in Ancient Art
Linnea Åshede

introduction and problem

A s an embodied challenge to gender binarism, Hermaphroditus has fasci-

nated since Hellenistic times.1 Compared to the scarcity of literary sources,
this child of Hermes and Aphrodite has primarily survived through images.
With no known exceptions, these present an idealised androgynous youngster
with breasts and a penis; usually long-haired, always en déshabillé. Although
these images were being produced from the Hellenistic era into the third cen-
tury ad, throughout the Mediterranean regions, Hermaphroditus’ iconography
remains remarkably consistent. The one notable change is the figure’s inclusion
into mythological group scenes set in the sphere of Aphrodite and Dionysus
(Oehmke 2004: 15; Berg 2007: 68–70). This expansion of Hermaphroditus’
iconographic repertoire occurs from the first century bc onwards and coincides
with the start of the heyday of Hermaphroditus imagery, the period from the
first century bc to the second century ad.
Ancient images of Hermaphroditus should not be understood as portrayals
of atypically sexed humans, such as those listed by Livy as prodigia or ill omens
(e.g. 27.11.4–6, 31.12.6 see Corbeill 2015: 151–68). What is portrayed is an
imaginary body, akin to that of the satyrs, and set in the same uncivilised, mythi-
cal landscapes. Literary sources offer few clues as to how contemporary audiences
related to these images, as the texts only deal with the origin of Hermaphroditus’
mixed sexual characteristics. Diodorus Siculus (4.6.5–6), the Salmakis Inscription
(15–22, see Isager 2004), Martial (14.174) and two epigrams (Anth. Pal. 2.102;
9.783) describe these as the result of Hermaphroditus inheriting the traits of
both hir parents. The best known literary account of Hermaphroditus – the tale
of metamorphosis from puer or young boy to semimas or ‘semi-man’ through an

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 82 l innea åshede

unwanted merging with the nymph Salmacis (Met. 4.285–388; on this passage
see Kelly in this volume) – is exclusive to Ovid, and not reflected in any surviv-
ing images (Berg 2007: 67; Cadario 2012: 241–4). In the most recent article to
treat Hermaphroditus, Robert Groves formulates a strong case for Ovid’s having
taken inspiration from the artworks with which he must have been familiar, and
constructing a narrative which plays with his audiences’ expectations based on
the same (Groves 2016: 322–6, 344–56).
Considering that the surviving testimony to Hermaphroditus’ existence
leaves the figure open to interpretation, it is problematic that scholarly treatments
of Hermaphroditus’ gender are remarkably uniform. The current consensus
maintains that Hermaphroditus was portrayed as attractive but problematic –
a seemingly female trap whose suddenly revealed male sex was intended to
shock and surprise (Berg 2007: 71; Clarke 2011: 186; Severy-Hoven 2012:
568). Because Hermaphroditus is neither man nor woman, scholars maintain
that the figure could not be considered a functional erotic partner for anyone,
and that any erotic encounter thus must end in mutual frustration (Oehmke
2004: 35–7, 69–70; Cadario 2012: 237, 293). As a consequence, it is main-
tained that the pivotal element of Hermaphroditus imagery is the surprising
discovery of the figure’s true identity (examples range from Helbig 1868: 304–6
nr. 1370 to Corbeill 2015: 167; Groves 2016; see comprehensive bibliography
in Åshede 2015, 24 n. 47).
These interpretations are based upon assumptions about gender and desire
that are firstly tacit and unquestioned, and secondly incompatible with much of
current ancient sexuality research (as noted by Oehmke 2004: 37). Scholarship
has so far not seriously questioned the capacity of Hermaphroditus’ unusual
combination of breasts and a penis to signify gendered positions in this par-
ticular form, in its particular contexts. Instead, sexual characteristics on anthro-
pomorphic bodies are assumed to be universal and unchanging, and as such
self-explanatory, an approach to the study of sex in historical cultures which
Robert Schmidt and Barbara Voss term ‘sex essentialism’ (Schmidt and Voss
2000: 3–5). This assumption constitutes a serious hindrance for research into
the gender ideologies of any culture, particularly when based on fragmentary
material objects that require extensive translation into describing, interpret-
ing words. I suggest that the tacit assumptions about Hermaphroditus’ gen-
der circumscribe possible research on the figure, and that a different theoretical
framework is required in order to question what we think we already know.
In the following section, I propose the relational ontology of Karen Barad’s
posthumanism as a possible approach to the problem. Because it is a theoretical
apparatus constructed with the unsettling of predefined categories as its primary
goal, it precludes us from assuming that we already know what a penis signi-
fies, instead spurring us to ask what specifically the penis of Hermaphroditus
can signify.

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 ge nder role(s) of hermaph ro d itus in a n cie nt a rt 83

what posthumanism has to offer hermaphroditus

Barad writes as a quantum physicist committed to investigating epistemo-
ontological problems from a feminist-materialist point of view. Based on the
particle experiments of Niels Bohr, she argues that not even atoms have dis-
tinct ontological identities, but every entity comes into being through multiple
encounters that are at once material and discursive. All existence is entangled
and unstable, as in undergoing continual, co-dependent transformations. This
means that subjects, whether considered real or imaginary, always have mul-
tiple belongings (Barad 2007: 225; 2011: 121–5). Furthermore, relationships
as such do not consist of interactions between already existing actors, but of
intra-actions, encounters that simultaneously bring entities together, differen-
tiate them, and thereby materialise them into existence (Barad 2011: 125–6,
149). Put differently, the actors do not pre-date the action. Their activity is
not reducible to anything beyond themselves, but the actors are their own rela-
tional, active existence. The naming of the participants through their encoun-
ter must be understood as a local resolution: a naming-into-existence that is
temporal, relative and situated in a specific encounter (Barad 2007: 80–93;
2011: 123–5).
The final point is the key to how classical studies can benefit from theo-
retical insights from other fields while staying sensitive to its historiocultural
particularities. In regards to the Hermaphroditus artworks, Barad’s ontology
of entanglements cautions us against assuming either that all individual images
should be understood in the same way, or that ancient Mediterranean audiences
would have looked at the figure with the same preconceptions about gender as
a Western viewer today. Instead of positing binary oppositions that demand a
dichotomising perspective on Hermaphroditus’ gender, a posthuman perspec-
tive affords us the possibility of working with continuums, a shift which prom-
ises radical new possibilities for understanding all category-challenging bodies.
The following sections undertake further critical re-examinations of what we
think we know about Hermaphroditus’ gender, from the posthuman departure
point that identity-generating and difference-making concepts such as gender
should be understood as co-dependent relationships between material-discursive
phenomena, rather than as inherent properties of individual bodies (Fredengren
2013: 56; Braidotti 2013: 163–5).

below the belt: the be-all and end-all of

masculine embodiment?
Discussion about Hermaphroditus tends to come back to the penis, the size, vis-
ibility and significance of which have been awarded more commentary than hir
other body parts taken together. This phallocentric approach is partly motivated

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 84 l innea å shede

by the images themselves – the penis has to be visible from at least one angle for
Hermaphroditus to be recognisable. Among the images of hir alone, the most
common type is the anasyromenos, where a frontally portrayed Hermaphroditus
is raising a long garment to reveal hir sometimes erect penis (see Oehmke 2004:
9, 23–30, 108–26).
However, there are just as many motifs where Hermaphroditus’ groin is not
brought into primary focus, such as the fresco where ze is binding hir breasts
before a mirror held by Eros (Fig. 5.1). Despite this, the penis emerges in schol-
arly discussion as the most important, or the only, identity-bearing element.
This is most noticeable in the consensus that Hermaphroditus’ portrayals centre
on the surprising revelation of hir genitals. The narrative of surprising discovery
is most often proposed for images where Hermaphroditus is either sleeping, or
struggling with one or more bestial male(s). To exemplify, David Fredrick argues
of Figure 5.2, where Pan is raising his hand while removing Hermaphroditus’
drapery while the latter reclines on the ground, that Hermaphroditus’ newly
revealed, erect penis transforms Pan from sexual aggressor to a ‘potential pen-
etree’ raising his hand for protection (Fredrick 1995: 281). Similarly, John R.
Clarke (2007: 179–80) argues that the experience of shocking discovery offered

Figure 5.1 Hermaphroditus and Eros, fresco allegedly from Boscoreale, Stuttgart,
Landesmuseum Württemberg, P. Frankenstein/H. Zwietasch, Arch 83/1c; Oehmke
2004: 135 nr. 130.

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 ge nder role(s) of herma ph ro d itus in a n cie nt a rt 85

Figure 5.2 Hermaphroditus and Pan, fresco in situ, Pompeii, House of the Vettii,
VI.15.1; su concessione del Ministero per i Beni e le Attività – Culturali; Oehmke
2004: 144 nr. 162.

by Hermaphroditus’ body is the same for satyrs and human (presumed male)
viewers – both are set up by the artist to be ‘naturally’ aroused by the sight of
a seemingly female body, only to discover the penis that will ‘douse his passion
like a bucket of ice water’.
The insistence on Hermaphroditus’ penis as something shocking to be dra-
matically discovered/revealed reflects, firstly, the conviction that the penis alone is
perceived to misalign with the rest of hir appearance, and secondly, that the penis
is awarded primary status as gender-determinant. These constant references to
the surprising penis as Hermaphroditus’ true sex/identity reflect a commonplace
narrative trope in Western culture, described by Talia Mae Bettcher (2007: 47–8)
as ‘genital exposure as sex verification’. The equation of genitalia and gender-truth
is further reflected in how scholars present the undressing of Hermaphroditus’
penis as a sudden transformation, almost an instantaneous sex-change, which
turns the presumed beautiful woman into a threatening figure – the threat being
the masculine urge to sexually penetrate, which is presumed to reside in the penis
and incite horror in other males (Severy-Hoven 2012: 571; Vout 2013: 77–8;
Groves 2016: 328–30).
The problem with looking for Hermaphroditus’ identity below the belt is that
it circumscribes the range of possible conclusions. When scholars suggest that

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Hermaphroditus embodies the harmonious union between man and woman, or

that images of Hermaphroditus looking over hir shoulder – sometimes with a
mirror aimed at hir buttocks – show the concept of hir male penis being attracted
to the sight of hir ‘female’ backside (Stähli 1999: 272), this enforces an internal
fragmentation of the hermaphroditic body. Male and female are preserved as
the essential biological dichotomy, residing in individual body parts treated as
independent regions. Barad (2011: 124–6, 149) specifically cautions against this
type of approach, which in the present case leaves the effects of Hermaphrodi-
tus’ bodily figurations unaccounted for, by beginning analysis after the gendered
boundaries are already in place.
Instead of assuming that we already know what a penis signifies, we must
ask what Hermaphroditus’ penis can signify in relation to hir wealth of other
gendered/gendering elements. To be able to consider seriously such questions,
we cannot treat hir as a jigsaw puzzle pieced together from already gender-fixed
building-blocks. We cannot downplay the effect of other elements in favour of a
phallocentric preoccupation with genital truth, and we cannot lose sight of histo-
riocultural specificities. The following section proposes alternative interpretations.

challenging the ‘female plus penis’ view of

hermaphroditus
It may seem like a biological given that certain anatomical features are pre-dis-
cursively sexed. Even on the level of DNA analysis, however, there is wider room
for ambiguity than commonly recognised; an issue addressed by archaeologist
Christina Fredengren:

The find of a Y chromosome is an indication which shows a body had the

possibility of being a man. However, bodies are full of potentials that may
or may not be realized in various historical settings. (Fredengren 2013: 62;
compare Ainsworth 2015)

Considering that this is the case with real-world human remains, we should
be even warier about assuming that a penis on a body belonging to ancient myth
automatically generates the gendered identity man, with associated desires.
The ancient Mediterranean cultures recognised a number of penis-bearing
corporealities which were nevertheless differently gendered than the norma-
tive man: certain eunuchs, not yet mature and sometimes erotically objectified
boys, and the stereotype of erotically dominated or otherwise non-conforming
adult males all differ from the male norm, despite having penises (see Tougher
2002; Severy-Hoven 2012: 560; Williams 2010: 193–203 with sources).
How, then, is Hermaphroditus’ penis presented? Quite disparately between
different images. In Figure 5.1, it is the same size as the penis of baby Eros

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holding hir mirror, and barely noticeable over the edge of hir low-slung drap-
ery. In relation to this, Hermaphroditus is sporting the flat-chested appear-
ance of most female figures in Roman frescoes. In this particular image, hir
breasts are mostly noticeable because ze is in the process of binding them, and
ze is further aligned with conventional representations of females through
pale skin, pearl earrings and an elegant mitra or draped headdress (Oehmke
2007, 266–9). In contrast, two Pompeiian frescoes with the common motif
of Hermaphroditus seated before Silenus – where ze is stroking his beard and
seeking eye-contact while he leans over hir shoulder, grasping hir wrist and
raising his free hand – shows hir unveiling a pale torso, with rosy highlights
on the nipples and erection (Fig. 5.3; Oehmke 2004: 39 fig. 128). Again, the
drapery, the pale skin and the long hair contrast sharply against the appear-
ance of the dark, bearded Silenus. The former traits are more aligned with
representations of female figures, but Hermaphroditus also contrasts against
the maenad or feral Dionysian woman present in Figure 5.3, both through the
erect penis and through hir elevated seat. This seated position is indicative of
superior status to the maenad, who by standing to the side and not partaking

Figure 5.3 Hermaphroditus, Silenus and Maenad, fresco from Pompeii, House
of M. Epidius Sabinus, IX.1.22, Naples, Museo Archeologico Nazionale, 27875;
su concessione del Ministero dei Beni e delle Attività Culturali e del Turismo –
Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli; Oehmke 2004: 133 nr. 125.

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in the eye contact between the pair on the platform takes on the function of
what Alison Sharrock terms an ‘internal viewer’, a figure whose gaze directs
the external audience’s gazes to the central figures (Sharrock 2002: 279; also
Elsner 2007: 89–90).
Visual contrast is at the forefront when Hermaphroditus appears in the com-
pany of adult males. Ze is pale where the satyric males are dark; long-haired but
devoid of bodily hair where they are generally hirsute and bearded; soft and
slender where they are burly. The workings of this contrasting can be observed
particularly clearly in a terracotta of Hermaphroditus seated next to a stand-
ing satyr (Fig. 5.4), resembling the popular Berlin-Torlonia marble group of
the same motif (Stähli 1999: 90–6; Åshede 2015: 264–86). While the large-
scale, three-dimensional marbles portray Hermaphroditus wrapping hir thighs
around the leg of a bearded, pine-cone-wreathed satyr, the terracotta as well as
some small-scale, two-dimensional versions portray a youthfully beardless satyr
(Roscher 1886–90: 2339). This younger satyr nevertheless contrasts sharply
against Hermaphroditus by being short-haired and muscular – what is notewor-
thy is that next to his smooth face and downcast eyes, which in ancient art often
communicate youthful diffidence (M. Bradley 2009: 150–9), Hermaphroditus

Figure 5.4 Hermaphroditus and Satyr, terracotta from Southern Italy, München, Staatliche
Antikensammlungen und Glyptothek, NI 6781; Oehmke 2004: 132–3 nr. 123.

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appears comparatively more mature. Hir hand resting on his shoulder and lifted
gaze communicate confident seduction, but nothing in hir behaviour suggests
that this erotic agency should be equated with phallic aggression. Rather, hir
elegant coiffure with ringlets, voluptuously rounded limbs and penis peeking
over the edge of low-slung drapery embody sensual invitation. The young satyr’s
stance – leaning away from Hermaphroditus and lowering his eyes but simulta-
neously reaching for hir raised hand and touching hir hip – suggests ambivalent
hesitation, not horror.
The conclusion to be drawn here is that bodies in ancient art are capable
of variation. If one persists in looking to penises for cues on how to under-
stand ancient group scenes, it can be noted that just as individual replicas of
the Dresden group (where Hermaphroditus is stiff-arming a satyr clinging to
hir body) differ in their portrayals of Hermaphroditus’ hairstyle, and Berlin-
Torlonia replicas differ in the animals and objects adorning the plinth, replicas
of both kind also differ in showing the satyr’s penis sometimes soft, sometimes
erect (see Stähli 1999, 309–40, 372–83, 431 n. 902). Likewise, individual art-
works show Hermaphroditus’ penis as soft or erect, hir breasts and hips more
or less rounded, and hir behaviour towards others more or less assertive. It must
be recognised that each recurring figure in ancient art is capable of embody-
ing a range of possible attitudes and appearances, and that our perceptions of
whether or not Hermaphroditus’ breasts are bigger or smaller than those of a
woman always become affected by our immediate objects of comparison. These
shift constantly, and will have done so for ancient audiences as well. The fact
that the exercising of individual judgement is unavoidable in connection with
ambiguously gendered bodies is indeed recognised by the jurist Ulpian. He
comments that quaeritur: hermaphroditum cui comparamus? et magis puto eius
sexus aestimandum, qui in praevalet, ‘on the question of which sex to assign to
a hermaphrodite, I think whichever sex can be judged to prevail’ (Dig. 1.5.10,
edition Krüger: 2008; all translations are my own). This legal approach of deter-
mining the closest fit recalls second century ad physiognomic texts, that seek to
determine a person’s gender based not only on the genitals but on every aspect
of the body, including body language, voice and overall behaviour (e.g. Polemo,
edition Foerster 1893, vol. 1: 192; see Gleason 1990).
Rather than fixating on dissecting hir anatomy, a better indication of
Hermaphroditus’ perceived gender may be gleaned from exploring the apparent
limits of hir scope for variation. By establishing that Hermaphroditus is con-
sistently visually contrasted against humanimal male figures, that hir iconogra-
phy most closely emulates those of the alluring Aphrodite and the gender-fluid,
Hellenistically youthful Dionysus, and that ze is consistently portrayed with
long, centrally parted hair, clinging drapery, jewellery and pale skin, we can
conclude that ze adheres to pictorial conventions not associated with conven-
tional masculinity in ancient art – if masculinity is understood as pertaining to

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adult, non-gender-variant men. Given this consistent non-masculine gendering,

it would be incongruous to read the revelation of hir penis as overriding all
other features and effecting a shocking transformation from seemingly female
to threateningly masculine.
More interesting results can be reached by calling the given-ness of all aspects
of Hermaphroditus into question, in the same manner as the taken-for-granted
masculinity of the penis. Let us begin with that part of Hermaphroditus which
is supposed by scholars to lure both satyrs and human viewers into mistaken
female-oriented desire: the shapely bottom (Oehmke 2004: 55; Groves 2016:
339–40). Looking at erotically objectified females such as nymphs, Aphrodite
and women in erotic scenes contemporary with Hermaphroditus, it is clear that
their buttocks are frequently emphasised more than their breasts – but a nice bot-
tom is equally strongly connected to the desirability of boys (e.g. Mart. 2.60.2,
9.67.3, 11.43; Erotes 27, see Williams 2010: 185, 204). In particular, Roman
erotic discourse conceptualises the erotic allure of buttocks as boyish even when
the buttocks in question belong to a woman. Anal penetration regardless of the
recipient is referred to as illud puerile, ‘that boyish thing’. When the confirmed
boy-lover Callicratidas in the Erotes 14 (edition Halperin: 2002, traditionally
attributed to pseudo-Lucian, though its authorship remains contested) beholds
the bottom of the Knidian Aphrodite – described by the narrator as τὰ παιδικὰ
μέρη τῆς θεοῦ, ‘the boyish parts of the goddess’ – he exclaims: τοιοῦτος ἄρα
Γανυμήδης ἐν οὐρανῷ Διὶ τὸ νέκταρ ἥδιον ἐγχεῖ·, ‘so that’s what Ganymede
looks like as he pours the nectar for Zeus in heaven and sweetens its taste!’
This example serves as a reminder that the ancient Mediterranean cultures
did not organise erotic experience solely around binary gender. Rather, the soft,
youthful bodies of women/girls and boys are conceptualised as equally capable
of inciting men’s desires (Williams 2010: 20–9). In this culture where both
women and certain categories of boys – such as slaves and foreigners – con-
stitute erotic ideals, pictorial conventions for representing ideal beauty often
overlap. Thus, not only could Hermaphroditus’ buttocks equally well be read as
feminine or boyish, but the same is to various degrees true about hir pale skin,
flowing locks and rounded limbs (see for example Ov. Met. 4.354–5; Petron.
Sat. 86.5; Stat. Silv. 2.1.50–1; Apul. Met. 5.22; Bartman 2002: 251–3). Rather
than saying that these ideals are feminine or boyish in themselves, it might be
more correct to understand them as a youthfully androgynous continuum of
attractiveness. Hermaphroditus is capable of embodying the entire spectrum of
erotic attraction, and of appearing as more or less woman, boy, both and neither
to individual viewers.
The obvious interest in portraying an idealised, gender-fluid body suggests
that the surprising revelation of Hermaphroditus’ penis as equivalent to hir true
identity has been overstated. While ze is frequently in the process of undressing
or being undressed, the same pictorial convention is common in depictions of

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both gender-typical females and Dionysus, where it functions to voyeuristically

frame a beautiful body for the viewers’ delectation (Oehmke 2004: 36, 47). In
the case of the anasyromenos or garment-lifting gesture, this is found in images
of both Baubo and Priapus, suggesting that rather than revealing a hidden penis,
it constitutes a ritual and/or provocative baring of genitals in general (Oehmke
2004: 9, 23–30). As Stefanie Oehmke elsewhere notes, Hermaphroditus images
do not emphasise internal fragmentation but rather the seamless unity of physi-
cal traits (Oehmke 2004: 60).
If we postulate that Hermaphroditus’ idealised androgyny is framed for an
audience poised to understand both women and boys as erotic objects, it no
longer makes sense to read the sight of hir penis as an automatic cause for
male horror. Particularly not since the figures positioned as hir potential erotic
partners, Pan and the satyrs, are consistently characterised in art and literature
by their rampant, undiscriminating erotic appetites, literally oriented towards
anything that moves (Lissarague 1990: 61–5; Marquardt 1995; Hall 1998:
15–24; Stähli 1999: 274, 389–94). As mankind’s distorting mirror, these bestial
creatures are at liberty to pursue even non-normative objects of desire, and can
be depicted engaging in orgies with each other or fingering female genitalia
(Frontisi-Ducroux 1996: 95).
As a youthfully androgynous beauty, Hermaphroditus follows ancient picto-
rial conventions for an erotically receptive partner. Ze is voyeuristically posi-
tioned sleeping on the ground, beautifying hirself before a mirror and struggling
with bestial satyrs. The reason for the frequently raised hand of hir partners is
typically interpreted as dismay at the revelation of hir penis (Groves 2016: 337).
However, the same gesture occurs quite frequently in frescoes depicting related
mythological scenes of Pan or satyrs undressing sleeping nymphs or Ariadne (for
example Marcadé 1961: 42; Caratelli 1993: 540 fig. 120; Häuber 1999: 176 n.
38, 177 n. 65; Zanker 2004: 163 fig. 168; Lorenz 2008: 369 fig. 184). There is
nothing to distinguish the expressions of the figures looking at a woman from
those of a majority of the figures looking at Hermaphroditus, but the raised
hand connected to a female sleeper is typically labelled in positive terms, for
example as ‘an eloquent gesture of wonder’ (Grant 1975: 160–2). The different
receptions suggest that scholars comparing the images already understand the
hermaphroditic body as an impossible object of desire (for instance Oehmke
2004: 37–8; Severy-Hoven 2012: 567).
Since the raised hand is most frequently performed in connection to voy-
euristic undressing, it seems plausible that it should be connected to the act of
looking at nakedness in itself, perhaps functioning as the interpellation ‘look
at this!’ – without necessarily signifying a negative or positive reaction. This
reading would open the images to further ambiguity, as in the case of a now
destroyed fresco from the House of the Postumii (VIII.4.4), where Hermaphro-
ditus stands surrounded by a small thiasos or Dionysian party (Oehmke 2004:

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97–8 nr. 41). Here, Pan moving along in the foreground has traditionally been
described as fleeing the sight of Hermaphroditus, a reaction not shared by
any of the surrounding figures. However, if Pan’s raised hand is understood
as signifying looking rather than horror, his head that is turned back to keep
Hermaphroditus in his sight suggests that hir body might in fact be halting
him in his tracks. Likewise, in the case of Figure 5.3, Silenus’ hand grasping
Hermaphroditus’ wrist should probably not be understood as an act of rejec-
tion, but as a formulaic, favourable response to the chin-stroking – a set of
gestures that often occur in courtship scenes between couples of varying gender
constellations (Clarke 1991: 96–7; DeVries 1997: 15–20).
One exception exists, where Pan’s reaction to Hermaphroditus appears to
be clearly negative – not because of his raised hand, but because his entire head
is averted. This fresco from the House of the Dioscuri (VI.9.6) is perhaps the
most reproduced image of Hermaphroditus, but is in fact unusual in that Pan
displays expressed desire to disengage from the person he has been undressing
(Oehmke 2004, 50, 141 nr. 153). What sets this version apart from Hermaph-
roditus’ other humanimal encounters, especially the similar Figure 5.2, is hir
specific response. In the Dioscuri fresco, Hermaphroditus looks directly at Pan
and puts a hand on his arm, thus taking erotic initiative, as opposed to demurely
encouraging further contact by coyly averting hir gaze with an arm thrown over
the head to signal abandon, as in Figure 5.2 (Clarke 2002: 161). The latter con-
stitutes acceptable enactments of desirability expected of a delicate, erotically
objectified body such as Hermaphroditus’ – the former, however, breaks erotic
protocol by interfering with the initiative of Pan, who as a hyper-masculine
figure is expected to be the driving force in the encounter. He responds with
unease. The problem, thus, is not Hermaphroditus’ unusual body but hir unex-
pected behaviour.
Oehmke and Groves touch upon this alternative interpretation; however,
they circumscribe its potential for communicating with the sources in a culture-
sensitive manner by reducing the wrongness of Hermaphroditus’ behaviour to
phallic aggression (Oehmke 2004: 70–2; Groves 2016: 351). This assumption
disregards the recognition primarily in literary sources of both male and female
bodies ‘itching’ to play receptive erotic roles (for example Mart. 6.37.4) –
that is, male and female bodies who actively seek their own penetration or
otherwise demand erotic fulfilment. One noteworthy example is Ovid’s aggres-
sive Salmacis, who upon seizing Hermaphroditus pugnantemque tenet, luctan-
tiaque oscula carpit, subiectatque manus, invitaque pectora tangit, ‘holds him fast
though he strives against her, steals reluctant kisses, fondles him, and touches
his unwilling breast’ (Met. 4.358–60, edition Anderson: 1996, discussed in
Richlin 1992a: 165; Groves 2016: 347–52). Examples of erotically objectified,
insatiable males actively seeking to be orally and/or anally penetrated abound
in the Satyrica (for example Petron. Sat. 23, 87), and Deborah Kamen and

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Sarah Levin-Richardson list a plethora of further examples in their critical

reappraisal of the routine usage of the labels active contra passive in schol-
arly discussion of erotically dominated males (Kamen and Levin-Richardson
2015a: 453–6; see also their reappraisal of female sexual agency in Kamen and
Levin-Richardson 2015b). Their thorough analysis of sexual Latin terminology
and grammar amply demonstrates that contrary to traditional scholarly praxis,
no straightforward correlation exists between active versus passive behaviour
on the one hand, and the desire to penetrate versus be penetrated on the other
(Kamen and Levin-Richardson 2015a: 456).
Latin literature and graffiti abound in erotically objectified bodies driven
by the desire to be dominated, often specifically by being penetrated, who nev-
ertheless take very active initiative, rather than blushingly awaiting seduction.
While prolific, this behaviour is unanimously represented as transgressive, to
the point of being comical or unpleasant for their would-be lovers. In rela-
tion to such a negative view on non-masculine erotic initiative, it is possible to
understand Hermaphroditus’ grasping hold of Pan or the Berlin-Torlonia satyr
as unwelcome behaviour, without it being an expression of phallic aggression
as such, which would be incongruous given Hermaphroditus’ overall gender
presentation. Instead, hir behaviour could be understood as consisting of over-
eagerness literally unbecoming of a young beauty – that is to say, behaviour
seen as so transgressive in its given context that it no longer makes it possible to
conceive of its enactor as desirable.

the beauty of ambiguity

Images of Hermaphroditus excel in presenting ambiguity, not just in hir youth-
ful body but in hir encounters with others, portrayed as open-ended moments
rather than linear narratives. That these artworks did elicit multiple interpreta-
tions is confirmed by two contemporary texts. Ovid, who as Groves demon-
strates based his transformed Hermaphroditus on the figure familiar from art,
describes the newly merged Hermaphroditus as forma duplex, nec femina dici nec
puer ut possit, neutrumque et utrumque videntur, ‘a dual form that could be said to
be neither woman nor boy, but seemed to be neither and both’ (Met. 4.378–9).
This version corresponds with Hermaphroditus’ existence in art, as an embodi-
ment of the sliding scale between female and boyish beauty. In contrast, Martial
(14.174, edition Heraeus and Borovskij: 1982) describes a Hermaphroditus mar-
moreus thus: masculus intravit fontis, emersit utrumque; pars est una patris, cetera
matris habet, ‘[he] entered the spring male, and emerged double-sexed. One part
is the father’s, the rest comes from the mother’. Martial knows Ovid’s story, yet
describes Hermaphroditus’ gendered body differently, focusing on fragmentation
rather than seamlessness, and ascribing the gender ambiguity to the parentage

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rather than Salmacis. (As Groves 2016: 350 suggests, the masculine pronoun
used about Hermaphroditus in ancient texts can likely be attributed to the mas-
culine grammatical default used for mixed groups, even though this mixed group
consists of one body; see the Introduction to this volume) The lesson from this
example is that neither Ovid nor Martial has to be right. What is important is
to acknowledge that all phenomena always are ontologically pluralistic – and
that images of Hermaphroditus in particular hinge upon presenting viewers with
multiple alternatives.
There is, however, a common limit to these alternatives, or rather a com-
mon frame: the artworks’ physical contexts of display. While only a minor-
ity of the preserved images have documented find-contexts, those that have
them primarily originate in connection with private gardens or public baths
and theatres throughout the Roman empire. Here, they function as objects of
adornment, providing audiences with both sensory and intellectual stimula-
tion (von Stackelberg 2009: 94–6; O’Sullivan 2011: 78). Both these types of
spaces and the time spent in them can be understood as firstly liminal, that is,
blurring the borders between real and mythological, and secondly temporal,
in that they offer a pleasant escape from the rigours of everyday life, with the
expressed condition that everyone return to their duties afterwards (Hales
2003: 34–5, 156; Newby 2012: 368). As many scholars have argued, Roman
gardens, baths and theatres have a further common denominator in being
spaces characterised by a comparatively greater licence for gender transgres-
sions, compared to society at large (Hales 2003: 153; Retzleff 2007: 459,
468–70; von Stackelberg 2009: 62–72; 2014: 398, 411; Platts 2011: 257–62).
Because all elements of Hermaphroditus’ portrayals adhere to pictorial conven-
tions for representing ideal, desirable bodies – including Pan’s negative reaction as
discussed above – hir unusual combination of sexual characteristics cannot be
understood as subversive of ancient gender discourse as such. The radical potential
of the figure is rather found in the many ambiguities permeating these images,
allowing audiences room for speculation and fantasy, in the relatively safe space of
escapist contexts, with Hermaphroditus as alluring cicerone.

note
1. I offer my heartfelt gratitude to our editors and my anonymous referees, for their
truly constructive and considerate assistance.

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 CHAPTER 6

Intersex and Intertext: Ovid’s

Hermaphroditus and the
Early Universe
Peter Kelly

T his chapter examines the story of Salmacis and Hermaphroditus from book
4 (285–388) of Ovid’s Metamorphoses, whose two bodies are merged into
one. A series of connections can be drawn between the transformation of Her-
maphroditus and the representation of the primordial universe at the beginning
of the Metamorphoses, and specifically the representation of cosmological chaos,
where basic elemental oppositions such as the hot and the cold and the wet and
the dry are confounded and mixed together. Likewise the Hermaphroditus nar-
rative may be seen to undermine the ontological stability of gendered corporeal
form, while the presentation of Hermaphroditus as protohuman also serves to
destabilise the concept of cosmological and human evolution, or more specifi-
cally the assumption that the world moves from a state of chaos and unity to one
of stability, multiplicity and division.
Ovid therefore uses the Hermaphroditus narrative not only to collapse the
distinction between apparent gender categories, but also to question the notion
that it is possible to hold a fixed and stable view of both the cosmos and the
literary text purporting to depict it. On the one hand, Ovid’s Hermaphroditus
narrative stands alongside the other stories of corporeal transformation which
occupy the largely ‘mythological’ section of the text; on the other, Ovid uses
various features of this narrative to link this specific transformation with the
‘scientific’ opening and the description of the primordial universe. The Her-
maphroditus narrative thus also highlights how the apparent boundaries and
distinctions which exist in terms of textual genre are as fluid and unstable as
those which are perceived to exist between genders. Ovid conveys this through
the use of multiple allusions to ‘scientific’ discourses and specifically to accounts
of ‘intersex’ beings in Empedocles, Plato’s Symposium and Lucretius’ De Rerum
Natura. In this way Ovid’s portrayal of Hermaphroditus performs an ontological
and interacting epistemological role, as it expresses the breakdown of corporeal

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 96 pe ter k elly

distinction and stability through blurring the divisions between truth and false-
hood. Ovid also extends this idea to human social structures by subverting the
use of opposition as a basic organising principle across the cultural spectrum.
The story of Hermaphroditus is the last of the stories recounted by the
daughters of Minyas in book 4 of the Metamorphoses (285–388), and directly
follows the stories of Pyramus and Thisbe (55–166), Mars and Venus (167–89),
Leucothoe and Clytie (190–273) and Alcithoe (274–84). Here Ovid describes
how the water nymph Salmacis falls in love with the teenage son of Hermes
and Aphrodite, who is only at the end of the narrative referred to by the name
of Hermaphroditus. When Hermaphroditus rejects the advances of Salmacis,
Salmacis pretends to retreat while waiting for Hermaphroditus to enter into
the pool over which she holds divine control. After Hermaphroditus unknow-
ingly enters into her waters she attempts to rape him, entwining herself around
his body while he strives to push her away (358–60) (Hermaphroditus will be
referred to using the male pronoun prior to his transformation with Salmacis).
As they struggle, Salmacis prays to the gods for him to never be taken away from
her, or her from him, and their two bodies appear to be joined together (373–4).
There is then a shift in the narrative, and Ovid is no longer describing the two
characters but Hermaphroditus alone. The transformation, moreover, does not
result in a truly double being. Instead Hermaphroditus is said to have become
half a man with softened limbs, while the identity of Salmacis appears to be lost
altogether, reduced to a dehumanised association with her own spring (380–2).

hermaphroditus and the primordial universe

Ovid describes the physical merging of the bodies of Salmacis and Hermaph-
roditus as they are joined together and take on a single appearance as follows:

nam mixta duorum

corpora iunguntur, faciesque inducitur illis
una; velut, siquis conducat cortice, ramos
crescendo iungi pariterque adolescere cernit,
sic, ubi conplexu coierunt membra tenaci,
nec duo sunt et forma duplex, nec femina dici
nec puer ut possit, nec utrumque et utrumque videntur.

For their two bodies were mingled and joined; and they put on the
appearance of one; just as, if someone puts branches through a tree’s
bark, he sees them joined as they grow and maturing together, so, when
their bodies had come together in a clinging embrace, they were not two,
but they had a dual form that could be said to be neither woman nor
boy, they seemed to be neither and both (Met.4.377–9; edition Anderson
1996; trans. adapted from Hill 1985, used throughout).

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Their two bodies fuse together (iungere), and they adopt a single appearance
(facies una), yet have a dual form (forma duplex). They no longer appear to oper-
ate within normative conceptual distinctions: they are neither fully singular nor
plural; they are neither individually male nor female; nor are they both. In being
‘neither and both’ the woman and the boy, the distinction of they, she, he no
longer holds. Not only do we see a breakdown in perceived gender divisions, but
the distinction necessary for individual identity to exist as well as our ability to
describe and conceptualise it is lost. The other instance where this occurs in the
Metamorphoses is in Ovid’s description of the primordial state of the universe,
where the basic elemental oppositions are confounded and physical identity can
neither exist on a corporeal nor a conceptual level.
At the beginning of the Metamorphoses, Ovid describes chaos, the primordial
state of the universe as follows:

Ante mare et terras et quod tegit omnia caelum

unus erat toto naturae vultus in orbe,
quem dixere chaos: rudis indigestaque moles
nec quidquam nisi pondus iners congestaque eodem
non bene iunctarum discordia semina rerum.
. . . nulli sua forma manebat,
obstabatque aliis aliud, quia corpore in uno
frigida pugnabant calidis, umentia siccis,
mollia cum duris, sine pondere, habentia pondus.

Before the sea and the lands and the sky which covers all things, there was
one face of nature in her whole globe, which they called chaos: a rough
unordered mass, nothing except inactive weight and joined together the
discordant seeds of badly joined together things. . . . To none did its form
remain, and one impeded the others, because in one body, the cold were
fighting with the hot, the wet with the dry, the soft with the hard, and the
weightless and the heavy. (1.5–20)

In Ovid’s primordial universe the primary divisions of reality do not exist,

as all of nature is said to have a single appearance (vultus unus). This state is
directly contrasted with the formed universe based on the divisions of sea,
land and sky which at this point have not yet come into existence. Primordial
chaos operates as a singularity where the primary elements of matter (semina)
are described as fused together (iunctus). The elemental opposites of the hot
and the cold, the dry and the wet, the soft and the hard, and the light and the
heavy are in a state of turmoil, lack stable division and occupy a single body
(unum corpus).
There are a number of close verbal and conceptual parallels between
Ovid’s description of Hermaphroditus’ transformed body and the depiction

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of the primordial universe. Both are said to be in a state of fusion (iunctus,

iungere) where pluralities and polar opposites occupy a single body (corpus)
and adopt a single appearance (vultus unus, facies una). In both cases the
primary divisions or categories used to designate reality are confounded and
we are faced with a state which evades precise definition. This connection is
further emphasised in Ovid’s description of the ‘softened limbs’ (mollitaque
membra) of Hermaphroditus’ body (Met. 4.381–2), which parallels the mix-
ing of the elemental opposition of the soft and the hard (mollia, duris) in
primordial chaos.
The connection between Hermaphroditus and primordial chaos becomes
more apparent if we compare Hermaphroditus to another representation of the
primordial universe in Ovid’s Fasti. In book 1 of the Fasti the narrator is con-
fronted with a fully fledged corporealisation of the cosmos in the guise of Janus.
Janus tells the narrator that the ancients used to call him chaos and proceeds to
describe the formation of the universe, which he identifies as his own transfor-
mation from a shapeless mass to a personified deity:

tunc ego, qui fueram globus et sine imagine moles,

in faciem redii dignaque membra deo.
nunc quoque, confusae quondam nota parva figurae,
ante quod est in me postque videtur idem.

At that time I, who had been a sphere, a mass without form, returned
into the face and limbs worthy of a god. And even now a small sign of
my formerly mixed up form, what is in front and behind in me look just
the same. (1.111–14; edition Alton, Wormell and Courtney: 1978; trans.
adapted Wiseman 2013)

The formation of the cosmos is envisaged as the transformation of a raw spher-

ical lump of matter (effectively another singularity) into an anthropomorphic god,
as the world gains form through the development of distinct limbs. Janus reveals,
however, that his double form is a sign of his previous or primordial state. Ovid
uses the term biformis ‘double-formed’ to describe the body of Janus at Fasti 1.89.
This is precisely the same term which he uses to describe Hermaphroditus at Met.
4.387. This strengthens the link between Hermaphroditus and the beginnings of
the cosmos, with the notion of double form used specifically as a marker for this
primordial state. Hermaphroditus’ transformation in this context could be read
as a reversal of the sequence of the development of the world. The cosmos takes
shape in both the Metamorphoses and the Fasti through a process of separation,
expansion and the development of distinction. In the case of Hermaphroditus,
however, this essential sequence is reversed as the many become the one, through
the consolidation of the separate bodies of Hermaphroditus and Salmacis and

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through the loss of gender opposition. At the very least, the close parallels between
Hermaphroditus’ metamorphosis and the primordial universe must indicate the
latent chaos still present in the formed world.

plato’s proto-humans and lucretius’ lovers

Placed next to primordial chaos, Hermaphroditus’ transformation may be read
as a retrograde shift towards an earlier stage in human or cosmological genera-
tion. The transformation is the product, however, of the overwhelming desire
of the lover to be completely united with the beloved. In other words, erotic
desire results in a cosmic shift. On this basis and through the combination of
these factors, it is likely that Ovid is referring to Aristophanes’ description of
the double-formed ancestors of human beings in Plato’s Symposium. In Aristo-
phanes’ speech, he describes how the three different sexual orientations of his
modern humans are the result of the splitting in two of the three differently
gendered proto-human ancestors, namely the all male, all female and female
male. This is used to explain erotic desire, where human love is understood as
the need to be reunited with one’s lost half. Aristophanes describes how these
early human ancestors were spherical in shape: ἔπειτα ὅλον ἦν ἑκάστου τοῦ
ἀνθρώπου τὸ εἶδος στρογγύλον, νῶτον καὶ πλευρὰς κύκλῳ ἔχον ‘Again, the
form of each human being as a whole was round, with back and sides forming a
circle’ (189e5). He then describes their double-formed bodies; along with hav-
ing four arms and four legs, they had two faces on a single head: κεφαλὴν δ’ ἐπ’
ἀμφοτέροις τοῖς προσώποις ἐναντίοις κειμένοις μίαν ‘there was a single head
for both faces, which faced in opposite directions’ (190a1). The spherical nature
of Plato’s proto-humans and the fact that their two faces share a single head sug-
gests a close connection with Ovid’s depiction of Janus in the Fasti, whose two
faces likewise look in opposite directions. In the Symposium, the proto-humans
are said to be the offspring of the three major cosmic bodies; the male is the
child of the Sun, the female of the Earth, and the female-male the Moon, which
shares the nature of both moon and earth. The cosmological correlates for the
three proto-humans illustrate a further connection between gender division and
the structure of the universe.
Ovid’s story of Hermaphroditus and Aristophanes’ account of the proto-
humans also share a close connection; Salmacis attempts to fully unite her body
with that of Hermaphroditus and Aristophanes’ humans attempt to recombine
with their lost halves after they are split. This connection is best illustrated, how-
ever, by examining a potential double allusion in the Metamorphoses with this
passage from the Symposium and a passage from book 4 of Lucretius’ De Rerum
Natura (On the Nature of Things). In the Metamorphoses, when Hermaphroditus
enters the pool, Salmacis entwined (implicare) herself around him, despite his

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resistance: illa premit commissaque corpore toto | sicut inhaerebat ‘she pressed
on, and joined with all of her body, as she clung to him’ (4.369–70). In book
4 of the De Rerum Natura, Lucretius describes how lovers during intercourse
strive to completely join together in a single body:

nequiquam, quoniam nil inde abradere possunt

nec penetrare et abire in corpus corpore toto;
nam facere interdum velle et certare videntur.

It is all a waste of effort, as they cannot rub any bit of it away, nor can
they get right inside that body and make their whole body disappear in
it – for sometimes this is what they seem to want to do and strive for.
(4.1110–2; edition Bailey: 1922; trans. adapted Godwin 1986)

The lovers attempt in vain to fully unite their bodies together, to penetrate
deeper than intercourse will allow and disappear inside each other. Salmacis’
desire to fuse with Hermaphroditus appears to allude to this passage from Lucre-
tius. Salmacis does in fact lose her body in Hermaphroditus’, as she appears to
no longer have any form of identity following the transformation. There is a
close verbal parallel between commissaque corpore toto (Met. 4.369) and corpus
corpore toto (DRN 4.1111) with each phrase coming at the end of its respective
line, suggesting that Ovid is specifically evoking Lucretius at this point.
This passage from the De Rerum Natura itself appears to be modelled on a
passage from the speech of Aristophanes in Plato’s Symposium, where humans
following the split seek to do nothing else except reunite with their lost halves:

ἐπειδὴ οὖν ἡ φύσις δίχα ἐτμήθη, ποθοῦν ἕκαστον τὸ ἥμισυ τὸ αὑτοῦ

συνῄει, καὶ περιβάλλοντες τὰς χεῖρας καὶ συμπλεκόμενοι ἀλλήλοις,
ἐπιθυμοῦντες συμφῦναι, ἀπέθνῃσκον ὑπὸ λιμοῦ καὶ τῆς ἄλλης ἀργίας
διὰ τὸ μηδὲν ἐθέλειν χωρὶς ἀλλήλων ποιεῖν.

Now when their nature was divided in two, each half in longing rushed
to the other half of itself and they threw their arms around each other and
intertwined them, desiring to grow together into one, dying of hunger
and inactivity too because they were unwilling to do anything apart from
one another. (191a5–b1; edition Burnet: 1963 and trans. adapted Allen
1993, used throughout)

Aristophanes describes how each half so desperately longs to be physically

reunited with their lost half that in their desire they can do nothing else, and
they die from hunger. Philip Hardie (2002: 161) suggests Lucretius is alluding
to the Symposium at this point, as Lucretius’ lovers, like Plato’s, dwindle away

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(tabescere) because they cannot do anything else (DRN 4.1120). Ovid’s descrip-
tion of Salmacis’ attempt to unite with the body of Hermaphroditus resembles
the above passage from the Symposium even more closely. Ovid describes how
Salmacis pours her body around (circumfundere) and throws her arms up under
Hermaphroditus (subiectaque manus) (Met. 4.359–60), just as the lovers in the
Symposium throw their arms around each other (περιβάλλοντες τὰς χεῖρας).
Ovid also twice uses the verb implicare (Met. 4.362; 364) derived from the
same verbal root as συμπλέκειν (πλέκω, plecto) to describe Salmacis’ entwining
around the body of Hermaphroditus.
Matthew Robinson (1999: 222) identifies a further allusion in the Metamor-
phoses to the Symposium at 192d5–e2 when Hephaestus offers to weld the lovers
back together:

‘Ἆρά γε τοῦδε ἐπιθυμεῖτε, ἐν τῷ αὐτῷ γενέσθαι ὅτι μάλιστα ἀλλήλοις,

ὥστε καὶ νύκτα καὶ ἡμέραν μὴ ἀπολείπεσθαι ἀλλήλων; εἰ γὰρ τούτου
ἐπιθυμεῖτε, θέλω ὑμᾶς συντῆξαι καὶ συμφυσῆσαι εἰς τὸ αὐτό, ὥστε δύ’
ὄντας ἕνα γεγονέναι καὶ ἕως τ’ ἂν ζῆτε, ὡς ἕνα ὄντα, κοινῇ ἀμφοτέρους
ζῆν . . .’

‘Is this your desire – to be in the same place with each other as much
as possible, so that you’re not parted from each other night and day?
Because if that’s what you want, I will fuse and weld you into the same
thing, so that from being two you become one and, as one, share a life in
common as long as you live . . .’

This desire for corporeal fusion corresponds closely with Hermaphroditus’

transformation: nam mixta duorum | corpora iunguntur, faciesque inducitur illis | una
‘For their two bodies were mingled and joined; and they put on the appearance
of one’ (Met. 4.373–5). Robinson (1999: 222) states that ‘the relevance of this
should be clear: the offer made by Hephaestus to the two lovers is identical to
the request made by Salmacis to the gods. The idea of some divine force actually
physically merging two bodies into one is far from common, and this passage of
the Met. cannot but recall the Symposium.’ Ovid’s account of Salmacis and Her-
maphroditus hence alludes both to Plato’s Symposium and Lucretius’ De Rerum
Natura, and precisely to a passage in the De Rerum Natura which itself appears
to allude to the Symposium. One could argue that this mixing and recombin-
ing of allusions could serve to focalise the transformation of Hermaphroditus
itself. Through the mode of double allusion in particular, Ovid appears to be
replicating the hybridity which we see in the body of Hermaphroditus in the
composition of the text. It is also significant that in the double allusion outlined
above, Ovid is mixing Greek and Latin material, while also focusing on passages
in philosophical texts which centre explicitly on eroticism.

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empedocles’ hybrids and lucretius’ PORTENTA

Ovid’s depiction of the transformed Hermaphroditus also shares a striking simi-

larity with another proto-human ancestor, the portenta, or monstrous malfor-
mations including intersex beings which emerged from the earth in the early
phase of world history in Lucretius’ account of zoogony from book 5 of the
De Rerum Natura (837–44). Lucretius describes how these portenta ultimately
failed to reproduce due to their inability to adapt to their environment:

Multaque tum tellus etiam portenta creare

conatast mira facie membrisque coorta,
androgynum, interutrasque nec utrum, utrimque remotum . . .

At that time, the earth tried also to produce many monsters, and beings
of amazing appearance with amazing bodies came forth: the androgynus,
intersexual and not belonging to either sex, but separate from both.
(5.837–9; edition and trans. adapted Gale: 2009)

Among the creatures to emerge from the earth in Lucretius’ early stages of
zoogony is the androgynus, which is described as distinct from both genders.
These entities are grouped in the following lines with malformed creatures,
some of which lack hands or feet, are dumb, blind, without faces, or are bound
by limbs stuck to their whole body. They fail to reproduce since they lack the
ability to join in intercourse or find nourishment. In effect they are part of an
early generation whose fundamental characteristic is that they lack corporeal
distinction. Gordon Campbell (2003: 111), commenting on Lucretius’ depic-
tion of the androgynus, describes line 5.839 (above) as ‘garbled’ in terms of both
sense and metre in the O and Q manuscripts and prints Lachmann’s correction
(revised by Munro), which is also followed here. Monica Gale (2009: 171–2)
has likewise characterised line 839 as highly awkward in shape and concludes
that Lucretius is replicating the jarring forms of the early universe in the lan-
guage of the text.
In this light, Ovid’s description of Hermaphroditus at Met. 4.378–9 merits
re-examination, for it appears to be closely modelled on the above passage from
Lucretius:

nec duo sunt et forma duplex, nec femina dici

nec puer ut possit, nec utrumque et utrumque videntur.

they were not two, but they had a dual form that could be said to be
neither woman nor boy, they seemed to be neither and both.

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Ovid’s utrumque et utrumque videntur clearly echoes line 5.839 from the
De Rerum Natura above: interutrasque nec utrum, utrimque remotum, especially
given its highly awkward shape and jarring effect on the ear. This, in conjunc-
tion with the repetition of utrum . . . utrum introduced by a nec clause shows
Ovid again using an allusion to Lucretius in order to link Hermaphroditus
ontologically with an earlier stage in cosmic history, with the physical trans-
formation acting as a retrograde step reversing the sequence of human evolu-
tion. Ovid also follows Lucretius in using a complex linguistic construction to
replicate in his verse the transformed body of Hermaphroditus. Campbell
(2003: 111–12), who likewise identifies the allusion, states that Ovid smooths
out the awkward shape of the line in Lucretius ‘in order to stress the unity of
male and female, while still keeping the illustration of gender polarity’.
Lucretius’ account of the portenta has been read as a response to a similar
account of zoogony in Empedocles, which takes place during the phase in
the cosmic cycle when Love (Philotes) is the dominant force in the universe.
Empedocles gives an account of hybrid creatures including intersex beings that
occupy an intermediary stage in the sequence of evolution:

πολλὰ μὲν ἀμφιπρόσωπα φίστερνα φύεσθαι,

βουγενῆ ἀνδρόπρωιρα, τὰ δ’ ἔμπαλιν ἐξανατέλλειν
ἀνδροφυῆ βούκρανα, μεμειγμένα τῆι μὲν ἀπ’ ἀνδρῶν
τῆι δὲ γυναικοφυῆ σκιεροῖς ἠσκημένα γυίοις.

Many with two faces and two chests grew, oxlike with men’s faces, and
again there came up androids with ox-heads, mixed in one way from
men and in another way in female form, outfitted with shadowy limbs.
(fr. Inwood 66/DK 61; trans. Inwood: 2001)

Empedocles groups the figures of mixed male and female form with monstrous
hybrid creatures including the ox-faced man creatures. Campbell (2003: 111–12)
notes that Lucretius’ description of the androgynus in his account of the portenta
alludes to this passage from Empedocles. It is likely that Ovid in his description
of Hermaphroditus (nec femina dici nec puer ut possit, nec utrumque et utrumque
videntur) is also alluding to this same passage from Empedocles and in particu-
lar the description of the figures with mixed male and female form (μεμειγμένα
τῆι μὲν ἀπ’ ἀνδρῶν τῆι δὲ γυναικοφυῆ). This argument is strengthened if we
consider that Ovid alludes at least twice to this precise passage from Empedocles
elsewhere. As Hardie (1995: 214) has demonstrated, Ovid’s semibovemque virum
semivirumque bovem in the Ars Amatoria (2.24), a phrase which appears again in
the Tristia (1.7.16), specifically evokes the above passage from Empedocles (see
also Kelly 2018).

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This evocation provides another example of Ovid imbedding a double allu-

sion to natural philosophy, in this case to the zoogonies of Empedocles and
Lucretius, in his account of Hermaphroditus’ transformation. He thereby forges
a further link between his depiction of Hermaphroditus and an earlier stage in
the history of human and cosmic evolution. The transformation of Hermaph-
roditus not only distorts a series of ontological and epistemological boundaries,
but it also subverts the basic temporal sequence of generation. The erotic element
of the narrative again translates to the cosmic when we read Hermaphroditus
in terms of Empedoclean cosmogony. In Empedocles’ double cosmogony the
universe cycles through two different phases: one in which Strife (Neikos) is the
dominant force in the universe and there is a movement from unity to plu-
rality, and one in which Love (Philotes) is dominant and there is a movement
from plurality to unity. The reconstructions of the text by Brad Inwood (2001)
and by Alain Martin and Oliver Primavesi (1999) feature a double zoogony that
matches the double cosmogony. In these reconstructions, moreover, the passage
from Empedocles discussed above is part of the zoogony which takes place under
Love with the preceding stage involving wandering of disparate limbs. The over-
whelming desire of Salmacis for Hermaphroditus can thus be read in terms of
Empedoclean Philotes as Salmacis’ love for Hermaphroditus results in the fusion
of their bodies and a shift from plurality to unity.

conclusion
In Ovid’s depiction of Hermaphroditus the gendered human body becomes a
locus for examining cosmic forces, and particularly for highlighting how binary
oppositions are used in early cosmogonic texts to form an image of the universe.
If we read the body of the transformed Hermaphroditus as a chaotic structure
and the transformation itself as a form of devolution, what does this say about
wider perspectives on intersexuality in Augustan Rome? It is difficult not to
read these elements of Hermaphroditus’ transformation as casting a negative
light on intersexuality in antiquity. It is problematic, however, to draw further
inferences about Ovid’s perspective and this time period in general, and, not
least of all, how or if we should disassociate the strictly negative connotations
that chaos, proto-human, and devolution have in a modern context from how
these would function in an ancient one. I would argue that the consolidation
of gender oppositions which takes place in the Hermaphroditus narrative takes
second stage in Ovid’s agenda to the breakdown of the barriers between indi-
vidual humans and the linking of erotic and cosmological forces. Ovid utilises
the fusion of Hermaphroditus and Salmacis to raise a series of fundamental
questions about how to define human identity and how the identities of sep-
arate people can combine and recombine, and form and reform each other.

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He here defines the human body not only through its ability to transform, but
also through the physical permeability and instability of its boundaries. Ovid’s
projection of Hermaphroditus’ transformation onto the cosmic superstructure
ultimately serves to question and undermine earlier world views based upon
binary oppositions. Gender in this context is not only fluid and indefinable, but
ultimately ceases to exist.

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 CHAPTER 7

Que(e)r(y)ing Iphis’ Transformation

in Ovid’s Metamorphoses
Rebecca Begum-Lees

But with this story, well, he [Ovid] can’t help being the Roman he
is, he can’t help fixating on what it is that girls don’t have under
their togas, and it’s him who can’t imagine what girls would ever
do without one. (Smith 2007: 97)

T he story of Iphis in Book 9 of Ovid’s Metamorphoses is unique in Latin

literature.1 Roman (male) writers make sense of female same-sex desire by
casting one woman in the partnership in the active, penetrative role and char-
acterising her as sex-mad (Hallett 1997). Ovid, by contrast, provides us with
the singular tale of deep-felt desire felt by one woman or girl for another that is
not reduced to this hierarchical, hyper-sexualised stereotype. That is, at least, at
the story’s beginning. In the end, Iphis’ miraculous sex-change from female to
male enables Iphis and the beloved Ianthe to marry, seemingly shutting down
any possibility of a lesbian reality and reasserting the Roman heteronormative
marital paradigm. This ending has therefore disappointed prominent writers
such as classicist Judith Hallett and novelist Ali Smith, who gives this ancient
myth an innovative take in her acclaimed Boy Meets Girl (2007). This chapter
contends, however, that Iphis’ transformation is in fact unresolved and that such
disappointment is therefore misplaced. Iphis’ metamorphosis can be consid-
ered in terms of biological sex (Wheeler 1997: 196, 200; Pintabone 2002: 277;
Oliensis 2009: 109; Lateiner 2009: 138) but I will show that the change is
strictly speaking one of social gender: regarding Iphis’ biological sex the text
is silent (Langlands 2002: 99–101; Ormand 2005: 99–100; Ormand 2009:
217–18; Boehringer 2007a: 254–5; Lindheim 2010: 186–8).
Moreover, the Metamorphoses is a poem about changing forms and Iphis’ change
should be considered in the context of Ovid’s other transformations. Scholarship
on the passage overlooks this aspect as it has focused on the rich opportunities
to explore ‘what the Iphis story itself can tell us about Ovidian/Roman concepts

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 que(e)r(y)i ng iph is’ tr a n s f o r matio n 107

of gender and sexuality’ (Kamen 2012: 22). Ovidian transformations character-

istically lack resolution: as scholars repeatedly remark, no metamorphosis in the
poem is fully resolved since elements of a character’s final form are always-already
present, such as Lycaon’s lupine ferocity or Anaxarete’s heart of stone. I contend
that Iphis fits this pattern by resisting binary gender classification both before
and after undergoing metamorphosis (contra Boehringer (2007a: 243–55), who
insists on Iphis’ femininity before and after transformation). My intervention thus
restores Iphis to the poem’s context of transformation and qu(e)er(ie)s Iphis’ meta-
morphosis by doing so.

androgynous youth
Iphis is marked out as an androgynous youth before undergoing metamor-
phosis. She is the daughter of humble parents, Ligdus and Telethusa – parents
so humble that while pregnant, Telethusa is warned by her husband that they
can only afford to raise a boy: regrettably, a baby girl must be exposed. When
Telethusa delivers a girl, the Egyptian goddess Isis assures her that the child
will be saved, and Telethusa gleefully raises Iphis as a boy, deceiving the whole
community except Iphis’ nurse (9.707). Before transformation, when Iphis is
alone she identifies unambiguously as female, so when referring to the char-
acter before transformation I use the pronouns she/her. After transformation
we do not hear how Iphis identifies in private, and since my argument is that
gender is unclear, I use the pronouns ze/hir.
Telethusa is delighted that Iphis receives her grandfather’s name, as it
can be given to both girls and boys (9.708–9). The common gender of her
name is particularly noteworthy since it constitutes a significant departure
from Ovid’s Hellenistic model, a tale from the lost Heteroeumena of Nicander,
known through the summary by Antoninus Liberalis (Met. 17) in the second
or third century ad (Papathomopoulos 1968: ix). There the protagonist has
an exclusively masculine name, Leucippus. Names are often determinative in
the Metamorphoses: numerous characters are synonymous with, or etymologi-
cally related to the thing into which they are transformed. A particularly apt
illustration of this for our purposes, given the context of blurred gender, is the
unnamed child who is said to resemble both parents equally, the gods Mercury
and Venus (4.290–1). The youth’s name, Hermaphroditus, is revealed only
when his body is fused with that of his persistent female suitor (4.383).
Although both boys and girls can be called Iphis, the name derives from Greek
φι, the instrumental of ἴς, which means ‘strength’. This in turn suggests the
Latin linguistic cluster vis-vir-vires ([sexual] force-man-strength), in which
masculinity and physical strength are etymologically related (Wheeler 1997:
194–5). Given the determinative importance of names in the poem, a sensi-
tive reader’s expectations are cued by Ovid’s departure from his model, in that

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 10 8 rebecca beg um-lees

Ovid allocates his hero(ine) a name that resists categorisation as either male or
female but that also bears connotations of strength and virility.
Like her name, Iphis’ body resists gender categorisation; here again Ovid
innovates upon his Hellenistic model (as Wheeler 1997: 191 and Raval 2002:
159 have noted). In Antoninus Liberalis’ version, Leucippus’ feminine beauty
threatens to expose the fiction of her masculinity (Met. 17.4). By contrast, Ovid
tells us (9.712–13): ‘the dress was that of a boy, but as for the face, whether
you gave it to a girl or to a boy, both would be beautiful’ – cultus erat pueri;
facies, quam sive puellae/sive dares puero, fieret formosus uterque (I use Tarrant’s
OCT throughout, all translations my own). An androgynous face is a common
feature of a beautiful youth. We have already seen the example of Hermaphro-
ditus (4.290–1); other gender-fluid young faces in the Metamorphoses belong to
Hippomenes (10.631) and Atalanta of Tegea (8.322–3), and have parallels in
examples such as Horace’s Gyges (ambiguoque vultu, Odes 2.5.24) and Juvenal
15.137 (ora . . . incerta). Moreover, Ovid creates further ambiguity in the way
he formulates Iphis’ androgynous appearance. Very often in this poem about
changing forms, the noun facies denotes not the face but the whole physical
exterior, and the adjective formosus (beautiful) is found far more commonly in
the feminine than the masculine (see Bömer 1976 ad 6.617). When formosus
does describe males, it is the gender-fluid god Bacchus (4.18), or the object
of transgressive female desires (Scylla on Nisus, 8.26, and Byblis on Caunus,
9.476). Iphis also blends genders at a grammatical level. While Richard Tarrant’s
Oxford Classical Text consistently describes Iphis with feminine pronouns and
adjectives, the manuscript tradition is actually unresolved in three places, so that
there is evidence of both grammatically masculine and feminine Iphis (Iphide
mutata/mutato 9.668, ambarum/-orum, 9.720, and quamque/quemque, 9.723 –
see Lämmle 2005: 199; see Strauss Clay 1995: 146–8 for a similar treatment of
Attis in Catullus 63).

impossible lesbians
The key manner in which Iphis bends Roman gender norms is in her sexual
desire for another girl. There is now scholarly consensus around a basic model
of Roman sexual encounters that involves an active, penetrative partner, who
is by necessity male, and a passive, penetrated partner, who could be male or
female (if male, then ideally an adolescent, whom Romans characterised as
gender-fluid). According to this model, there is no conceptual space for female
homoerotic encounters, since ‘female’ is equivalent to ‘passive’ in Roman gen-
der ideology. The few (of course, male-penned) instances of female same-sex
erotic encounters from extant Latin literature impose this structure upon wom-
en’s practice (Hallett 1997, first printed in 1989 (Helios 16.1: pp. 59–78),

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 que(e)r(y)i ng iph is’ tr a n s f o r matio n 109

and critiqued by Brooten 1996: 42–50). Women who had sex with women
were envisaged as trying to take an active – i.e. a man’s – sexual role. As Kirk
Ormand (2005: 84) notes, a sexually active woman (often labelled a ‘tribas’ in
post-Ovidian literature) could be envisioned to desire a boy or a woman; what
was considered deviant was not the sex of her desired object but her pretension
to play the active role.
A model of Roman sexuality based solely on acts, penetration and hierarchy
(although well-intentioned, as it tries to avoid ascribing identities which Romans
did not use) is far from satisfactory, and scholars have added further nuance
to the paradigm (e.g. Langlands 2006; Levin-Richardson 2013; Kamen and
Levin-Richardson 2015a). Iphis is of course not Roman but Cretan, a place the
Romans often associated with female sexual deviance and deceit (see Armstrong
2006). As her wedding with Ianthe approaches, however, it is the Roman model
that provides the terms in which Iphis understands and chastises her desire,
which is configured as outside the gender norms relevant to Ovid’s Roman audi-
ence. For some scholars, Iphis is indifferent as to whether she plays the active
or passive role (e.g. Pintabone 2002: 275), and for other scholars she is deter-
mined to play the active, masculine role (e.g. Ormand 2005: 97). The currently
accepted reading is that the metamorphosis reassigns prescribed sexual roles by
supplying Iphis with the necessary apparatus. I will show that the way that Iphis
configures her desire blends active and passive elements, and thus masculine and
feminine elements, so that hir ambiguous gender after metamorphosis is actu-
ally a continuation of her ambiguous gender before metamorphosis.
Iphis despairs of being able to ‘enjoy’ Ianthe (Iphis amat, qua posse frui des-
perat (9.724) or ‘possess’ her (nec tamen est potienda tibi, 9.753), using verbs that
in Latin connote the male orgasm (Adams 1982: 188, 198; Wheeler 1997: 198)
and thus imply that Iphis desires to play the active sexual role. In the same tortu-
ous monologue, Iphis views her love as even more transgressive than that of her
compatriot Pasiphae, the Cretan queen who famously copulated with a bull to
produce the legendary Minotaur. With the assistance of the inventor Daedalus,
Pasiphae is disguised as a cow so she could ‘suffer’ the bull (imagine vaccae/passa
bovem est, 9.738–9). The verb patior – ‘suffer’ – is the standard term for sexual
submission (Adams 1982: 189–90), suggesting that here Iphis envies Pasiphae’s
ability to play the passive role. Continuing with the theme of disguise, Iphis asks
whether Daedalus could turn either Iphis or Ianthe into a boy (9.743–4). Her
request is indifferent as to whether Daedalus transforms herself or Ianthe, and
thus Iphis appears indifferent as to who plays the active and who the passive role.
Ormand (2005: 93) writes that ‘Iphis’ bombast is meant to be taken as amusing,
coming as it does from a thirteen-year-old.’ But the sentiment, however comical
the language, also pinpoints the fundamental difference between cross-dressing
and sex-change that is critical for Iphis’ situation. Disguise is a sufficient strategy
for the needs of Pasiphae, whose bovine outfit Daedalus designed, as well as for

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Daedalus, who successfully took to the sky on self-fashioned wings (even if his
son was less successful, 8.183–235). Although Iphis’ current disguise suffices for
Ianthe to believe that Iphis is a man and therefore a potential husband (quamque
virum putat esse, virum fore credit Ianthe, 9.723), it cannot allow her to fulfil the
relationship with Ianthe, once married, in the way that gender transition would
(contra Langlands 2002: 105 and Lindheim 2010: 185–6).
Another way in which Iphis’ desire blends genders is the way in which her
monologue positions Iphis as an elegiac amator (Ormand 2005: 96–7). Although
a part played by men, the elegiac amator takes on a feminised role, portraying
himself as the passive slave of his mistress, and thus also combining masculine
and feminine genders. Indeed, a male elegiac lover by the name of Iphis takes
to the stage in Book 14. Rejected by his ‘hard’ mistress (dura, 14.704), Iphis
ultimately kills himself by hanging. This is ‘the tragic way for women to kill
themselves’, and this amator’s ‘gender-crossing’ is a ‘trace’ left by the hero(ine)
of our investigation, Iphis’ Book 9 namesake (Hardie 2002: 250).
Since Iphis’ desire does not fit a strict dichotomising framework of active
versus passive, it seems that either she or Ianthe needs to grow a member for
this relationship to survive. But it is possible that Ovid gestures to a place in
which Iphis and Ianthe can marry as they are: Egypt (for a fuller appreciation of
the roles of Isis and Egypt in this passage, see Panoussi 2019). Diane Pintabone
(2002: 277) fleetingly suggests that by replacing the goddess Leto in Nicander’s
version with the Egyptian goddess Isis, Ovid could have led a Roman audience
to expect the tale to ‘end with two female spouses’, since as Bernadette Brooten
(1996: 332–6) shows, female same-sex marriages – however unofficial – may
have been associated in Roman thought with Egypt. For Pintabone, this pos-
sibility is immediately foreclosed by the transformation, ‘so that we have instead
a heterosexual wedding sanctioned by the traditional Roman deities of marriage’.
But by foregrounding Egypt, not just by replacing Leto with Isis but also by
referring to Egyptian gods (9.690–4), the Egyptian rattle (sistra, 9.693, sistrum,
9.784) and Egyptian landmarks (9.773–4), Ovid potentially reminds the audi-
ence of a place where Iphis’ desire can be realised without the radical solution of
sex-change. The idea that Ovid is sensitive to such cultural relativism is evident
from the words of another character in the Metamorphoses who feels a sexual
desire that violates cultural norms: Myrrha laments that she was not born in a
place that permits, or even celebrates, marriage between relatives (10.331–5).
The potential allusion to female same-sex marriage is even more important given
that Iphis’ transformation is not fully resolved, as I will now demonstrate.

metamorphosis
Isis fulfils her promise to Telethusa that all would turn out well for her child, as
Iphis follows hir mother from the temple looking and acting substantially more

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 que(e)r(y)i n g iph is’ tr a n s f o r matio n 111

masculine. My translation is deliberately literal, showing how often in English

we require a gendered pronoun where there is none in the Latin:

mater abit templo. sequitur comes Iphis euntem,

quam solita est, maiore gradu; nec candor in ore
permanet et vires augentur et acrior ipse est
vultus et incomptis brevior mensura capillis,
plusque vigoris adest habuit quam femina. nam quae
790
femina nuper eras, puer es. date munera templis,
nec timida gaudete fide. dant munera templis,
addunt et titulum; titulus breve carmen habebat:
DONA PUER SOLVIT QUAE FEMINA VOVERAT IPHIS
postera lux radiis latum patefecerat orbem,
795
cum Venus et Iuno sociosque Hymenaeus ad ignes
conveniunt, potiturque sua puer Iphis Ianthe.
9.786–97

The mother departed from the temple. Iphis accompanied and followed
as she went, with a longer stride than was her habit. Facial glow does
not remain, strength is increased, the very facial expression is sharper
and dishevelled hair is shorter. More strength is present than was had
as a female person. For you who recently were a female person, are now
a boy. Donate gifts at the temple, and rejoice in confident faith. They
donate gifts at the temple, and add an inscription. The inscription had
a short verse:
IPHIS GIVES AS A BOY GIFTS WHICH WERE PROMISED AS
A FEMALE PERSON
Later the light had lain open the broad world with its rays, when
Venus and Juno and Hymenaeus congregated at their associated torches,
and the boy Iphis possessed/penetrated his/her Ianthe.

On a first reading, it might seem absurd to suggest that Iphis’ transformation

is not fully resolved. Ze has all the markers of Roman masculinity: a long stride,
dark skin, physical strength, sharp facial features and short hair. Not only that,
the narrator explicitly tells us that Iphis has gone from a female person to a boy
(nam quae/femina nuper eras, puer es, 9.790–1). One can press, as scholars have
done (e.g. Wheeler 1997: 200–1), the sexual connotations of potior at 9.797,
and assume that Iphis now physically penetrates Ianthe (potiturque sua puer Iphis
Ianthe) – though Vassiliki Panoussi (2019) cleverly points out that potitur is
incongruent with puer, a term also used to described sexually submissive slaves.
In Iphis’ monologue, shortly after she despairs of being able to penetrate/possess

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 112 rebecca beg um-lees

Ianthe, she blames nature alone for obstructing her: at non vult natura . . ./quae
mihi sola nocet (9.758–9). The noun natura can be a euphemism, ‘generally
acceptable in the educated language’, for genitalia (Adams 1982: 59). In the
Fasti, Ovid’s Attis uses the same expression after he breaks his vow of chastity.
‘Ah! Perish the parts that harmed me!’ he cries (a! pereant partes, quae nocuere
mihi! 4.240), before castrating himself. This vocabulary, then, can be associated
both with sexual intercourse and with genital alteration. These few indications
(and the Fasti comparison is not one I have seen other scholars make) perhaps
imply that Iphis has genuinely changed sex.
One might object that Ovid is not concerned with Iphis’ sexual anatomy,
for the epic genre’s decorum veils the question of what Iphis may or may not
have acquired. This is indeed a valid explanation for Ovid’s failure to mention,
unlike Antoninus Liberalis (Met. 17.6), any private parts, especially since Ovid’s
metamorphoses usually pay very close attention to anatomical details (note too
that Leucippus’ mother explicitly prays to Leto to turn Leucippus into a boy
(Met. 17.4), whereas Ovid’s Telethusa merely prays to Isis for help just before
the wedding, 9.773–81). However, ‘phallic symbolism’ is ‘part of the surface
texture’ of this and of other stories despite the fact that ‘the Roman sense of
decency kept the literal penis under wraps’ (Oliensis 2009: 108; cf. Lindheim
2010: 187). With this licence, Ellen Oliensis (2009: 109) interprets the many
references to ‘horns’ in the passage (e.g. 9.689, 9.774, 9.784) to imply that Iphis
emerges from Isis’ temple, ‘though Ovid decorously refrains from specifying
this key feature, newly equipped with his own virile appendage’. Many other
scholars interpret from these lines that a physical sex change has occurred, either
through puns (Wheeler 1997: 196, 200), through recourse to ancient medi-
cal theory (Lämmle 2005: 203–6) or pure assumption (Pintabone 2002: 277;
Lateiner 2009: 138). Even when scholars acknowledge that Iphis’ transforma-
tion is subtler than others and/or foregrounds performative markers of gender
over biological indications, they conclude that ultimately, anatomy and perfor-
mance are aligned (Raval 2002: 163–4; Lämmle 2005: 196, 198, 208; Walker
2006: 217–18; Volk 2010: 93–4).
The text, in fact, resists a firm conclusion. As Ormand (2009: 217–18) writes,
Iphis’ transformation of ‘social gender’ rather than ‘biological sex’ is symptom-
atic of the Roman view of masculinity as ‘not a biological fact, but a hard-won
social position that had to be continually bolstered and reinforced’ (Ormand’s
emphasis). Let us examine more closely the markers that confirm that only Iphis’
outward gender and not hir biological sex has changed. Extensive research has
demonstrated that Roman orators viewed body language such as gait and facial
expression to be entirely manipulable (e.g. Gleason 1995; Corbeill 2004; Fögen
2009). This is one way in which Iphis’ stride could be understood to be delib-
erately made longer (maiore gradu 9.787), and hir face sharper (acrior ipse est/

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 que(e)r(y)i n g iph is’ tr a n s f o r matio n 113

vultus, 9.788–9). The physical strength that Iphis has acquired (vires augentur,
9.788; plusque vigoris adest, 9.790) can certainly be built up through exercise:
see e.g. Cicero, Brutus 313–16 and Seneca, Controversiae 9 pr. 4.
The candor that Iphis loses from hir face is the pale glow that emblema-
tises Roman youth (such as that of Caelius in Cicero, Pro Caelio 36, Hylas in
Propertius 1.20.45 or Alexis in Virgil, Eclogue 2.15–19). When Athena trans-
forms Odysseus from an old beggar back into his adult prime, he becomes
‘dark-skinned’ (μελαγχρoιής, Odyssey 16.175), which suggests that the idea
that the association between a ruddy complexion and manhood has a long
literary pedigree. Iphis’ loss of candor can thus be taken in line with readings
that interpret this to be a coming-of-age story. Such an interpretation reads
the transformation as not only from female to male, but also as from youth to
adult (Forbes Irving 1990: 154, 170). This reading certainly accords with Iphis’
longer stride and increased strength, but falls down when we remember that
Iphis has not become an adult man – a vir, as Ianthe already presumed hir to be –
but only a puer, a boy – who, as we saw above, might in any case be presumed
to have ambiguous features. Skin can be darkened by environmental factors:
Seneca, for example, bemoans people spending their lives baking their bodies
in the sun (De Brevitate Vitae 13.1), and Celsus warns how skin colour changes
according to an individual’s health (De Medicina 2.2.1). Elaborate hairstyles
are an external mark of an elegiac puella, and Iphis does not need to change
sex to sport the shorter, dishevelled hair (incomptis brevior mensura capillis,
9.789) that signifies male presentation. I do not suggest here that Iphis simply
exercises, sunbathes, has a haircut and learns to alter hir expression and gait,
but rather I am emphasising that hir transformation involves only performative
signifiers (cf. Langlands 2002: 99–100; Boehringer 2007a: 254–5; Lindheim
2010: 187–8).
Something else that the narrative lacks – quite apart from a phallus – is an
aetiological component. Ovid’s metamorphosis narratives explain the origins
(aetia in Greek) of things. Antoninus Liberalis’ version explains the origin of
the Ekdysia festival (for the debate concerning what this festival celebrates,
see Leitao 1995 and Heslin 2005: 207–9, 226). Ovid’s Metamorphoses, which
tends to favour aetiologies of natural phenomena over cultural institutions
(Myers 1994: 34), does not refer to this festival. A potential natural aetion
in the Iphis story could possibly be found among Roman prodigy records.
This argument is suggested by Hallett (1997: 267), who cites Roman reports
of women miraculously growing penises (in some stories, on the eve of their
wedding day to a man, on which see Shannon-Henderson in this volume).
Modern research shows that certain hormonal conditions have precisely this
effect (see e.g. Zucker 1999: 20; for speculation that this explains ancient tales
of female-to-male transformation see Charlier 2008: 294). Indeed, tales similar

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 114 rebecca beg um-lees

to Iphis’ circulate in other cultures: for example, a recent anthropological study

entitled Changing Sex and Bending Gender opens with an Indian myth that
reads eerily like the story of Iphis (Shaw and Ardener 2005: 1). Alison Shaw
(2005: 2) states that ‘the anthropological record shows that changes of sex
and transformations of gender occur in a wide range of social contexts and
have probably taken place in all known human societies’. While it cannot be
ruled out that real, non-normative bodies would have contributed to the cul-
tural anxiety about enforcing gender norms that produces tales such as Iphis’,
it is not possible to make retrospective medical diagnoses (Graumann 2013:
200). Though modern parallels are striking (in Dominican, guevedoce means
‘testicles-at-twelve’ and Iphis is about to turn thirteen, 9.714), our passage also
resonates with other modern gender scenarios that do not involve penises natu-
rally developing at puberty. Examples include Afghani bacha posh (girls born to
families without sons and raised as boys, see Nordberg 2014), or homosexual
individuals who undergo gender reassignment surgery in countries that crimi-
nalise homosexuality (see e.g. Bluck 2012).
If we compare Iphis’ transformation with other characters in the poem
who retain their humanity but change sex or age, we see that Ovid could have
been much more conclusive about Iphis’ final gender had he so wished. The
poem contains two parallels that demonstrate a reverse transition from man-
hood to youth, firstly in Medea’s rejuvenation of Aeson, and secondly Iolaus,
in the very same book as the Iphis narrative. Among the many changes that
Aeson undergoes, his beard loses its greyness and regains its dark colour (barba
comaeque/canitie posita nigrum rapuere colorem, 7.288–9). The only marker of
Iolaus’ rejuvenation in Book 9, apart from the assignation puer, is facial hair
(‘covering his cheeks with barely there down’, dubiaque tegens lanugine malas,
9.398). In both rejuvenation tales, then, facial hair is an important signifier of
return to youthful masculinity, and Ovid could have given some to Iphis if he
wanted explicitly to turn hir into a young man (cf. Boehringer (2007a: 255)
notes that Ovid does not refer to ‘pilosité, musculature, silhouette, change-
ment du sexe’).
Other sex-change narratives are also more conclusive about the final out-
come. The first sex-change in the Metamorphoses is that of Tiresias, transformed
into a woman when he prods a pair of copulating sacred snakes, and when she
sees them again seven years later she does not hesitate to strike them again and
return to his original form. Tiresias’ experience makes him an ideal consultant
in Jupiter and Juno’s marital squabble over the question of whether men or
women derive more pleasure from sexual intercourse. As Ovid tells us, ‘both
Venuses were known to him’ (Venus huic erat utraque nota, 3.323), where the
goddess of love’s name is a double entendre for sexual desire or pleasure, as it
is twice in Iphis’ monologue (9.728, 9.739). We can clearly intuit the clinical

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 que(e)r(y)i n g iph is’ tr a n s f o r matio n 115

details of Tiresias’ double transformation, without indecorous references to

certain parts of the body. Similarly, Ovid draws attention to how Hermaph-
roditus’ body changes after it fuses with Salmacis: ‘they were no longer two
people but a double form that could be called neither a woman nor a boy; they
seemed neither and both’ (nec duo sunt sed forma duplex, nec femina dici/nec
puer ut possit, neutrumque et utrumque videntur, 4.378–9, on which see Kelly
in this volume). Caenis, after being raped by Neptune, prays no longer to be a
woman (da femina ne sim, 12.202). She suddenly gains ‘the voice of a man’ (viri
vox, 12.204): ancient rhetorical handbooks suggest that while men can alter
their voices through training, women cannot completely overcome their vocal
deficiency (Gleason 1995: 91; Flemming 2000: 225–6). The newly named
Caeneus also acquires the masculine grammatical gender (saucius, 12.206,
laetus, 12.208), which seems to confirm that full gender transition has taken
place (on grammatical gender to confirm sex change see also Shannon-
Henderson in this volume).
In contrast with Caeneus, Iphis receives no grammatical markers of mascu-
linity after metamorphosis except the assignation puer (feminine solita in 9.786
refers to before the transformation). And this label, puer, does not reveal much.
As Maud Gleason (1995: 59) famously demonstrates, Roman masculinity was
‘an achieved state, radically underdetermined by anatomical sex’. Masculinity
is a state earned after a puer has made the transition to adulthood. Roman
pueri are characterised by their beauty and feminine softness. And Iphis was
already, to all except hir mother and nurse, a puer before transformation. Other
than some performative alterations, it is hard to see how much has changed.
Ormand (2005: 99) underlines the point by noting that ‘puer es is almost an
anagram of nuper eras’. To this we may add some wordplay analysis in the
style of Frederick Ahl (1985), on the basis that nuper contains an anagram of
the word puer: that a word meaning ‘recently’ can be reshuffled to produce
the word ‘boy’ perhaps conveys the instability of being a boy. This continuity
between what Iphis was before and after transformation is utterly in keeping
with other Ovidian transformations.

conclusion
Many scholars have stressed the themes of continuity of characteristics and
lack of resolution in Ovid’s metamorphoses. It is typical for certain traits to
persist even after the form of a character has changed (see e.g. Anderson 1963;
Solodow 1988: 174–86). In the programmatic example of Lycaon, it is often
remarked that Ovid points to the preservation of his hallmark features: canities
eadem est, eadem violenta vultus,/ idem oculi lucent, eadem feritatis imago est (the

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 116 rebecca beg um-lees

same white hair is there, the same violence of expression, the same eyes glint,
and there is the same image of ferocity, 1.238–9). Sometimes the continued
characteristic will persist despite incompatibility with the new form, such as
Niobe’s continued tears after she has been petrified (6.310–12). Sometimes
the preserved trait will be emotional or habitual, rather than corporeal, such
as Cycnus’ everlasting hatred of fire after he becomes a swan (2.379–80), or
Aesacus’ repeated seaward plunges as a diving bird (11.795). Sometimes it is
simply the character’s name, and we had cause above to note Ovid’s penchant
for onomastic determinism, a feature that is commonly inherited from the
Greek source (e.g. Cycnus ‘κύκvoς’ swan), but also applies to Roman examples
(for example, Picus is the Latin, not the Greek, for ‘woodpecker’). We also
noted that Ovid pointedly changes the masculine name of his source’s protago-
nist to a name that can be allocated to males or females. That this move sug-
gests an ongoing gender-fluid future for Iphis is supported by Philip Hardie’s
(2002: 250) comment on the narrative’s finale: ‘The interchangeability of male
and female is given permanent expression in Iphis’ votive inscription . . . The
single name ‘Iphis’ is masculine in apposition to puer, and feminine in apposi-
tion to femina.’
Continuity of characteristics also leads to a sense of unresolvedness: some
aspects of, for example, Lycaon, have changed, but some have not. A particu-
larly strong proponent of the unresolved quality of metamorphosis is Marie von
Glinski (2012: 13), who states: ‘The transformed victim both is and is not his
new form . . . The victim has ceased to be human from the perspective of his
environment; nonetheless, his human identity lies dormant in the transformed
body’. Von Glinski (2012: 12) is so focused on how the unresolved quality
of metamorphosis is the result of ‘crossing the physical and not just figurative
boundary of human and animal’ that her study overlooks examples where the
transformed victim does not lose ‘his’ humanity but instead undergoes a sex
change. Although Iphis does not cross the boundary of human and animal,
von Glinski’s thesis that both similarities and differences hold between pre- and
post-transformed states equally applies. After transformation, Iphis gains the
status of husband, but it is not possible to determine that a full gender transition
has taken place. Scholars repeatedly point to the singularity of the Iphis narra-
tive, both for its unique depiction of female same-sex love, and for its ‘unusually
happy ending’ (Hallett 1997: 263). Instead, Iphis’ final metamorphosis is unre-
solved and produces the continued characteristic of resistance towards binary
gender classification. In these two defining aspects of Ovidian transformation
the passage is in keeping with the remainder of the poem. Ultimately, far from
being the exception to the following concession in Girl Meets Boy, Ovid’s
Iphis perfectly illustrates that ‘Ovid’s very fluid, as writers go, much more than
most. He knows, more than most, that the imagination doesn’t have a gender’
(Smith 2007: 97).

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 que(e)r(y)i ng iph is’ tr a n s f o r matio n 117

note
1. I would like to thank the editors and the external reviewer for their helpful
comments and suggestions, as well as Emily Gowers, Caroline Vout, Kirk
Ormand and Vassiliki Panoussi for their feedback on earlier drafts, and James
Barker for proofreading. I am also grateful to the audience at the Classical
Association of Canada’s 2015 ‘Gender B(l)ending’ panel, where this paper was
originally presented, and to the Arts and Humanities Research Council, the
Faculty of Classics, Cambridge and Newnham College, Cambridge for funding
my attendance there. Thanks for particular references are owed to Olivia Elder,
Joe Grimwade, Talitha Kearey, George Koukovasilis and Henry Tang.

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 CHAPTER 8

Ruling in Purple . . . and Wearing

Make-up: Gendered Adventures
of Emperor Elagabalus as seen by
Cassius Dio and Herodian
Jussi Rantala

introduction

T he reign of Emperor Elagabalus (ad 218–22) is one of the most peculiar

episodes in the history of the Roman Empire. Elagabalus, whose birth
name was Varius Avitus Bassianus, was the third ruler of the Severan dynasty.
Born in ad 203, he had been a priest of the sun-god El’Gabal in his native city,
Emesa of Syria, before becoming emperor. As a ruler, he was officially known as
Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Augustus; it appears that only after his death was
he called Elagabalus. From a governmental point of view, his short reign has not
been considered very significant, and it seems that he was personally not that
interested in governing issues (Arrizabalaga y Prado 2010: 278–80; Halsberghe
1972: 71). Instead, he took a great interest in religion, promoting El’Gabal
to become the supreme god of Roman state religion and also taking a Vestal
Virgin, Julia Aquilia Severa, as his wife. For many Romans in that time, these
were probably acts of sacrilege, and in ad 222 his soldiers mutinied. Elagabalus
was murdered and his cousin Alexianus, now known as Severus Alexander, was
declared the new emperor (Potter 2004: 148–57).
Elagabalus is particularly famous for his controversial behaviours not only
in religious matters, but also with respect to gender expression, gender iden-
tity and sexuality in particular. The intention of this chapter is to approach
this specific aspect of his portrayal in two accounts of the early third century
ad; Roman History by Cassius Dio (c. 155–235 ad) and History of the Empire
from the Death of Marcus by Herodian (died probably in the 250s ad). Thus,
the purpose of this chapter is not to trace actual, ‘real’ actions of historical
Emperor Elagabalus as such. Indeed, tracing ‘real’ Elagabalus would require
many more sources than just historical narratives. Ancient historiography

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was, by its nature, highly rhetorical and ideologically normative, often hold-
ing strong links to earlier literary traditions. Consequently it does not provide
enough ‘factual’ information about a figure as controversial as Elagabalus (see
Arrizabalaga y Prado 2010). Instead, I provide a literary analysis of the two his-
torical accounts, focusing on the issues of gender identity and expression in the
acts of Elagabalus as portrayed by Dio and Herodian, and comparing these two
narratives from that point of view (see Kemezis 2016 for similar comparison in
the context of political propaganda). As a result, this study takes a closer look
at intellectual discourse on gender, masculinity and femininity in the context
of the early third century ad: how did the historians of the period present the
young emperor as a transgressor of the line between masculinity and feminin-
ity, or even the line between ‘being a man’ and ‘being a woman’? How can we
explain the different attitudes that can be traced from these stories? What do
these attitudes tell us about the aims and audiences of the authors?
While both historians have received some criticism from modern scholars
(for Dio, see Millar 1964: 118 and Bowersock 1975: 230; for Herodian, see
Birley 1999: 204), most recent research considers them to be valuable sources
when tracing intellectual attitudes of the early third century ad. Despite their
possible factual shortcomings, it is nowadays widely accepted that Dio in par-
ticular provides us with a view of elite writers of the period on many interest-
ing and important topics (see, for example, Lange and Madsen 2016: 1–4; for
Herodian, see Potter 2004: 232). In addition to Dio and Herodian, there exists
a third biography on Elagabalus, included in the Augustan History. However,
this collection of imperial biographies, probably a product of a single author
and written in the late fourth century ad, falls out of the scope of this study –
not only because it is generally considered to be highly unreliable, contradictory
and full of fiction, but also because it was written almost 200 years after Dio and
Herodian, and thus belongs to a very different cultural, intellectual and politi-
cal environment (for Elagabalus in the Augustan History, see Bitarello 2011 and
Mader 2005; all three major traditions are dealt with in Sommer 2004).

historians and their tasks

Cassius Dio was the son of Cassius Apronianus, a Roman senator from Nicaea
in Bithynia. Appointed as consul in c. 205 ad, Dio left Rome for provincial
duties in Smyrna in ad 218 and returned to the capital about ten years later
(Hose 2007: 462). His massive literary work, Roman history from the tradi-
tional foundation of the city in 753 bc to his own times, was probably written
between ad 220–31 (Birley 1999: 203–4).
The traditional view of Cassius Dio has considered him a prime example of
a member of the Greco-Roman elite of the late second or early third century, a

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Romanised Greek representing the Hellenistic-Roman empire (Millar 1964; for

more recent study see De Blois 1998). While some scholars have challenged this
view and stressed his Greek identity (Sidebottom 2007: 76–7), it is important
to keep in mind that Dio was a Roman senator who identified himself very
strongly with the senatorial class of the capital. All in all, in his writings Dio
appears to us as a rather conservative member of the Roman senatorial class
and, despite his Greek cultural roots, should therefore be considered a ‘true’
Roman (Rantala 2016: 174–5). Indeed, Greek-speaking senators such as Dio
were not a rarity in the Roman senate during the early third century ad. It has
been estimated that, by the beginning of the third century ad, about a quarter of
all Roman senators came from the eastern provinces, where the Greek language
dominated (Potter 2004: 68–9).
Compared to Cassius Dio, we know much less of Herodian. Generally, he
seems to write from ‘outside’ – in contrast to Dio, who observed many imperial
phenomena from the very core of the empire. It appears that he, like Dio, came
from Roman Greece but was not a senator; instead, he was probably an official
of a lower rank (Rantala 2017: 10–11). His history, covering the period of ad
180–238, relied heavily on Dio’s work; indeed this close relationship makes
the differences between the two histories even more remarkable (Osgood 2016:
177–8; for Herodian in general, see Hidber 2006 and Polley 2003).
Herodian’s audience is hard to trace as well. Some suggestions have been
made that he wrote for the Greek nobility residing not in the capital but in
Greece, and that his work was part of the discourse among Greek elite regard-
ing Greek identity within the Roman empire (Sidebottom 2007: 80–1). Adam
Kemezis (2014: 266–70) has recently disputed this view and rightly points out
that the Greek features in Herodian’s work do not refer primarily to Hellenic
identity as such; rather his history follows the general trends in literature in
the whole of the Roman empire. Herodian holds a somewhat pessimistic view
on the proceedings of his time, but he was first and foremost a storyteller who
wished to entertain his readers. Herodian was not interested in the causes of the
political crisis, but simply wanted to describe its symptoms in an entertaining
manner (Kemezis 2014: 271–2).

phoenician in purple
As noted above, Elagabalus is probably most famous for his disregard for Roman
sexual taboos and gender roles, as presented by both Cassius Dio and Herodian.
From the works of the historians, we can trace three themes related to these issues:
his physical appearance, some of his religious acts, and his sexual behaviour.
Of the two writers, it is Herodian who pays particular attention to Elaga-
balus’ appearance. In his account of the emperor (5.3.6), the historian refers
many times to the appearance of the young ruler, stressing that the emperor
looked very strange in the eyes of Romans. Herodian begins his account by

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describing the eastern appearance of the future emperor. He relates that Elaga-
balus, while still residing in his native Emesa, performed publicly in ‘barbarian
clothing’ wearing a long-sleeved, gold and purple tunic, and how his lower half –
from waist to toes – was covered by clothes with gold and purple ornaments.
Herodian continues by describing that Elagabalus wore a crown with colourful
jewels, and notes that the emperor looked very beautiful, comparing the young
ruler to the god Dionysus (cf. SHA Heliog. 23.3–4). Herodian further high-
lights the ‘un-Romanness’ of Elagabalus by commenting that interested Roman
soldiers watched the ‘barbaric’ ritual dances of the beautiful young man.
Up to this point, Herodian himself does not seem to be overly critical of
the future ruler. However, his assessment does become more critical when he
continues his account. This is possibly due to the fact that he begins to describe
events that occurred after Elagabalus had become the emperor and started his
journey to Rome; in other words, the historian now starts a new part of his nar-
rative. Herodian states that, whenever possible, Elagabalus conducted laughable
rituals and wore only the most expensive clothing and jewellery, and that he
appeared both as a ‘Phoenician priest’ and a ‘Persian living in luxury’ (5.5.4).
Herodian’s negative comments on the appearance of Elagabalus grow stronger
as his account progresses. The historian describes (5.6.10) how the emperor
painted his cheeks red and wore black make-up around his eyes which eventu-
ally destroyed his beautiful looks, and how Elagabalus, just before his ejection
from power, wore such extensive make-up that ‘even a modest woman would
have been ashamed’ (5.8.1). Indeed, these sentences may serve a dramatic pur-
pose, forecasting the sad fate of Elagabalus.
Cassius Dio, on the other hand is less vocal about the appearance of the
emperor. According to Dio (80[79].14.3), Elagabalus presented more or less as
a man while leading court, but otherwise he preferred to appear as a woman by
showing ‘affectation in his actions and quality of his voice’. Furthermore, Dio
remarks on the feminine appearance of Elagabalus when he describes the relation-
ship of the emperor and a young man named Zoticus (cf. SHA Heliog 10.2–7).
According to Dio, Elagabalus desired this man from Smyrna because of his very
large penis. He further asserts that Zoticus, when he met the emperor for the first
time, greeted him with words ‘hail my Lord’, as was the custom. To this, Elaga-
balus replied by taking a feminine pose and saying that Zoticus should not call
him lord, as he was a lady. To this end, Dio also claims that the emperor used to
dance everywhere: while giving speeches, receiving salutations, sacrificing, even
while simply walking (80[79].16.7). The feminine nature of Elagabalus, both in
appearance and activities, is evident in other passages by Dio as well:

And finally, – to go back now to the story which I began, – he was

bestowed in marriage and was termed wife, mistress, and queen. He
worked with wool, sometimes wore a hair-net, and painted his eyes,
daubing them with white lead and alkanet. Once, indeed, he shaved his

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chin and held a festival to mark the event; but after that he had the hairs
plucked out, so as to look more like a woman; and he often reclined
while receiving the salutations of the senators. (Cass. Dio 80[79].14.4;
translated by E. Cary)

If we compare the accounts provided by Cassius Dio and Herodian, there

are some differences. At first glance, Herodian does not appear as critical as Dio
when describing the personal beauty of Elagabalus. However, for Herodian,
the general appearance of Elagabalus seems to be connected to the idea of an
‘eastern luxury’, itself an old topos in Greco-Roman literature (see Isaac 2004 for
discussion). Within this literary tradition, describing someone as ‘eastern’ could
refer to a variety of negative qualities, and often specifically pointed to gender
presentation. This is evident in Dio’s account, as he often calls Elagabalus a
‘Sardanapalus’ with deep contempt (Dio also uses other mocking names, such
as ‘Pseudo-Antoninus’; cf. SHA Heliog. 17.4). In Greek and Roman literature,
Sardanapalus was considered to be a prime example of a woman-like eastern
male, as witnessed, for example, in a passage from the first-century bc historian,
Diodorus Siculus:

Sardanapalus, the thirtieth in succession from Ninus, who founded the

empire, and the last king of the Assyrians, outdid all his predecessors
in luxury and sluggishness . . . he lived the life of a woman, and spend-
ing his days in the company of his concubines and spinning purple
garments and working the softest of wool, he had assumed the feminine
garb and so covered his face and indeed his entire body with whitening
cosmetics and the other unguents used by courtesans, that he rendered
it more delicate than that of any luxury-loving woman. He also took
care to make even his voice to be like a woman’s, and at his carousals not
only to indulge regularly in those drinks and viands which could offer
the greatest pleasure, but also to pursue the delights of love with men as
well as women; for he practiced sexual indulgence of both kinds without
restraint, showing not the least concern for the disgrace attending such
conduct. (Diod. Sic. 2.23; translated by C. H. Oldfather)

In his description of the Assyrian king, Diodorus follows the long tradi-
tion of Greek and Roman attitudes towards eastern peoples. They were widely
described as passive, soft, treacherous, feeble and feminine, whereas western-
ers were thought to be masculine, brave, strong and active (Isaac 2004: 308).
By describing Elagabalus as ‘Sardanapalus’, Dio thus connects the emperor
to the tradition of woman-like men, whose masculinity was very much in
doubt. So while Herodian is not as direct in his critiques as Dio, connecting
Elagabalus with ‘eastern luxury’ was probably to his readers a clear reference

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to the emperor’s rather feminine gender expression, if not his non-conforming

gender identity.
The identification of Elagabalus as an easterner is further articulated through
the religious policies for which he was famous. While Dio makes few direct
connections between cult practice and gender presentation, he hints obviously
in this direction when he combines Elagabalus’ eastern appearance with his
religious activities. Dio describes in a very hostile and disgusted manner the
worship of El’Gabal and some of its cultic practices: circumcision, refusal of eat-
ing pork, and Elagabalus’ public appearance dressed in Syrian priestly clothes.
Moreover, Dio (80[79].11) claims that young boys were sacrificed in ‘barbaric
rituals’, and that animals were fed in the temple with cut genitals. Cutting off
genitals is an interesting detail as such, because it obviously points to eunuchs –
a group indeed often associated with easterners, such as the eunuch priests of
eastern cults such as Cybele (cf. SHA Heliog. 7.1; see also Rauhala 2008). From
the aspect of gender, it has sometimes been claimed that eunuchs were con-
sidered to be ‘half-men’ with no manly qualities (Isaac 2004: 338). While this
might be an exaggeration, ancient sources do point out that the presence of
eunuchs upset Roman cultural notions of masculine identity in the western part
of the empire and that, because of their castration, eunuchs were perpetually
considered to be ‘other’ in the Roman west (Kuefler 2001: 31–2). Accordingly,
Dio strengthens the picture of Elagabalus as a dangerous, degenerate ‘other’, by
his very nature as a feminine easterner.

sex and politics

Perhaps the most famous deeds of Elagabalus are related to his sexual behav-
iour. Nevertheless, Herodian remains rather silent on the subject, and the only
more or less direct reference to Elagabalus’ femininity in Herodian’s work is not
even related to sex. In his history, Herodian (5.7.4–5) compares Elagabalus to
his successor, Severus Alexander. According to the story, Elagabalus wanted to
encourage his cousin and heir to learn the same things he practised himself, such
as dancing and other activities required in the worship of the sun-god El’Gabal.
However, Julia Mamaea, mother of Alexander, considered these acts disgraceful
and directed her son towards more manly activities (cf. SHA Heliog. 8.2–4). This
detail deserves some attention, as it presents Elagabalus and Julia Mamaea as
antagonists who compete over which direction the future emperor should be led.
In doing so, they are at least in principle breaking gender boundaries. Elagabalus,
a man, encourages Alexander to pursue more feminine activities, while Julia, a
woman, tries to provide her son with a more traditional and masculine educa-
tion. Yet as Julia eventually wins the ‘battle’ between gender conforming and
non-conforming behaviours, the hierarchy of a dominant man over a submis-
sive woman is broken even more clearly. This is a noteworthy detail, as gender

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hierarchy is something we should not underestimate when examining Greek and

Roman culture. In sexual relationships, for example, we can observe a strict hier-
archy in which a ‘real’ man should always be active and act as a dominant partner
compared to a ‘non-man’ (a woman, a boy, a man seeking to play a receptive role
in penetrative acts or a slave; Williams 2010: 180–3). Here, gender-conforming
behaviour is at once emphasised by Julia and undermined by her taking the
upper hand with Elagabalus.
While Herodian is not that straightforward about the issue, sexual hierarchy
and its importance seems to be clearly present in Cassius Dio’s text. The historian
starts mocking Elagabalus (80[79].9.1) for his lack of manhood when reporting
on the emperor’s marriage to his first wife, Cornelia Paula. Dio comments ironi-
cally that Elagabalus wanted a wife in order to become a father, even if he ‘could
not even be a man’. The historian also reports (80[79].13.1) that Elagabalus was
married to and divorced from five different women and that the young emperor
had sexual relationships with many others, ignoring imperial moral laws alto-
gether. However, for Dio, this was not a sign of Elagabalus’ manliness; rather the
historian claims that Elagabalus had intercourse with women simply because he
wanted to learn how to please his (male) lovers. In other words, he wanted to
learn how to act as a woman in his relationships with other men.
Dio continues his story (80[79].13.2) by reporting that Elagabalus’ ‘most
conspicuous act’ was to perform as a female sex worker. He paints a vivid picture
of an emperor who would go to taverns wearing a wig and portraying himself as
a woman; an emperor who would go to notorious brothels to practice his ‘pro-
fession’. Eventually, Dio continues, Elagabalus would act as a sex worker in the
imperial palace, ‘always standing nude at the door of the room, as the harlots do,
and shaking the curtain which hung from gold rings, while in a soft and melting
voice he solicited the passers-by’ (80[79].13.3). It is impossible for us to know
if Elagabalus indeed provided sex to male customers, although it is very likely
that the story is a fabrication of Dio (or other opponents of Elagabalus). After
all, in Roman thinking, sex workers were part of the lowest, most despised social
group, akin to actors, players and singers. Thus, this may well be Dio’s attempt
to portray the emperor in as bad a light as possible, and the story is based
perhaps on gossip, or simply fabricated by the historian himself, something
more recent studies highlight (see, for example, Arrizabalaga y Prado 2010; Icks
2011). However, for our purposes, the veracity of the story is not important.
The significant detail is Dio’s overtly hostile attitude towards the emperor’s
feminine role. Dio makes it clear that the young emperor’s behaviour differs
remarkably from the ideal behaviour of a Roman man in the sexual hierarchy.
Moreover, it should also be understood that gender roles normatively associated
with sexual behaviour were closely connected to the socio-political hierarchy
in the Greek and Roman world (Halperin 1990a: 266). With respect to Rome

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in particular, two concepts were particularly central in this aspect, virtus and
imperium. Virtus pointed to proper manly moral values, such as valour, excel-
lence, courage, character and worth, as opposed to those characteristics typi-
cally associated with women, such as excessive softness and lack of self-control.
Imperium, on the other hand, signified the dominant role of a proper Roman
male, who had to keep control in his relationships with women or ‘non-men’,
but also, on a wider scale, with foreign peoples (Williams 2010: 145–8). Thus,
for Dio, it was bad enough that Elagabalus behaved contrary to the ideal image
of a proper Roman man. Even more despicable for the historian, who too was
a conservative Roman senator, was that a ruler of the people, the Pater Patriae
himself, was in fact a man who took the role of a woman in his relationships.

becoming a woman?
So far, we have dealt primarily with issues associated with Elagabalus acting as
a woman in a culturally defined field of normative binary gender, for he is por-
trayed performing acts traditionally reserved for ‘non-men’. However, there is
one more twist in the story. Dio states (80[79].11.1) that Elagabalus pondered
having himself castrated, not for religious reasons (as castration was traditionally
associated with some eastern cults), but because of his feminine nature. Later in
his history Dio provides a similar statement, describing how Elagabalus asked
the doctors to contrive a woman’s vagina in his body (80[79].16.7). What we
witness here is a step beyond merely challenging traditional gender roles and
gender expression towards the actual changing of one’s sex in order to become
female, presumably to match a feminine expression and a female gender iden-
tity. While it is very probable that Dio’s primary motif was simply to mock
Elagabalus by hyperbolically presenting his actions to be as extreme as possible,
this is perhaps not the whole story. Reading Dio’s account in context of the
cultural ideas of his own lifetime indicates that the question of ‘being a man’ or
‘being a woman’ was not as straightforward as one might think for the Romans
of the day. Indeed, in deciding if one was a ‘man’ or a ‘woman’, the biological
aspect was not the only one; there were other important considerations.
By the early third century ad, at least upper-class Romans were quite famil-
iar with the science of physiognomics, according to which the character of a
person could be decided from one’s behaviour and physical appearance. This
was also true in deciding one’s masculinity and femininity (Montserrat 2000:
156–7). Indeed, during the times of Dio, Herodian and Elagabalus, physiog-
nomics was already a very old idea. The subject had been addressed by Aristotle
in the fourth century bc, and continued to be studied through the centu-
ries, perhaps reaching its high point in the second century ad with Marcus

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Antonius Polemon (ad 88–145), an ambassador in Rome to the Emperor

Trajan. His handbook on physiognomy was influenced by earlier traditions,
but he himself was an acknowledged figure in this field of study as well (Evans
1969: 6–11; for Polemon and physiognomy in general, see Gleason 1995).
Indeed, in his work Polemon underlines very directly the importance of physi-
cal appearance when determining if one is a man or a woman (Pol. 2.1.192F).
After Polemon, we can find direct interest in physiognomics in the fourth cen-
tury ad (Evans 1969: 15–17), but despite the lack of sources there is no need
to think that it was out of fashion during the reign of Elagabalus. After all, one
of the most important written sources of the early third century ad, Philos-
tratus, gave an account of Polemon’s life in his works (Swain 2005: 126), but
also had a close relationship to the imperial circles during the Severan period
(Rantala 2017: 11–12).
Even if physiognomy is clearly relevant to the narratives of both histori-
ans, it is difficult to trace exact passages in either Dio or Herodian that refer
directly to Elagabalus in physiognomic terms. The main problem is that, for
Polemon at least, physiognomics is particularly related to involuntary physical
characteristics of a person; that is, negative aspects of character that a per-
son might want to conceal, but which can reveal one’s ‘true’ character when
noticed. On the other hand, while Herodian seems to consider the feminine
character of Elagabalus to be more or less a voluntary one, there is at least one
passage in Dio’s history that is more vague. According to Dio, when Elaga-
balus met the aforementioned Zoticus for the first time, he ‘sprang up with
rhythmic movements’ (80[79].3), that is, in a rather feminine manner, quite
spontaneously, an act which could point to ‘involuntary’ action. Moreover,
as Dio provides a large number of examples in which Elagabalus behaves like
a woman, it is not always possible to separate ‘voluntary’ and ‘involuntary’
actions, even if Dio does mention that Elagabalus generally displayed ‘affecta-
tion’ in his actions and in the quality of his voice (80[79].3). All in all, physi-
ognomy is perhaps not distinctively present in historical narratives, but it still
offers a more nuanced view of Dio and Herodian, as it surely was part of the
intellectual context of early third century ad. Indeed, if we widen the pic-
ture from strict physiognomy to more general cases of ‘gender-blending’, we
should also note that even if Elagabalus is in a class of his own with respect to
gender issues, Dio also applies femininity to Nero (ad 37–68), another ruler
he strongly dislikes. For example, at one point Dio directly states (72[71].6)
that Nero was not a man but a woman, as witnessed by his voice, lyre-playing
and beautiful appearance; he returns to this theme in other parts of his history
as well (70[69].9; 70[69].28). The topos of portraying a bad emperor such as
Nero as a woman can also be found in the stories of other Roman historians
(especially Suet. Ner. 28–9; Tac. Ann. 15.37), but Dio’s views on the subject
are by far the most extreme.

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conclusion
Generally, when we evaluate Elagabalus and his gender-blending activities in
the account of these two third-century historians, it appears there is not much
we can take at face value. Both historians have their own agenda, and eventu-
ally both portray the emperor in a way that fits their respective literary mis-
sions as much as possible. Thus, we must be extremely careful when we try to
understand the ‘real’ Emperor Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Augustus beyond the
character of Elagabalus. On the other hand, it is very likely that Elagabalus was
indeed seen by many Romans of the period as a foreigner, an exotic easterner.
Given the traditional stereotype of easterners as soft, feminine people in Greek
and Roman literature, this would have given the historians a weapon to use
against Elagabalus who was, after all, a Syrian prince and a priest of an oriental
sun-cult. Of the two historians, Dio certainly used this weapon more critically.
In the bigger picture, both historians see the young emperor as an ‘other’,
someone strange and alien, but the similarities tend to end there. For Herodian,
Elagabalus’ otherness is primarily connected to his appearance, to his alien looks.
There are hints of femininity, especially since everything eastern had by nature
some feminine connotation in the Greco-Roman literary tradition. Nevertheless,
Herodian is silent on issues such as the emperor’s same-sex relationships, or his
hopes of changing sex. For Herodian, the acts of Elagabalus were ridiculous, but
that was simply because the emperor was a young fool who did not realise the
damage he did to himself through his eastern appearance and exotic behaviour.
Herodian’s Elagabalus was an entertaining figure, a subject of a good tale, but
hardly a dangerous character.
If we compare Herodian’s account to that of Cassius Dio, we can indeed
notice clear differences. As we have seen, it was particularly the ambiguity around
masculinity and femininity in Elagabalus’ behaviour that irritated Dio. At first
glance, his very strict condemnation seems somewhat odd. During the reign of
Elagabalus, Dio did not reside in the capital, but worked in the provinces and
returned to Rome for senatorial and consular duties only after the fall of the
emperor. Thus, Dio could not have been shocked by any personal experience
of an emperor behaving badly. Dio’s attitude, then, can perhaps be explained
by the simple fact that gender and, more specifically, the idea of ‘proper’ or tra-
ditional gender roles and behaviour had a tremendous significance for Roman
society and social order. The most obvious aspect of this is the highly patriarchal
nature of Roman society, demonstrated in part by the limited authority and
participation of women in many public and private duties (see, for example,
Cantarella 2003; Mustakallio 2013; Thomas 1996). However, the significance
of gender was much broader than that. It was present not only as a legal, but also
as an ‘unofficial’ entity in all spheres and strata of the Roman Empire; it can be
found not only in the literature of the Roman elite, but also in sources related

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to everyday life, such as inscriptions or papyri. Gender deeply affected the ways
Romans behaved, but also how they thought and remembered and, as a result,
how they built their identities (see Rantala 2019).
Accordingly, as Dio, a conservative Roman senator, creates an image of true
Romanness by portraying it against the ‘other’ (in this case, the Emperor Elaga-
balus), he does so by relying heavily on gender issues, and particularly on gen-
der expression and gender identity. While he does criticise the feminine gender
expressions, such as the clothing, appearance and religious views of the young
emperor, it is Elagabalus’ unmanly, unchaste sexual behaviour combined with
his dismissal of clear gender identity that seems to be the defining factor in
deciding who is a true Roman and who is not. Ultimately, Dio stresses that the
most important thing, particularly for the emperor, is to act as a real Roman.
For Dio, a central part of this self-presentation was to avoid crossing the line
between the strict binary ideals of masculinity and femininity – something that
Elagabalus was unable to do.

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 CHAPTER 9

Allegorical Bodies: (Trans)gendering

Virtus in Statius’ Thebaid 10 and
Silius Italicus’ Punica 15
Dalida Agri

introduction

I n Statius’ Thebaid and Silius’ Punica (produced in the Flavian era of the first
century ad), gender ambiguity is a striking and defining trait of divine Virtus,
which bears much hidden significance. First, it flags gender as a key point of inter-
est in both depictions of the allegory. Personified allegories are traditionally gen-
dered as female (with the exception of Somnus in Metamorphoses 11), so the gender
instability which seems to characterise Flavian depictions of Virtus would make
it less controllable in terms of unity of meaning. Second, such a feature brings
these two Flavian texts together in a way that compels us to read one alongside
the other. In this chapter, I would like to indulge in some ‘experimental’ reading
by looking at one passage through the other, since it is not clear which passage
takes historical precedence (though Statius most probably does), and see how the
notion of gender is being used, articulated and manipulated in order to reconfig-
ure the meaning of epic virtus for the Flavians.
This reading practice implies, to borrow Stephen Hinds’ words (1998: 10), a
‘shift [in] the balance of power away from the poet and towards the reader’ since
‘poetic meaning is always, in practice, something (re)constructed by the reader at
the point of reception’. If there is a period in Roman literary history where this
type of reading can be exercised without risking the charge of going ‘off track’
or being ‘far-fetched’, it is the Flavian period – even more so in the context of
the literary relationship between Statius and Silius. As contemporaries, it is not
inconceivable that Statius may have edited a particular passage in reaction to
Silius, or vice versa (on recent scholarship discussing Statius and Silius’ liter-
ary relationship, see Manuwald and Voigt 2013; Ripoll 2015). And, concomi-
tantly, as discussed in the introduction to this volume, newly posited or renewed
enquiries into gender representations in classical media also contribute to the

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 13 2 d ali da ag ri

opening of (potentially) new interpretations which may have eluded our atten-
tion so far. Here, both notions of gender and poetic influence are coterminous
and enhance the analysis of one through the other, as we shall see.
That both Statius and Silius chose to define personified Virtus in such con-
crete physical terms as to favour fluidity in gender, a relatively unobserved
trait in the gendering of allegorical figures, is too conspicuous not to be seen
as indicative of literary interaction. It is worth noting at this point that the
development of personification allegory in Augustan poetry (27 bc to ad 19)
has made it an obvious site of intertextual engagement for the Flavians, much
owing to Ovid’s and Virgil’s innovative contributions to the field (Lowe 2008).
The passages under study are Statius’ Thebaid 10.632–49 and Silius’ Punica
15.20–31. In the first two sections, I will explore Statius’ and Silius’ use of gen-
der ambivalence in their depiction of personified Virtus and how key intertexts
and allusions highlight links between gender and morality. In section two, I
will also look at how Silius’ passage specifically engages with that of Statius
through the lens of gender and the impact on Silius’ own conception of divine
Virtus. A third section will focus on a cross-reading of the two texts in order to
assess how one is potentially reworking the other, and how bringing these two
texts together creates new and larger meanings in either direction.

cross-dressing virtus in THEBAID 10

In Statius’ Thebaid 10, the fratricidal war opposing Eteocles and Polynices is rag-
ing, and Thebes is now facing a long siege by the Argive army led by Polynices.
Menoeceus, Creon’s youngest son, is in the midst of a successful aristeia, when
disguised Virtus appears to the youth and persuades him to commit suicide in
order to save Thebes from destruction. Menoeceus’ suicide is now commonly read
as an act of failed devotio, as it subsequently creates a whole new range of problems
for Thebes (Heinrich 1999; Ganiban 2007: 148; Bernstein in Manuwald and
Voigt 2013: 151). The appearance of Virtus closely tails Tiresias’ prophecy, urging
the death of the ‘latest-born descendant of the serpent’s race’. Creon understands
that the life of his son, Menoeceus, is at stake and tries to silence the seer.
Too late, Fama, the incarnation of rumour, is on its way spreading the dreaded
oracle across Thebes. This is the moment Virtus chooses to appear to Menoeceus
(Theb. 10.632–49):

Diva Iovis solio iuxta comes, unde per orbem

rara dari terrisque solet contingere, Virtus,
seu pater omnipotens tribuit, sive ipsa capaces
elegit penetrare viros, caelestibus ut tunc
desiluit gavisa plagis – dant clara meanti
astra locum quosque ipsa polis adfixerat ignes;

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 alleg ori ca l bodi es: (tr a n s ) ge n d e r ing virtus 1 33

iamque premit terras, nec vultus ab aethere longe.

sed placuit mutare genas, fit provida Manto,
responsis ut plena fides, et fraude priores
exuitur vultus. abiit horrorque vigorque
ex oculis, paulum decoris permansit honosque
mollior, et posito vatum gestamina ferro
subdita; descendunt vestes, torvisque ligatur
vitta comis (nam laurus erat); tamen aspera produnt
ora deam nimiique gradus. sic Lydia coniunx
Amphitryoniaden exutum horrentia terga
perdere Sidonios umeris ridebat amictus
et turbare colus et tympana rumpere dextra.
(ed. D. R. Shackleton Bailey, Loeb Classical Library 2003)

Divine Valour is a close attendant to the throne of Jupiter, whence she

is accustomed to approach the earth, though rarely to be lavished upon
the world, whether the omnipotent father sends her down or she her-
self chooses to penetrate the heart of worthy men, as now when joy-
ful she descends from the celestial regions! The bright stars give way to
her travel, and those fires that she herself had affixed to the heavens.
She strides the earth now, and yet her face is not far removed from the
sky; but it pleased her to change her appearance, and she becomes vatic
Manto, so that genuine belief would be granted to her speech, and by
deceit she sheds her former demeanour. The horror-inducing look, the
glow of vigour were gone from her eyes, something of charm remained,
and a softer beauty; the sword cast aside, she took instead the prophet’s
wand. Her dress falls to her feet, and the sacred fillets are bound over her
unkempt hair (where before the laurel was); yet her fierce countenance
and unbridled gait betray the goddess. And so laughed the Lydian mis-
tress at Amphitryon’s son, when deprived of his bristling hide he spoiled
the delicate Sidonian tunic with his vast shoulders, threw the distaff into
confusion and smashed the small drums with his hand. [All translations
are mine, unless stated otherwise.]

Here, the use of the simile (sic Lydia coniunx . . . 10.646) is rather puzzling,
to say the least, because it is both unexpected and disruptive in tone. Richard
D. Williams even describes it as ‘wholly inappropriate in the context of the
transformation of the majestic goddess Virtus’ (Williams 1972: 109). However,
what the simile essentially does is allow Statius to suggest that Virtus’ change
of appearance amounts to cross-dressing, which in itself indicates an attempt
to alter her gender identity. But what does it mean? Technically, the Latin term
virtus sits between two genders: though virtus, as a quality, is etymologically

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defined as exclusively male (vir-tus), it is grammatically gendered as female

(Cic. Tusc. Disp. 2.18.43). There were questions already in antiquity regarding
this inconsistency between virtus meaning literally ‘manliness’, which came to
designate ‘martial courage’ and ‘bravery’ and its feminine grammatical category.
The passage above shows Virtus, shortly before her encounter with the Theban
youth. Following conventional divine behaviour, Virtus unsurprisingly takes
human appearance, and in the process she dresses like Manto, the seer’s daugh-
ter, thus becoming the wearer of human female attire. But it is through the use
of the simile that she is paradoxically stamped with the charge of cross-dressing.
In fact, the simile alludes to a particular scene in Ovid’s Fasti 2.317–26, which
describes Hercules dressed in queen Omphale’s clothing and struggling to look
the part of a woman (on this passage see also Hughes in this volume):

dumque parant epulas potandaque vina ministri,

cultibus Alciden instruit illa suis.
dat tenuis tunicas Gaetulo murice tinctas,
dat teretem zonam, qua modo cincta fuit.
ventre minor zona est; tunicarum vincla relaxat,
ut posset magnas exeruisse manus.
fregerat armillas non illa ad bracchia factas,
scindebant magni vincula parva pedes.
ipsa capit clavamque gravem spoliumque leonis
conditaque in pharetra tela minora sua.
(ed. J. G. Frazer, Loeb Classical Library 1976)

While the attendants were making ready the viands and the wine for the
celebration, she arrayed Alcides [Hercules] in her own garb. She gave
him delicate tunics dipped in Gaetulian purple; she gave him the dainty
girdle, which had girded her waist. For his belly, the girdle was too nar-
row; he broke the clasps of the tunic as he tried to thrust out his large
hands. He shattered the bracelets unfit for his arms, his big feet split the
little shoes. She herself took the heavy club, the lion’s skin, and the lesser
weapons placed in their quiver.

In this passage of the Fasti, Hercules is not very successful in his attempt to
fit into Omphale’s clothes: his large hands have made the clasps of the tunic too
loose, the queen’s girdle is too small for his belly, and his arms are too bulky for the
delicate bracelets. Even though Hercules is made to dress like a woman, it only
reinforces his hyper-masculine idealised body, which clearly is not the ‘correct’
body for the hyper-feminine clothing of the queen. Returning to Statius’ pas-
sage, the Ovidian simile, whose focal point is cross-dressing, implies that by
tampering with her appearance, Virtus is voluntarily attempting to tweak her

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 a lleg ori cal bodi es: ( tr a n s ) ge n d e r ing virtus 1 35

gender. In fact, the simile depicts Virtus as if she were covering herself with
female otherness, and not successfully either – which is rather odd, since she is
textually gendered as female.
At this point, Virtus is very much like and unlike Hercules, the cross-dresser.
The simile seems to suggest that, like Hercules, Virtus is attempting to appear
as another gender by dressing like Manto, in a way that highlights a gap in the
performance. Simultaneously, unlike Hercules, she is encoding herself in the lan-
guage of gender rather deceptively. Yet deception is also another point of contact
between the simile and its hosting narrative. In the Fasti, Hercules unwittingly
deceives Faunus, the god of the Lupercalia, when the latter attempts to rape
queen Omphale at night and instead finds himself in bed with the transvestite
hero, having been tricked by the soft fabric of Hercules’ dress. Unlike Hercules
in the Fasti, where the hero’s deception of the god is not deliberate, Statius’
Virtus is purposefully seeking to deceive young Menoeceus through her bor-
rowed looks. In the Fasti, the comedy of cross-dressing turns into a sexual
comedy, and deception plays a crucial role in enabling it. Faunus climbs into
Hercules’ bed, thinking it is the queen’s, but upon discovery, humiliation ensues
for the god as the improbable couple burst into laughter. In Thebaid 10, the
passage is very serious in tone, but the simile does not seem to be.
There is also a startling contrast between the bleak exterior of Virtus as she
morphs into Manto and the light-hearted playfulness of the Ovidian simile,
which leaves the reader rather puzzled as to how to reconcile the two. For
instance, every detail of Virtus’ description in Statius contributes to her creation
as a conflation of multiple sinister models, which have been previously pointed
out: Denis Feeney (1991: 382–5) sees Homer’s towering Eris (Il. 4.442–5) and
Virgilian Fama (Aen. 4.175–7), Elaine Fantham (1995) is reminded of Allecto
in Aeneid 7, where the Fury also puts on the vittae to disguise her cruel features
(torva facies), and Virtus’ infernal connections with Virgil’s furies, the Dirae
(Aen. 12.845–9) have led Randall T. Ganiban (2007: 142) to coin the expres-
sion ‘intertextual fury’. As one reads on, Virtus’ behaviour also consolidates her
chthonic associations. After she has exhorted Menoeceus to forsake combat and
embrace death, she touches his hand and releases herself into his heart, like
Allecto with Turnus. Even Virtus’ choice of Manto as her mortal medium is
an arresting thought in itself. From the outset, this is justified as the goddess’
attempt to foster belief (fides, 640) in Tiresias’ prophecy within her victim. What
better substitute than the seer’s daughter to act as her father’s spokesperson? But
such a choice is equally telling and worrying given Manto’s necromantic skills in
Thebaid 4, strongly evocative of Lucan’s dreadful Erichtho.
Going back to the Ovidian simile, how does one reconcile its farcical, absurd
tone with the dark, hellish background of Virtus? It is a tricky one to account
for, but we could look for links. For instance, if Virtus is transvestite Hercules,
then who is the fool? Who plays the part of Faunus, the god who gets tricked

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 13 6 da li da ag ri

in the end? Is it Menoeceus who dies with the (false) belief that his death will
save Thebes? And/or personified Pietas, who foolishly sweeps in at the end to
retrieve Menoeceus’ dead body alongside Virtus (Theb.10.780–2)? Indeed,
Virtus’ speech is rhetorically crafted to sell self-inflicted death to the youth as
an act of pietas to his city, to the gods; Apollo demands it, she claims (hoc urguet
Apollo, 10.667). The deception is far-reaching: one could include all of the
Thebans who tragically believe the prophecy, as Fama spreads it, apart from
Creon who resists the oracle.
And so what begins as an Ovidian farce turns into a comédie noire with the
death of Menoeceus, a casualty that will call for more. The failure of Creon’s
kingship ultimately rests upon his inability to cope with the loss of his youngest
son. His grief blinds his judgement, goading the king into revenge. The resulting
effect, a fatal decree that forbids burial of the fallen enemy, leads to yet another
war and Creon’s death at the hands of Theseus. Even Capaneus is misled by the
oracle as he provocatively uses the spot of Menoeceus’ fall to test the power of
the prophecy (‘hac’, ait, ‘in Thebas, hac me iubet ardua virtus/ire, Menoeceo qua
lubrica sanguine turris./experiar quid sacra iuvent, an falsus Apollo’, 845–7), a test
that will prove fatal to the Argive hero.
On the metapoetic level, it can be argued that Virtus is actively seeking
comparison with morally dubious models, conceivably as a way to account for
her distorted use in an epic that concerns itself with civil war: her loaded touch of
Menoeceus, and self-revealing mode of departure openly align Virtus with other
destructive deities, such as Allecto, of course, but also Iris (Aen. 9.14–15). Even
the Ovidian simile points in the direction of Virtus’ intertextual awareness: just
as Hercules is aware of what he is doing as he attempts to slip into Omphale’s
clothes, so is Virtus as she conscientiously rethinks her appearance to resemble
her sinister ‘models’.
The motif of cross-dressing as a comparandum to the divine practice of
switching appearance before approaching mortals raises questions not just
about how successful Virtus is in her attempt to disguise herself, but also about
the appearance of gender. What she loses in excess of austerity (horrorque
vigorque/ex oculis), she gains in softer beauty (honosque/mollior) – perhaps to
appear less threatening, and therefore more feminine. She discards the sword
(perhaps too phallic a symbol) and feigns virginal modesty as her robe falls to
her feet (descendunt vestes). Her cover-up still falls short of the mark, as her hard
(masculine?) features (aspera ora) and wide gait (nimiique gradus) retain some-
thing of her divine/virile personification. The difficulty to determine which
traits pertain to her divinity and which to gender underscores her liminality.
Fantham (1995) observes: ‘with the aspera ora of Virtus we can compare the
“asperity” of the warriors Mezentius and Thybris (Aen. 7.647, 729) and the
three females dignified by the epithet: Juno Aen.1.279, Allecto, the pestis . . .
aspera of 7. 505, and Camilla, 11.664’. Male, divine, virile woman, it is all

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 alleg ori ca l bodi es: (tr a ns ) ge nd e r in g virtus 1 37

there. Virtus’ liminality in gender and status stigmatises her attempt at morph-
ing into a definite gender as a fraud. The Latin fraude unequivocally describes
her enterprise in borrowing Manto’s identity and covering herself with ‘female
otherness’ as an imposture. This particular imposture could be read as a meta-
phor for the incongruity of virtus in the context of civil war. Perhaps the idea
here is that any expression of virtus in the Thebaid is a perversion because it
operates within a war so unnatural that any kind of heroism is tainted; a view
that would deeply resonate with a Roman audience given Rome’s historical
record of civil wars. That divine Virtus should encode herself so deviously in
the language of gender speaks of Statius’ conception of Virtus as an avatar of
the chthonic feminine forces ruling the Thebaid.

androgynising virtus in silius’ PUNICA 15

In Punica 15, Virtus is morally far less ambiguous and emphasis on her gender
duality tends to highlight the male component of virtus as a quality. Is this
Silius’ attempt to replace the vir at the heart of virtus? Possibly. Statius’ Virtus is
thought-provoking but gets rather bad publicity, something that Silius is moved
to rectify – assuming that he is reacting to Statius. Like Statius, Silius brings in
personified Virtus at a turning point of the narrative (or perhaps it does emerge
as a turning point in Statius, after reading Silius). At the beginning of Punica 15,
Scipio, a young aspiring hero, is pondering the role he should play in the war
between the Romans and the Carthaginians led by Hannibal. Rome is losing
and personal tragedy has struck: both his father and uncle were killed fighting
the Carthaginians. Scipio wants revenge but he is too young. The youth is very
much conflicted. This is the moment when Virtus and Voluptas approach the
Roman youth: both allegories represent opposites in life choices. The first advo-
cates a life of hardship eventually crowned with deserving glory, the second, a
life filled with easy pleasures and the absence of pain. Each woman bears specific
features that portend a set of moral trappings (or lack of thereof ), clearly playing
with Roman cultural expectations of what a morally acceptable or unacceptable
woman looks like (Pun. 15.20–31):

cum subito assistunt, dextra laevaque per auras

allapsae, haud paulum mortali maior imago,
hinc Virtus, illinc virtuti inimica Voluptas.
altera Achaemenium spirabat vertice odorem,
ambrosias diffusa comas et veste refulgens,
ostrum qua fulvo Tyrium suffuderat auro;
fronte decor quaesitus acu, lascivaque crebras
ancipiti motu iaciebant lumina flammas.
alterius dispar habitus: frons hirta nec umquam

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 13 8 d ali da ag ri

composita mutata coma; stans vultus, et ore

incessuque viro propior laetique pudoris,
celsa humeros niveae fulgebat stamine pallae.
(ed. by J. D. Duff, Loeb Classical Library 1968)

Suddenly, stood to his right and left two figures flown down from the
sky, and exceeding by far mortal stature: Virtue was on one side, and on
the other, the enemy of virtue, Pleasure. The latter exhaled Persian scents
from her head’s crown, her ambrosial hair flowing free, and she shined in
her dress, wherein Tyrian purple was embroidered with shimmering gold;
her hair pin gave to her brow a studied beauty; and her roving wanton
eyes shot forth flame upon flame. The appearance of the other was dif-
ferent: her brow and hair were unkempt, not fashioned by ordered locks,
her eyes were steady, in face and gait she was more like a man, and she
revealed a cheerful modesty. Her tall stature was enhanced by the snow-
white robe she wore.

Here, Voluptas is unequivocally female, and a seductress, morally dangerous

for the ethos of the epic hero. In contrast, the blending of male and female fea-
tures within Virtus raises questions in terms of gender-based moral reasoning.
The entire passage is an obvious replay of Prodicus’ didactic tale ‘On Heracles’,
as recounted by Socrates to Aristippus in Xenophon’s Memorabilia 2.1.34. In
the tale, Heracles, on the cusp of manhood, similarly meditates the proper path
to take in life, when he is approached by two women, Arēte (Virtue) and Kakia
(Vice), each striving to win him over (Xen. Mem. 2.1.21–3):

φησὶ γὰρ Ἡρακλέα, ἐπεὶ ἐκ παίδων εἰς ἥβην ὡρμᾶτο, ἐν ᾗ οἱ νέοι

ἤδη αὐτοκράτορες γιγνόμενοι δηλοῦσιν, εἴτε τὴν δι᾽ ἀρετῆς ὁδὸν
τρέψονται ἐπὶ τὸν βίον εἴτε τὴν διὰ κακίας, ἐξελθόντα εἰς ἡσυχίαν
καθῆσθαι ἀποροῦντα, ποτέραν τῶν ὁδῶν τράπηται: [22] καὶ φανῆναι
αὐτῷ δύο γυναῖκας προσιέναι μεγάλας, τὴν μὲν ἑτέραν εὐπρεπῆ τε ἰδεῖν
καὶ ἐλευθέριον φύσει, κεκοσμημένην τὸ μὲν σῶμα καθαρότητι, τὰ δὲ
ὄμματα αἰδοῖ, τὸ δὲ σχῆμα σωφροσύνῃ, ἐσθῆτι δὲ λευκῇ, τὴν δ᾽ ἑτέραν
τεθραμμένην μὲν εἰς πολυσαρκίαν τε καὶ ἁπαλότητα, κεκαλλωπισμένην
δὲ τὸ μὲν χρῶμα, ὥστε λευκοτέραν τε καὶ ἐρυθροτέραν τοῦ ὄντος δοκεῖν
φαίνεσθαι, τὸ δὲ σχῆμα, ὥστε δοκεῖν ὀρθοτέραν τῆς φύσεως εἶναι,
τὰ δὲ ὄμματα ἔχειν ἀναπεπταμένα, ἐσθῆτα δὲ, ἐξ ἧς ἂν μάλιστα ὥρα
διαλάμποι, κατασκοπεῖσθαι δὲ θαμὰ ἑαυτήν, ἐπισκοπεῖν δὲ καὶ εἴ τις
ἄλλος αὐτὴν θεᾶται, πολλάκις δὲ καὶ εἰς τὴν ἑαυτῆς σκιὰν ἀποβλέπειν.
[23] ὡς δ᾽ ἐγένοντο πλησιαίτερον τοῦ Ἡρακλέους, τὴν μὲν πρόσθεν
ῥηθεῖσαν ἰέναι τὸν αὐτὸν τρόπον, τὴν δ᾽ ἑτέραν φθάσαι βουλομένην
προσδραμεῖν τῷ Ἡρακλεῖ καὶ εἰπεῖν: ὁρῶ σε, ὦ Ἡράκλεις, ἀποροῦντα
ποίαν ὁδὸν ἐπὶ τὸν βίον τράπῃ. ἐὰν οὖν ἐμὲ φίλην ποιησάμενος, ἐπὶ

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 alleg ori ca l bodi es: (tr a ns ) ge nd e r in g virtus 1 39

τὴν ἡδίστην τε καὶ ῥᾴστην ὁδὸν ἄξω σε, καὶ τῶν μὲν τερπνῶν οὐδενὸς
ἄγευστος ἔσῃ, τῶν δὲ χαλεπῶν ἄπειρος διαβιώσῃ.
(ed. E. C. Marchant, Loeb Classical Library 1923)

When Heracles was passing from boyhood to the state of youth, wherein
the young, now becoming their own masters, show whether they will
approach life by the path of virtue or the path of vice, he went out into
a quiet place, and sat pondering which road to take. And there appeared
two women of great stature coming towards him. The one was fair to
see and of high bearing; and her limbs were adorned with purity, her
eyes with modesty; sober was her figure, and her robe was white. The
other was plump and soft, with high feeding. Her face was made up to
heighten its natural white and pink, her figure to exaggerate her height.
Open-eyed she was, and dressed so as to disclose all her charms. Now
she eyed herself; anon looked whether any noticed her, and often stole a
glance at her own shadow.
When they drew closer to Heracles, the first kept an even pace; but
the other, all eager to outdo her, ran to meet him crying:
‘Heracles, I see that you are in doubt as to which path to take towards
life. Make me your friend; follow me, and I will lead you along the pleas-
antest and easiest road. You shall taste all the sweets of life; and hardship
you shall never know.’
(trans. E. C. Marchant with adaptations)

In Silius, the passage mostly reads as a duplication of the Prodicean tale, with
Scipio substituted for a young Heracles. Mostly a duplication, but not entirely:
the b(l)ending of Virtus’ gender is nowhere to be seen in Prodicus, but it is
unmissable in Silius: ‘in face and gait she was more like a man’ (ore/incessuque
uiro propior). Also in Silius, the motif of Virtus’ hair ‘seeking no borrowed charm
from ordered locks’ does not feature in Prodicus, but it is mentioned in Statius
where the goddess binds her dishevelled hair with the priestess’s customary fillets
of white wool (torvisque ligatur/vitta comis, Theb.10.644–5). Is this Silius engag-
ing with Statius’ image of Virtus taming her hair, and implying that, unlike his
own Virtus, Statius’ creation is counterfeiting a more appropriate look? If so,
Silius could very well have used Statius’ Virtus as a model for his own Voluptas,
whose hair-pin is said to convey the look of propriety ( fronte decor quaesitus acu,
Pun. 15.26).
The Prodicean traces in Silius’ handling of his allegories are equally telling. In
Silius’ passage, Virtus is purposefully made to look like Greek Arēte, and as such,
she is meant to stand as her Roman equivalent. Further similarities between the
two allegories abound. The tall stature, the look of modesty and the white robe
all point out their moral credentials, except for the male face and gait, which
feature only in Silius. Here, Virtus’ undisguised virility acts as a reminder that

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 140 dali da ag ri

Roman virtus is deep-down culturally constructed as a male quality, repositioned

as a positive masculine ideal through pudor mirroring Arēte’s aidos in Prodicus.
In fact, the purpose of Prodicus in Silius is to reinstate Virtus as a moral agent, as
if to redeem her Statian subversive past. Unlike in Statius, Virtus’ gender duality
is not framed as transgressive: there is no ambiguity regarding her moral affilia-
tion. Her speech even repeats that of Arēte. She is clearly marked as the opposite
of Voluptas.

reading silius through statius and vice versa

Although intertextuality is usually framed as one poet trying to outdo his com-
petition, there is the possibility that one poet is not automatically reacting against
but rather elaborating on/paying tribute to the work of another, as if in a dia-
logue. This thought is all the more inviting given that our two Flavian poets were
solid contemporaries. It is not impossible that Statius may have edited a par-
ticular passage to engage specifically with Silius’ poetry, and Silius may have just
done the same. This could potentially explain the incongruity of the Fasti simile
in Statius’ passage as a later addition. There is, of course, no way of knowing,
but this should not prevent us from trying to read one passage through another
and see where it leads. For instance, when Silius writes ‘in face and gait she was
more like a man’, is this a ‘gloss’ (to borrow Hinds’ word) of the Ovidian simile in
Statius? As mentioned above, there is no sign of gender ambivalence in Prodicus’
depiction of his allegories. Therefore, Silius must be reacting to Statius, who so
emphatically manipulates the gendering of Virtus. In that case, it is tempting to
read this ‘gloss’ (if it is what it is) as Silius’ attempt to undercut the memory of the
Ovidian simile and to reassign to Virtus all the moral trappings of her Prodicean
self. The emphasis on ore incessuque viro propior (‘in face and gait she was more
like a man’, Pun. 12.29–30) is somewhat amending Statius’ Virtus whose honos
(beauty, 10.642) is said to be mollior (softer) – too elegiac in tone perhaps for
Silius’ conception of epic divine Virtus.
If we were to go back to Statius’ passage with Silius in mind, similarities
between Statius’ Virtus and Silius’ Voluptas quickly emerge. It is remarkable,
for instance, that Virtus, in exhorting Menoeceus to reject combat (linque
humiles pugnas, Theb. 10.664), is aligning herself with Voluptas, who equally
seeks to dissuade young Scipio from martial pursuits (quis furor hic, non digne
puer, consumere bello/florem aevi, Pun. 15.33–4; ni fugis hos ritus, Virtus te saeva
iubebit/per medias volitare acies mediosque per ignes, 40–1). In Statius, Virtus
also promises quick immortality (rape mente deos, rape nobile fatum,/i, precor,
accelera, Theb. 10.670–1); in Silius, the path leading to Virtus’ abode, and
immortal glory, is steep, ardua (celso stant colle penates,/ardua saxoso perducit
semita clivo, Pun.15.101–2), not easily accessible, it is a strenuous (Herculean?)
journey that takes time. But according to Statius’ Virtus, the path to glory is
immediate and not so steep, although ironically it is, quite literally even, since

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 alleg ori ca l bodi es: (tr a n s ) ge n d e r ing virtus 1 41

Menoeceus must ascend to the walls from which he leaps to ‘glory’. In that
regard, Statius’ Virtus is still closer to Silius’ Voluptas, whose road metaphor
privileges the image of an easy route (at si me comitere, puer, non limite duro/iam
tibi decurrat concessi temporis aetas, Pun. 15.46–7). The rhetorical comparabil-
ity between Statius’ Virtus and Silius’ Voluptas clearly reinforces the former’s
subversiveness. Even when Statius’ Virtus is likened to her actual equivalent in
Silius, it is not to her advantage. For instance, when Voluptas accuses Virtus
of driving Scipio to an untimely death as she did his father and uncle
(Pun. 15.42–5), it is also true of Statius’ Virtus vis-à-vis Menoeceus:

haec patrem patruumque tuos, haec prodiga Paulum,

haec Decios Stygias Erebi detrusit ad undas,
dum cineri titulum memorandaque nomina bustis
praetendit nec sensurae, quod gesserit, umbrae.

She it was who sent your father and uncle down to the Stygian waters
of Erebus, she who threw away the lives of Paulus and the Decii, while
holding out a glorious epitaph on the tomb that covers his ashes to the
ghost that cannot even be conscious of the great deeds he did on earth.

So much so that, in Statius, when Virtus exhorts Menoeceus to send his

soul to heaven (caeloque animam, 10.665), she is/becomes what Voluptas makes
her out to be in Silius. Is this Silius manipulating Statius, or is it Statius deriv-
ing his Virtus from Voluptas? If Statius is reacting to Silius, then the moral
ambiguity of Virtus, and virtus as a quality overall in the Thebaid, is further
reasserted. If Silius is reacting to Statius, then there is a clear attempt to reha-
bilitate virtus as an epic ideal that improves on all his forbears/contemporaries.
These are the possible readings. Yet one question remains: is it possible that
Prodicus is already there in Statius’ passage and that Silius is raising it to the
level of intertext by borrowing it so extensively? I am not entirely convinced
by it, although the Ovidian simile in Statius shows a post-Prodicean version
of Hercules who seems to have failed to live by his choice. If we were to read
Statius with Silius in mind, Statius might have inserted the Fasti simile as a
way to create ambiguity that is not directly available in the Prodicean contest.
Statius, by having his Virtus (falsely) take the didactic role of Arēte, and resem-
bling so closely Silius’ Virtus and Voluptas all at once, complicates the picture
and undercuts the possibility of an exclusively positive reading of virtus as an
ideal, not just within the Thebaid, but anywhere else.
Silius, by contrast, is keen to salvage virtus once it becomes associated with
Scipio. The emphasis on Virtus’ virile face and gait in Punica 15 redefines her
as a male-gendered physical ideal, mindful of the need for a Roman physical
victory over the treacherous Carthaginians. But the overly determined female
modesty (e.g. cheerful pudor and snow-white dress, which stands for moral

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 142 dali da ag ri

incorruptibility), is really what lends virtus moral substance. So the Romans,

by claiming virtus to their side, can also reclaim a sense of moral agency. In
Silius, Virtus’ blending of gender is paradoxically not so blended together in the
detail as each attribute is clearly gender-specific, and made explicitly so, which
speaks volumes in terms of gender-based moral reasoning. In Statius, Virtus
is distinctly gender-ambivalent. As a result, it is worth observing that, unlike
Karla Pollmann (2008: 365), who argues that the poet ‘removes virtus from viri
(or the other way round)’, rather the gender confusion of personified Virtus
seems to actively align the vir with the feminine chthonic agents of nefas, thus
making any display of masculine virtus in civil war narrative deeply problematic.

conclusion
In Statius, the Ovidian simile characterises Virtus’ endeavour to inscribe herself
in the language of ‘another’ gender as an imposture, but it also makes it all the
more difficult to visualise what Virtus really looks like, and this is the point.
Her gender instability further reflects her potential for manipulation. In Silius,
Virtus’ duality in gender is more clearly defined. The female gendered ‘purity’
of the snow-white dress and immaterial pudor assign to the male physicality of
virtus a sense of moral agency that is so lacking in her Statian self.
Statius, by perhaps deliberately having Virtus speak like Silius’ Voluptas (or
is it the other way round?), is paradoxically turning her into a parody of her-
self: stripped of its moral trappings, epic virtus is a form of lust – lust for death.
Following Virtus’ departure, Menoeceus is driven to the wall by a love of death
(amor leti, 10.677). The devaluation of epic virtus is semantically signalled through
the transfer of elegiac terms such as amor and mollior (as in honosque mollior,
42–3) into epic context, subverting Virtus into a demanding but sinister mistress.
The question of gender draws attention to the fact that, in both narratives,
female allegories are used as models/sources of inspiration for male heroic
behaviour, however morally justifiable or successful the underlying intention
or response is. Variations in gender identity flag up the issue of liminality as
culturally double-edged. This has a lot to do with gender difference in moral
orientation, which stems from gender-typed constructs of morality grounded in
Roman social structures and expectations of gender-based behaviour. Gender
liminality is either perceived as dangerous, which then leads to a demonisation
of the powerful female element (Statius’ Virtus), or conveys a more balanced
sense of moral reasoning (e.g. Silius’ Virtus). In any case, both passages dis-
tinctly argue against the notion of a culturally strict gender binary in epic.

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 CHAPTER 10

Performing Blurred Gender Lines:

Revisiting Omphale and Hercules
in Pompeian Dionysian Theatre
Gardens1
Lisa Hughes

S elect Pompeian homes displayed Dionysian-themed visual representations

linked to gender reversal in or near garden settings. For the purposes of this
study, I focus on two key mythological characters, the foreign Lydian Queen,
Omphale, and the hero, Hercules, who offer a glimpse into how this gender
reversal can potentially reinforce or break down perceived social and cultural
barriers for ancient Roman diners. While ancient visual culture was not intended
to be a precise reproduction of literary accounts, I suggest that an adaptation of
Ovid’s Fasti 2.313–31 is pertinent to our understanding of the visual represen-
tations of the pair in or near garden settings, which I call ‘Dionysian Theatre
Gardens’. When Omphale and Hercules appear with visual representations of
Dionysus and his retinue, I maintain that the pair serve as props in the backdrops
of small-scale Julio-Claudian performances (for example, pantomime, poetic rec-
itations) that were part and parcel of the convivial experience. The inclusion of
the cross-dressed pair in a theatrical context, I will argue, made gender reversal
an intrinsic part of both domestic and public life.

constructing the dionysian theatre garden

The connections between the foreign deity Dionysus, gardens and dining spaces
help to garner a better understanding of the potential for Omphale and Hercules’
theatrically staged presence within Pompeian domus. Dionysus was an omnipres-
ent figure in the ancient Mediterranean, worshipped as the embodiment of trans-
formation through wine, revelry and performance (Henrichs 2013: 560). These
multiple personae appear in visual representations of many Pompeian homes,
primarily as wall paintings and sculpture in or near garden spaces, where dining
took place. The representations include the deity himself, satyrs, maenads and

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 144 l isa hug hes

theatrical masks, as well as subsidiary characters related to the Dionysian mythic

cycle (Neudecker 1988: 47–51; von Stackelberg 2009: 27). In order to explain
the presence of such imagery within garden settings, two explanations emerge,
which, as will become more apparent below, are not mutually exclusive. The first
maintains that the garden evokes or represents a bucolic setting for cultic or rit-
ual performances that were synonymous with the god Dionysus (Dwyer 1982;
Mastroroberto 1992; Seiler 1992; Zanker 1998: 171; von Stackelberg 2009;
Petersen 2012). The second connects garden space to theatre space in order to
convey a means of self-representation for the patron of the home (Zanker 1998:
21–3; von Stackelberg 2009: 82–3). Rather than separating these two explana-
tions, I argue that both the cultic and theatrical aspects of the deity together make
up what I call the ‘Dionysian Theatre Garden’, and that this will be an integral
component in understanding Omphale’s and Hercules’ theatrically staged pres-
ence. Dionysian cultic and theatrical connections have been linked specifically to
Pompeian wall fresco contexts (e.g. Dionysian faux marble masks and frescoed
pinakes that make up the garden decorations of the ‘Blue Cubiculum’ in Pompeii’s
House of the Orchard, I.9.5–7, Tronchin 2012: 269). More work needs to be
done, however, in terms of integrating actual garden spaces thematically with
other architectural features and material remains found in select Pompeian homes.
Based on the preliminary findings of residential contexts in the Bay of Naples
area, the study for the ‘Dionysian Theatre Garden’ is part of a larger project,
‘The Art of Performance in the Theatre Gardens of Ancient Rome’. I have
found four distinctive features that constitute the ‘Dionysian Theatre Garden’:
(1) dining areas (triclinia, oeci, cenationes, cenacula – here I acknowledge the
problematic nature of these terms with respect to function and space; see Allison
1993; Leach 2004) located in or in close proximity to garden spaces; (2) stages/
raised platforms; (3) sculpture, frescoes, mosaics and other artefacts related to
Dionysian myth; and/or (4) plantings or representations of plantings related to
Dionysus. Dionysian-themed decorative schemes also figure into the placement
of theatrical architectural forms and gardens within select smaller scale domus,
the focus of this discussion. It has been established that dining rooms and gar-
dens proper were used for performance within the domus (Csapo 2010: 185–6),
and other areas such as porticoes and stage-like structures (permanent or tempo-
rary) could have added to the performative experience (von Stackelberg 2009:
95; Csapo 2010: 186). Dionysian-themed artworks in these areas were also part
and parcel of the performative experience (Dunbabin 2003: 8–9). As Katharine
von Stackelberg (2009: 82–3) notes, ‘The popularity of Dionysian imagery as
garden ornaments may have been inspired by this connection between garden
space and theatre space, both created by artifice and allusion.’ If we take the
multifaceted Dionysus as the god of theatre and wine, his presence in addition
to that of his retinue in the visual representations in and around the dining
areas of select Roman homes could also do more than act as a subtle reference
to the theatre. One could argue that spaces allotted for visual representations of

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 per f ormi ng b lur re d ge nd e r l ine s 1 45

Dionysus and other mythic characters associated with the deity could serve as
backdrops and props for actual small-scale performances, such as pantomime.
These features provide a basis for understanding further the representations
of Omphale and Hercules selected for this study. In what follows, the goal is to
situate the performative roles of Omphale and Hercules within the Pompeian
‘Dionysian Theatre Garden’, which echo the elements of sartorial exchange,
grove setting and sexual comedy found in Ovid’s Fasti 2.313–31. This, in turn,
suggests a possible rationale for performing pantomime plays or other small-
scale performances of Omphale and Hercules in a domestic setting. In doing so,
we are able to catch a glimpse into how these small-scale performances provide
a social role for gender reversals in both domestic and public contexts.

situating omphale and hercules within the pompeian

dionysian theatre garden
The following discussion of Omphale and Hercules focuses on a sample of
Pompeian artistic representations of the pair: three fresco paintings and one
full-length sculpture in the round, all dating roughly to the Julio-Claudian
period (the first half of the first century ad). First, in Figure 10.1, from the
House of M. Lucretius (IX. 3.5, Dyer 1891, room 14, fresco, central panel,
east wall), we see the cross-dressed pair. A frontal Hercules dons select pieces
of Omphale’s wardrobe in the centre, and Omphale, wearing his Nemean lion
headdress, stands to the right propped by his club, and looks back to him. The
pair stands in the presence of Dionysian characters such as erotes, maenads
and Dionysus himself. To the viewer’s left of Hercules stands Priapus. Second,
Figure 10.2, from the House of the Golden Cupids (VI.16.7, Seiler 1992,
garden peristyle), is a marble statue depicting a standing figure of Omphale, rep-
resented in a similar fashion to the representation found on the fresco painting
from the House of M. Lucretius (Fig. 10.1). Dressed in a long tunic, she appears
with Hercules’ Nemean lion headdress. Although the arms on this statue have
been damaged, it is very likely, on the basis of Omphale’s stance and the posi-
tion of the left arm, that she propped herself with Hercules’ club. Third, in
Figure 10.3, from the House of the Prince of Montenegro (VII.16.10, Strocka
1984, fresco, ‘oecus’), Omphale and Hercules appear convivially in a grove set-
ting. Here, Omphale, seated with female attendants at her side on the viewer’s
upper left, watches the activities of one group of erotes carrying off Hercules’
club and another group who draw away his quiver while standing on the altar.
A drunken Hercules reclines on the viewer’s lower left side of the panel. Finally,
Figure 10.4, from the House of Siricus (VII.1.47, Niccolini 1854, fresco, room 7),
shows a variant of the representation found on Figure 10.3. Again set within a
grove, female attendants accompany Omphale, seated on the viewer’s upper left.
She watches two groups of erotes: one carries away Hercules’ club below the

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 146 l isa hug hes

Figure 10.1 Pompeii, IX.3.5, Room 14, House of M. Lucretius, Naples, Museo
Archeologico, Inv. 8992, fresco, first century ad, Zanker 1999: 123.

Figure 10.2 Pompeii, VI.16.7. Statue of the Omphale, within the physical
garden, House of the Golden Cupids, marble, second century bc to first century
ad. H. 0.625 m. Naples, Museo Archeologico, Inv. 1483, Ridgeway 207–8;
Seiler 1992, 117, 124.

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 per f ormi n g b lur re d ge n d e r l in e s 1 47

Figure 10.3 Pompeii, VII.16.10, Oecus, House of the Prince of Montenegro, Naples,
Museo Archeologico, Inv. 9000, fresco, first century ad, Lorenz 2007: 674.

Figure 10.4 Pompeii, VII.1.47, Room 7, House of Siricus, fresco, first century ad,
Lorenz 2007: 674.

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 148 l isa hug hes

altar, the other, the quiver while standing atop the altar. The drunken Hercules
reclines on the viewer’s left. In contrast to the episode depicted in figure 10.3,
we see the addition of a group of five male convivial figures reclining on the
viewer’s upper right side. In addition, these four examples appear in houses that
feature gardens, dining areas and Dionysian-themed artefacts, which, in turn,
formulate Dionysian Theatre Gardens. As will become more evident, situating
the representations of Omphale and Hercules near or within these spaces is
highly suggestive of the pair’s performative roles as seen in the Fasti.
Compositional, sartorial and symbolic attributes serve to identify the pair
as Omphale and Hercules. In this sample, Omphale can appear standing
(Figs 10.1, 10.2) or seated (Figs 10.3, 10.4). Her sartorial features include:
Hercules’ Nemean lion headdress covering her head (Figs 10.1, 10.2) or lying near
her side (Figs 10. 3, 10.4); Hercules’ club appearing in her hand (Figs 10.1, 10.2)
or near her side (Figs 10. 3, 10.4); an ankle-length tunic (Figs 10.1–10.4) and
a mantle draped around her body (Figs 10.1–10.4). Hercules can appear stand-
ing (Fig. 10.1) or reclining (Figs 10.3, 10.4). Sartorial features include a mantle
draping his otherwise unclothed body (Fig. 10.1), or Omphale’s tunic (Figs 10.3,
10.4). Other wardrobe markers include a vine wreath (Fig. 10.1) and sandals
(Fig. 10.1).
The representations in my analysis feature one of two distinctive settings
that may allude to Ovid’s reference to the pair dining in a garden/grove in the
Fasti (see below), either directly (Figs 10.3, 10.4) or indirectly (Figs 10.1, 10.2).
These representations, moreover, substantiate the presence of the Dionysian
Theatre Garden. Figure 10.1 indirectly situates Omphale and Hercules in a
grove on the basis that the dining room where the painting was found is set
directly off the garden. Hercules leans against the figure of Priapus, the god of
fruit plants and guardian of gardens, identified by his tunic laden with fruit. The
visual reference to Priapus provides not only an allusion to physical gardens/
groves, but also conflated references to other comic rape narratives involving
this deity in Ovid’s Fasti (for example, Lotis and Vesta, Ov. Fast., 1.391–440,
6.319–48; Richlin, 2014: 150–2; Fantham 1983: 198–9). Other panel frescoes
found in the same room as Figure 10.1 point to the thematic treatments of din-
ing and theatrical performance whereby erotes perform pantomime and dine
in outdoor Dionysian garden scenes (see Naples Archaeological Museum Inv.
9255; Naples Archaeological Museum Inv. 9205; Schefold 1957: 249; for musi-
cians and dancers as part of the pantomime troupe, see Hall 2008: 16).
The statue of Omphale in the House of the Golden Cupids (Fig. 10.2) takes
us out of the realm of fresco painting and into the physical setting of an actual
garden. The statue’s original findspot was in the west end of the peristyle gar-
den, near the raised stage structure that housed a triclinium, and therefore in
close proximity to a dining space (Seiler 1992: 117, 124). Although statuary of
Hercules is not preserved in the archaeological record from this home, Omphale’s

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 per f ormi n g b lur re d ge n d e r l in e s 1 49

presence within the garden bedecked with Dionysian-themed imagery is befit-

ting and offers more than a prized piece of sculpture (Vorster 1999: 16). Rather,
like her visual representations in fresco, the cross-dressed Omphale offers a
means to stage gender reversals, which went hand in hand with Roman dining
and theatrical performance.
In contrast, Figures 10.3 and 10.4 both point directly to the garden, with
the figures reclining and dining in a grove. Notably in both images Omphale
and Hercules are not seated together, but recline in different areas of the com-
position. In addition, the presence of an altar in the centre of the composition
defines the space as a sacred grove. In Figure 10.4, the outdoor convivial setting
is similar to actual tripartite dining structures appearing in triclinia, with the
notable exception that the altar replaces the conventional mensa (table) as the
centrepiece. When entering an indoor or outdoor triclinium, viewers would
face tripartite structures that could be permanent or movable couches (lecti)
arranged around a central table (mensa) (Schmitt-Pantell 2006). These couches
had specific names based on their position within the room. Moving from left to
right we have the first position, imus (lowest), second, medius (middle) and third
summus (highest). The Romans also carefully chose the positions where hosts
and guests would sit while dining. The host and his family would be delegated
to the lectus imus, high-status guests to the lectus medius and low-status guests to
the lectus summus (Schmitt-Pantell 2006).
In Figure 10.4, there is an important difference with respect to designated
gender roles and arranged seating in Roman dining practice. If we take Pedar W.
Foss’s reconstruction of the status designations for diners and seating arrange-
ments, Omphale takes the primary role at the lectus imus and assumes the role
of domina, blurring conventional gender lines for traditional dining practices in
which the dominus would assume this position (Foss 1994: 52; see also Roller
2006: 155–6 for wall painting as a means to reflect on dining practices and
values). Dionysus and entourage are seated at the lectus medius, and Hercules
reclines alone and inebriated in the position of the lectus summus. The inclu-
sion of not only Omphale and Hercules, but also other mythic figures within a
Dionysian setting would allow diners to consider the experiences of other social
classes, foreigners and women, thereby promoting a sense of identity and com-
munity (Fredrick 1995; Wilkins 2005; Roller 2006; Hales 2008; Severy-Hoven
2012; von Stackelberg 2014).
Finally, while all of these examples appear in dining areas and other rooms
located in close proximity to the Dionysian Theatre Garden, there are variations
of Omphale and Hercules’ appropriation of each other’s clothing. Clothing was
a clear marker of social status in the Roman world. Kelly Olson (2014: 189)
has remarked, ‘Men (and women) were to be clearly distinguished by cloth-
ing; the sartorial blurring of gender boundaries was ridiculed and censured by
many.’ Yet sartorial blurring did indeed exist, as the examples from Pompeii

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 150 l isa hug hes

show. Stefan Ritter (1996) notes a similar phenomenon when representations

of Omphale and Hercules appear on Arrentine pottery and gemstones dating to
the late Republic and Augustan periods. Yet, in instances where Omphale does
not don Hercules’ clothing and weaponry (Figs 10.3, 10.4), Katharina Lorenz
(2007: 675) has concluded that ‘such pictorial representations reduce the explo-
sive potential of transvestism with regard to the subversion of social and gender
roles, and instead locate it in the less controversial world of Dionysian reveling’.
I do agree with Lorenz’s assertion about the power ‘transvestism’ or cross-dress-
ing has in its ability for subversion, but I would argue that transgender may be a
more suitable term to use as it encompasses gender binaries for identity, expres-
sion and social role reasons (see, for example, the observations of Ash, p. 173, in
this volume). Moreover, the roles of Dionysian allusions and contexts, as I have
argued, should not be underestimated for their ability to subvert conventional
social and gender roles. This is further substantiated where examples of the pair
appropriating each other’s clothing do appear.

situating omphale and hercules in ovid’s FASTI

And now she was reaching the grove of Bacchus and the vineyards of
Tmolus, and dewy Hesperus was riding his dusky steed.
She enters a cave, its ceiling paneled with tufa and living pumice;
right at the entrance there was a babbling stream. And while the atten-
dants prepare the banquet and the wine to drink, she dresses Alcides up
in her own attire.
She gives him delicate tunics dyed in Gaetulian purple; she gives him
the smooth girdle which has just been round her own waist. The girdle’s
too small for his belly; she undoes the tunics’ fastenings so he can push
his great hands through; he’d broken the bracelets not made for those
arms; his great feet were splitting the little sandal-straps. She herself takes
the heavy club and the lion spoil, and the smaller weapons stored in their
quiver. That’s how they give their bodies to sleep.
They lay apart, on couches placed close to each other. Why? Because
they were preparing for the rites of the god who discovered the vine, and
when day dawned they would perform them in purity.
(Ov. Fast., 2.313–31, trans. Wiseman and Wiseman 2011: 26–7)

Ovid’s account of Omphale and Hercules sets the stage to provide a pos-
sible explanation for the scantily clad priests (luperci) appearing in the annual
Roman purification festival known as the Lupercalia (Ov. Fast., 2.303–58;
on this passage see also Agri in this volume). In 2.310–29, we meet the pair
in a vineyard dedicated to Bacchus (Dionysus). They exchange clothes, dine

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 per f ormi ng b lur re d ge nd e r l ine s 151

and take to sleep in separate beds. The Lupercalia’s patron deity, Faunus,
enters the sleeping chamber and unsuccessfully attempts to assault the cross-
dressed Hercules, mistaken for Omphale. As a result, Faunus’ comical distaste
for sartorial deception subsequently serves as the basis for the rites’ unclothed
attendees (Robinson 2011: 206–8, 224–5). Ovid’s detailed comedic account
of sartorial exchange not only sets the stage for both Faunus’ foiled assault
and the explanation for the luperci, but also plays into a performative read-
ing of transvestism. The act of cross-dressing takes place when Omphale takes
Hercules’ club, the lion-skin headdress, and minor weaponry. Hercules, in turn,
receives the foreign queen’s tunic, belt, bracelets and sandals, despite the fact
they are simply not quite the right fit (for the metapoetic connotations of the
clothing exchange see Newlands 1995: 60; Hejduk 2011: 24–5).
My interest lies in the ways setting and sartorial exchange feature in Ovid’s
account of Omphale and Hercules as a way to signal the narrative cycle of
the Pompeian visual representations. For example, the scene takes place in a
Lydian vineyard grove dedicated to Bacchus and forms the basis for Ovid’s
acknowledgement of Dionysian themes (Robinson 2011: 235, 243). Moreover,
in the grove there is the cave, fashioned with panelled ceilings and equipped
with couches for dining and sleeping. The cave, in turn, provides the setting
for Omphale and Hercules’ convivial activities, their sartorial exchange, as
well as for Faunus’ foiled assault. Matthew Robinson (2011: 236) notes three
possible allusions for the cave’s presence. It could serve as a locus amoenus
(pleasant spot), a common location for sexual assault in Latin literature; a
metapoetic Virgilian allusion to the consummation between Dido and Aeneas
(Fantham 1983: 184); or a Vitruvian reference (Vitr. 5.6.9) to satyr play set-
tings (Littlewood 1975: 1064).
In the ancient world, transvestism was no stranger to ritual and theatrical
performances (Robinson 2011: 237–9). For instance, the ritual associations with
transvestism are linked to komastic and Dionysian revelling, as well as marriage
(Fantham 1983: 195–7; Miller 1999; Robinson 2011: 237; Surtees 2014). The-
atrical associations with cross-dressing appear in satyr plays, Greek comedies or
mime and pantomime (Littlewood 1975; Fantham 1983: 192–201; Barchiesi
1997: 238–46; Wiseman 2002; Wiseman 2008: 217; Robinson 2011: 225). In
the case of the cross-dressed pair in Ovid’s Fasti, there is clearly a fusion between
the ritual and theatrical elements (Fantham 1983: 196; Robinson 2011: 238),
but most importantly, as Elaine Fantham notes: ‘this passage of Fasti describes a
sequence of events that could be only understood as pantomime by any onlook-
ers, not because he has composed it for pantomime but most probably because
he has derived it from pantomime’ (Fantham 1983: 201; also see Ingleheart,
2008: 204; Zanobi 2014: 36). This fusion of ritual and theatrical elements in
relation to grove setting, character wardrobe and sexual comedy may also carry
over into Pompeian visual representations of Omphale and Hercules.

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Existing scholarship devoted to the pair in Roman art, however, does not
always align with such an interpretation. For example, Omphale and Hercules
are identified symbolically as part of Octavian’s anti-propagandistic campaign
against Cleopatra and Antony (Varner 2008: 190; Zanker 1988: 56–8: Kampen
1996a: 235). Plutarch’s Antony and Demetrius 3.4 serves to provide an analogy
between Omphale and Hercules and Cleopatra and Antony. In his analysis of
the passage, Alexander Lessie (2015: 47) states, ‘Plutarch remarks that Cleopa-
tra compelled Antony to abandon great and necessary undertakings just as we
see Omphale in paintings taking away Hercules’ club and stripping off his lion
skin.’ Lessie (2015: 46), however, questions this as an overt attack and empha-
sises that Plutarch likely was exploring the theatrical character of Antony. Oliver
Hekster (2004) also readily and effectively dismisses the propagandistic treat-
ment of Hercules and Omphale in art and literature, but does not provide an
alternative reading for their presence.
Other scholarly references to the visual representations of Omphale and
Hercules use this evidence as a means to substantiate antecedent influences of
the pair in the literary or artistic traditions of the Mediterranean world. Elmer
Suhr (1953: 261–2), for example, identifies briefly the comedic references and
ritualistic elements of marriage in the portrayal of the cross-dressed pair, but
focuses primarily on tracing the origins for the pair in the Mediterranean world.
Fantham (1983: 198–200), working from Konrad Schauenberg’s 1960 analysis,
refers to Pompeian wall paintings thought to be derived from now-lost Helle-
nistic originals as possible sources for Ovid’s treatment of the pair in the Fasti,
but dismisses this interpretation on the basis that Ovid likely drew ideas from
dramatic or narrative poetry. Finally, Natalie Kampen (1996a: 235–6, 244) sees
Hellenistic models as possible sources for the visual representations dating to
first centuries bc and ad, but emphasises that the representations adhere to the
poetic traditions of this period to reinforce social disorder. Kampen (1996a:
244) does acknowledge, however, that ‘the couple were associated with Bacchic
cult as initiates and as figures for gender slippage and fluidity of boundaries’, but
this does not happen until the second century ad (for a similar treatment see
also Zanker 1999). The goal of my study attempts to offer a broader cultural,
historical and political understanding of the visual representations of Omphale
and Hercules, particularly through the lenses of gender reversal in the private
theatrical performances in the Julio-Claudian period.
It is at this point that I call for a diachronic reading of the pair that fits
within the lenses of theatrical performance and Roman dining in the Julio-
Claudian period. By incorporating visual representations of the pair (both fresco
and sculpture) with the Dionysian Theatre Garden, I further build on Lorenz’s
(2007: 655) assertions that mythological wall paintings ‘can lead to a better
understanding of the foundations of cultural norms and ideas’. This is espe-
cially important in terms of how we may come to a better understanding of

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 per f ormi n g b lur re d ge nd e r l ine s 153

gender reversal in the Julio-Claudian period. More specifically I show how a cul-
tural shift occurs for Omphale and Hercules’ presence under the theatre-loving
emperors Augustus (27 bc to ad 14) and Nero (ad 54–68) either to reinforce or
break down perceived social and cultural barriers.

weaving omphale’s and hercules’ theatricality

in the julio-claudian period
To garner a better understanding of the visual representations of Omphale and
Hercules within the Dionysian Theatre Garden during the Julio-Claudian period,
it is necessary to weave together a brief narrative that incorporates both Greek
cultural tastes and Roman theatre as they pertain to the cultural milieu of the
emperors Augustus and Nero. This will demonstrate the cultural relationships
that exist between our cross-dressed pair, Dionysus and gardens. Furthermore it
will reinforce that representations of Omphale and Hercules reinforce gender and
social inclusivity not only through a ritual, but also within a theatrical setting.
Within Augustus’ circle was Maecenas, a formidable patron of the Augustan
poets, and a purveyor of Greek culture as well as Roman theatre. It is highly sug-
gestive that he staged performances of Omphale and Hercules on his expansive
estate, Rome’s Gardens of Maecenas. Peter Wiseman (2016) has recently demon-
strated, through an analysis of the Elegia in Maecenatem, that Maecenas performed
the role of Hercules and his wife, Terentia (a known dancer), the role of Omphale.
The passage refers to the classic gender reversal roles when Omphale asks Hercules
to lose his power paraphernalia, the club and lion skin, in order to sport wool-
len flowing tunics amongst her maidens who spin wool. Although the storyline
in the Elegia differs from the one presented in the Fasti, it does share similarities
with Propertius, Elegy 4.9, where Hercules refers to himself spinning wool while
wearing Omphale’s Sidonian palla (Debrohun 2003: 161–2). Propertius’ account
of the cross-dressed pair is seen as a means to promote Julio-Claudian identity
and inclusivity (Lindheim 1998; Panoussi 2016) by providing a reading of female
authority to the ritual practice of spinning wool.
Maecenas was also known to play the role of Dionysus in theatrical perfor-
mances. He also maintained a close relationship with his freed slave and lover,
the pantomime dancer Bathyllus of Alexandria, who was known to have acted
in Dionysian performances and brought pantomime to Rome (Wiseman 2016).
As to where these performances would have taken place, Wiseman (2016) offers
Maecenas’ Hellenistic Persian-style gardens as the perfect setting, complete with
auditorium, gardens and Dionysian-themed sculpture. With respect to audi-
ence, the presence of the Dionysian imagery in the Gardens of Maecenas during
Augustus’ reign likely appealed to a ‘private sphere made up of the princeps and
those closest to him, a limited number of initiates who formed an elite chosen

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 154 l isa hug hes

by the god, who promised them incomparable happiness’ (Wyler 2012: 8).
In essence, it is suggestive, but by no means conclusive that under Augustus,
Dionysus belonged to the elite sphere of Roman society. During the Augustan
period, we catch glimpses of the interconnected relationships between Omphale,
Hercules, Dionysus, gardens, theatrical performances and cross-dressing. They
seem, however, to be contained within the circle of the emperor. Nevertheless,
the seeds of inclusivity are planted with respect to breaking perceived social and
gender roles.
An ideological shift, however, would occur during Nero’s reign, when the
emperor qua actor came to embody the philhellenic model, which, in turn,
encompassed a much broader sphere of community and inclusivity. Dionysus
became a deity open to all spheres of Roman society. Key factors in developing
this shift in the Dionysian mindset would be Nero’s revival of Antony’s Hellenic
cultural aspirations, as well as the emperor’s ability to continue building associa-
tions with Dionysus. In doing so, Nero was able to reach out to and create com-
munity amongst those typically excluded from traditional elite practices, that is,
the common people (Champlin 2003: 173). While evidence abounds for Nero’s
philhellenic predispositions (see Mratschek 2013), it is less substantive when it
comes to direct associations with Dionysus. Dionysian overtones do appear in
conjunction with architectural settings that relate to the historical Greek tradi-
tions of the theatre. For example, it is suggestive that Nero sought to instil the
message of community and inclusivity in his refurbishment of the stage building
of Athens’s Theatre of Dionysus Eleuthereus in ad 60 (Sear 2006: 116). The
permanent stone theatre initially constructed in the fifth century bc became
the site to celebrate the Dionysia Megala festival (Bieber 1961: 213; Sturgeon
1977: 45). Although the nature of the festival has been the source of much
attention and controversy (Goldhill 1990), it can be said that it included ritual
processions involving Dionysian cross-dressing, as well as performances of trag-
edy and comedy to ultimately include citizens, foreigners, slaves, women and
children alike (Miller 1999; Spineto 2005: 185–325; Lateiner 2009; Surtees
2014: 288–90). This coincides with Dionysus’ liminal function ‘as a progenitor
of communitas’ or community, whereby ‘the community is stripped of all social
barriers and social distinctions so that members of the community can experi-
ence one another “concretely” as equal’ (Csapo 1997: 254).
Nowhere else is this notion of community better reflected than in the building
of the expansive Domus Aurea, which also incorporated the Gardens of Maece-
nas on its eastern end (Champlin 2003: 203; Mratschek 2013: 51–2; Hauber
2014: 134–8). Built after the fire of ad 64, yet still not completed at the time of
Nero’s death in ad 68, the Domus Aurea provided the optimal setting to stage
gender reversal roles and thereby promote community and inclusivity. As Richard
Beacham (1999: 224) has noted, the ‘innate theatricality’ of the Domus Aurea
is seen in its ‘several hundred rooms, extensive colonnades, mosaic vaulting,
splendidly coffered ceilings (some fashioned from ivory panels), and probably a

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 per f ormi n g b lur re d ge nd e r l ine s 155

private theatre’. Under Nero, garden and theatre space essentially became fused,
as seen in his wooden amphitheatre in the Campus Martius, as well as other pri-
vate stage complexes in the city of Rome (von Stackelberg 2009: 84–5; Hughes
2014: 229–31). Moreover, it was within such a setting that Dionysus came to
symbolise a deity accessible to all. In reference to the Dionysian imagination in
Neronian Rome, Stephanie Wyler (2012: 12) maintains that ‘The fantasy of a
primitive lack of differentiation between sexes and species seems to have been at
the heart of the artistic experimentations of Nero himself, both in his theatrical
behaviour and in the conception of his palace.’ Wyler’s comment does open the
door to see the possibility for Nero’s Dionysian theatrical proclivity as a means
to promote sexual difference and social inclusion. This conclusion, however, still
carries a serious negative connotation. In essence, ‘the fantasy of a primitive lack
of differentiation between sexes and species’ is seen as going against the grain
of ‘traditional’ Roman values and mores advocated by ancient Roman histori-
ans (for example, Tacitus and Suetonius; see Champlin 2003: 53–83; Hughes
2014: 229–32). A similar sentiment crosses over into modern scholarship when
Catharine Edwards (1994: 91) states: ‘acting – associated with the foreign, the
female, and the fake, with licence bearable so long as lowly persons enjoyed it,
but intolerable in the hands of an emperor – summed up Nero’s offenses’. This
negative sentiment towards Neronian performative gender blending appears to
run contrary to what we see in the Pompeian archaeological record.
Performative gender blending to promote community and inclusivity goes
hand in hand in Pompeii with the artistic representations of Omphale and
Hercules that appeared in or near the Dionysian Theatre Gardens. The presence
of the foreign queen and the feminised hero served well to reflect the performa-
tive milieu of the Neronian period. Audience and performers came from all
strata of society (slave, freedman and freeborn). Performers, moreover, included
pantomimes, jugglers, acrobats, Homeristae (performers of Homer; Starr 1987:
199–200), dancers, musicians and singers (Rosati 1999: 86). They enacted a
wide array of Greek and Latin drama associated with tragedy, comedy and satyr
plays, both in large-scale monumental theaters and within Roman houses (Jones
1991: 188; Beacham 1992; Jory 2002; Hunt 2008; Hughes 2014). In Neronian
Rome in general and Pompeii in particular, the ability of individuals from many
walks of life (including the emperor qua actor himself ) to perform in public
and private settings was acceptable practice in certain circles (Champlin 2003:
53–83; Hughes 2014: 229–32).

conclusions
Using Omphale and Hercules as a case study only begins to scratch the surface,
so to speak, to convey an understanding of the multivalent theatrical imagery
and practices associated with the god Dionysus within the Roman home and
garden settings. The representations of Omphale and Hercules appearing near

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 156 l isa hug hes

or in the garden area are clearly connected to Ovid’s Fasti with both metaphoric
and literal allusions to the Dionysian grove. Moreover, the diverse visual repre-
sentations of the pair, found in and around the garden peristyle, contributed
to the diners’ experiences to promote community and inclusivity beyond the
dining room proper. In essence, the staged presence of Omphale and Hercules
served to honour the foreign deity, Dionysus, in a setting where viniculture,
dining and theatre were closely associated. It is within this convivial context that
these select representations of Omphale and Hercules served to set the stage to
break down perceived social and cultural barriers. Gender reversal during the
Julio-Claudian period subsequently must be seen as an intrinsic part of both
domestic and public life.

note
1. This research was supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research
Council of Canada. The author would also like to thank the editors of this
volume, as well as the anonymous reviewers, for their generous comments
and support.

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 CHAPTER 11

The Politics of Transgender

Representation in Apuleius’
The Golden Ass and Loukios,
or the Ass
Evelyn Adkins

I n the second-century ad novels Loukios, or the Ass and Apuleius’ The Golden
Ass (also known as the Metamorphoses), the man-turned-into-a-donkey Lucius
is sold to a group of priests of the Syrian Goddess. Like the priests of Cybele with
whom they are frequently linked, these figures are infamous in Greek and Latin
literature for ecstatic music and dance, transvestism, self-castration, and suspect
sexuality. In both the Greek and Latin novels, the first-person narrator Lucius
calls them cinaedi, Graeco-Roman scare figures of gender and sexual deviance.
The priests, however, never use this derogatory term, instead calling themselves
‘girls’ (puellae: Met. 8.26; korasia: Onos 36) and using feminine grammatical
forms. In their own words, they construct feminine identities, adding to the evi-
dence that some of the followers of Cybele and the Syrian Goddess – commonly
referred to as galli – were transwomen and other assigned-male-at-birth individu-
als with diverse gender identities and sexual orientations (Roscoe 1996; Taylor
1997: 336, 371; Adkins 2014: 35–55; Blood 2015; Blood forthcoming; Carlà-
Uhink 2017: 16–19). I argue that in the Greek and Latin novels, the primary
locus of the priests’ contested identities is their speech. By juxtaposing Lucius’
interpretation of the priests’ speech with their own words, I highlight the role of
language as a mechanism of power, focusing on who has the authority to impose
meaning and how this affects those whose social labels are at odds with their own
identities and self-representations.
While Apuleius’ Latin novel is longer and has a different ending than
the Greek Loukios, or the Ass (hereafter referred to by its abbreviated Greek
name Onos), both relate the story of Lucius, a Roman Greek aristocrat who is
transformed into a donkey. After a year of being stolen, bought and sold, he
changes back into a man. Based on the similarities between these novels and the
comments of the ninth-century patriarch Photios, they are thought to derive

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 158 evelyn a dk i ns

separately from a third novel, the lost Greek Metamorphoseis of Lucius of Patrae
(Phot. Bibl. 129; van Thiel 1971: 1–21; Mason 1994, 1999a, 1999b). Apuleius’
narrative is frequently so similar to the Onos that parts of it are clearly trans-
lated from the Greek, as in this interaction between the priest Philebus and her
companions:

Onos 36: But when we came to where Philebus lived – for this was the
name of the man who purchased me – as soon as he was before the doors
he shouted loudly, ‘O girls, I have purchased for you a slave, beautiful
and strong and of the Cappodocian race.’ (All translations my own unless
otherwise noted.)

ἐπεὶ δὲ ἥκομεν ἔνθα ᾤκει Φίληβος – τοῦτο γὰρ εἶχεν ὄνομα ὁ

ὠνησάμενός με – μέγα εὐθὺς πρὸ τῆς θύρας ἀνέκραγεν, Ὦ κοράσια,
δοῦλον ὑμῖν ἐώνημαι καλὸν καὶ ἁδρὸν καὶ Καππαδόκην τὸ γένος.
(All Greek excerpts from the Onos are from MacLeod 1974.)

Met. 8.26: But he led the new slave he had acquired to the house, and
as soon as he was there at the threshold he shouted, ‘Girls, come see the
pretty little slave I’ve purchased for you.’

At ille susceptum novicium famulum trahebat ad domum, statimque

illinc de primo limine proclamat, ‘Puellae, servum vobis pulchellum en
ecce mercata perduxi’. (All Latin excerpts from the Metamorphoses are
from Zimmerman 2012.)

The congruence here, beyond demonstrating Apuleius’ translation skills,

indicates that the priests’ speech was expected to be recognisable to both Greek-
and Latin-speaking audiences. This is supported by other literary texts that
apply feminine grammatical forms to galli (Catull. 63; Hephaestion 12.3; Stat.
Theb. 12.226; Anth. Pal. 7.223). Thus the priests’ uses of feminine grammatical
forms in the novels are not authorial invention, but most likely represent the
real speech of some, if not all, Greek and Roman galli.

GALLI and CINAEDI

Previous studies of the priests of the Syrian Goddess have focused on either
the history of gender and sexuality or of religion. With respect to gender and
sexuality, the priests are depicted as stereotypical cinaedi. Although kinaidos/
cinaedus seems to have referred originally to a man who performed a style of
dance associated with the Near East, by the Imperial period it was a derogatory
term for a man who was perceived to move, speak or act in an effeminate way

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 tra nsg ender repre s e n tatio n in a p ul e ius 159

(Williams 2010: 193–7). In ancient literature, cinaedi are portrayed as men

who wear make-up and long, brightly coloured clothes, curl their hair, depilate
their legs, walk with a shorter or swaying stride and speak in high-pitched voices
(Edwards 1993: 68–9; Gleason 1995: 396; see also Penrose in this volume).
They are often depicted as actively pursuing a penetrated/passive role in sexual
intercourse, especially with men (Kamen and Levin-Richardson 2015a: 450,
453–5). For this reason, some have argued that references to cinaedi provide
evidence for an ancient, urban subculture of homosexual men at Rome (Richlin
1993; Taylor 1997: 349–57). Others have argued that the term is better inter-
preted as a slur directed towards gender identity and expression rather than
sexual orientation (Gleason 1995: 411–12; Williams 2010: 177–8, 230–45).
The cinaedus serves as a scare figure, a symbol of failed masculinity (Parker
1997: 60; Williams 2010: 137–9, 196, 193–202; Holmes 2012: 94–9).
Cinaedi and galli are closely linked in the Greek and Roman imagination.
Galli is the Greek and Roman term applied to some of the followers or priests
of several cults of Anatolian mother goddesses, including Atargatis (the Syrian
Goddess) and the more famous Phrygian goddess, called Meter in Greece, Magna
Mater in Rome and Cybele in Greek and Latin literature (see especially Roscoe
1996; Roller 1999; Lightfoot 2003: 1–85). Their cults were quite different in
Greece and Rome than in Anatolia, especially in the perceived nature of the galli.
Though the origins of the term are debated, it appears first in the Hellenistic
period and likely derives from the Greek name for Gauls who settled in Asia
Minor in the third century bc. Their conflicts with local Greek city-states led
to their depiction as ‘barbarians’ in Greek art and literature, a characterisation
shared by the Romans in their own conflicts with western European Gauls. For
Greeks and Romans, ‘gallus’ thus evoked a sense of uncivilised alterity (Roller
1999: 187–234). The followers of the Anatolian goddesses also inherited long-
standing Greek and Roman depictions of ‘easterners’ as soft, decadent, savage
and effeminate, a set of stereotypes that, when combined with more recent
Orientalist discourses, still lingers in modern scholarship (Roller 1999: 19–24
offers a well-articulated critique).
The Greeks and especially the Romans, who conceived of masculinity as phal-
locentric and physically inviolable (Walters 1997), became increasingly obsessed
with the concept of the gallus as an effeminate easterner: in literary contexts, galli
are frequently described as eunuchs. While the Greeks and Romans attributed vol-
untary castration to the eastern origins of these cults, there is limited evidence for
it in the pre-Hellenistic Near East (Roller 1998, 1999: 105, 253–6). Our earliest
references to eunuch followers of Cybele appear in Hellenistic Greek literature and
Roman literature of the late second/early first century bc, over a hundred years
after the goddess’s induction into Rome (Roller 1999: 263–326; Latham 2012).
Our first evidence for the worship of Cybele’s consort Attis, often portrayed as
the mythological model for castration, also appears in the Hellenistic period

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 160 evelyn a dk i ns

(Roller 1999: 177–81). Thus, as Lynn Roller (1999: 318–19) has shown, the
aspect of Cybele’s cult that Greek and Roman authors found the most foreign and
objectionable – the galli, who might perform femininity and/or castration – was
a development of her Greek and Roman cults rather than an importation of Near
Eastern practice.
Despite the ancient and modern fascination with the image of the castrated
gallus, we do not know how widespread this practice actually was or what it
meant to those who performed it. The myths related by outsiders to explain
castration and the feminine dress of the galli depict these as a result of madness
(Catull. 63), divine punishment (cf. Roller 1999: 239–41) or the avoidance of
sexual wrongdoing. For the Syrian Goddess, our most extensive written source
is On the Syrian Goddess (De Dea Syria = DDS), attributed to Lucian, the same
Graeco-Syrian author to whom the Onos is attributed (Lightfoot 2003: 184–208).
While the DDS provides several aetiological myths for the galli, the longest is
the story of Combabos, a servant of the Assyrian king who accompanies his
queen to Hierapolis to build a temple to Hera, who was syncretised with the
Anatolian goddesses (DDS 19–27). Before Combabos departs, he castrates him-
self in case of future allegations that he has slept with the queen and leaves the
evidence behind in a sealed box. When accusations are made, Combabos reveals
as proofs of his innocence both the contents of the box and his own body. He
returns to Hierapolis and remains as a follower of Hera.
Combabos’ actions are described as the origins of the galli’s practices:

Each year many castrate and unman themselves (τάμνονται καὶ

θηλύνονται) in the temple, whether to console Combabos or to do
favour to Hera . . . No longer do they wear male clothing, but don female
robes and do women’s work (εἵματά τε γυναικεῖα φορέουσιν καὶ ἔργα
γυναικῶν ἐπιτελέουσιν). As I heard, the reason for this too goes back to
Combabos. What happened was that a foreign woman came to a festival
and, seeing him handsome and still in male clothing, was smitten with
a great passion; but when she learned he was not a whole man (ἀτελέα)
she did away with herself. At that, saddened because he was so unlucky in
love, Combabos donned female clothing lest another woman ever suffer
the same fate. And this is the reason for the female clothing of the galli
(ἥδε αἰτίη Γάλλοισι στολῆς θηλείης). DDS 27 (Greek text and transla-
tion of the DDS by Lightfoot 2003: 264–7.)

This story fits within a larger body of gallus myths that attempt to explain
why men would voluntarily become eunuchs – a state associated with slavery
in Greece and Rome – and wear the clothing of women, who, even if free, had
nowhere near the legal, social or economic power of men. Combabos’ castra-
tion and clothing are depicted as undesirable, self-imposed punishments for

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 transg ender rep re s e ntatio n in a pul e ius 1 61

excessive masculinity, in this case being too attractive to women (for the Greeks
and especially the Romans, masculinity outside the norm, whether it was per-
ceived as excessive or insufficient, was equated with effeminacy). Elsewhere in
the treatise, however, Combabos has not only the clothing but also the ‘shape’
of a woman (morphē: DDS 26), and castration is depicted as a choice, not a
requirement of the cult (DDS 42–3, 50–1). Despite the narrator’s masculinist
reading of Combabos and the galli, the DDS is describing gender transition,
which may include changes in body, clothing and/or social role (for castration
as an avenue for changing one’s body to correspond with one’s gender identity,
see Chakrapani 2016; Blood forthcoming).
Literary depictions of the galli and myths like those of Combabos and
Attis have led many to point out their similarities with the hijras of India and
Pakistan (Roscoe 1996: 206–13; Taylor 1997: 332–7; Roller 1999: 320–5).
Hijras are traditionally assigned-male-at-birth followers of a mother goddess
who wear women’s clothing and use feminine pronouns. Their foundational
stories are so close to those of the galli that they likely have a historical connec-
tion (Taylor 1997: 332; Lightfoot 2003: 385–6). Hijras have long considered
themselves a third gender; tapping into international human rights movements,
some now identify as transwomen (Nanda 1990; PUCL-K 2003: 16–23, 50–5,
76–8; Narrain and Gupta 2011). Based on comparisons between galli and
hijras, some have argued that the ancient Anatolian cults were likely havens
for non-gender-conforming genetic males and feminine intersex individuals
(Taylor 1997: 336, 371). H. Christian Blood (forthcoming) stresses that the
galli should not be viewed as a homogeneous group, but most likely included
people who would have identified, in modern terms, along a spectrum of gen-
ders and sexualities, including transwomen, cisgender transvestite men, and
assigned-male-at-birth individuals who preferred a passive/penetrated role dur-
ing sex; we should likely add feminine, assigned-male-at-birth, asexual indi-
viduals, who might have been marginalised if they did not marry and produce
children as was expected of Greek and Roman citizen men.
The galli’s diversity is supported by a small body of material evidence. Roman
funerary monuments for Cybelean galli and archigalli (a high priesthood added
in the late first/early second century ad) depict them in a variety of gendered or
gender-blended clothing (Hales 2002). Archigalli, whose inscriptions use mas-
culine names and grammatical forms, are depicted wearing trousers, tunics and
caps resembling those of Attis (Vermaseren 1977: nos 261, 395, 401–2, 446–8,
462). Although these would have been interpreted as masculine, their association
with the Near East would have carried the baggage of barbarity and effeminacy
that the Romans ascribed to this region. The best known dedication for a gallus
is the Soterides inscription from Cyzicus, dated to 46 bc. While Soterides refers
to himself in the inscription using masculine grammatical forms, he is depicted
in the relief above wearing feminine clothing (Roller 1999: 332–3; see the similar

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 162 evelyn a dk i ns

Menneas dedication in Bean 1959: 71). He makes the dedication in thanks for the
safety of Marcus Stlaccius, his symbios, a Greek word meaning ‘partner’ or ‘spouse’
(Roscoe 1996: 203). Other images of galli depict them wearing the religious garb
interpreted as feminine in our literary sources: robes, jewellery and curls or rib-
bons hanging from the head (Vermaseren 1997: nos 249–50, 466). Each of these
demonstrates their subjects’ status and pride in their identities as priests of Cybele,
who by the second century ad had achieved a high level of visibility and a secure
social position; they bear little resemblance to the frenzied, sexually depraved galli
of Greek and Roman literature (cf. Latham 2012: 101–14).

the politics of representation

The story of a man who turns into an ass is fundamentally concerned with issues
of identity, language and power. Lucius’ transformation into a donkey equates him
with a slave in Roman law and in the Greek and Roman imagination (Bradley
2000). Deprived of human speech, he is unable to communicate his identity and
social status (Adkins 2014: 111–26). Scholars of the Latin novel in particular have
demonstrated that Lucius’ first-person narrative, told simultaneously by an aristo-
crat and an enslaved ass, offers numerous hermeneutic possibilities for the reader
interested in identity and authority (Winkler 1985; Selden 1994; on the Onos, see
Hall 1995: 51–3). Some have examined how these are expressed especially through
the contrast between Lucius’ human mind and animal body, and Blood (forthcom-
ing) has suggested that this sense of conflict between internal identity and external
appearance makes The Golden Ass fruitful for understanding ancient trans* experi-
ences. I argue that it is in the speech of the galli in the Onos and The Golden Ass that
we see most clearly not only the existence of these ancient transgender and queer
communities, but also how their lives as a visible minority were shaped by a politics
of representation that often denied their self-identification. I focus on episodes
where a speech event or action is understood differently by different characters.
Examining how meaning is constructed and authorised in these episodes reveals
cultural assumptions about gender identity and power underlying the novels.
My discussion is informed by a variety of approaches to language and power
(Bourdieu 1991; Gleason 1990, 1995; Laird 1999), especially the concept of
entextualisation as developed in the essays in Michael Silverstein and Greg Urban’s
Natural Histories of Discourse. Entextualisation is the process of transforming
‘texts’ – including speech, writing, gestures and actions – by re-presenting them
within the discourse of another (Silverstein and Urban 1996a: 4, 11; 1996b). As
the authors’ case studies demonstrate, entextualisation is not an unchanged trans-
fer of meaning; rather, ‘a hierarchy is formed in which one mode of representing
the world . . . gains primacy over others, transforming modes of representation
from an array on a horizontal plane to a ranking on a vertical plane’ (Mehan
1996: 253). The conflict over interpretation, especially of the identities of people

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 transg ender rep re s e ntatio n in a pul e ius 1 63

and groups, is the ‘politics of representation’ (Holquist 1983; Wenden 2005: 90).
Power is held by those who impose a definitive meaning on discourse: dominant
individuals, groups or cultures authorise meaning, and marginalised individuals,
groups or subcultures are defined by their distance from it (Bourdieu 1991: 53,
66–7, 167, 220–4; Foucault 1982). This is what is at stake for the priests in the
Onos and The Golden Ass, and the fact that Lucius’ (mis)representation of their
gender and religious identities wins out has much to tell us about the power of
language and labels to shape reality.

the priests of the syrian goddess

Before the priest Philebus speaks or even appears to the reader’s view, Lucius
describes her thus:

Onos 35: For he was a kinaidos and an old man, one of those who carry
the Syrian Goddess around into the villages and fields and force the
goddess to beg.

κίναιδος γὰρ καὶ γέρων ἦν τούτων εἷς τῶν τὴν θεὸν τὴν Συρίαν εἰς
τὰς κώμας καὶ τοὺς ἀγροὺς περιφερόντων καὶ τὴν θεὸν ἐπαιτεῖν
ἀναγκαζόντων.

Met. 8.24: Learn what sort of man he was: he was a cinaedus, and an old
cinaedus; bald, but with long, grizzled curls hanging down – one of those
vulgar dregs of the common people who, making the streets and towns
ring with cymbals and castanets, carry the Syrian Goddess around and
force her to beg.

Scitote qualem: cinaedum et senem cinaedum, calvum quidem, sed cin-

cinnis semicanis et pendulis capillatum, unum de triviali popularium
faece, qui per plateas et oppida cymbalis et crotalis personantes deamque
Syriam circumferentes mendicare compellunt.

The priests are not only labelled but also characterised as cinaedi through
stock literary features such as their presumed sexual preferences: in Onos 38 and
The Golden Ass 8.27, they are depicted aggressively pursuing sexually passive
roles with a young man, an event Lucius interprets as sexual assault, though
the narrative itself leaves the man’s consent ambiguous. Additionally, in The
Golden Ass, the auctioneer at the sale of the ass mocks Philebus by suggesting
she stick her face between the donkey’s thighs (8.25), and the priests’ male slave,
described as ‘their shared concubine (partiarius . . . concubinus)’, welcomes
Lucius as a source of relief for his exhausted loins (8.26).

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In addition to the priests’ depiction as stereotypical cinaedi, they are

described as galli, though the term itself is never used. The focus throughout
is on aspects of the cult of the Syrian Goddess that Greek and Roman authors
found most problematic, including the ritual mendicancy described above
(see also Dion. Hal. Ant. Rom. 2.19; Cic. Leg. 2.22, 2.40) and the ‘Phrygian’
musical instruments, rhythms and melodies played during religious rituals
(Met. 8.30; see also Lucr. 2.618–20; Ov. Fast. 4.181–4, 4.189–90, 4.193–214).
The priests’ appearances are also remarked upon, especially in The Golden Ass.
In addition to Lucius’ comments on Philebus’ hair, he describes the priests’
dress at 8.27:

On the next day, when each of them had put on multicoloured clothes
and hideously beautified himself, smearing his face with caked-on
foundation and outlining his eyes with paint, they set out, having put
on their caps and saffron-coloured linen and silk dresses, some of them
in white tunics decorated all over with flowing purple designs in the
shape of lance-points, gathered up with a girdle, wearing yellow shoes
on their feet.

Die sequenti variis coloribus indusiati et deformiter quisque formati,

facie caenoso pigmento delita et oculis obunctis graphice prodeunt,
mitellis et crocotis et carbasinis et bombycinis iniecti, quidam tunicas
albas, in modum lanciolarum quoquoversum fluente purpura depictas,
cingulo subligati, pedes luteis induti calceis.

These features, commonly ascribed to galli and often to cinaedi, are depicted
in Roman art and literature as characteristic of the ‘effeminate easterner’, par-
ticularly the distinctive caps and tunics. The image we get of the priests in The
Golden Ass and the Onos – focusing on their gender expression, sexuality and the
eastern origin of their goddess – depicts them as unacceptably ‘other’, at least
in the eyes of the narrator (cf. Hijmans et al. 1985: 9; Blood forthcoming on
Apuleius’ possibly contrasting views).
The priests’ constructions of their own identities are quite different, how-
ever, as is apparent from Philebus’ first instances of direct speech in both nov-
els. After the auctioneer’s joke about Philebus’ sexuality in The Golden Ass, she
replies at 8.25:

‘Or do you think, fool, that I can entrust my goddess to a feral beast, only
for him to suddenly upset and throw off her divine image, and for me,
poor girl, to be compelled to dash about with my hair loose and seek a
doctor for my goddess lying on the ground?’

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 transg ender rep re s e ntatio n in a pul e ius 1 65

‘An me putas, inepte, iumento fero posse deam committere, ut turba-

tum repente divinum deiciat simulacrum, egoque misera cogar crinibus
solutis discurrere et deae meae humi iacenti aliquem medicum quaerere?’

Philebus responds to the auctioneer’s sexual joke by asserting her religious

devotion and gender identity. She describes herself using the feminine adjec-
tive misera, which I have translated as ‘poor girl’. She also draws attention to
her hair, marking as feminine a feature Lucius used earlier to describe her as an
old cinaedus. Yet this first interaction demonstrates the politics of representa-
tion that affect the priests’ experiences in both novels: since Philebus’ speech is
embedded – entextualised – within Lucius’ narrative, Lucius’ representation of
her as a cinaedus predominates, especially when supported by the auctioneer.
I now return to the scene with which I began (Onos 36; Met. 8.26). When
Philebus returns with the donkey, she greets her colleagues as ‘girls’ in both
novels; in The Golden Ass, she also applies to herself the feminine participle
mercata, ‘purchased’. Her friends pick up the thread of her jest:

Onos 36: Immediately they mocked Philebus with these words: ‘This is
not a slave, but a bridegroom for yourself ! Where did you get him? May
you be blessed for this fine marriage and may you soon birth for us foals
just like him.’

ἤδη ταῦτα ἐς τὸν Φίληβον ἔσκωπτον, Τοῦτον οὐ δοῦλον ἀλλὰ νυμφίον

σαυτῇ πόθεν ἄγεις λαβοῦσα; ὄναιο δὲ τούτων τῶν καλῶν γάμων καὶ
τέκοις ταχέως ἡμῖν πώλους τοιούτους.

Met. 8.26: Turning up their noses they mocked their leader with various
remarks: that in truth he had brought not a slave, but indeed a husband
for himself. And they said ‘Hey! Don’t eat up such an obviously lovely
little chick alone, but share him sometimes with us, your dovies, too.’

nare detorta magistrum suum varie cavillantur: non enim servum, sed
maritum illum scilicet sibi perduxisse. Et ‘Heus,’ aiunt ‘cave ne solus
exedas tam bellum scilicet pullulum, sed nobis quoque tuis palumbulis
nonnumquam inpertias.’

In Greek, the priests use feminine grammatical forms for Philebus (sautē,
labousa). In both texts, they tease her about her ‘husband’ and add further jokes
that reinforce her gender identity: in the Greek, they joke that she will give birth
to foals, and in the Latin, they ask her to share her cute husband with them.
With the single exception of solus in the Latin above (either a textual error or

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 166 evelyn adk i ns

Apuleius’ deliberate choice to destabilise Philebus’ identity), the priests in both

novels employ only feminine grammatical forms and concepts, using speech to
construct a shared feminine gender identity.
Other characters, however, reject this identity. When Philebus calls the
priests ‘girls’, the narrator Lucius immediately follows:

Onos 36: But those girls were a crowd of kinaidoi, the colleagues of the
man Philebos . . .

Ἦσαν δὲ τὰ κοράσια ταῦτα ὄχλος κιναίδων συνεργῶν τοῦ Φιλήβου . . .

Met. 8.26: But those girls were a chorus of cinaedi, who . . .

sed illae puellae chorus erat cinaedorum, quae . . .

Lucius reinterprets the speech of the priests not as an expression of feminin-

ity, but as proof of effeminacy (cf. Skinner 1997: 12 on ‘feminine’ vs. ‘effemi-
nate’). His representation is strengthened by his linguistic choices: in the Onos,
Lucius never refers to the priests in the feminine; in The Golden Ass, he does so
only once and only for the sake of grammatical agreement (the relative pronoun
quae in 8.26). In all other instances, he refers to the priests using only masculine
grammatical forms. Despite the priests’ feminine self-representation, Lucius –
and the dominant Roman culture to which he belongs – re-presents them as
male, albeit unnaturally effeminate.
In The Golden Ass, this depiction of the priests as ‘unnatural’ is further con-
veyed through descriptions of their voices as ‘broken’, ‘hoarse’, ‘effeminate’, ‘dis-
cordant’ and ‘wailing’ (8.26: fracta et rauca et effeminata voce clamores absonos
intollunt; 8.27: absonis ululatibus constrepentes fanatice provolant). These adjec-
tives imply more than just an inharmonious sound: Latin authors describe the
voices of women, eunuchs and cinaedi as ‘thin’ and ‘broken’, while the voices of
men are ‘sound’ or ‘whole’ (Quint., Inst. 11.3.19–20, 11.3.32; Phaed. P10, 1–3;
Anonymous Latin Physiognomy 98). Our Latin sources, coming from a tradi-
tion of rhetorical training for boys and men, assume that vocal quality reveals
the truth of a speaker’s gender, bodily integrity and morality (cf. Gunderson
2000; Gleason 1995). The masculine is coded as normal and admirable, while
the non-masculine is abnormal. When Lucius describes the priests’ voices, he is
again evoking the linked ideas of the cinaedus and the gallus as physically and
morally frail, and too much like women to be ‘natural’ (i.e., normative) men.
In both novels, Lucius’ representation of the priests’ alterity reaches a fever
pitch in his narrative of their public rituals. In Onos 37, he describes how they
use music to ‘incite a frenzy (ephusae . . . ntheon)’, perform an ecstatic dance,
and cut their arms and tongues with swords, ‘with the result that, in a moment,

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 transg ender rep re s e n tatio n in a p ul e ius 1 67

everything was filled with effeminate blood (malakou haimatos)’. Lucius depicts
this religious ritual as a form of street entertainment: every time the priests
cut themselves, they receive payment. Yet other than describing their blood as
‘effeminate’, his narrative is more observational than judgemental.
In The Golden Ass 8.27, the scene is much the same at first as Lucius describes
the priests’ ritual cutting, though here only of their arms. He then focuses on
one priest:

One of them . . . as if filled with the holy spirit of a divine power, pre-
tended a fit of madness . . . Shouting prophetically, he begins to attack
and accuse his own self with a fabricated lie, as if he had perpetrated
something against the law of his holy religion, and moreover, he himself
demands just punishment for his hateful crime from himself and by his
own hands . . .

unus ex illis . . . velut numinis divino spiritu repletus, simulabat sau-

ciam vecordiam . . . Infit vaticinatione clamosa conficto mendacio semet
ipsum incessere atque criminari, quasi contra fas sanctae religionis dis-
signasset aliquid, et insuper iustas poenas noxii facinoris ipse de se suis
manibus exposcere . . .

Throughout The Golden Ass, Lucius depicts the priests as habitual liars: see
the deceptive prophecy at 9.8 and the accusation of theft at 9.10. Here, he
implies that the priest’s actions are pretense rather than sincere religious expres-
sion, even using a word for ‘accuse’, criminari, that specifically indicates a false
accusation (Hijmans et al. 1985: 246). To Lucius, the priests’ voices not only
sound wrong, they are also used in the wrong way: to lie. The priest does not
defend herself through speech as an elite Roman man would and as Lucius him-
self has attempted to do (cf. Met. 3.4–7, 3.29, 7.3, 8.29). Instead, she accuses
herself. Lucius’ incredulousness and misgendering of the priests is marked by
his language: the priest attacks semet ipsum, ‘himself ’, and demands punishment
ipse de se suis manibus, ‘himself from himself by his own hands’. The priest’s
own words and motivations are never given, but if we strip away the layers of
narratorial disgust, this is a public confession, a ritual shared by the followers of
the Syrian Goddess and the cult of Isis to which the narrator himself will soon
belong (Lightfoot 2003: 78–9; see Hijmans et al. 1985: 287–98 on the nov-
el’s programmatic comparison of these cults). Nor does the scene end with the
priest’s self-accusation: she also whips herself, subjecting her body to a physical
punishment that marks her in the eyes of the Roman reader as belonging to the
social classes legally subject to corporal punishment: slaves, the lower classes and
infames, people such as sex workers, gladiators and actors who were legally dis-
enfranchised because of the perceived immorality of using one’s body for others’

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 168 evelyn adk i ns

entertainment (Edwards 1997; Walters 1997). These figures were frequently

depicted as gender-transgressive (feminised if male and masculinised if female),
and in the scene above, Lucius focuses on the priest’s gender, calling her whip
‘the distinctive attribute of those half-men (semiviris)’ (8.28). The final image is
the same as in the Onos: ‘You could see . . . the ground becoming wet with the
filth of effeminate blood’, cerneres . . . solum spurcitia sanguinis effeminati mades-
cere (8.28). The verb makes us as readers complicit in Lucius’ representation of
the priests: ‘you could see’. Since the priests are given direct speech nowhere in
this episode, our perception depends on Lucius, whose words make his reality
our own: not only Lucius the ass, but you, too, could discern the truth behind
the priests’ false words and bodies, betrayed by their blood.

conclusion
In their own words, the priests of the Syrian Goddess in the Onos and The
Golden Ass identify as girls – a community of transwomen sheltered within an
imported religion on the margins of Graeco-Roman society. In both novels,
however, the priests’ genders are redefined by Lucius, who uses their speech,
voices, dress and actions to characterise them as the perverted cinaedi and for-
eign galli of Greek and Roman literature. Yet by putting these features in context
with what we know about the followers of the Syrian Goddess and Cybele from
their funerary monuments, from historical studies like those of Lynn Roller and
Jane Lightfoot and from comparisons with modern communities like those of
the hijras, we can recover the priests’ representations of themselves beyond the
identities ascribed to them by members of the dominant Graeco-Roman culture
like the fictional Lucius. In the novels, we can see how this conflict is revealed
and concealed through a process of entextualisation whereby the priests’ words,
actions and identities are embedded within the cultural parameters that govern
Lucius’ narration. The ability to impose meaning, to shape reality to one’s own
image, is a marker of power. The fact that our unreliable, asinine narrator Lucius
can define the reality of an entire group of people through words alone reveals
the role that gendered discourse played in the politics of representation in Impe-
rial Roman literature and culture.

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 CHAPTER 12

Wit, Conventional Wisdom and

Wilful Blindness: Intersections
between Sex and Gender in Recent
Receptions of the Fifth of Lucian’s
Dialogues of the Courtesans
Rowan Emily Ash

living at a crossroads: intersectional theory and

lucian’s DIAL . MERET.

T he interdisciplinary field of gender studies continually challenges socially

conditioned gender norms, across cultural variations and adjusting for the
assumptions that any researchers will bring from their own culture. That is, it
is possible to formulate a historical approach that considers how contemporary
norms vary from earlier ones, but that also considers a basis for their potential
similarities. Of course, the later norms that frame the discussion are themselves
culturally dependent and sometimes contested. For example, J. Halberstam
observes of female homosexuality that ‘what we do not know for sure today
about the relationship between masculinity and lesbianism, we cannot know for
sure about historical relations between same-sex desire and female masculinities’
(1998: 54, quoted in Rupp 2009: 5). A classical example can illustrate the temp-
tation and difficulties of loosely applying modern terms to ancient evidence,
while hopefully clarifying the significance of the latter (Halperin 2002: 14).
This chapter focuses on the representation of sex and gender in Lucian’s
Dialogues of the Courtesans, a second-century ad collection of short satiric dia-
logues modelled on the Platonic but concentrating on the lives and relationships
of courtesans and their clients instead of philosophy. I hold that a close reading
of the fifth Dialogue of the Courtesans reveals, in the assigned-female Megillos’
claim to masculinity, a greater challenge to ancient gender norms on their own
rather than on modern terms. Indeed, the text’s humour hinges on the disjunc-
tion between physical and putative mental markers of masculinity.

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 17 0 rowan emi ly ash

This disjunction might gradually have become more legible to ancient

authors in the wake of the restructuring of Roman imperial power in the first
couple of centuries of rule under emperors (the Principate), as gender position-
alities were included in the negotiations of ‘the imposition of authority, the shifts
of status of individuals, the logic of accommodation and assimilation’ (Goldhill
2001: 14–15) under the new regime. The linguistic reflex of these negotiations
took the form of a pointedly, manneredly classicising Greek, modelled on usage
in Athens during its heyday some six or seven centuries previously, deployed in
a competitive culture of increasing(ly) rhetorical display as the range of practical
political activity open to local male elites narrowed. Accordingly, it is unsurpris-
ing that in the eighty or so extant works of Lucian, display pieces ranging over
fantastical ethnographies, mock legal speeches, parodic philosophical dialogues,
satirical rhetorical treatises, to thematic collections of short dramatic dialogues
such as the Dialogues of the Courtesans (Dial. Meret.), Lucian’s stagings of the
shifting contours of identity in the Roman Empire explore the intersections
of sex, gender and various other axes of identity and power. However, recent
scholarship on this text has often applied modern terms only loosely defined
and distinguished from ancient: here, I use categories from modern gender and
sexuality studies to explore the points of contact and of divergence – intersec-
tions, if one might quibble – between ancient and modern ways of thinking
about sex and gender, and how such comparison highlights their specificity,
without advocating for the supersession and/or assimilation of one by the other.
This challenge becomes clear if one focuses on the development of the nar-
rative within the dialogue on its own rather than assuming its context and that
its main focus is female homosexuality, in what I hope may be productively
perverse literalism. I will also argue that an intersectional approach is the best
by which to consider the disruption of both sex and gender norms within the
dialogue, and, more briefly, the further complications introduced by, loosely
speaking, class and ethnicity. I conclude by suggesting possible connections
with the other Dial. Meret. which touch on related issues. This push at the lim-
its of the other dialogues that can only be gestured at here is a commitment to
queering the text and the theory that the Dial. Meret. were intended to be not
only entertaining, but also, often, humorous. One might contrast, for example,
simple prosopopoeia, or, more broadly, compare Lucian’s use of ‘anecdote’, as
defined by Graham Anderson (2009: 3), including ‘“literary” materials with a
contemporary or realistic setting . . . with a wide range . . . either as narratives
for a didactic purpose or as entertainments for their own sake’. Entertainment
need not be devoid of more serious purpose, of course. Although arguably the
most prominent feature of the fifteen short (averaging around three and a half
pages in the OCT edition) vignettes of the Dial. Meret. is their low-grade titilla-
tion, interwoven through the encounters Lucian dreams up are recurrent reflec-
tions on various constraints on courtesans’ lives: how to retain clients, what

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 intersecti ons bet ween s e x a nd ge n d e r in lucia n 1 71

they want and what they offer, and several double standards, for example. These
concerns intersect suggestively both within individual dialogues and through
the structure of the collection as a whole, though here I focus quite narrowly on
Dial. Meret. 5 in its own right, rather than its wider context, as most salient for
Lucian’s most explicit staging of the intersections between sex and gender in the
Dial. Meret. In particular, while the question of how sex and gender might be
related is not confined to the fifth dialogue, both categories at once are uniquely
in question there – one might compare Dial. 10 and 12, which hinge largely
on expected norms of masculine behaviour (gender) and female embodiment
(sex) respectively – and at a further level of abstraction, as the main characters
in Dial. 5 struggle to understand the identity of a third character outside of the
frame narrative, whose lived experience as a man runs counter to his assigned
sex and gender as female/woman.
I use here a minimal definition of intersectionality, a theory, building upon
Kimberlé Crenshaw’s foundational work (see now her retrospective in Cho et
al. 2013: 787–92), by which ‘one form of identity or inequality is not seen as
separable or superordinate’ (May 2015: ix). This means the analysis of persons’
experience is complicated by overlapping and mutually constitutive identity
categories. To use a canonical example, an adequate description of the experi-
ence of being (and being discriminated against as) a queer, black woman requires
confronting the experiences of race in relation to gender and sexuality, and vice
versa, relations that are often mystified or ignored: a text frequently cited in this
context is ‘The Combahee River Collective Statement’, reprinted in Meem et al.
(2010: 110–17). That is, stereotypes of race inflect those of womanhood, such
that a woman’s experience of sexism may also contain a racialised element (or
the preponderance may be the converse), complicating the question of whether
a given situation is primarily a confrontation of sexism or of racism. Similarly,
one’s sexuality may affect the perception of one’s racial and ethnic identity.
However, it has been suggested that intersections with sexuality in particu-
lar have been under-theorised (Taylor et al. 2011: 1), a matter of importance
given the complications surrounding sexuality in Lucian’s fifth Dialogue of the
Courtesans. In what follows, I suggest this under-theorisation is due to a reluc-
tance to fully confront the interrelations between sex, gender and sexuality not
only within the text itself, but also in its modern reception. I invoke these cat-
egories in the most general senses, given that, for example, even within modern
models of sexuality the relationships between various components (e.g. identity,
desire and practice) are not determined (Fausto-Sterling 2000: 244–5, 251–2;
compare Halperin 2002: 131), and that what counts as sexual is culturally con-
tingent (Boehringer 2007b: par. 3–7, 2007a: 18–29). While intersections with
sexuality in the ancient Mediterranean have recently attracted scholarly atten-
tion with regard to ethnicity, though perhaps less often race as writ large in
Anglo-American late modernity (see, for example, on some varieties of putatively

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 17 2 rowan emi ly ash

‘Greek’ love, albeit largely implicitly, Gilhuly 2015: esp. 166ff.), with regard to
sex and gender beyond the narrower limits of ‘sexuality’, much work remains to
be done, and significantly incorporating ethnicity would call for a much larger
compass than the immediate project of this chapter can span.
In keeping with the scope of this chapter, I gesture here to some specific
intersections between various aspects of identity as represented and transformed
by Lucian in his series of fictive dialogues, in keeping with Sumi Cho et al.’s
(2013: 791) argument that ‘intersectionality neither travels outside nor is
unmediated by the very field of race and gender power that it interrogates’. My
necessarily narrow focus here is on the possibilities that a close reading of the
Dialogues of the Courtesans, especially the fifth, might reveal how Lucian repre-
sents various aspects of identity intersecting, and the cultural work that this rep-
resentation may do. In particular, much recent work acknowledges the range of
modern terminology and its utility for exploring in ancient texts what is latterly
called ‘sexuality’, compared to antiquity’s τὰ Ἀφροδίσια (ta Aphrodisia, perhaps
‘venereal rites’, tongue firmly in cheek), among others, without assuming that
ancient and modern categories are coterminous. Yet, the ways by which ancient
and modern categories of sex and gender intersect(ed) with those of ‘sexuality’
and various audiences’ understanding of texts concerning the latter has attracted
less attention. This is despite the long-known complications of effects such as
the putative facticity of sex, even as sexuality feeds back into specific cultural
understandings of the former, and vice versa. For instance, anxieties about queer
women’s womanhood, or whether homosexual practices among women are even
legible as sexual (Winkler 1990a: 38–41; Rupp 2009: 4, 205–6) are notorious
examples, to which one might add the implications of cultural systems in which
any abstract concept of sex (as opposed to a given set of sexes) proves elusive
(Winkler 1990a: 50, 224 n. 9). For a text such as Lucian’s Dial. Meret. 5, in
which sex is, at least notionally, in question, an intersectional approach sensi-
tive to effects such as those just outlined is the most useful for a richer sense of
Lucian’s engagement with second-century sex and gender norms.

meeting halfway: reading categories of sex, ancient

and modern, in DIAL . MERET. 5
The fifth dialogue’s central event is the courtesan Leaina’s account of a sexual
encounter with two people, whom both she and her interlocutor Kleonarion
consistently describe as women. Within the embedded narrative, however, one
of Leaina’s clients insists on a masculine identity, ‘ἡ γνώμη δέ καὶ ή ἐπιθυμία
καὶ τάλλα πάντα ἀνδρός (the mind, spirit and all the other qualities of a man)’
(Lucian, Dial. Meret. 5.4: all translations are my own, following the text in
MacLeod, trans. vol. 7, 1961: 355–467, whereas ancient lexicographers are cited

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in the edition of the TLG). That character courts Leaina by asking if ‘ἑώρακ[εν]
ἤδη οὕτω καλόν νεανίσκον ([she has] ever seen such a beautiful young man)’,
and rejects the feminine/female name ‘Megilla’ in favour of the masculine/male
‘Megillos’ with the admonition, ‘μή με καταθήλυνε (Don’t make a woman out
of me)’ (5.4), when Leaina initially protests that no young man is present (5.3).
However, because Megillos is introduced, with no demurral from Leaina, as τὴν
Λεσβίαν Μέγιλλαν τὴν πλουσίαν ‘(the rich Lesbian woman Megilla)’ (5.1),
and does not actually participate in the conversation with Kleonarion, it seems
that the text is formally structured to call attention to, and maintain, the dis-
crepancy. Indeed, the dialogue ends with a return to the frame narrative and
Kleonarion’s desperate curiosity as to ‘what she [sic, sc. Megillos] did’ (5.4), as
Leaina and Kleonarion still ultimately sex/gender Megillos as a female/woman.
It is thus surprising that several modern readers interpret the dialogue in
terms of an unproblematic same-sex encounter, with James Davidson going
so far as to call the couple Leaina entertains ‘proper “modern-style” lesbians’
(Davidson 2007: 407–8; cf. Dover 1978: 172; Rupp 2009: 30). If any modern
notion of identity is applicable, perhaps the transgender spectrum, and trans-
sexuality in particular, would be most useful to describe Megillos’ situation,
given the focus of Leaina’s account of their relationship and Lucian’s use of
biologically marked, sexed as well as gendered, language throughout. This is in
keeping with transgender as:

an umbrella term to describe those who defy societal expectations and

assumptions regarding femaleness and maleness; this includes people
who are transsexual (those who live as members of the sex other than
the one they were assigned at birth), intersex . . . and genderqueer . . .
as well as those whose gender expression differs from their anatomical or
perceived sex.
(Serano 2016: 25)

This parallels clinical focus on transgender and transsexual individuals’ iden-

tification with a gender other than that to which they were assigned at birth,
in the latter case, often accompanied by a desire to transition to the social role
of their identified sex and gender, possibly with medical assistance ([American
Psychiatric Association] 2013: 451). I wish to acknowledge at the outset ongo-
ing concerns about stigmatisation, accessibility and self-definition under this
clinical model, but also that it is dominant, with all of the resulting conse-
quences (cf. Serano 2016: 25ff, 31; Stryker 2008: 1, 18–19). In either case, gen-
der dysphoria is a crucial diagnostic criterion, defined as ‘the distress that may
accompany the incongruence between one’s experienced or expressed gender
and one’s assigned gender’ ([American Psychiatric Association] 2013: 451), as
such, compared to ‘simple nonconformity to stereotypical gender role behavior’

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 17 4 rowan emi ly ash

([American Psychiatric Association] 2013: 458). The DSM-5 here also specifies
that a distinction should be made for ‘the strong desire to be of another gender
than the assigned one’. Although it is difficult to assess the significance of any
distress Megillos may feel (while it is tempting to extrapolate from his difficul-
ties with Leaina and his self-presentation as Megilla in public despite his claim
to ‘the mind, spirit, and all the other qualities of a man’), he certainly fits two
other criteria for gender dysphoria:

strong desire to be treated as the other gender (or some alternative gender
different from one’s assigned gender) [and a] strong conviction that one has
the typical feelings and reactions of the other gender (or some alternative
gender different from one’s assigned gender).
([American Psychiatric Association] 2013: 452–3)

Nonetheless, many attempts to incorporate modern ideas of transgender

and transsexual identities run into odd discrepancies, with one reading claiming
‘Megilla is a transsexual, like Tiresias’ (Gilhuly 2006: 279), eliding the fact that
Tiresias’ bodily transformation is a temporary situation and providing no indi-
cation that it required any emotional adjustment (for example, responding to
dysphoria). Another, though cautious enough to qualify the identification as one
of ‘close correspondences’, nonetheless concludes that Megillos’ relationships
represent ‘transgendered lesbianism’ (Haley 2002: 288, 295), denying the mas-
culine identity that Megillos is at pains to claim, and which the dialogue itself
does not strongly reject. Even the recent extended treatment most sympathetic
to transgender interpretations of the dialogue, which distinguishes ‘Megilla’s
[sic] own description of self as the “true” image of oneself ’ (Bissa 2013: 84),
ultimately concludes that the ‘most important issue for any study of this dia-
logue is what it tells us about female same-sex [sic] desire’, and runs roughshod
over Megillos’ self-identification by dismissively labelling him as ‘a female that
identifies as male’ (Bissa 2013: 97). In these readings, canonical forms of both
the Tiresias myth and definitions of transsexuality, let alone identification as a
‘lesbian’, are treated rather heavy-handedly.
Closer examination of the fifth dialogue’s development to a comic climax
reveals how the previous examples of transgender interpretations may have cho-
sen the right places to look, but stopped just short of the text’s conclusion,
similarly troubled by the relationships between sex, gender norms and gender
identity. Fortunately, this situation does seem to be improving rapidly, though
there is still a fair bit of anxiety expressed indirectly by a reluctance to commit
even to consistent pronoun choices. For example, though explicitly acknowl-
edging Megillos’ male identification, Daniel Orrells (2015: 131) opts for the
feminine pronoun in scare-quotes, and Walter Penrose Jr. (2014: 244) likewise
hesitates between the masculine pronoun for Megillos, the contraction ‘s/he’,

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and the periphrasis of ‘a female-to-male transgendered person’. Kristin Mann’s

(2017) approach is exemplary: in adducing Dial. Meret. 5 as a likely parallel to
a reinterpretation of Phaedrus’ fable of the creation of tribades and molles mares
as intentional play with ideas of sex and gender identification and assignment,
Mann’s discussion has opted for the singular ‘they’, with an explicit acknowl-
edgement of the difficulties in deciding how to discuss Megillos.
In Dial. Meret. 5, then, Megillos’ forthright claim to his masculinity sits
uneasily with Kleonarion’s dissatisfaction with Leaina’s account, which may
lead one to propose another explanation for Kleonarion’s confusion. After all,
Megillos does not leave much room for ambiguity in stating, ‘τὸ πὰν ἀνήρ εἰμι
(I am all man)’ (Lucian, Dial. Meret. 5.3). Kleonarion is experienced enough
to remark that ‘τοιαύτας . . . ἐν Λέσβῳ . . . γυναῖκας ἀρρενωπούς . . . γυναιξὶ
δὲ αὐτὰς πλησιάζουσας ὥσπερ ἄνδρας (there are such [or, this sort of ] mas-
culine women in Lesbos . . . who associate themselves with women as if they
were men)’ (5.2) but still finds the rumours of what Leaina’s been doing ‘καιvὰ
(strange)’ (5.1). One might be tempted to take Kleonarion’s feeling of strange-
ness as due to recognising a new habitual, even identifying tendency to act in
such a way, one which is comparable to modern queer identities anchored by
reasonably clear-cut concepts of homosexuality, despite the scholarly common-
place of warnings against projecting categories that would not be socially salient
onto other cultures (thus already Parker 1997: 47; cf. Rohy 2009: 126–30).
That is, the Lesbian women Kleonarion refers to would really have become ‘the
sort of ’ women who usually love other women, rather than ‘such’ women who
happen to do so occasionally. According to such an interpretation, Lucian’s dia-
logue would indicate the appearance of forms of identity including a definite
sexual orientation, particularly since ‘λεσβιάζειν (lesbiazein, “to Lesbianise”,
act in a Lesbian way)’ is attested earlier, though it is associated with general
sexual impropriety rather than any particular practice (Dover 1978: 182). A
further limitation is that the term is rarely contrasted with φοινικίζειν (phoini-
kizein, ‘Phoenicianising’), including in Lucian (Pseudol. 28), in which cases the
field seems more clearly to narrow to oral sex, with φoιvικίζειv representing
cunnilingus in particular. On its own, λεσβιάζειν remains more ambiguous
(Boehringer 2007a: 61–3, citing both Lucian and Gal. 12.249).
However, the passage just cited from Dial. Meret. 5.2 suggests that Kleon-
arion’s curiosity is related to the perceived masculinity of the action. In both
instances in which an action is described as performed ‘as’ (ὡς) by a man or
men (Dial. Meret. 5.1, 5.2), the intensifier -περ is added to the adverb, and
indeed ὥσπερ is only used in such phrases throughout the dialogue. Moreover,
‘ἀρρενωπούς’, derived from ‘ἄρρηv’, the biological term for ‘male’ (Liddell and
Scott 1940: s.v.), rather than ‘ἀνδρικός’, is a marked choice, given Megillos’
gender identity as subsequently reported by Leaina, who uses the latter form
herself to express her own uncertainty, ‘ἡ γυνὴ δὲ δεινῶς ἀνδρική ἐστιν (but

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the woman is frightfully manly)’ (Dial. Meret. 5.1). Finally, however mascu-
line the certain Lesbian women Kleonarion refers to may be, Leaina considers
that her experience has only been similar to theirs, ‘τοιοῦτόν τι (Something
like that)’ (5.2). As the account Leaina offers of her conversation with Megillos
elaborates, Megillos occupies an ambiguous position from the other characters’
perspective, even if they do have some notion of female same-sex desire.
Tellingly, Megillos’ renaming of himself as a man is supported both by a
literalising choice of vocabulary and a symbolically significant grammatical con-
struction. The use of ‘καταθηλύνω’ (to make a woman out of, like a woman, ‘to
make womanish’) (Liddell and Scott 1940: s.v.) in rejecting the feminine form
of the name takes up the biological suggestion already seen in ‘ἀρρενωπούς’;
the verb is based on ‘θῆλυς’, the corresponding biological term for ‘female’
(Liddell and Scott 1940: s.v.), such that a translation bringing out the sense of
the roots of the compound in Megillos’ injunction ‘μή με καταθήλυνε’ more
strongly might be, ‘Don’t put me down as a female’. The verb calls attention to
the unequal status of male and female in the culture represented in the dialogue
and consequently in Megillos’ own understanding of the terms. The word may
be a Lucianic coinage: in addition to here, it is only found at De Mort. Peregr.
19.8, Hist. conscr. 10.26, and four times in ecclesiastical authors from the sixth
century and beyond, in the TLG corpus. In these other instances, the sense is
not primarily biological, but rather providing variation and amplification for
the idea of μαλακίζεσθαι (‘going soft, weak, cowardly’), and applied in ear-
nest to woman martyrs (John of Damascus, Laudatio sanctae martyris Anastasiae
21.2). θηλύvω, however, is attested some 187 times in the same corpus, with a
broader range, but still less often biologically than one might expect.
Conversely, there is no ‘καταρρέvω’, and ‘καταvδρίζoμαι’ means to fight
manfully (Liddell and Scott 1940: s.v., and see also ἀvδρίζω, which occasion-
ally has a pejorative sense, but normally means ‘to come to manhood’, and cf.
Cameron 1998: 141), not to be made mannish, so Lucian’s word choice here
indicates that the supposed masculine women in Lesbos are not necessar-
ily attracted to other women for that reason as if they were early sexologists’
‘inverts’. Inversion is perhaps most famously expressed for what would later be
understood as a male homosexual context in the nineteenth-century activist
Karl Heinrich Ulrichs’ description of ‘anima muliebris in corpore virili inclusa (a
woman’s soul contained in a manly body)’ (programmatic in Ulrichs 1868: v,
xii, elaborated from 8ff.; quoted in Orrells 2015: 102–7). But it was not con-
fined to that context, because such a formulation indicates how in early sexology
‘the history of homosexuality and transsexuality was a shared history’ (Halber-
stam 1998: 85, see also 76–87; Rupp 2009: 144–54). Nonetheless, Megillos’
supposedly same-sex desire, based on his assigned sex and gender, cannot simply
be generalised, either to women (or men!) who are only ‘something like that’
or to a putative general Lucianic category corresponding to homosexual people.

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Moreover, Megillos goes on to claim to ‘γεγάμηκ[εv] πρόπαλαι ταύτηv τὴv

Δημώvασσαv (have married this Demonassa very long ago)’ (Dial. Meret. 5.3),
using the active form of the verb as Greek idiom considered appropriate for
men, as opposed to the middle-passive for women (Liddell and Scott 1940: s.v.
γαμέω). Megillos’ masculinity is thus also performative as opposed to a specifi-
cally embodied sense of sex and gender. Thus, in avoiding the temptation of
retrojecting modern ideas of homosexuality onto Lucian’s dialogue, one con-
fronts another of anachronistically reading a transgender or transsexual Megillos
into it instead, deploying strong social constructionist theories of gender. None-
theless, one might bracket historical differences to assess their impact on one’s
interpretative possibilities, which might be considered productively ahistorical
rather than anachronistic (Rohy 2009: 127ff., 139). Lucian seems to be playing
with such ideas in his use of the apparently archaising word ‘ἑταιρίστρια’ in
describing Megillos, as discussed further below.
As noted above, Leaina’s attempts to come to grips with Megillos’ masculine
self-identification diverge in significant ways from a naive application of mod-
ern terminology. First considering whether Megillos might have been a male in
disguise all along, she specifically asks about ‘ὅπερ οἱ ἄνδρες (whatever men
[have])’ (Dial. Meret. 5.3), only to be told that Megillos has no need of it.
Lucian’s coyness suggests the importance of this claim to his joke, since the
dialogue continues by clarifying that Megillos is not intersex by reference to
the myth of Hermaphroditus, which offers the only definite class of sex-variant
individuals mentioned in the dialogue, ‘οἷοι πολλοὶ εἶναι λέγονται (of the sort
which many are said to be)’ (5.3). Nor is Megillos transformed from a woman to
a man as Tiresias was, but has ‘τι ἀντὶ τοῦ ἀνδρείου (something instead of what
belongs to a man [lit., the manly thing])’ (5.4). In passing, one might note that
the emphasis on Tiresias’ second transformation, back to a man, further militates
against Errietta Bissa’s (2013: 93) otherwise interesting view of the mythologi-
cal parallels cited in an attempt to understand Megillos’ identity as a sequence
giving decreasing importance to the phallus as a marker of physical maleness. In
any case, that Megillos has something ‘instead of ’ is a rather roundabout way of
saying that Megillos does not have a penis, and, more to the immediate point,
is not particularly transsexual. Megillos does not seem to wish to transition as
completely as possible (in keeping with possible effects of gender dysphoria, in
modern terms), compared to the broader range of identities included under the
umbrella term of transgender. In addition, Megillos is able to pass as Megilla well
enough that Leaina is surprised when Megillos claims the status of a ‘νεανίσκον
(young man)’, a status that was considered to blur gendered distinctions insofar
as it was not equivalent to mature adulthood (Boehringer 2010: 40).
One can recover a culturally significant point that barbs the end of the dia-
logue by returning to Megillos’ previous statements, when he claims, ‘δέομαι
δὲ οὐδὲ πάνυ αὐτοῦ: . . . ἀλλὰ τὸ πὰν ἀνήρ εἰμι (Nor do I need that [sc., what

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other men have] at all; . . . but I am all man)’ (Dial. Meret. 5.3). Together, these
statements lead to the conclusion that a penis is a supplement to masculinity: if
Megillos lacks nothing, but has ‘τι ἀντὶ τοῦ ἀνδρείου (something instead of the
manly thing)’ (5.4, emphasis added), then that thing cannot have been so manly
after all. Being assigned male is less important than possessing ‘ἡ γνώμη δέ καὶ
ή επιθυμία καὶ τάλλα πάντα ανδρός (the mind, spirit and all the other qualities
of a man)’ (5.4) – though of course one might wish to claim a male identity to
top those off, if that fits one’s sense of self (see Åshede’s similar argument about
Hermaphroditus in this volume).
The last few lines of the dialogue emphasise the point. Leaina claims to yield
not only to Megillos’ entreaties but because she is offered an ‘ὅρμον τινά . . .
τῶν πολυτελῶν καὶ ὀθόνας τῶν λεπτῶν (extravagant necklace . . . and a light
linen dress)’, but she says she will not go into further details because they are
‘αἰσχρὰ (shameful things)’ (5.4). If Leaina is not to be taken as entirely driven
by greed, which would undercut the effectiveness of adding the gifts to the text,
the material gifts are likewise additional, not strictly necessary, inducements
to get her to cooperate, just as Megillos does not strictly need a ‘manly thing’.
Finally, Kleonarion’s denied request for all the details (‘τί ἐποίει, ὦ Λέαινα, ἢ
τίνα τρόπον; (What did she do, Leaina, or in what way?)’ (5.4)) forces a choice
upon the audience. On the one hand, if one accepts Kleonarion’s curiosity, one
implicitly makes conventional, phallocentric (e.g. Halperin 1990b: 164–5 n.
67, 166 n. 83) ideas of maleness the most important marker of masculinity,
losing the symbolic currency, in the classical world, of supposedly manly virtues
of bravery, self-control and civic responsibility. Conversely, if one thinks that
Kleonarion is missing the point, then those qualities, of ‘ἡ γνώμη . . . καὶ ἡ
ἐπιθυμία (the mind [and] spirit)’, as Megillos puts it, are revealed as influenced
by social norms, and thus less closely tied to gender and sex than the impulse to
characterise them as masculine would make it.

the mean streets of imagined athens: additional forms

of class in DIAL . MERET. 5
Such a conclusion would be accessible to ancient readers without involving anach-
ronistic concepts of gender identity or sexual orientation, but one may briefly
draw attention to the similarly ambiguous force of the one word that places Megil-
los in an ancient sexual category, if not quite identity. Kleonarion says she can only
understand Leaina’s story if Megilla ‘τις ἑταιρίστρια τυγχάνει οὖσα (happens to be
some hetaira-lover)’ (Dial. Meret. 5.2), a term which is only attested before Lucian
in the satirical speech put in the mouth of Aristophanes in Plato’s Symposium
(191c–192b). While some late sources such as Hesychius (s.v. διεταιρίστριαι)
gloss the term as ‘τριβάς (tribade)’, as does, possibly overlapping with Lucian’s

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 intersecti ons bet ween sex a nd ge n d e r in lucia n 1 79

dates, the second-century Atticist Moeris (s.v. ἑταιρίστριαι), what (later) antiquity
thought tribades did is rarely detailed. A gloss in the scholia on Lucian notes ‘τὰς
αὐτὰς καὶ τριβάδας φασίν· καὶ ἴσως ἀπὸ τοῦ αἰσχρῶς ἀλλήλαις συντρίβεσθαι
(the same are also called [said (to be)] tribades; and justly, on account of their rub-
bing against each other shamefully)’ (Rabe 1971: 277). However, given the rarity
of attestations for ‘ἑταιρίστρια’, it is difficult to rule out the interdependence of
glosses in lexica and scholia (Cameron 1998: 146), such that Lucian’s terminology
cannot be taken to have been widely interpreted as referring to tribadism in antiq-
uity. Likewise, as Leila Rupp (2009: 38–9) notes, citing first- to second-century
ad astrological texts that discuss influences on sexuality, ‘τριβὰς’ (tribas) was usu-
ally reserved for the ‘active’ partner. Still, while there are exceptions, particularly
in broadening the cultural field to the wider Roman Empire and Latinity, beyond
specifically Greek contexts, the more elaborate usage in, for example, the Roman
authors Seneca (Controv. 1.2.23) and Martial (7.67, 7.70) suggests the salience of
narrower definitions (cf. Boehringer 2007a: 267–75, 286–94, and Mart. 1.90).
Moreover, in Lucian, one notes that Demonassa never speaks, yet, just as Megillos
does, takes an active role with Leaina, kissing and biting her (Dial. Meret. 5.3, cf.
Boehringer 2010: 42; Bissa 2013: 89–91, 95–6). Lucian thus sets up the encoun-
ter between the three characters, all assigned female by the wider world within
the text, so that the boundaries between active and passive, then masculine and
feminine, and male and female, are blurred, before the dialogue playfully leaves
the reader in a position opening up the gap between sex and gender.
That said, Lucian’s play is not intrinsically neutral or value-free, and one
should be wary of privileging a reading that elides the text’s difficulties and
implications in discourses that ultimately impinge on all-too-real relations of
power. Although arguably Dial. Meret. 5 is part of a ‘paradoxical discourse [that]
remains coherent in its paradox because it does not produce a result’ (Boehringer
2015: 280), such an aesthetic of coherent paradox has additional effects that,
while perhaps not problematic for Lucian, need not foreclose other interpreta-
tive possibilities. For example, it seems to be stretching the point to suggest that
in Dial. Meret. 5 ‘what is culturally and socially “masculine” (gender) circulates
among three women without completely or permanently characterising any one
of them’ (Boehringer 2015: 273). This is particularly perverse when, once more,
one recalls that Megillos himself claims that completeness, ‘τὸ πὰν ἀνήρ εἰμι
(I am all man)’ (Dial. Meret. 5.3). Lucian may have an interest in encouraging
doubts in his readers, but that does not mean that one need comply, or accept
his encouragement without question: one might ask what is at stake in this play
of gender, and of other things, and of how and why those might intersect.
That is, one can ask why these characters should be assigned women, why
Lesbian and Corinthian, and why at least one of them should be rich, which
raises similar questions of the legibility of ancient categories and the relevance of
the available evidence. For example, Davidson discusses the bad faith involved in

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 180 rowa n emi ly a sh

classical attitudes towards ἑταῖραι, the customary fiction that their relationships
with clients were ostensibly based on friendship and the voluntary exchange
of gifts and favours. He leads into it with a quotation of Aristophanes’ Wealth,
according to which, compared to grasping Corinthian ἑταῖραι (hetairai), who
only let themselves fall in love with rich clients, boys in pederastic relation-
ships don’t even love, but do it for money or gifts to avoid the stigma of mere
cash (Davidson 1997: 109 (quoting Ar. Pl. 149–59), 111, 135). The boys end
up the moral equivalents of the ἑταῖραι, but the specification of the wealthier
sort of Corinthian courtesan, who has a greater degree of choice from among
the men who pursue her, stresses the deception involved in her meretricious
attractions. Megillos’ wealth is a suggestive parallel. Passing as a financially suc-
cessful woman, his private life is all the more surprising: if Megillos’ appearance
was always non-normative, the sloppy associativeness of stereotypical thinking
would make assumptions about his identity and practices.
One may compare the role of his wealth in winning Leaina’s acquiescence, as
discussed above; formally, if that is not all that persuades Leaina, it is a supple-
ment to Megillos’ masculinity, just like the ‘manly thing’ which he does not
need. However, if he is a courtesan, depending on how one is to take his descrip-
tion as ‘ὁμότεχνος’ (following the same craft) as Demonassa (Dial. Meret. 5.2),
his wealth is not what it seems, a supplement, or, alternatively, his masculinity
is also a deception. How far the connotation of ‘craft’ extends, and whether
Megillos and Demonassa can be said to share something like the same (sexual)
orientation is a crucial point (Bissa 2013: 89–90); however, the affinities here
with stereotypes of transsexual people as deceptive or pathetic are suggestive,
though primarily focusing on transsexual women (Serano 2016: 35–52), even
though Bissa (2013: 96) is rather more sanguine about parallels with main-
stream modern media images of sexual and gender minorities. If Lucian does
not question the role of class and wealth in the society he depicts, this may
suggest one avenue for sexual and gender norms to re-establish themselves. The
dilemma of Kleonarion’s question, ‘What did she do, Leaina, or in what way?’
(Dial. Meret. 5.4), which forces a choice between phallocentric ideals of maleness
and symbolic values of masculinity, need not be more than rhetorical, barbing
the wit of the dialogue but not intended to challenge stereotypes seriously. One
can imagine that a reader might (and the recent reception suggests still often
does) conclude, ‘But of course Megilla is a woman, so it’s all moot.’
Or perhaps the reader might, following Sandra Boehringer (2015: 277–9),
argue for the fundamental unreliability of Leaina’s account, that these are ‘nothing
but characters in a dialogue by Lucian’, which cuts the Gordian knot. However,
it is not clear what advantage Leaina might obtain by attempting to mislead her
audience, nor, despite the artificiality of the likely original performance and read-
ing contexts of the Dial. Meret, that those contexts necessarily undermined the
supposed naturalism of the dialogues to the extent Boehringer proposes. Taking

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Lucian seriously (playing his straight man?) need not only be ‘to fall into a very
obvious trap’ (278), but also to push him even closer to the limits of what was con-
ceivable in his time. Alternatively, if the True History is programmatic for Lucian’s
fiction, as many have argued, including Boehringer, who makes specific reference
to the Dial. Meret. (279), the playful exploitation of the range of fiction in Ver.
Hist., including lies that paradoxically tell the truth, suggests the possibility, as
Karen Ní Mheallaigh argues, ‘that diegetic characters are as “real” as their extra-
diegetic authors’ (2009: 21), and that one can extend ‘“the implication . . . that
innovative art threatens social hierarchies”’ (2014: 4, quoting Whitmarsh) beyond
an author’s self-imposed limits.

exploring the neighbourhood: points of intersection

in and with the wider DIAL . MERET.
The fifth of the Dialogues of the Courtesans thus opens up space to explore the
intersections of sex, gender and sexuality, on which it focuses, as well as, to a
degree, ethnicity and class, but that is not to say that Lucian pursues it to a
liberating end. A survey of the rest of the Dialogues suggests that in fact he does
not. Even a necessarily brief overview reveals patterns that may point towards
possible extensions to the current project. The arrangement of the Dial. Meret.
as received is particularly suggestive. The tenth is a counterpart to the fifth dia-
logue, if the latter was easily read in terms of stereotypical ancient conceptions
of same-sex desire: in the former dialogue, a young man is ostensibly at risk
of being corrupted by his tutor in philosophy (Dial. Meret.10.4). Compared
to Dial. 5, the situation is familiar, but all may not be as it seems. On the one
hand, this may be a joke at philosophers’ expense, and especially Plato’s erot-
ics, as Kate Gilhuly discusses in relation to Dial. 5 (2006: 277, 286–8). On
the other hand, there is a suggestion of disingenuousness as the young man
distances himself from his former companion by citing his tutor’s promises that
‘πάνυ εὐδαίμονα ἔσεσθαί . . . καὶ ἐνάρετον καταστήσεσθαι (he will be entirely
happy and established as a virtuous man)’ (Dial. Meret. 10.3). The remark beto-
kens either remarkable naiveté or complicity, or that he is bored with his former
companion, as she surmises (10.3). One of her friends offers to help by chalking
up rumours of the situation on the walls of the Kerameikos (10.4), so in this
dialogue as well, things may not be what they seem, and one is reminded to ask
how ‘everyone knows’ what the generic ‘they’ say. In this connection, Dial. 15
is also relevant, in which insane jealousy breaks down the limits of heterosexual
assumption; there, his rival having escaped with his one-time companion, an
angry lover attacks the flute-girl they hired, as if she was not just providing
musical entertainment. The implications for Lucian’s attitude to (nominally)
same-sex desire (as analogously disorderly?) are not particularly flattering.

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 182 rowa n emi ly a sh

A similar outlier is Dial. 12; every third dialogue refers, however loosely, to
the economic exigencies of a ἑταῖραι (hetaira)’s life. In Dial. 12 another scene of
mistaken identity appears: a quarrelling couple are reconciled when it is revealed
that it was not another man in the protagonist’s bed, but one of her girl friends,
because she was lonely one night without her now estranged companion (Dial.
Meret. 12.4). This does not faze him, though the reader might think back to
only a couple of dialogues previously, or back to Dial. 5. This, too, without
additional suggestions that the protagonist may frequently share her bed with
her servant, Lyde, or her perhaps ambiguous remark that she has held close
to her companion as her only Phaon (Dial. Meret. 12.4, 12.1). As the pro-
tagonist compares her estranged companion unfavourably to other potential
candidates, wealthy and/or influential, and claims her mother/madam shouts
at her, presumably for imprudence (12.1), there is an economic component to
the situation, but since her companion keeps away, forcing her to find comfort
elsewhere, there is also a suggestion of an economy of desire unflattering to the
man: not only is he not the best catch in practical terms, he’s not even a reliable
warm body. As with Megillos in Dial. 5, there appears to be a question of just
what makes a man – among other things – of use.
This is not to suggest, however, that everything is in good, if rather pointed,
fun, as the gestures to the often desperate lot of women who worked as ἑταῖραι
reveal, and which Lucian seems to take as read. Moreover, if one folds the collec-
tion down the middle, one finds unsettling associations in the dialogues brought
into juxtaposition: slander with Dial. 12’s mistaken identity, revolting reality
beneath a disguise with Dial. 5’s highly unusual identities, and child prosti-
tution with Dial. 10’s anti-philosophical romp. At the very centre one finds
Dial. 8, with its suggestion that a woman cannot be sure of her partner’s love
unless he is so violently jealous as to beat her: the poisoned core that perhaps
most vividly reminds one of what the range of Lucian’s pornography includes.
This too is part of the context of Leaina’s story of Megillos, and this indication
of the permutations of sexuality, sex and gender, and class (wealth, status) in
the arrangement of the Dialogues of the Courtesans must suffice for the present
discussion to indicate other possible points of intersection in the collection, the
connections between them and the ongoing utility of an intersectional approach
to the text’s study.

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 CHAPTER 13

Christianity Re-sexualised:
Intertextuality and the Early
Christian Novel
Brian P. Sowers and Kimberly Passaro

introduction

E arly Christianity used sacred texts, including novels, to distinguish its ritu-
als, ethics and theologies from traditional ancient Mediterranean religions,
especially ancient Judaisms. One such novel, the second-century Acts of Paul and
Thecla, hereafter APT, promotes its ideology – an ascetic revision of first-century
Christian sexual ethics – through the adventures of its female protagonist, Thecla
(Lipsius and Bonnet 1891; Barrier 2009 – all dates are ad unless otherwise speci-
fied). Scholars have approached the novel, and Thecla in particular, from various
and often divergent perspectives (Hylen 2015: 1–16; Cooper 2013b: 533; Aageson
2008: 194–8). Some have seen in Thecla the daily experiences of early Christian
women and female leaders residing in Asia Minor; others read the APT as evidence
for early Christian literary history and the formation of multiple genres, includ-
ing hagiography. Those interested in social and theological history have cited the
apocryphal acts as supporting evidence. Others less sanguine about the reliabil-
ity of these texts have read the APT as second-century literature (Kraemer 2011:
117–52). Regardless of approach, recent scholarly output on the APT has contin-
ued unabated, and the last decade has seen new editions and monographs devoted
entirely or in large part to the APT (e.g., Davis 2001; Johnson 2006; Barrier 2009;
Lipsett 2011; Hylen 2015).
Building on that essential research, we examine Thecla’s sexual renunciation
and repeated sexual assaults through intertexts with Hebrew bible and the first-
century gospels, specifically Mary of Bethany’s veneration at Jesus’ feet (Luke
7:38, 10:39) and Ruth’s seduction of Boaz (Ruth 3:3–6, 4:13). In our view, Mary
and Ruth, who actively initiate sexualised interactions with male characters, are
increasingly masculinised and hypersexualised as each episode progresses, and
may be treated as Thecla’s biblical predecessors. By reading Thecla’s complicated

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 186 b ri a n p. sowers a nd k i mb e r ly pa s s a ro

gender(s) and sexual past through the (counter)feminine lenses of Mary and Ruth,
Thecla becomes an allusively charged literary character, and her rejection of, for
example, marriage, family and feminine attire becomes more exegetically rich.
Our approach situates Thecla’s sexuality within its wider literary contexts, under-
scores her development over the course of the novel and illuminates how the com-
munity in Asia Minor responsible for the APT – known now only through the
APT itself – interpreted and updated sacred texts to advance their own ideological
interests. Within the competitive register of ancient rhetoric, Thecla is intertextu-
ally transformed into the ideal literary (wo)man, the model Christian disciple. We
therefore contribute to the scholarly understanding of early Christian construc-
tions of the body, resulting in a more nuanced appreciation for the plurality of
sexual identities promoted throughout the ancient Mediterranean.

synopsis of APT

The APT opens with the apostle Paul entering Iconium and preaching an ascetic
revision of Jesus’ beatitudes. A young woman, Thecla, hears Paul’s message from
her bedroom window and, desiring conversion, breaks off her engagement, bar-
ters away her valuables and joins Paul, who had been arrested for his socially
transgressive message, in jail. When the Iconian officials discover Thecla with
Paul, they expel him from the city and condemn her to be burned at the stake.
God saves Thecla, who cuts her hair short and leaves Iconium to join Paul as an
itinerant preacher. Reluctant to accept Thecla into his entourage, Paul brings
her with him to Pisidian Antioch, where a local aristocrat, Alexander, attempts
to rape her. Thecla successfully fights off Alexander but is subsequently con-
demned to death for dishonouring him. Thecla again faces death in the arena,
where she baptises herself in a pool of man-eating seals, surviving only through
divine intervention and assistance from female beasts. After this second trial,
Thecla dresses in masculine clothing and joins Paul before breaking away on her
own to preach the gospel in her hometown. In a fourth-century expansion on
the APT, Thecla, now an elderly anchorite in the Pisidian mountains, continues
to preach the gospel and perform miracles. Her ability to heal the sick, however,
threatens the livelihood of some local physicians who, presuming her celibacy
to be the source of her power, hire a criminal gang to rape her. God preserves
Thecla’s chastity by enclosing her within the mountain, which became the
centre of the late antique Thecla cult.

a new mary
Early Christian authors, like most Greco-Roman literary elite, engaged in com-
petitive rhetoric to distinguish their views, themes or characters. The author

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 i ntertextua li t y and the e a r ly ch r is tia n nove l 1 87

of the APT works within this tradition, using intertextual allusions to situate
their story vis-à-vis earlier Judeo-Christian narratives (cf. Leuc. Clit. 2.19, 7.1;
Barrier 2009: 114; Pervo 1987: 133–4). Paul in the APT can therefore be read
as an allusively charged literary bricolage, part Paul from the Acts of the Apostles,
part Paul from the Pauline epistles, and part Jesus from the gospel tradition. His
ascetic sermon, which prompts Thecla’s conversion, is an intertextual adapta-
tion of Jesus’ beatitudes that situates Paul within a prophetic tradition parallel
to Jesus, and endows him with the authority to update and revise Jesus’ original
message. Through this allusive contrast, the Paul of the APT surpasses Jesus.
Similarly, Thecla imitates female characters from the gospel tradition, and this
complicates her gender and sexuality. This section examines Thecla’s allusive
and elusive gender through intertextual connections to biblical women.
The most direct of these literary intersections are the allusions in APT 18 to
Mary of Bethany (cf. Xanth. Polyx. 13). After bribing her way out of her house
and into Paul’s jail cell, Thecla sits at Paul’s feet and listens to his message (καὶ
καθίσασα παρὰ τοὺς πόδας αὐτοῦ ἤκουσεν τὰ μεγαλεῖα τοῦ θεοῦ). This pas-
sage borrows heavily from Luke 10:39, where Mary of Bethany sits at Jesus’
feet and listens to him (παρακαθεσθεῖσα πρὸς τοὺς πόδας τοῦ Ἰησοῦ ἤκουεν
τὸν λόγον αὐτοῦ). APT 18 also echoes a parallel scene in which an unnamed
woman anoints Jesus’ feet with perfume (Luke 7:38). Here the connection is
their shared act of kissing: Thecla kisses Paul’s chains (καταφιλούσης τὰ δεσμὰ
αὐτοῦ), while the woman kisses Jesus’ feet (κατεφίλει τοὺς πόδας αὐτοῦ). Over
time, the unnamed woman of Luke 7 was increasingly conflated with Mary of
Bethany. In John 12:3, written a generation after Luke’s gospel, this episode is
recast with Mary of Bethany as the unnamed woman, a conflation fully estab-
lished when the APT was written. By alluding to Luke 7 and 10 both lexically
and syntactically, the narrator of the APT juxtaposes these scenes and invites a
reading of Thecla through Mary of Bethany.
Within Luke’s gospel, Jesus’ female followers model idealised discipleship
by demonstrating the social reversals of Jesus’ message, providing financial sup-
port for him and his entourage, and adopting positions of humility and service
(Cooper 2013a: 60–76; Cooper 1996: 63). By contrast, Jesus’ male followers fre-
quently hinder his engagement with socially marginalised groups (the poor, the
disabled, women, foreigners, etc.), argue about money and compete with each
other for honour and status, sometimes immediately following explicit teachings
on social justice and humility. These two episodes in Luke 7 and 10 underscore the
Lukan depiction of idealised (fe)male disciples, marked by their desire to listen to
and venerate Jesus (contrast Malina and Rohrbaugh 2003: 271; Malone 2000: 50),
and highlight Jesus’ feet as the corporeal focal point for reverence and respect, a
theme developed in later gospel accounts. For example, Jesus humbly washing his
disciples’ feet – a practice he explicitly commands them to imitate – suggests that
the ideal follower was expected to pay feet more than lip service.

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The image of Mary listening at Jesus’ feet (Luke 10) presents the socially
transgressive female disciple as the ideal, thus complicating traditional ancient
Mediterranean gender roles. By prioritising Jesus’ teachings over her domestic
responsibilities, Mary leaves her household duties undone. Yet she is described
in idealised and exemplary terms, entirely superior to Martha, who busies her-
self with the responsibilities of a dutiful host. Through this contrast with her
sister, Mary emerges as an intimate of Jesus. As idealised disciples, Jesus’ female
followers were therefore not relegated to the back row or kitchen, but were front
and centre, attentive pupils with the best seats in the house.
These stories about women anointing Jesus’ feet prescribe normative dis-
cipleship but also contain sexually charged details that were modified in subse-
quent gospel accounts. The foot-anointing scene in Luke 7, for instance, focuses
on the unnamed sinner’s overtly erotic act of kissing Jesus’ feet. Although the
narrator refrains from being too explicit, possibly to avoid any implication
that Jesus was sexually involved with the woman, the disapproval of Jesus’ host
stresses the potential inappropriateness of the woman’s present behaviour in
light of her sinful past (Meier 2001: 75–7). To minimise the narrative’s sexual
controversy, this episode undergoes several revisions in John’s gospel. First, Mary
of Bethany, a well-known and respectable follower of Jesus, replaces the socially
liminal character of the unnamed sinner. Second, although Mary’s behaviour
in John 12 mirrors the Lukan account in all other respects, she never kisses
Jesus’ feet, strongly suggesting that early Christian readers viewed this detail
with suspicion because of its sexual undertones. Finally, the ensuing disagree-
ment between Jesus and Judas Iscariot focuses on how the proceeds from selling
the perfume could have been used to feed the poor, emphasising Judas’ role as
chief villain rather than Mary’s as idealised disciple.
Despite the elision of sexual imagery in John’s version, both foot-anoint-
ing scenes share one erotic feature: spikenard/myrrh. Among its many uses,
spikenard was a well-known aphrodisiac and an active ingredient in perfumes
intended for apotropaic and alluring ends (Luck 2006: 514; contrast APT
4.10). Myrrh’s erotic efficacy made it a recurring component in Greco-Roman
magic spells (PGM XIII.1–343), with parallels in Indian traditions as early as
the Atharva-Veda c. 900–700 bc (VI.102.3), in which nard attracts women
and is incorporated into marriage ceremonies (Betz 1992: 172–82; Preisendanz
1931: 87–105; Schoff 1923: 218, 220). Its erotic qualities also proliferate in
ancient near Eastern literature, where nard is often used to anoint lovers or in
seduction or beautification scenes (Song of Songs 1:12, 4:13–14; Esther 2:12; 3
Maccabees 4:6; perhaps Ruth 3:3). Thus the centrality of myrrh in Luke 7 facili-
tated two interrelated conclusions: first, that the anonymous woman’s behaviour
was explicitly erotic, and second, that the woman was a sex worker.
Mary of Bethany’s use of spikenard in John 12, an erotic vestige from the
original foot-anointing scene in Luke, further reinforced the popular conflation

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of Mary of Bethany and Mary Magdalene into a singular, sexually ambiguous

character (Schoff 1923: 222; Haskins 1993: 18). By the early third century,
Origen assumed the unity of the two Marys, a position that became western
dogma at the end of the sixth century under Gregory the Great (Haskins 1993:
22, 25). However, some Eastern church fathers, including John Chrysostom,
continued to distinguish between the two Marys, and while the Eastern church
hailed Mary Magdalene as Myrrhophores, it celebrated her feast on a different
day from that of Mary of Bethany.
The conflation of the Marys may also be found in late antique commentar-
ies on Song of Songs. These commentaries allegorised the poem by juxtapos-
ing its erotic content with the Christian gospels and the APT. Hippolytus of
Rome (In Cant. 24.2) compares the Shulamite woman in futile pursuit of her
beloved to Mary and Martha’s post-crucifixion search for Christ (Haskins 1993:
63–7), since in Hippolytus’ version, Jesus appears to Mary and Martha, not
Mary Magdalene (contrast the gospel accounts, e.g., John 20:1–18). While his
exegetic agenda is to muffle the erotic content of Song of Songs, Hippolytus’ use
of ‘Mary’ as a desexualised lens through which to read erotic poetry underscores
how sexual the poem is and how sexualised Mary had become (Haskins, 1993:
66). A century later, Gregory of Nyssa (Hom. 15 in Cant. 6.405.1–3) equates
the Shulamite woman with Thecla in his allegorical exegesis on ‘his lips are lilies,
distilling liquid myrrh’ from Song of Songs 5:13. According to Gregory, the lilies
symbolise self-control and the myrrh represents Paul’s words, which fall upon the
welcome ears of the holy virgin, Thecla (Hylen 2015: 93). Gregory thus conflates
a heavily erotic passage from Song of Songs with the account of Thecla’s conver-
sion, which itself contains a fair share of erotic imagery. These exegetical readings
of the Shulamite as allegorical ‘Mary’ or Thecla underscore female chastity while
blending erotic and continent material.
Non proto-orthodox communities, especially ‘Gnostic’ Christians, also con-
flate Mary of Bethany with Mary Magdalene and depict this singular ‘Mary’ as
the ideal disciple. While the Gospel of Peter and Pistis of Sophia refer to Mary as
Mary the Magdalene, other accounts, such as the Gospel of Mary, the Dialogue
of the Saviour and the Gospel of Thomas simply call her Mary. That Mary is fre-
quently paired with Martha and Salome as female equivalents to Peter, James
and John suggests that this Mary is a conflation of Mary of Bethany and Mary
Magdalene (Bauckham 2002: 238; Meyer 1985: 562). Gnostic circles as early
as the late first century depict Mary as the disciple to whom Jesus entrusts the
mysteries of the gospel, but often only after her gender is transformed; Jesus
explicitly states in Gospel of Thomas 114 that he will ‘make Mary male’. These
two motifs – Mary receiving the purest form of the gospel and transcending her
femininity – recur in later Gnostic texts contemporaneous with the APT and
revolve around similar literary themes, particularly female authority to preach.
In the Gospel of Mary, for instance, Mary and her female entourage travel abroad

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 19 0 b ri a n p. sowers a nd k i mb e r ly pa s s a ro

preaching the gospel only after Mary undergoes a gender transformation (Meyer
2007: 737–8; Anson 1974).
Thecla’s conversion to sexually ascetic Christianity, marked by her bro-
ken engagement, parallels the idealised (fe)male gospel disciple in a number
of ways. Like Mary in Luke 10, Thecla eschews traditional social norms for
Christian(ised) ones (Aubin 1998). She alienates her immediate family through
her devotion to Christianity, which she communicates by sitting at Paul’s feet,
a biblical echo that further underscores Thecla’s role as ideal disciple. By these
behaviours, Thecla and Mary explicitly obey Jesus’ command that disciples
reject their kinsfolk (Luke 14:26) and replace their biological family with their
social/religious community (Mark 3:31–5). Over time, the incipient religious
communities reflected in the gospels and the APT assume the role of social
support system typically played by kinship groups, culminating in the religious
community’s adoption of kinship language. In the APT, Tryphaena’s symbolic
adoption of Thecla in Antioch, and her repeated comparisons of Thecla to her
deceased daughter, return Thecla to the security of a newly converted and mark-
edly feminine oikos (household).
Thecla’s deviations from her literary predecessors both welcome a reading of
Thecla as a competitor of her gospel models and demonstrate how her behav-
iour is consistent with contemporary depictions of Jesus’ ideal (fe)male entou-
rage (Hayne 1994; Hylen 2015: 100, 108). Whereas Mary of Bethany remains
securely within the oikos despite her rejection of domestic activities, Thecla
breaks out of her bedroom and travels independently in the public sphere
(Bynum 1991; Sowers 2012). Her crossing the limen of the oikos is marked
by the sale of her domestic items (mirror) and subsequent alteration of her
physical appearance (cutting her hair and dressing in masculine attire, σχήματι
ἀνδρικῷ). Thecla’s rejection of family and abandonment of her house mirror
Jesus’ call to his disciples and reflect a literal application of Luke 14:26 in ways
that differ from Mary’s behaviour in the gospel tradition. However, as a cross-
dressing apostolic leader with her own missionary entourage, Thecla echoes the
Mary of the gnostic tradition, particularly in regards to her gender blending and
sexual ambiguity (Lipsius and Bonnet 1891: 252–3, 266; Barrier 2009; Anson
1974; Hayne 1994: 215; Fox 2006: 336). Through these intertexts, Thecla
emerges as the superior exemplar, the most idealised disciple.
Collectively, these allusions complicate Thecla’s chastity and sexual renuncia-
tion. As we have seen, the foot-anointing scenes are sexually charged, especially
when ‘Mary’ kisses Jesus’ feet, a feature that the APT directly echoes. This gives
Thecla’s behaviour in jail sexual connotations that are amplified by the scene’s
many parallels to erotic episodes typical of the Greek novel. But this presents an
obvious interpretative problem within the ideological framework of the APT,
namely that Thecla has converted to an ascetic version of Christianity which
calls for lifelong vows of chastity. Said differently, as Thecla escapes from her

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house and joins Paul in jail, she situates herself as a devotee committed to sexual
renunciation but marks herself intertextually as a sexually available disciple.
Thecla’s sexual agency is made more explicit through her intertextual engage-
ment with Ruth, the topic of the next section.
Thus far we have examined intertexts between Thecla and the early Chris-
tian Mary tradition. The APT’s engagement with the gospel of Luke invites
active readers (Pelttari 2014; Gurd 2012; Johnson 2010) to situate Thecla
alongside early Christian depictions of ‘Mary’ as the ideal (fe)male disciple and
to problematise Thecla’s characterisation in light of these comparisons. As an
idealised protagonist similar to Mary in Luke 10, Thecla conducts herself in
idealised and therefore normative ways. By sitting at Paul’s feet and heeding his
every word, Thecla imitates Mary as the model female convert while adhering
to Paul’s updated gospel of sexual constancy, a second-century revision of Jesus’
original teachings. Not rigidly bound to her literary models, Thecla transcends
the precedent set by Mary in the gospels by breaking out of the confines of the
oikos, a behaviour which distinguishes Thecla from Mary of Bethany and makes
her an exceptionally ideal (fe)male disciple. It also anticipates and perhaps even
foreshadows the threats Thecla will face to her newly Christianised sexual iden-
tity. Moreover, her increasingly masculine appearance – a visual parallel to her
equally masculine behaviours of traversing Asia Minor, teaching and baptizing –
also parallel the wider Mary tradition, especially Gnostic depictions of Mary as
an exceptional apostle ‘made male’.

a new ruth
Since the authors of the gospels and the APT wrote within a wider Judeo-Christian
literary tradition, the female characters in earlier texts influenced their own. Ruth,
the protagonist of the eponymous account, is one such literary model. This sec-
tion examines how Ruth’s sexual agency and availability, particularly her seduction
of Boaz, influenced the gospel tradition and, later, the APT. In our view, Mary’s
veneration of Jesus’ feet in the gospels is in conversation with the Ruth narrative.
Because, as we have argued above, Thecla’s character explicitly builds on Mary’s,
it is therefore possible to read Thecla as a second-century Christianised version of
Ruth, an ideal (fe)male disciple within a tradition of exemplary (and sexualised)
characters from Hebrew bible.
Likely written sometime during the early Persian period (c. the late sixth to
early fifth century bc), Ruth expanded on King David’s ancestry and modelled a
working version of the newly formed Deuteronomic legal system (Schipper 2016:
20–2; Bauckham 2002: 6–7). The story begins with the death of Elimelech and
his two sons, leaving Elimelech’s wife, Naomi, and his Moabite daughters-in-law,
Ruth and Orpah, widows. Intending to return home, Naomi encourages the
young girls to do the same, hoping they each might find new husbands. Though

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 19 2 b ri a n p. sowers a nd k i mb e r ly pa s s a ro

Orpah obeys her suggestion, Ruth refuses to leave Naomi and travels with her
to Bethlehem. Once there, in order to provide food for Naomi and herself, Ruth
gleans in the fields of Naomi’s relative, Boaz. Seeing that Boaz treats Ruth kindly,
Naomi instructs her to seduce him. Ruth then bathes, perfumes and dresses her-
self before finding the drunken Boaz at the threshing floor and undressing at his
feet. In so doing, Ruth successfully persuades Boaz to marry her, not only gain-
ing security for herself and Naomi, but also perpetuating the lineage that would
result in King David and, eventually, Christ.
Over the ensuing centuries, Ruth’s story, especially those details which
proved most influential in early Christian literature, was subject to revisionist
interpretations that elide over Ruth’s sexuality. For example, in his paraphrase
of Ruth, the first-century Jewish historian Josephus (Antiquities 5.318–37)
suggests that gleaning the fields alone posed no physical or sexual threat to
Ruth, and that nothing sexual transpired between Ruth and Boaz at the thresh-
ing floor. By pointing out what the text does not contain, Josephus reveals how
his contemporaries read Ruth, specifically that her travelling alone in public
posed a significant risk to her safety and that her interactions with Boaz were
explicitly sexual. Because Ruth’s seduction of Boaz had spread widely as the
background narrative to the ancestry of David, who was equally notorious for
seducing Bathsheba, Ruth emerges as a central, albeit controversial, biblical
character.
Roughly contemporaneous with Josephus’ paraphrastic interpretation of
Ruth, the gospel traditions also incorporate her character into their biographies
of Jesus. In Matthew’s idealised genealogy of Christ, for instance, Ruth is one
of four women mentioned. That women are present in a typically patriarchal
genealogy is itself significant, and has elicited some discussion by modern inter-
preters (Bauckham 2002: 18–24; Luz 1990: 109–10; Keener 1999: 78–80;
Wainwright 1991: 64–5; Corley 1993: 149). These women – namely Tamar,
Rahab, Ruth and Bathsheba – prefigure Mary, Jesus’ mother, most notably as
women engaged in what were, from the perspective of their ancient narrators,
‘irregular’ sexual relationships sometimes resulting in ‘problematic’ pregnancies.
This is especially the case with Tamar and Bathsheba. The ethnically inclusive
quality of Jesus’ messianic line, evidenced by Ruth and Rahab, likely appealed to
early Christianity’s growing proselyte community (Smit 2010: 205–7).
In addition to being one of Jesus’ ancestors, Ruth also serves as a kind of
Hebrew bible template for idealised (fe)male disciples in the gospels. Specifi-
cally, the various foot-anointing scenes and the image of Mary sitting at Jesus’
feet resemble the Ruth narrative in two essential ways. First, Mary positions
herself at the feet of Jesus as a way to communicate humility, dependence and
veneration, a gesture that parallels Ruth’s posture at the feet of Boaz. Second,
within the exegetical tradition surrounding Ruth, there is a line of interpre-
tation in which Ruth anoints herself with myrrh in order to seduce Boaz

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(Campbell 1975: 120; compare Song of Songs 1:3, 13, 3:6, 4:14, 5:1, 5, 13;
Psalm 45:9; Esther 2:12; Proverbs 7:17). As demonstrated above, myrrh was
a well-known aphrodisiac commonly used in biblical narratives, including the
foot-anointing episodes from the gospels. As an intertextual imitator of Ruth,
‘Mary’ situates herself within a longstanding tradition, within the Davidic line,
of sexually available yet markedly chaste women. This further underscores the
erotic undertones of the gospel scenes and reinforces the notion that female
Christian disciples may be simultaneously virtuous and sexually available. In
this way, Mary both emulates and surpasses Ruth.
Since Thecla’s character depends on Mary from the gospel tradition, and
since Mary’s veneration of Jesus’ feet is also in conversation with Ruth, it is
possible to read Thecla’s veneration of Paul’s feet alongside and perhaps even
perpendicular to Ruth. Such a reading illuminates Thecla’s literary ancestors
and further complicates her sexual ambiguity. Moreover, the measures taken
by Ruth in an effort to acquire marital security are comparable to those taken
by Thecla to ensure her baptism. Each is, from the outset of her respective
narrative, established as being a woman of good character. Ruth proves this
by her loyalty to Naomi and by choosing not to pursue the men harvesting
in the fields; Thecla, by her modest silence and initial confinement within the
household (Schipper 2016: 33; Kraemer 2011: 142–3). Although it is not until
the virtue of each has been established that they engage in implicitly sexual and
potentially scandalous behaviour, nevertheless the first action each woman takes
is essentially to reject the immediate prospect of marriage in favour of travelling
to a strange land, an act which results in a crisis of identity.
Like Thecla, Ruth is a marriageable woman without a clearly defined posi-
tion in society. Because Ruth is foreign and lacks a husband, when Boaz first sees
her and asks whose she is, Ruth is identified by her mother-in-law, whose posi-
tion is equally ambiguous, and by her ethnicity. The repeated mention of Ruth’s
Moabite heritage throughout the narrative perhaps foreshadows her sexualised
actions at the threshing floor. Moab was the son of Lot and his eldest daughter
who, not unlike Ruth, waited until her father was drunk and asleep before hav-
ing sex with him. Boaz himself is the son of Rahab, the foreign sex worker, as
well as a descendant of Tamar, who dresses like a sex worker in order to seduce
Judah (Schipper 2016: 41).
Until Ruth’s identity and sexual status are established through the solidifica-
tion of her relationship with Boaz, she is explicitly vulnerable to assault: Boaz
instructs his male servants not to attack or dishonour Ruth (Ruth 2:9, 16),
and Naomi subsequently encourages Ruth to glean only in Boaz’s fields because
there she will be safe (Ruth 2:22). Paul’s concerns regarding Thecla’s beauty in
a shameless age (APT 3.25) may suggest a similar vulnerability. Thecla’s status,
and the nature of her relationship to Paul, is ambiguous because the two are not
explicitly sexually involved, nor can she yet be called a Christian. As a result,

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 19 4 b r i an p. sowers and k i mb e r ly pa s s a ro

when Alexander attempts to bribe Paul and win Thecla who, like Ruth, is now
a foreigner lacking a husband, Paul says that he does not know her, nor does he
know whose she is, thereby exposing her to Alexander’s advances. It is not until
Thecla baptises herself and dons masculine clothing that she acquires the pro-
tection of a definite religious, gender and sexual identity. Although Paul assumes
that some new misfortune has befallen Thecla when they are reunited in Myra,
upon learning that she has been baptised, he expresses no lingering concerns
about her vulnerability but tells her to go forth and preach. Only at this point in
the narrative is Thecla’s blended identity – simultaneously sexualised, as inter-
textual Ruth, and religious, as intertextual Mary – fully realised.
Like Ruth, Thecla attempts to acquire a new identity by arranging a private
meeting with a man late at night. However, Ruth enhances her femininity
through a kind of beautification ritual by bathing, perfuming and dressing
herself before propositioning Boaz at the threshing floor. Although the erotic
language of this scene is somewhat convoluted, and there is debate regarding
whether Ruth is undressing herself or Boaz, nevertheless the act of covering/
uncovering is integral to the marriage proposal implicit in Ruth’s actions
(compare Ruth 3:9; Ezekiel 16:8; Deuteronomy 22:30, 27:20; Schipper 2016:
143–4, 149; Campbell 1975: 123; Carmichael 1977: 332). By contrast, The-
cla divests herself of feminine possessions, selling her jewellery and mirror in
order to gain entry to Paul’s cell, before mimicking her predecessors by sit-
ting at Paul’s feet and kissing his chains. On the one hand, by ridding herself
of material possessions, Thecla emerges as an idealised disciple (cf. Matthew
19:21). On the other, this sexualised interaction with Paul fails to win Thecla
the baptism she desires, and she spends the remainder of the narrative further
minimising her femininity, reasserting her chastity, and defending it against the
men who pursue her. In reading Thecla through the lens of Ruth, we might
view Thecla’s baptism as the final beautification ritual necessary to complete
her conversion, as it adheres to Ruth’s tripartite practice of bathing, perfuming
and dressing: Thecla bathes in the pool of man-eating seals during her self-
baptism; is perfumed by the female spectators who throw scents (including
nard) into the arena to protect her from the beasts; and, after the contest ends,
Thecla asserts that God will clothe her before assuming the cloak of a man in
the next episode. It is this ritual which ultimately wins her the right to be an
itinerant Christian preacher.
Such echoes of and deviations from Ruth’s standard encourage a further
competitive reading of Thecla through the lens of Hebrew bible. Like Mary,
Thecla’s actions are comparable to Ruth’s, but take them a step further and in a
somewhat different direction. Both women are presented as moral, but their ini-
tial rejection of marriage and sexualised interactions with men who are not their
husbands complicate this characterisation by placing them at odds with ancient
Mediterranean social mores. However, because Ruth’s beautification ritual

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 i ntertextuali t y a nd th e e a r ly ch r is tia n n ove l 1 95

increases her femininity, and because she rejects the prospect of one marriage
only to accept another, she is quickly reinstated as part of the traditional femi-
nine. By contrast, Thecla’s forfeiture of jewellery and mirror, as well as her total
rejection of marriage, evidences not only her first step toward increased mascu-
linity, but also her willingness to abandon her wealth and her commitment to
chastity. Whereas Ruth’s combination of virtue and sexual availability makes
her a more appealing future wife, the flaunting of Thecla’s sexuality serves as an
attempted means of preserving her chastity. Said differently, Ruth is sexual but
not explicitly desirous; Thecla is desirous but explicitly chaste.

conclusion
Our examination of these previously underappreciated allusions contributes
to the existing scholarly understanding not only of early Christianity’s con-
ceptions of sexuality and the (fe)male body, but also its rhetoric of competi-
tion. We have seen that Thecla is a (wo)man whose gender and sexuality are
not reducible to any normative ideal, but are changeable, multiple, often
context-specific and ideal only insofar as they depart from the norm. From
the ideological standpoint of the APT, this fluid identity enables her to tran-
scend the traditional restrictions placed on her gender to become the ideal
Christian. Not content with stereotypically ‘feminine’ silence, passivity and
confinement to the home, Thecla’s desire for conversion results in ‘mascu-
line’ ambition. By breaking out of the female sphere, she leaves normative
femininity behind and adopts ‘masculine’ traits as a defence against her own
misogynistic society.
Though this change is met with considerable resistance from those advo-
cating traditional gender norms, it becomes the key to entering the Christian
community of the APT, and Thecla’s baptism and preaching are dependent on a
careful balance of ‘masculine’ and ‘feminine’. Throughout the narrative, her pri-
mary allies (the newly converted Tryphaena, the women spectators and female
beasts in the arena and her followers in the mountains) are explicitly feminine,
and kissing Paul’s chains is a sexually charged act. As intertexts between the
APT, first-century gospels and Hebrew bible reveal, Thecla’s veneration at Paul’s
feet imitates the posture assumed specifically by her female literary predeces-
sors, and situates her simultaneously as a woman marked by her sensuality and
sexual availability, and a disciple devoted to sexual continence. Nevertheless,
Thecla cannot travel safely or preach the gospel authoritatively until she has
been baptised and ‘made male’, with shorn hair and masculine clothing. The-
cla’s sexual renunciation, her rejection of domestic obligations and her commit-
ment to hearing and preaching the gospel – ultimately enabled by her increasing
masculinity and transvestism – show her commitment to the faith, and these

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 19 6 bri a n p. sowers a nd k i mb e r ly pa s s a ro

deviations from the behavioural models of ‘Mary’ and Ruth demonstrate her
superiority as the ideal Christian convert, surpassing all prior precedents. Thus
the APT promotes its brand of ascetic Christianity as a chosen family in which a
non-binary individual who rejects normative sexuality and behaviour is the ideal
member, and by exceeding the already idealised exempla of Ruth and ‘Mary’,
Thecla proves herself to be the disciple perfected.

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 CHAPTER 14

Manly and Monstrous Women:

(De-)Constructing Gender in
Roman Oratory
Mary Deminion

introduction

I n his anecdotal history collection Memorable Deeds and Sayings, Valerius

Maximus records the cases of a trio of women orators who were inhibited nei-
ther by their sex nor by modesty from pleading legal cases on the public stages of
the Roman forum and lawcourts. Though women were not legally barred from
acting on their own behalf in trials, their foray into the male space of the Roman
courtroom as orators was a gender-transgressive act met with ambivalence, even
ridicule. The appearance of the three women orators in Valerius is exceptional
not only for the rarity of the phenomenon at Rome but also for the paucity of
accounts of women in recorded rhetorical history. Valerius reports that one of
these women, Maesia of Sentinum, secured her own acquittal from unspeci-
fied criminal charges through her display of courage and rhetorical skill, but
was condemned for her ‘usurpation of the male role’ (Marshall 1990). Maesia’s
performance in court represents a bending of the gender binary so alarming to
her (male) audience that she is recorded for posterity as ‘Androgyne’, a blending
of the Greek words for ‘man’ and ‘woman’. Harsher criticism was directed at
Gaia Afrania, who thwarted the convention of relying on male kin to represent
her in court and argued cases herself on multiple occasions. Afrania’s repeated
violation of gender norms and her assumption of the male role are so egregious
that Valerius condemns her as a monstrum, putting her beyond not only gender
categories but beyond what is regarded as human. The jurist Ulpian, writing
in the third century ad, blames her example for a magistrate’s edict barring
all women from representing others’ causes in court (D. 3.1.1.5). By contrast,
Hortensia, daughter of the jurist Quintus Hortensius Hortalus, receives praise
from Valerius and the later Appian for her speech against the war tax on Roman
matrons, but only insofar as her close identification with her illustrious father

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 19 8 ma ry demi ni on

allows her to transcend her gender and be seen as his living image. Whether
censured or praised, the women in all three cases are presented as masculinised
and gender non-conforming at best, or inhuman at worst, for breaching the
gendered lines of public self-representation in political and legal matters. The
ambivalence about women orators therefore reveals a deeper anxiety about gen-
der boundaries in Roman public life and the limits of male power.
Modern feminist and queer scholarship has contributed to our understand-
ing of gender as a set of identities and expressions that are culturally and his-
torically situated, distinct from biological sex but related to it through social
conventions. Masculinity and femininity are performed according to social
codes that are fluid, mutable and historically located; gender is itself socially
constructed and performative (Butler 1990; Halberstam 1998; Dinshaw 1999).
Scholars have also begun to examine the field of rhetorical training as a locus of
gender construction. Oratorical training in ancient Rome was concerned with
the making of a man. More specifically, the goal was to make a certain kind
of man – a politically engaged citizen man who would embody elite virtues
and could take his place amongst the Roman ruling class. Rhetorical schools
and performance halls were sites where such men are made, where ‘manhood is
contested, defended, defined, and indeed produced’ and rhetorical handbooks,
such as that of Valerius, act as ‘guides to gender construction’ (Richlin 2002:
74). The Latin orator, a third declension masculine noun, is defined by Cato the
Elder as ‘a good man skilled at speaking’ (vir bonus dicendi peritus, Quintilian
12.1.1). Rhetoric and oratory in ancient Rome were practised ‘in male space,
by men, for men, to men, according to men’s interests’ (Connolly 2007: 84).
By contrast, ‘womanhood is constructed in Roman culture through exclusion
from rhetoric’ (Richlin 2002: 75). Accordingly, much classical scholarship has
focused on the relationship between masculinity and rhetoric. This study aims
to identify those few women in ancient Rome who proved to be the exception
to the exclusionary rule. If gender is defined in ancient Rome according to a
framework of inclusion/exclusion, the forced inclusion of these few women in
the exclusively male domain of public oratory places tension on the construc-
tion of gender as a natural binary and poses a direct test to the limits of Roman
patriarchal power.
Because of the political, cultural and social importance of public speech,
the ability to speak persuasively before an audience is an exercise in power and
influence largely denied women across time as well as cultures. As Cheryl Glenn
(1997: 1–2) writes:

Rhetoric always inscribes the relation of language and power at a particu-

lar moment (including who may speak, who may listen or who will agree
to listen, and what can be said); therefore, canonical rhetorical history has
represented the experience of males, powerful males, with no provision or

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 (de-)constructi ng g e n d e r in ro ma n o r ato ry 1 99

allowance for females. In short, rhetorical history has replicated the power
politics of gender, with men in the highest cultural role and social rank.
And our view of rhetoric has remained one of a gendered landscape, with
no female rhetoricians (theoreticians) clearly in sight.

It is clear that ancient Romans were well aware of the relationship between
public speech, self-representation and power. Leanne Bablitz (2007) has identi-
fied the Roman courtroom as one of a number of public ‘stages’ where ‘Romans
of elite class or those wishing to attain some measure of fame could promote and
advertise themselves’, activities thought immodest and inappropriate for respect-
able Roman women. In her chapter exploring the location of legal activities in
the city of Rome, Bablitz maps the courtrooms of Rome onto the known topog-
raphy of the city and finds that in both the Republican and Imperial periods
court cases were most often heard in the forum, at the very heart of the city where
activity would be most open and visible.
Dionysius of Halicarnassus (3.67.3) describes the Roman forum as the place
where ‘justice is administered, the assemblies of the people held, and other civil
matters transacted’ and Festus (74L) defines forum similarly as ‘a place where
lawsuits are tried, public assemblies held, and speeches delivered’. That all of
these proceedings were carried out primarily by men largely to the exclusion
of women is supported by Ulpian in the Digest (50.17.2), who observes that
‘women are separated from all civic and public functions’. Indeed only Roman
male citizens could vote, or serve as jurors or magistrates. Though women were
not legally barred from participating in trials, convention held that men typically
advocated for women who appeared as plaintiffs or defendants. Public trials were
held openly in the forum, but of the cases held between 149 and 50 bc analysed
by Michael Alexander (1990), fewer than 5 per cent involved women in any role.
But were women excluded from the physical space of the forum itself, and to
what extent can the forum be identified as a masculine sphere?
In her study ‘Women and Gender in the Forum Romanum’, Mary Boat-
wright (2011) analyses the gendered nature of public activity in the forum using
literary, epigraphical and archaeological evidence. Regardless of the type of evi-
dence used, all sources point to the problematic nature of women’s involvement
in civic life in the open arena of the forum. Though she assumes that spectacles
such as the ludi and triumphal processions must have had women among their
audience, Boatwright concludes that the use of the forum by women is poorly
attested in the archaeological and material record. During the Republic, at least,
Boatwright (2011: 108) asserts that the forum ‘reinforced a masculine public
civic identity by excluding women visually and ideologically’. Ancient authors
overwhelmingly depict women’s presence in the forum, when they were not
participating in religious or funerary rituals, as ‘something extraordinary, trans-
gressive, and anomalous’ (2011: 119).

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 20 0 ma ry demi ni on

Though perhaps of doubtful historicity, Plutarch’s comparison between

the legendary Spartan and Roman lawmakers Lycurgus and Numa reveals the
strength of the taboo against Roman women speaking in the forum. Tradition,
Plutarch asserts, demanded a check upon women’s agency from time immemo-
rial; the practice was upheld even during the foundation of the city and its laws.
Numa, he reports, carefully preserved the standards set by Romulus towards
matrons and additionally required that they ‘were not to speak, even on the
most necessary topics, unless their husbands were with them’ (3.10f ). Not only
is speech constructed as a distinctly masculine purview, the absence of speech –
silence – is personified as feminine in the form of the Muse Tacita, whom Numa
bids the Romans to venerate (Plutarch 8.11; Brescia 2015). So unnatural was
it thought to be that a woman might demand to speak on her own behalf that,
according to Plutarch, ‘it is said that when a woman once pleaded her own
cause in the forum, the senate sent to inquire of an oracle what the event might
portend for the city’ (3.10f ). The appearance of a woman speaking in the forum
was in itself enough to trigger male anxiety, and the contravention of social and
gender norms was strongly linked to fears of disaster and unrest.

valerius maximus
Though little is known about Valerius’ background, scholars have inferred from
the preface to his work that Valerius was a professional rhetorician and teacher
during the reign of Tiberius (Bloomer 1992). The work belongs to the exempla
tradition of Roman moralising discourse and may have served as a rhetorical
and ethical handbook for students and practitioners of declamation. It contains
a variety of historical examples loosely organised under thematic rubrics that a
Roman orator might call upon to illustrate or embellish a particular argument.
As such, these examples provide a tantalising glimpse into the elite values and
attitudes of their time. Though Valerius’ sources are unknown, Anthony Mar-
shall (1990) suggests that they may have included detailed collections of actual
court-decisions compiled by orators to establish precedents. They therefore
serve not only to reflect the values of their time, but to reinforce and replicate
social and cultural mores.
In his rubric On Steadfastness Valerius Maximus begins by asking, ‘What
do women have to do with public meetings?’ He answers himself, stating, ‘If
the customs of the forefathers are to be adhered to, nothing.’ He then proceeds
to establish that it is in times of sedition, violence and civil unrest that ances-
tral custom and proper womanly restraint are overcome. What follows is the
example of Sempronia, sister of the Gracchi and wife of General Scipio Aemil-
ianus, who was unwittingly dragged before a popular assembly in the forum in
100 bc by a tribune of the plebs who hoped she would acknowledge the pre-
tender Equitius as the son of her late brother, Tiberius. Sempronia, daughter of

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 (de-)constructi ng g e n d e r in ro ma n o r ato ry 201

the highly educated Cornelia, who, according to Quintilian in his Institutes of

Oratory (1.1.6) was herself known for her ‘extremely learned speech’ and cred-
ited with influencing the eloquence of the Gracchi, is said to have resisted per-
forming before the masses and steadfastly maintained her ancestral dignity,
despite the clamour of the assembled crowd. The episode treats the appearance
of a woman before the assemblies in the forum as of note precisely because of its
novelty and its contravention of gendered social norms. It is a mark of political
and social crisis that the customary ‘domestic quiet’ of women like Sempronia is
upended and invaded by the violence of sedition (Milnor 2005: 276).
Little historical or social context is provided by Valerius in his discussion
of the cases of Maesia, Gaia Afrania and Hortensia. We are told only that the
three women are united by the fact that they were unrestrained by the condi-
tion of their nature and the modesty of the stola, the garb befitting a respectable
Roman matron, from speaking in public (condicio naturae et uerecundia stolae).
A breach of verecundia is invoked similarly by Livy (34.1.1.5) in describing the
women who agitated publicly against the Oppian law in 195 bc, by thronging
the streets and even blocking men’s entrance into the forum. The much later
Institutes of Justinian also reveals a concern for verecundia in a section identify-
ing women’s right to bring public accusations on behalf of close kin in legal
proceedings (1.26.3).

maesia of sentinum
EXEMPLUM 1. Amesia Sentinas rea causam suam L. Titio praetore iudi-
cium cogente maximo populi concursu egit modosque omnes ac numeros
defensionis non solum diligenter, sed etiam fortiter executa, et prima
actione et paene cunctis sententiis liberata est. quam, quia sub specie femi-
nae uirilem animum gerebat, Androgynen appellabant.
(Valerius Maximus 8.3.1, all Latin from John Briscoe 1998.)

Maesia of Sentinum pleaded her own case in front of a large crowd at

a court gathered by the praetor Lucius Titius. Having made use of all
the techniques and devices of defense both diligently and boldly, she
was acquitted at the first hearing nearly unanimously. Because she bore a
manly spirit in the form of a woman, they called her ‘Man-Woman’.
(All translations are mine.)

The first and shortest case Valerius describes is that of Maesia of Sentinum.
She is said to have been brought before the praetor, named as Lucius Titius,
on an unknown criminal charge and managed to defend herself successfully.
Though Valerius does not provide context, and the praetor named cannot be
dated with certainty, Marshall (1990) posits that the Maesia case may have

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 20 2 ma ry demi ni on

occurred in the first half of the first century bc, and her decision to represent
herself may be indicative of political and social dislocation. If this is the case, it
further strengthens the link between women’s agency and political unrest found
in many ancient accounts. She is identified as ‘Sentinas’, a name suggesting her
origins in Sentinum, a town in Umbria, rather than following the Roman nam-
ing convention of using the genitive form of her husband or father’s cognomen.
A likely explanation is that Maesia had no living male kin to defend her, and
she was therefore left with little recourse but to act on her own behalf. In any
event, Valerius Maximus expresses grudging admiration for Maesia’s masterful
skill in defending herself and her knowledge of ‘all the techniques and devices’
(modosque omnes ac numeros), though these are words that also describe sexual
positions, and may be insulting double entendres.
We are left to speculate as to how Maesia might have received her knowledge
of the art of rhetoric. There is frustratingly little information about ancient
women’s education, but Cicero (Brut. 210–11) and Quintilian both praise
refined women who speak eloquently. Quintilian (1.1.6) writes:

Regarding parents, I like to see them as highly educated as possible, and I

do not restrict this remark only to fathers. We are told that the eloquence
of the Gracchi owed much to their mother Cornelia, whose letters testify
for posterity her educated style. Laelia, the daughter of Gaius Laelius, is
said to have reproduced the elegance of her father’s language in her own
speech, while the oration delivered before the triumvirs by Hortensia, the
daughter of Quintus Hortensius, is still read and not merely as an honour
to her sex.

Some elite women were perhaps therefore given private instruction in rheto-
ric, even if only because an eloquent mother might transmit her skill to her sons
to benefit their later public careers, or an educated daughter might reflect well
on the quality of her father’s household. There were also slave women lectrices
who recited Greek and Latin literary works, presumably including speeches,
in affluent households such as that of the elegist Sulpicia. The literary learning
they imparted may well have been employed by elite women to write funerary
inscriptions for household members, as Sulpicia seems to have done for her
lectrix Sulpicia Petale (Stevenson 2005; Hallet 2011).
Maesia, however, is remembered for having taken her technical skill beyond
the appropriate feminine domestic sphere. She thereby not only breached the
boundaries of feminine modesty through her self-representation in court, but
also contravened the limits of nature and her sex. She dared not only to speak
in her own defense before a crowd but even had the nerve to be good at it.
Maesia demonstrated intelligence and courage, qualities marked as mascu-
line, and moreover, displayed them in the form of public speech in a male

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 (de-)constructi ng g e n d e r in ro ma n o r ato ry 203

sphere. The use of the epithet ‘androgyne’, apparently given to her by those
who acquitted her of the charges or the crowd gathered to watch (or both),
points to an ambivalence and anxiety surrounding Maesia’s courage in her
public performance on the stage of the Roman courtroom. She is simultane-
ously cast as both ‘same’ and ‘other’ by the male audience, a gender-blending
man–woman hybrid who has transgressed gendered boundaries both physical
and ideological.

gaia afrania
EXEMPLUM 2. C. Afrania uero Licinii Bucconis senatoris uxor prompta
ad lites contrahendas pro se semper apud praetorem uerba fecit, non quod
aduocatis deficiebatur, sed quod inpudentia abundabat. itaque inusitatis
foro latratibus adsidue tribunalia exercendo muliebris calumniae notis-
simum exemplum euasit, adeo ut pro crimine inprobis feminarum mori-
bus C. Afraniae nomen obiciatur. prorogauit autem spiritum suum ad C.
Caesarem iterum P. Seruilium consules: tale enim monstrum magis quo
tempore extinctum quam quo sit ortum memoriae tradendum est.

Gaia Afrania, wife of senator Lucinius Bucco, being addicted to lawsuits,

always argued her own causes before the praetor, not because she lacked
advocates, but because she abounded in shamelessness. Because she regu-
larly harassed the tribunals with her aberrant barking in the forum, she
emerged as the most notorious example of female litigiousness, so much
so that to indict the unruly habits of women one has only to throw out
the name of Gaia Afrania. She lived until the year Caesar became consul
for the second time with P. Servilius: indeed such a monster is better
remembered by her deathdate than her birthdate.
(Valerius Maximus 8.3.2)

Despite the more subtle unease attached to the example of Maesia, Valerius
saves his true invective for one Gaia Afrania, wife of the curiously if unfortu-
nately named senator Lucinius Bucco (‘Mouth’), who served during the time
of Sulla. Scholars have understandably linked this Afrania with the ‘Carfania’
censured by Ulpian (Digest III.1.1.5) for arguing cases not only on her own
behalf but also for that of others, thus provoking an edictal ban on such activity
for women (Marshall 1989; Benke 1996).
Valerius says nothing of Afrania acting for others, only that she elected to
act ‘on her own behalf always’ ( pro se semper), strongly suggesting that civil suits
were her forte and that she must have pursued several of them. Of particular
offense to Valerius is the fact that Afrania apparently did not lack male advocates
who could have acted for her; she chose to represent herself. The language used

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 20 4 ma ry demi ni on

by Valerius to describe Afrania is striking. Her public speaking in the forum is

described as aberrant barking (inusitatis foro latratibus) and she herself is depicted
as nothing short of a monster. This Scylla of the forum is further pilloried with
the remark that her death date (48 bc) is more appropriately remembered than
her birthdate. While Maesia is represented as defying the gender binary, Afrania
has clearly broken the accepted boundaries entirely.
If we accept that the G. Afrania mentioned in Valerius and the Carfania
of the Digest are one and the same, the example of this woman was disturbing
enough to be blamed for a centuries-long ban on Roman women acting on
behalf of others in the courts. Ulpian (3.1.1.5) writes that the reason women are
prohibited from bringing a legal request on behalf of others is ‘so that women
not get themselves mixed up in other persons’ legal suits contrary to the mod-
esty befitting their gender, and so that women not perform men’s duties’. The
origin of this prohibition against women’s legal agency is purportedly ‘Carfania,
a very wicked woman, who, by bringing suits without shame and disturbing the
magistrate, provided the reason for the edict’.
It is worth noting that neither Valerius nor Ulpian explicitly claim that
Afrania/Carfania brought suits on behalf of others, only that she brought legal
requests in a manner or with a frequency that the magistrate found vexatious,
and which was thought unsuitable for a woman. Jane Gardner (1986: 263) con-
cludes that, though the memory of Afrania may have been ‘burned into men’s
memories’, she almost certainly could not have been solely responsible for the
legal disability imposed on women as a class. Rather, it is the reference to prohib-
iting women from performing men’s duties that is key to the ban; the exemplum
of Carfania is simply a convenient scapegoat, ‘an instrumental part of patriarchal
strategy’ (Benke 1996: 209). Under this strategy, it is necessary to view Afrania
not merely as a woman who challenged gender norms, but rather as one vilified
into a monster that defies and threatens the ‘natural’, gendered order.

hortensia
EXEMPLUM 3. Hortensia uero Q. Hortensi filia, cum ordo matro-
narum graui tributo a triumuiris esset oneratus nec quisquam uirorum
patrocinium eis accommodare auderet, causam feminarum apud triu-
muiros et constanter et feliciter egit: repraesentata enim patris facundia
impetrauit ut maior pars imperatae pecuniae his remitteretur. reuixit tum
muliebri stirpe Q. Hortensius uerbisque filiae aspirauit, cuius si uirilis
sexus posteri uim sequi uoluissent, Hortensianae eloquentiae tanta here-
ditas una feminae actione abscissa non esset.

Hortensia, truly the daughter of Q. Hortensius, when the class of women

was burdened with a heavy tax by the triumvirs and no man dared to lend

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 (de-)constructi ng g e n d e r in ro ma n o r ato ry 205

them his defense, pleaded the cause of the women before the triumvirs
persistently and successfully: displaying her father’s eloquence, she suc-
ceeded in getting the greater part of the tax remitted. Q. Hortensius lived
again in the female line and inspired the words of his daughter, and if any
descendants of the male sex had wished to continue this strength, such an
inheritance of Hortensian eloquence would not have been cut short with
the case of one woman.
(Valerius Maximus 8.3.3)

Despite the ambivalence shown Maesia and the outright contempt towards
Afrania, Valerius expresses apparent praise for Hortensia. Hortensia was the
daughter of the celebrated advocate and consul Quintus Hortensius Hortalus,
renowned for his moving speeches on law and history. Valerius’ account refers to
the events of 42 bc in which Rome’s wealthiest 1,400 women were subject to a
tax to fund the ongoing war between the Second Triumvirate and the assassins of
Julius Caesar. Outraged at being made to pay for a domestic war between politi-
cal factions over which they could exert no control, the women chose Hortensia
to speak on their behalf in the Roman forum. We learn from Appian’s Civil Wars
IV.32–4, though not from Valerius, that Hortensia’s speech in the forum and
the presumption of the women to assemble in a public meeting were regarded
by the triumvirs as a socially transgressive act and subversion of gender norms.
Appian (IV.34.1) writes, ‘While Hortensia thus spoke the triumvirs were angry
that women should dare to hold a public meeting when the men were silent.’ The
triumvirs ordered their lictors, or magisterial bodyguards, to drive the women
away from the tribunal. However, the triumvirs were forced to relent thanks to the
intercession of a large crowd who protested the treatment of the women.
The speech Hortensia delivered is recorded at length in Appian. Though she
presents a ‘voice of resistance’ (Hopwood 2015: 305) against the male political
actors of the day, Hortensia carefully begins by acknowledging that she and
the other elite Roman women have tried to appeal first to their appropriate
gendered networks. The women sought out the female family members of the
triumvirs: they were greeted kindly by Octavia, the sister of Octavian (later the
emperor Augustus), and by Julia, the mother of Mark Antony, but were rudely
rebuffed by Fulvia, Antony’s wife. Only after failing to find resolution through
women’s channels were these women driven to the male sphere of the forum
as a last resort: ‘As has been befitting of women of our rank when making a
request of you, we had recourse to the ladies of your households; but having
been treated by Fulvia in a way that was not appropriate for us, we have been
driven together to the forum’ (IV.32).
Hortensia is clear in stating that civil unrest has caused the women to be
deprived of their rightful advocates against ill-treatment and injustice, their
male kin, remarking: ‘You have already deprived us of our fathers, our sons,

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 20 6 ma ry demi ni on

our husbands and our brothers, indicting them for having wronged you; but
if you take away our property too, you reduce us to a condition unbecoming
of our birth, our behaviour, our feminine nature’ (VI.32). She further asks,
‘Why should we pay taxes when we do not share in the offices, the honours, the
command, the state-craft, over which you contend with each other with such
harmful results?’ (IV.33).
With significant oratorical skill, Hortensia treads the line between acknowl-
edging that her speech in the forum is unusual, indeed traditionally inappropri-
ate for a respectable Roman woman, and at the same time emphasising that she
is in fact making a necessary defense of the women’s proper feminine status and
dignity. She further appeals to the fundamental injustice of the women’s having
to pay taxes to fund male civil conflicts despite their formal exclusion from all
other functions of state. Judging by the recorded reaction of the crowd throng-
ing the forum, the women’s cause pleaded by Hortensia was a popular one,
prompting the triumvirs to change their minds.
Though her eloquence resulted in the larger portion of the tax being repealed,
Hortensia’s even greater success, according to Valerius, is that she allowed her father
to ‘breathe again in her words’, speaking as she did with ‘her father’s revived elo-
quence’. Her skill thus carried on the legacy of Hortensian oratory, we are told,
before it was cut short by a lack of any male descendants willing to continue the
practice. Significantly, while Afrania is condemned for her usurpation of the tradi-
tional male role in court and Maesia’s feminine modesty is questioned due to her
masculine daring and rhetorical prowess, Hortensia suffers no such censure, per-
haps because she was representing her paternal family, as ‘same’ rather than ‘other’.
The more favourable treatment of Hortensia compared to her fellow female
orators can therefore be seen as a result of Valerius’ admiration for her father,
Hortensius, whom she clearly evokes (Hallett 1984, 1989a). Maesia, Afrania
and Hortensia all manifest traits and engage in behaviours that would be valued
in Roman men, but not women, and all three do so in the male spheres of the
forum or courtroom, but each woman faces a highly variable degree of praise
or blame. In her analysis, Judith Hallett (1989a) finds that Hortensia, who can
be seen in some significant ways as being ‘the same’ as her father, is accorded
a legitimacy through her kinship with him and her echoing of his celebrated
traits, something that is denied Maesia, and especially Afrania. Valerius is able to
reconcile Hortensia’s rhetorical performance with the tradition set by her father,
a paragon of the genre.

conclusion
Though Hortensia’s feminine modesty is not impugned in the same way as Maesia’s
and Afrania’s, acceptance of her civic activism and encroachment into the male
sphere of the forum still required that she be validated through a masculine identity.

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 (de-)constructi ng g e nd e r in ro ma n o r ato ry 207

Hortensia may also be less threatening to moralistic male writers such as Valerius,
because, unlike Afrania, she presented herself as assuming her role reluctantly, in
the absence of available male advocates, and only after exhausting the more appro-
priate women’s channels. She is also portrayed as having taken up a distinctly
feminine cause – the tax on matrons – which she convincingly presents as a final
affront to other women’s dignity after the loss of their male kin. While Maesia
and Afrania demonstrate their agency by actively advocating for themselves,
Hortensia’s actions can be viewed as being a lesser affront to the ‘natural’ passivity
of women. She acts to restore the upended social order, not damage it further. She
is also further validated by heredity: she is seen as bringing forth the legacy of her
father as his living image.
Taken together, the treatment of each woman by Valerius Maximus, and
other primary sources where these women appear, essentially differs only in
degree, not in kind, from the others. Hortensia is depicted most positively,
Afrania most negatively, Maesia most ambivalently, but all three are represented
as being in violation of the traditional social norms expected of their gender.
The Roman tendency to construct gender along distinct, opposing, exclusion-
ary lines requires the swift containment of behaviour that blurs or transgresses
these boundaries. In the case of our three women orators, this means that they
must be recorded for posterity as cautionary exempla for their willingness to
bend or break the gender dichotomy of public speech/silence. Hortensia and
Maesia are constructed as exhibiting masculinised personae: the faithful image
of an illustrious father, or a gender-blending androgyne, respectively; both
women engage in a blending of both the masculine and feminine. Afrania, on
the other hand, is rendered monstrous for wilfully and repeatedly breaking the
boundary altogether. All three women orators are assumed to be anomalous,
even to some degree unnatural, for their transgression onto the male stages of
the Roman courts and forum.
Though Valerius presents the three women as representing a failure of femi-
nine modesty, their success in deploying the art of oratory to their own benefit
exposes the precarity of the construct of Roman masculinity. That women could
display such skill in a domain formally reserved as a training ground for idealised
Roman manhood demonstrates that women too could perform masculinity as
the Romans conceived of it. Perhaps more threatening still is the fact that in all
three cases the three women orators assumed the male role through a breakdown
or failure of patriarchal political dominance. Valerius and other Roman writers
explicitly link women’s public speech and civic protest to periods of war and
sedition when normal social restraints are dislodged. In the case of Maesia, there
appears to have been no one available to assume the male role for her in court,
perhaps as a result of war casualties. There is a gap in the patriarchal frame-
work, into which Maesia has stepped competently. In Afrania’s case, it is unclear
whether her husband or other male relatives were unable, or simply unwilling, to
rein her in. In any event, she is described as exercising her own agency to pursue

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 20 8 ma ry demi ni on

her own interests. It is Hortensia, however, who makes explicit the contradictions
of male political dominance. Her speech specifically problematises the notion
that women should be excluded from all matters of state, yet pay the price, both
in terms of financial and personal loss, for decisions made by the male ruling
class. The three women orators therefore represent not merely a challenge to how
oratory constructs gender, but a threat to how elite Roman men defended and
reproduced their power.

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 CHAPTER 15

The Great Escape: Reading Artemisia

in Herodotus’ Histories and 300:
Rise of an Empire
Denise Eileen McCoskey

introduction

I n 2007, Zack Snyder’s epic film 300, recounting the ancient Spartans’ heroic
stand at Thermopylae in 480 bc, became a worldwide phenomenon, earn-
ing approximately 456 million dollars globally. Based on the popular graphic
novel by Frank Miller, the film generated lively and often heated discussion (e.g.
Cyrino 2011, Burton 2016), reportedly sparking considerable outrage in Iran
(Moaveni 2007). Many critics of the film called attention, in particular, to 300’s
racially charged depictions of Persian ‘difference’ (Lauwers et al. 2012). As Tom
Holland notes, the film version ‘duly outdoes even Frank Miller in its portrayal
of Persians as grotesques’, with the Persian king Xerxes himself looking like ‘a
towering bondage queen’ – ‘“divine” only in the John Waters sense of the word’
(Holland 2007: 180; for discussion of Xerxes’ varied representations over time,
see Bridges 2014).
A sequel, 300: Rise of an Empire, was subsequently released in 2014 (dir.
Noam Murro), but struggled from the outset to find its voice. The film tellingly
underwent a title change during production – it was originally cast and shot as
300: Battle of Artemisia (Patten 2012) – and even beat to completion the graphic
novel it was ostensibly based on (Perry 2013). Although it would eventually gross
nearly 340 million dollars worldwide, Rise of an Empire’s more muddled ideol-
ogy and convoluted narrative structure (it portrays events not only after, but also
before and during the previous film) clearly dulled critical and popular recep-
tion – despite the fact that the filmmakers might be said to have started with
an advantage over the original since the film’s action culminates at Salamis, an
actual Greek victory over the Persians, unlike Thermopylae. While 300: Rise of
an Empire shifts to the series of naval battles led by the city-state of Athens during
the second Persian invasion, the Athenians’ valiant undertaking – not to mention

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 210 d eni se ei leen m c cosk ey

the sequel’s primary themes of Greek unity and freedom – are nonetheless per-
sistently undercut by the franchise’s continuing reverence for the jingoistic and
nihilistic militarism of the Spartan men in the first film.
For all its flaws, 300: Rise of an Empire introduces a provocative vision of
female subjectivity, for Rise of an Empire places at its dramatic core Artemisia, a
Greek woman who serves as Xerxes’ adviser and fleet commander. It is easy to
be captivated by Artemisia in the film; indeed, Eva Green’s no-holds-barred per-
formance was one of the few elements of the film generally praised by audiences
and critics alike (e.g. Gettell 2014; Labrecque 2014; LaSalle 2014). In Rise of an
Empire, Artemisia supplants Xerxes as the main villain, and her commanding
presence in the film’s battle scenes explodes the limits assigned to women in the
previous film (Beigel 2012; Lauwers et al. 2012). But while some critics praised
Green’s ability to enter the masculine arena so convincingly, others were more
circumspect about the film’s sexual politics, with one writer proposing that the
‘macho nonsense in the first film is turned into a man’s fantasised version of girl-
power and feminism in the second film’ (Schleicher 2014).
I do not seek here to adjudicate the thorny question of the sequel’s feminism.
Rather I want to use Artemisia’s earlier portrayal in Herodotus’ Histories (a work
completed by 425 bc) to help shed light on some of the specific decisions made
by the filmmakers. My approach focuses on the discourses of ‘sameness’ and
‘difference’ that circumscribe Artemisia’s appearance in each text; that is, I want
to examine how Artemisia is situated in relation to the men she fights with and
against in each version, as well as vis-à-vis the audience itself. Artemisia presents
an especially rich case study because her status as a Greek woman fighting on
behalf of Persia raises pointed questions about race as well as gender (on my use
of the terminology of race, see McCoskey 2012: 27–31, 53–6). Moreover, the
stakes of Artemisia’s ‘difference’ will ultimately prove to be much higher in the
film, since Rise of an Empire insists that Greek unity can be achieved only, quite
literally, over Artemisia’s dead body.
Before turning to a closer reading of both texts, however, I want to outline
what we know about Artemisia from historical sources.

artemisia irl
During the early fifth century bc, Artemisia – not to be confused with a later
queen of the same name – ruled a territory in Asia Minor that included the
city of Halicarnassus (modern Bodrum). According to Herodotus, Artemisia’s
mother was from Crete, and her father was from Halicarnassus (7.99). She
held power as a widow, and Herodotus’ phrasing implies that she ascended to
the throne at her husband’s death (Carney 2005: 75). Halicarnassus had been
founded as a Greek settlement, but the Persian empire took possession of it in
the mid-sixth century bc. Artemisia thus ruled as a Persian satrap, a kind of

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 the g reat es ca pe : re a d in g a rte mis ia 211

semi-independent viceroy responsible for sending annual tribute to the Persian

king. During Xerxes’ invasion of Greece (480 bc) Artemisia led a cohort of five
ships, and after the Persian defeat at Salamis she allegedly helped convey Xerxes’
illegitimate sons to Ephesus (Herodotus 8.103, 107). She is not heard from
again in contemporary sources.
Later Greek sources record mixed reactions to Artemisia’s participation in
the Persian wars. In Aristophanes’ Lysistrata (411 bc), for example, the male
chorus warns that the city’s rebellious women might send a navy to attack ‘just
like Artemisia did’ (674–5). More suggestive, perhaps, of Artemisia’s notori-
ous gender bending, Euripides identifies himself as ‘Artemisia’ when disguised
as an old woman near the end of Aristophanes’ Women at the Thesmophoria
(411 bc) (line 1200; see Austin and Olson 2004: 345–6). Centuries later,
Pausanias (ca. 120–180 ad) identifies Artemisia as one of the figures depicted
in the Persian Stoa at Sparta, noting that she joined Xerxes’ campaign ‘of her
own free will’ (ekousiōs) (Description of Greece 3.11.3; see also Vitruvius On
Architecture 1.1.6). Adopting a more critical tone, Plutarch (ca. 45–120 ad)
mentions Artemisia only once in his narrative of Salamis (Life of Themistocles
14.3), having elsewhere chided Herodotus for devoting too much attention to
her (‘On the Malice of Herodotus’ 43).
Notably, Herodotus was himself also from Halicarnassus, and his generally
positive portrayal of Artemisia highlights in important ways her continuing
capacity for ‘escape’.

artemisia in herodotus
Artemisia makes her dramatic entrance in Herodotus’ text when the historian
professes that he feels the need to name none of Xerxes’ fleet commanders except
Artemisia, because, he contends, as ‘a woman fighting against Greece’ she is a
‘marvel’ or ‘wonder’ (thoma) (7.99.1). Herodotus notes that Artemisia took over
her husband’s kingship after his death and that she has a son, explicitly posi-
tioning her within the institutions of both city and family. He further under-
lines Artemisia’s difference from Xerxes’ other allies by insisting that she fights
because of her spirit and ‘courage’ or ‘manliness’ (andreia), and not because she
was compelled to do so, a direct contrast with leaders he dismissed a few chap-
ters earlier as ‘slaves’ (7.96.2; on andreia see Penrose in this volume).
From the outset, Herodotus thus places Artemisia, the ‘fighting woman’,
outside the roles traditionally assigned to Greek women. His very use of
andreia – a concept derived from the Greek word ‘man’ (see Bassi 2003) –
underlines her departure from the standard codes of Greek femininity. Even
more, the rare association of andreia with ‘wonder’ in Herodotus specifically
‘emerges where boundaries are blurred and categories confused’ (Harrell 2003:
77). So the ‘marvel’ of Artemisia entails both her escape from conventional

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 212 d eni se ei leen m c cosk ey

categories and her multivalent ‘difference’ – her sexual difference as a woman,

which distinguishes her from men; her masculine andreia and participation in
‘fighting’, which distinguish her from other women (Dewald 1981; Blok 2002;
Hazewindus 2004) and her autonomy, which distinguishes her from the rest
of Xerxes’ allies.
Once introduced, Artemisia’s unique status remains a prominent part of
Herodotus’ narrative. During the battle of Salamis, Artemisia allegedly rams
an ally when being pursued by an Athenian ship and Herodotus reports that
the strategy gains her a double advantage: she fools the Athenians, and Xerxes
afterwards holds her in even higher regard (8.88.1–2). Xerxes himself interprets
Artemisia’s bold act as the manifestation of fundamental gender inversion, pro-
claiming: ‘My men have become women and my women, men’ (8.88.3). In
Xerxes’ estimation, then, Artemisia’s gender transgression is not so much a cause
for wonder, but rather a means for overturning the entire gender system.
As the phrasing of Xerxes’ outburst suggests, Herodotus employs gender as
a prominent framework throughout his narrative. Herodotus openly calls into
question the masculinity of the Persian forces in his earlier account of Thermo-
pylae, proposing that Xerxes himself recognised that ‘although there were many
people (anthrōpoi), there were few men (andres)’ in his ranks (7.210.2). Con-
versely, Herodotus records the Greeks’ attempt to enforce strict gender boundar-
ies when they establish a special reward of ten thousand drachmas for Artemisia’s
capture, purportedly resenting that ‘a woman would wage war against Athens’
(8.93.2). Having himself labelled Artemisia’s fight against Greece a ‘wonder’,
Herodotus immediately reassures his audience that she escaped without get-
ting caught (8.93.2). As such approval might suggest, despite all her differences
and her allegiance to Persia, Herodotus endows Artemisia with a comforting or
familiar ‘sameness’ in relation to his Greek audience.
The Greeks of Asia Minor present a notable conundrum in ancient racial
theory (Thomas 2000: 94), and any attempt to define the region of Caria
(where Halicarnassus was located) ‘culturally, ethnically or even geographically
is itself not straightforward’ (Unwin 2017: 1); for one, ‘(i)ts diverse popula-
tion included Persians, Lydians, and especially Carians’ (Munson 2014: 348).
Moreover, in terms of Artemisia’s own background, just as her own parents were
evidently from Crete and Halicarnassus, Rosaria Vignolo Munson notes that
the ‘occurrence of Carian names . . . as well as Greek’ in the ruling family of
Halicarnassus ‘suggests intermarriage’ (Munson 2014: 348). Susan McWilliams
posits that Herodotus’ interest in ‘marriage and sex across political boundaries’
was part of a broader interest in representing ‘hybridity’ throughout his text
(McWilliams 2013: 748), and this might suggest that a certain racial fluidity
helps define Artemisia’s ‘difference’ to Herodotus.
Yet despite his general interest in hybridity and his acknowledgement of
the frequent porousness of borders separating groups, Herodotus treats racial
groups as distinct and he defines their differences primarily through culture,

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 the g reat es ca pe : re a d in g a rte mis ia 213

that is, by ‘practices, prescriptions, and prohibitions’ as well as ‘worldview’

(Munson 2014: 350; see also Thomas 2001: 226). So Herodotus’ association of
Artemisia with various ‘Greek’ ideas and practices is critical to his construction
of her Greek racial identity, even when it is at odds with other textual strate-
gies (for the opposing argument, that she remains ‘ethnically ambiguous’, see
Harrell 2003: 82–8). When urging Xerxes not to fight at Salamis, for example,
Artemisia invokes the conventional Greek view of gender, warning the Persian
king that ‘their men (i.e., the Greeks’) are stronger than your men at sea by as
much as men are stronger than women’ (8.68.1). Employing the analogy Greeks
: Persians :: men : women, Artemisia is thus made to assert the Greek view of
male superiority that her own actions defy, while endorsing the standard Greek
association of Persians with effeminacy.
Munson identifies other features that align Artemisia closely with the Greeks:
her ability to act according to her own free will (1988: 95); her stewardship of
a strong navy (95, 97ff.); her prominent role as adviser, including willingness
to speak what the Persian king may not want to hear (95–8); and her act of
self-preservation in ramming an ally ship (98–102). Munson further argues that
many of these qualities closely mirror those of the Athenian leader Themistocles
himself. Themistocles, for example, frequently engages in free speech, a demo-
cratic prerogative (Munson 1988: 97), and the respective strategies Artemisia
and Themistocles advocate in regard to Salamis have strong correlation (Mun-
son 1988: 98; see also Pelling 2006: 110–12). Finally, not only does Herodotus
applaud Artemisia’s ‘aptitude for survival through fraud’ (Lateiner 1990: 232)
at Salamis, but he also finds its parallel in the capacity of both Athens and The-
mistocles to be ‘ethically and politically flexible, according to what seems most
expedient’ (Munson 1988: 100).
In all, Herodotus balances an abiding emphasis on Artemisia’s difference –
the exceptionality that sets her apart when it comes to gender – with a strik-
ing vision of her racial sameness as articulated through Greek qualities like
autonomy, democratic or free speech, and skill at self-preservation. While she
remains opposed to the inevitable Greek victory, Artemisia nonetheless survives,
as Herodotus himself reminds us. So his ultimate take on Artemisia might by
encapsulated by her propensity for escape: her escape both from the boundaries
of gender as a ‘woman fighting’ and from the clutches of her Greek pursuers
during the battle itself.
Escape will prove to be a more complicated prospect for Artemisia in Rise of
an Empire.

artemisia in 300 : RISE OF AN EMPIRE

Rise of an Empire opens with 300’s iconic image of the Spartans lying dead at
Thermopylae, yet the action soon moves back ten years earlier to the battle
of Marathon, where combined forces from Athens and Plataea halted the first

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 214 deni se ei leen m c cosk ey

Persian invasion in 490 bc. In an act completely invented by the filmmakers,

Themistocles (Sullivan Stapleton) shoots an arrow into the Persian king Darius
(Igal Naor) as his son Xerxes (Rodrigo Santoro) watches. The Spartan queen
Gorgo (Lena Headey), who provides the film’s narration, insinuates that the
second Persian invasion will derive from Xerxes’ rage, but a different source for
the encounter soon emerges: female vengeance.
As the setting shifts to Persia, Artemisia, the king’s ‘finest naval commander’,
makes her dramatic entrance, striding fiercely into Darius’ throne room. The cam-
era closes in on Artemisia as Gorgo recounts her qualities of ‘ferocity’, ‘beauty’
and ‘devotion’ to the king. While Gorgo defines Artemisia in part by her physical
appearance, Artemisia is actually far from conventionally beautiful in the terms of
the franchise; unlike other female characters, she routinely wears black (she also
notably wears the pants in the film, literally), heavy black eye make-up, and hair
strictly parted – all in all, a ‘vampiric femme fatale’ (LaSalle 2014) (Fig. 15.1).
Moreover, Gorgo’s initial label of ‘ferocity’ soon trumps all other features.
Gorgo posits that Darius ‘had the perfect warrior protégé’ in Artemisia, but
their encounter implies a more intimate bond. As Artemisia kisses the dying

Figure 15.1 Eva Green as a ‘vampiric femme fatale’ in 300: Rise of an Empire,
dir. Noam Murro, USA: Warner Bros. Pictures, 2014.

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 the g reat es ca pe : re a d in g a rte mis ia 215

king’s hand, Darius murmurs ‘so sweet . . . my child . . . my sweet . . . child’.

Artemisia becomes visibly dismayed as she hears Darius warning Xerxes that
‘only the gods can defeat’ the Greeks, and, with a tear running down her cheek,
she leans over and pulls out the arrow still lodged in Darius’ chest, hastening
his death. Then, Gorgo says, Artemisia ‘whisper(s) the seed of madness’ to the
grief-stricken Xerxes, sending him on a solitary quest that transforms him into a
god as well as king, now in possession of the towering, androgynous form of the
first 300. Artemisia soon continues her verbal mastery over Xerxes. As the king
addresses an enormous crowd from the palace balcony, Artemisia mouths his
words along with him, then overtakes him on the final word, whispering first:
‘war’. In this way, Artemisia’s skill with language is radically transformed from
what was advisory and democratic in Herodotus to something domineering and
destabilising. Even more, Gorgo reports that Artemisia has ‘cleansed’ the palace
of ‘all Xerxes’ allies’, and a montage shows her brutally stabbing, strangling and
drowning a series of courtiers in quick succession.
Artemisia’s ‘ferocity’ – her lust for war and murderous rampage, not to men-
tion cold dispatch of her father/king – expresses well her dangerous position with
regard to gender in the world of the film. For, operating under different cultural
codes, today’s action film needs to account not for what Herodotus considered a
‘wonder’, that is, a ‘woman fighting’ (there are a number of female action heroes),
but rather female violence itself. As Hilary Neroni (2005: 106) writes, ‘(f)emale
violence disturbs us – and filmic narratives’ because ‘(o)nce a woman embarks on
violence, we have a sense that she may never stop’. Modern film has thus developed
a specific narrative ‘to provide a justification . . . for female violence’ (Tasker 2002:
152), one that contains female violence, even as it allows its release: rape-revenge
(Henry 2014; Heller-Nicholas 2011; Read 2000). Drawing heavily on the genre
of rape-revenge, the filmmakers therefore insert a traumatic backstory of their own
invention to ‘explain’ Artemisia’s violence.
Themistocles himself recounts Artemisia’s history of extreme abuse after his
friend Scyllias (Callan Mulvey) reports that she ‘is murderous by trade with true
skill on the sea’ and a ‘thirst for vengeance’. When Scyllias adds, ‘Rumours are her
entire family was murdered by a squad of Greek hoplites’, Themistocles elabo-
rates, providing the voice-over for a flashback that shows first Artemisia as a
young girl, crying as her city and family are destroyed and soldiers slowly advance
on her; then, as a slightly older girl held captive in ‘the bowels of a Greek slave
ship’ as a male figure glances around surreptitiously and starts to undress. Years
later, Themistocles says, ‘she was discarded and left for dead’ and the camera
lingers on the brutalised body of the young woman as she lies abandoned on a
sidewalk. With heavy voice, Themistocles pronounces that ‘Artemisia vowed that
day to return to Greece only when she could watch it burn.’
A rape-revenge narrative was notably employed in 300 when Gorgo, having
been forced into sex by a corrupt Spartan politician, takes public revenge by

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 216 deni se ei leen m c cosk ey

killing him (on Gorgo, see Tomasso 2013). Artemisia’s rape-revenge plot is both
more expansive and more politically radical, however. For one, rather than tar-
geting Artemisia’s dangerous aggression at an individual rapist, her vengeance
is directed against all of Greece itself; it is thus, by its very nature, virtually
limitless. Artemisia’s quest for revenge might therefore be seen as systemic, as a
response to deep-seated patriarchal structures and ‘institutionalised male power’
(Tasker 2002: 152). Put in that light, it is little wonder that so much of the audi-
ence found Eva Green’s Artemisia so exhilarating.
The rape-revenge narrative also helps account for Artemisia’s distinct look in
the film. Yvonne Tasker argues that ‘for the action heroine as much as the action
hero, the development of muscles as a sort of body armour signifies physical
vulnerability as well as strength’ (2002: 152), and Artemisia’s body responds to
its prior exploitation not by displaying the pronounced musculature so associ-
ated with 300 (Turner 2009), but by aiming for complete impenetrability. With
only one notable exception, Artemisia’s body is relentlessly concealed behind
heavy black clothing with metallic trim, culminating in a final costume that
has actual spikes down the back. Such clothing signifies power and not merely
containment, and its design is clearly meant to cast her as a kind of dominatrix
as well, especially when reciting lines like, ‘Today we deliver submission’. As
the duality of Artemisia’s clothing intimates – connoting both protection and
aggression – her position in the film involves a central paradox: she is both given
what should be a sympathy-producing rape-revenge plot and cast as the villain,
a rule-breaking aberration the audience is meant to root against.
The film offsets sympathy for Artemisia, in part, by underlining her radical
difference from the men in the film, a strategy that involves not just gender, but
also racial frames of reference. Herodotus, as we have seen, finds no contradic-
tion in both acknowledging Artemisia’s loyalty to Persia and her ‘Greekness’;
nor would this combination have troubled a Greek audience who knew very
well that many Greeks fought on the Persian side (Cartledge 2013: 9, 62–3).
Yet Rise of an Empire treats the Persian wars as an encounter fought along strict
racial lines, and Artemisia’s status as a Greek woman fighting on behalf of Persia
is raised as a problem early in the film.
The scene begins as Artemisia, sitting on the deck of her ship, brazenly carves
and eats an apple (a sly echo of Leonidas in 300). A male prisoner is dragged
before her and he calls her ‘a whore from the eastern seas’, the film’s only allusion
to Halicarnassus. He then goads Artemisia’s men, proclaiming, ‘Your commander
is a Greek. Just like me. You Persian men take your orders from a Greek woman!’,
intimating that gender inversion – women commanding men – is both degrading
and innate to Persian order. The prisoner notably tries to highlight Artemisia’s
sameness to himself, labelling her ‘Greek’ and ‘just like me’, but she refuses any
affinity and calmly asserts a different source for her racial identification: ‘Yes, my
brother. I am Greek by birth and I have Greek blood running through my veins,

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 the g reat es ca pe : re a d in g a rte mis ia 217

but my heart is Persian.’ She then decapitates the prisoner, slowly kissing the unat-
tached head on the lips before casually discarding it.
The act that concludes Artemisia’s repudiation of her Greek identity is, to say
the least, disconcerting; but by discounting the passive attributes of genealogy
and blood, Artemisia makes the active decision to prioritise her ‘heart’ instead, an
identification that sets ‘nurture’ over ‘nature’ and is explained by the remainder
of her backstory. For, after being ‘discarded’, Themistocles informs us that the
young Artemisia was ‘found near death by a Persian emissary’. Shaking his head
as he looks down on her – a subtle and moving display of disapproval within a
franchise that generally glamorises violence – the emissary (Peter Mensah) ten-
derly lifts Artemisia up and her reconstruction begins. The flashback shifts to a
stock scene of young Artemisia being trained in sword fare and concludes with
the now adult Artemisia presenting decapitated heads to king Darius as the emis-
sary proudly looks on.
The second half of Artemisia’s backstory illustrates well why she would
choose a Persian ‘heart’, but it also, I believe, raises additional questions about
her racial identification in the film since the emissary who finds Artemisia is, in
fact, the unnamed Black Persian messenger from 300, the franchise’s only major
Black character. Thus, the film not only aligns Artemisia with the ‘non-white
otherness’ of the Persians (Burton 2016: 14), but also gives her a Black men-
tor who shapes her into a powerful warrior. The inclusion of a Black character
shows important recognition of the Persian empire’s multiculturalism; indeed,
the Greeks’ first widespread encounter with Black Africans may well have been
through Xerxes’ army (Snowden 1997: 107). Yet black skin colour would not
have had the same racial connotations in antiquity (McCoskey 2012: 8–9), and
the film’s decision to make the Black emissary Artemisia’s saviour reinforces the
outsider status of both characters for today’s (White) audiences.
It is crucial not to overstate the meaning the film derives from Artemisia’s
connection to the emissary. For one, the film frustratingly refuses to let the adult
Artemisia express any devotion to him. In fact, when she enquires of Xerxes,
‘Still no word from the messenger you spent to Sparta?’, she shows (like the
film itself ) no knowledge that he even has a name. Moreover, we should not
overlook the persistence of the ‘magical negro’ stock character when assessing
the emissary’s restorative care of Artemisia (Hughey 2009: 568; see also Glenn
and Cunningham 2009; on Black characters in earlier epic films, Bâ 2011;
Blanshard and Shahabudin 2011: 226). Yet I believe we can witness the paral-
lel consequences of the ‘otherness’ binding Artemisia and the Black emissary
nonetheless, for the franchise places the death of each at the core of Greek iden-
tity formation. In 300, after all, the cry ‘This is Sparta!’ comes not during the
Spartan battle against Persian forces, but as Leonidas kicks the Black emissary
down a well. Meaning for all 300’s emphasis on east versus west, Spartan iden-
tity is actually articulated most concisely over the demise of the Black male body,

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 218 deni se ei leen m c cosk ey

just as Greek unity will be consolidated over the White (non-Greek) female one
in Rise of an Empire.
In a franchise replete with bloodshed, Artemisia is also distinguished by the
extreme nature of her violence. When she kisses the decapitated head, she distorts
the boundaries between sexuality and violence in shocking ways. And – to ensure
the audience feels authorised to judge it that way – both Artemisia’s own officer
and the Greek Scyllias look away in disgust. Such representations of Artemisia
are troubling when placed against the backdrop of her rape-revenge narrative: to
what extent might trauma inform what the film takes as her ‘perversity’? On the
other hand, it is noteworthy that, the captive’s comment aside, male characters
generally avoid objectifying her, and she is the one who initiates sexual contact
with Themistocles, suggesting she views sex as a mode of power and control.
Although the film makes a failed seduction the ultimate source of conflict
between Artemisia and Themistocles (rather improbably and also uncomfortably
given Artemisia’s backstory), it earlier hints at some of the profound similarities
they share, drawing an intriguing parallel to Herodotus’ text. Such a mirroring is
especially meaningful because Artemisia’s isolation remains one of her defining
features in Rise of an Empire. For, contrary to Herodotus’ text, the film relent-
lessly deprives Artemisia of both city and family. In striking contrast to Gorgo,
the franchise’s other major female character, for example, the adult Artemisia
remains emphatically unencumbered by the private sphere. Such detachment
surely allows her a radical form of autonomy, the quality she is so praised for in
antiquity. Yet rather than allowing Artemisia to take any pleasure in her unique
and transgressive subject position, the film insists that she experience it solely
as a detriment. After being told of losses her fleet has sustained, for example,
Artemisia laments that ‘my disappointment is in these men of whom I stand
among. 10,000. I am alone.’
Themistocles openly acknowledges his resemblance to Artemisia when, after
hearing Scyllias remark that ‘she (Artemisia) has sold her soul to death himself ’,
he responds, ‘some could say I’ve sold mine to Greece’. Moreover, like Artemisia
(and unlike Leonidas in 300) Themistocles is not bound by any obligations to
family per se. In fact, when Artemisia probes to see why the Athenian fights,
Themistocles professes, ‘I’ve had no time for family. I have spent my entire life
with my one true love, the Greek fleet, and my one passion, readying it for you.’
His suggestive use of ‘love’ and ‘passion’ conveys well the erotic dimensions of
Athenian political discourse (Wohl 2002), yet it also foregrounds the increas-
ingly sexualised nature of his connection to Artemisia; indeed, he makes the
confession as Artemisia is seducing him.
Wearing a revealing dress for the only time, Artemisia summons Themistocles
to her ship to try to recruit him to her side. But after they engage in rough sex,
each aggressively trying to dominate the other, Themistocles bluntly refuses her
offer. Afterwards, he notes wryly to his men that, ‘The next time we meet her,
she’s going to bring all of hell with her.’ And with that snide comment, Artemisia’s

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 the g reat es ca pe : re a d in g a rte mis ia 219

status dramatically shifts from that of Themistocles’ equal and counterpart to

that of woman scorned, from a larger vendetta against Greece to a more personal
revenge against one man.
This redirection and narrowing of Artemisia’s rage notably allows their
final encounter at Salamis to serve as the film’s climax. In preparing for that
battle, Themistocles now defies sexist tropes and asserts that he wants to defeat
Artemisia not because of some misogynist financial reward, but because of his
deep respect for her skill, claiming that ‘without Artemisia’s command, the
Persian navy is nothing’. But when he says to Artemisia, ‘Who would you
fight if not for me?’ during their sword fight, there is a wilful erasure of the
broader desires for revenge that once animated her, and I felt myself wanting
to scream out on her behalf: ‘All of Greece!’
As the film shrinks Artemisia’s vengeance, her power diminishes and her body
is once again targeted for abuse, now by both the Greek and Persian sides. During
an argument, Xerxes, who was once dominated by her, now strikes Artemisia bru-
tally across the face, knocking her to the ground. As blood trails from her mouth,
Artemisia responds defiantly (Fig. 15.2), but the scene underlines her increasing
loss of control by inverting their advisory relationship: it is Xerxes who now also

Figure 15.2 Artemisia (Eva Green) responds to Xerxes’ blow; 300: Rise of an Empire,
dir. Noam Murro, USA: Warner Bros. Pictures, 2014.

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 220 deni se ei leen m c cosk ey

(wisely) warns Artemisia not to engage the Greeks in battle. Themistocles soon
after strikes a similarly intimate blow, punching Artemisia across the face during
their final sword fight. The film underscores the significance of this moment by
having Artemisia’s blood splatter hit the camera lens and linger there as she her-
self slowly rises. But while Themistocles himself seems momentarily stunned by
this sudden capitulation to the pleasure the film takes in punishing Artemisia’s
body, any opportunity for reflecting critically on the act of interpersonal violence
evaporates when Artemisia is made simply to ridicule Themistocles’ earlier sexual
performance, taunting him, ‘You fight much harder than you fuck.’
It is the elimination of Artemisia’s cunning escape, however, that most reveals
the fatal consequences of her difference in the world of today’s film. For as Arte-
misia and Themistocles continue their fight, a fleet of Spartan ships approaches
in the distance and Themistocles informs Artemisia that ‘all of Greece has
united against you’. To which she replies only, ‘If death comes for me today, I’m
ready.’ It is then Themistocles who urges, ‘there is still time for you to ready a
launch and escape’, making escape in the film a function not of Artemisia’s craft
and self-preservation, but a male prerogative to distribute. Artemisia adamantly
refuses his offer, and her final word in the film is a disbelieving ‘surrender’. After
Themistocles finally pierces her stomach with his sword, she grabs his shoulder
and pushes herself further onto it. When Artemisia pulls back from the sword,
she falls onto her knees, and the film freezes her momentarily in a posture dis-
concertingly reminiscent of surrender – has Artemisia, in fact, escaped surrender
with her bold act, or merely confirmed it by her death?

conclusion
I can locate the origin of this article in a comment made by my friend, a TV
studies scholar, as we exited the theatre: ‘I don’t get it,’ he said. ‘Why exactly
are we supposed to be rooting against Artemisia?’ One answer is, of course, that
the franchise establishes the defeat of the Persians, and so Artemisia herself,
as a precondition for the emergence of ‘western values’ like freedom, a theme
promoted as well in ancient Greek representations of the Persian wars. Yet the
film’s portrayal of Artemisia’s early sexual abuse at the hands of Greek soldiers
and Greek slave-dealers offers a powerful opening for reconsidering both the
costs and victims of such values, that is, the types of subjects who are exploited
and then ‘discarded’ by the western ‘democratic’ project. Even more, the film
ultimately insists on her death. So we are invited to sympathise with Artemisia,
but only to an extent. What extent?
My reaction to the film became even more confused as I discovered that some
of my students found it easier than I to dismiss Artemisia’s violent backstory,
relying mainly on the ‘perversity’ and power she wields as an adult combatant to
cheer her defeat. Such views admittedly left me unsettled (did they really have so

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 the g reat es ca pe : re a d in g a rte mis ia 221

little compassion?), but their comments also helped me articulate more clearly
the interpretive dilemma I was experiencing: how can/should the film’s audi-
ence calibrate Artemisia’s extreme victimisation in the past with her forceful and
subversive agency in the present? Does the end of the film merely reinforce a
disturbing pattern of abuse against her, or does it furnish her with a final act of
resistance?
In trying to bring together a reading of Artemisia, I was fortunate that a
number of friends encouraged me to grapple with the film in ways that I ini-
tially resisted. My TV scholar friend, for one, forced me to work through my
initial distaste for Themistocles and admit the ways his character embodied a
more complicated vision of masculinity than that of the Spartans in 300. It
is Themistocles, after all, who utters on behalf of many of us an exasperated
‘Spartans’ when watching the Spartans’ violent training regime. And, at closer
look, Themistocles’ character operates in surprisingly complicated ways with
and against Artemisia (bar the requisite – and quite depressing – sex scene and
its locker-room denouement: you’re better than that, Themistocles!).
In short, I realised I needed to account for both what I perceived as the film’s
deep-seated misogyny and the fact that Artemisia’s presence, her unremitting
defiance of the film’s dominant narrative, was so electrifying. If the film asks its
audience to root against Artemisia (and it does), many people I know who saw
the film, myself included, did not – and surely that must also be considered a
product of the film.
Finally, however, I wanted to give greater context to 300: Rise of an Empire’s
confounding portrayal of Artemisia by juxtaposing it with Herodotus’ account,
in turn putting our own modern narrative conventions and perhaps even our
own misguided sense of ‘progress’ in greater relief. For despite what we might
think about the ancient world’s strict notions of gender, Herodotus’ account,
unlike that of today’s blockbuster film, did not imagine Artemisia’s body
abused in its youth nor pierced at its death. Indeed, far from seeking any form
of punishment for her ‘wondrous’ subjectivity, Herodotus simply cheered her
thrilling escape.

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 Index

abductive reasoning, 3, 18, 20 attire see clothing

Aeschylus, 31–4, 59, 61, 64 Augustus, 152, 153–4, 205
ambiguity
gender ambiguity, 6, 23, 93, 108, Bacchus see Dionysos
127, 131 beard, 10, 34, 51, 68–70, 72, 87,
sexual ambiguity, 190, 193 88, 114
anatomy, 21, 22, 43, 45, 46–8, 53, binary
67, 68, 69, 70, 72, 73, 75, 86, binary norms see norms
89, 112, 115, 173 gender binary, 2, 5, 7–8, 13, 15,
andreia, 30, 32, 33, 49, 211–12 16, 22, 23, 52, 66, 77–8, 90,
androgynos/us, 19, 24, 30, 33–8, 107, 116, 125, 128, 142, 197,
40–2, 49, 71, 76, 102–3, 197, 198, 204
203, 207; see also androgyny gender non-binary, 2, 30, 39–40,
androgyny, 15, 19, 37, 81, 90–1, 60, 196
107–8, 137, 215; see also sex binary, 7, 13, 43, 44, 56
androgynos/us breasts, 81, 82, 84, 87, 89, 90
Antigone, 31–2 buttocks, 36, 86, 90
Aphrodite, 8, 10, 37, 38, 81, 89,
90, 96 Cassius Dio, 23, 118–28
Apuleius, 24, 38, 157–68 castration, 37, 74, 112, 123, 125,
Aristotle, 8, 30, 33, 35, 45, 66, 157, 159–61
73, 125 chastity, 112, 186, 189, 190,
Pseudo-Aristotle, 30, 34, 194–5
35–6 cinaedus see kinaidos
Artemisia, 25, 32, 209–21 cisgender, 1, 2, 16, 23, 161
asexuality, 6, 14, 48, 161 cisheteronormativity, 2, 7, 14, 22
assault see rape class, 11, 14, 18, 21, 24, 52, 120,
Athena, 8–10, 11–14, 25n, 63–5, 125, 170, 178–80, 181, 182,
113 198, 199, 208

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clothing, 7, 10, 13, 23, 24, 29, 37, easterner, 123, 127, 159, 164
38, 40, 61, 73, 75, 84, 108, 121, eastern appearance, 121, 123, 127
122, 123, 128, 133, 134, 135, effeminacy, 53, 77, 158, 159, 161,
136, 138, 141–2, 149–51, 159, 164, 166–8, 213
160–1, 164, 168, 178, 186, 190, Egypt, 37, 110
194, 195, 216, 218 Elagabalus, 23, 118–28
Clytemnestra, 21, 31–2, 34 embodiment theory, 6, 16, 18
construction Empedocles, 95, 102–4
bodily construction, 44, 65, 186 Enarees see Scythians
gender construction, 2–3, 6, 20, entextualisation, 162, 165, 168
21–2, 29–30, 177, 198 Eros, 84, 86
identity construction, 16, 164, erotes, 145, 148
213 ethnicity, 11, 23, 24, 25, 170, 171–2,
social construction, 2, 177 181, 193; see also race
cosmetics see makeup eunuch, 37, 38, 86, 123, 159–60,
courage, 20–1, 24, 29, 30, 32, 34, 166
35, 41–2, 77, 125, 134, 197, expression
202–3, 211; see also andreia gender expression, 3, 9, 12–14, 23,
cowardice, 30, 34–6, 41–2, 176 68, 118–19, 123, 125, 128, 150,
cross-dressing see transvestism 159, 164, 173, 198
sexual expression, 22, 68
desire
same-sex desire, 23, 106, 169, 174, father, 8, 10, 11, 12, 24, 32, 33, 34,
176, 181 50, 51, 73, 75, 93, 124, 133,
sexual desire, 2, 5, 76, 82, 86, 135, 137, 141, 193, 197, 202,
90–1, 93, 99, 100, 101, 104, 205–7, 210, 215
108–10, 114, 171 Faunus, 135, 151
Diodorus Siculus, 67, 69, 71–7, femininity, 2, 7–8, 11, 13, 15, 18,
81, 122 23, 30, 37–8, 41–2, 77, 107,
Dionysus, 8, 10–14, 15, 56, 60, 65, 119, 123, 125, 126–8, 160,
81, 89, 91, 108, 121, 143–5, 166, 189, 194–5, 198, 211
149–56 feminist theory, 3, 5, 6, 14, 17
diversity
gender diversity, 1–3, 12–15, 17, Gaia Afrania, 197, 201, 203–7
19, 20, 24, 29–30, 32–4, 40, gait, 36, 112, 113, 133, 136, 138,
41, 53, 161 139–41
sexual diversity, 1, 2, 17, 40, gallus/galli, 157–62, 164, 166, 168
41 garment see clothing
doctor see physician gender-blending, 2, 7, 11–12, 18,
dress see clothing 27, 43, 108, 110, 126–7, 138,
dysphoria, 173–4, 177 142, 155, 161, 190, 203, 207

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gender-fluidity, 10, 13–14, 22–4, 89, identity, 2–4, 10–11, 12, 14, 16,
90, 105, 108, 116, 132, 152 17, 18, 21, 23, 24, 55, 61–2,
genitalia, 11, 22, 43, 47, 51, 60, 70, 74, 82, 83, 85, 86, 90, 96,
67, 69–75, 76, 84–6, 89, 91, 97, 100, 104, 116, 128, 149,
112, 123; see also penis; phallus; 150, 153, 162, 163, 166, 168,
testicles 170–2, 173, 175, 177, 180,
Gorgo, 25, 214–16, 218 193, 194–5, 213
female/feminine identity, 69, 125,
hair, 10, 36, 51, 52, 69, 81, 87–9, 157, 166
111, 113, 116, 122, 133, gender identity, 3, 10, 14–15, 18,
138–9, 159, 164–5, 186, 190, 19–21, 22, 24, 55, 70, 77, 109,
195, 214 118–19, 123, 128, 133, 142,
body hair, 68–9, 88 157, 159, 161, 162, 165, 174,
facial hair see beard 175, 178, 194, 198
Halicarnassus, 32, 210–11, 212, 216 Greek identity, 120, 217
Hephaestus, 8, 25n, 57, 58, 59, male/masculine identity, 10, 12,
62–3, 65, 101 72, 75, 123, 172, 174, 178,
Heracles, 9, 56, 138–9; see also 199, 206
Hercules queer identity see queerness
Heraïs, 71–7 sexual identity, 3, 24, 62, 186,
Hercules, 23, 134–6, 141, 143–54, 191, 194
155–6; see also Heracles transgender identity see
hermaphrodite, 18, 19, 76, 89 transgender
Hermaphroditus, 15, 18, 19–20, 22, intelligence, 20–1, 29, 30–1, 34,
67, 81–94, 95–105, 107, 108, 42, 202
115, 177 intercourse, 69, 72, 74, 100, 102,
Herodian, 23, 118–19, 120–7 112, 114, 124, 159
Herodotus, 25, 32, 37–9, 210–13, intersectionality, 3, 5, 19, 23, 24, 41,
215, 216, 218, 221 55, 169–72, 181, 182
Hesiod, 21, 56–7, 59, 64, 65–6 intersex, 2, 14, 17, 18, 19, 30, 33–4,
heteronormativity, 2, 12, 14, 16, 17, 37–41, 67, 71, 75–6, 95, 102–4,
18, 25, 106 161, 173, 177
heterosexuality, 1, 14, 110, 181 intersexuality, 37, 41, 104
hijras, 161, 168 intertextuality, 132, 135, 136,
Hippocratics, 32–5, 37, 44–50, 140–1, 185–6, 187, 190–1,
52–3, 68–70, 72 193–5
Pseudo-Hippocrates, 35, 36, Iphis, 19, 23, 106–16
38–40
homosexuality, 4–5, 18, 42, 114, Kallo, 71–7
159, 169–70, 172, 175, 176–7 kinaidos, 17, 21, 30, 35–7, 41–2,
Hortensia, 197, 201, 202, 204–8 157–9, 163–6, 168

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lesbian, 21, 24, 106, 108, 173–4 Nanno, 51, 68–9, 70

Lesbian, 173, 175–6, 179 Nero, 126, 153–5
lesbianism, 41, 169, 174 non-binary see binary
Lucian, 19, 24, 160, 169–82 non-conformity, 15, 24, 38, 40,
Pseudo-Lucian, 90 55, 68, 86, 123–4, 161,
Lucretius, 22, 95, 99–104 173, 198
norms, 3, 8, 15, 24, 29, 169
maenads, 11, 12, 87, 143, 145 binary norms, 7, 22, 24
Maesia of Sentinum, 197, cultural norms, 44, 110, 152
201–7 gender norms, 2, 7, 16, 22, 23, 24,
make-up, 40, 121, 122, 159, 214 30–1, 77, 108–9, 114, 169, 170,
manliness, 124, 134, 211; 171, 172, 174, 180, 195, 197,
see also andreia 200, 201, 204–5, 207
marriage, 4, 8, 9, 23, 24, 32, 74, sexual norms, 16, 170, 172
76–7, 110, 121, 124, 151, 152, social norms, 16, 22, 23, 36, 178,
165, 186, 188, 193, 194–5, 190, 201, 207
212
Mary Magdalene, 189 Octavian see Augustus
Mary of Bethany, 185, 187–91 Omphale, 23, 56, 134–6, 143–56
masculinity, 2, 6, 7–9, 13–15, 18, oratory, 198, 206, 207–8; see also
19, 23, 36, 75, 77, 89–90, 107, rhetoric
114–15, 119, 122, 125, 127, orientation, sexual, 99, 157, 159,
128, 159, 161, 169, 175, 177–8, 175, 178, 180
180, 198, 212, 221 Ovid, 18, 19, 20, 22–3, 66, 82, 92,
female masculinity, 6, 13, 24, 30, 93–4, 95–105, 106–16, 134–6,
32, 41, 108, 195 140–2, 143, 145, 148, 150–2,
male masculinity, 8, 18, 21 156
Roman masculinity, 111, 112,
115, 207 Pan, 20, 84–5, 91, 92, 93
Megillos, 24, 169, 173–82 Pandora, 21–2, 54–66
menopause, 47, 48, 51 Paul, 186–7, 189–91, 193,
menses see menstruation 194, 195
menstruation, 47, 51, 68–9, 73 penetration, 17, 75, 85, 90, 92–3,
modesty, 136, 138, 139, 141, 197, 100, 106, 108–9, 111, 124,
201, 204, 206–7 159, 161
mother, 9, 11, 12, 25n, 32, 33, penis, 14, 22, 69–73, 81, 82, 83–7,
50–1, 57, 65, 93, 110, 111, 112, 89–91, 112, 113, 114, 121,
115, 123, 159, 161, 182, 192, 177–8; see also genitalia;
193, 202, 205, 210 phallus
motherhood, 9, 24, 25n Persians, 32, 37, 41, 121, 209, 212,
myrrh, 188–9, 192–3, 194 213, 216, 217, 220

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Phaëthousa, 51, 68–9, 70, 72 Salmacis, 18, 19, 82, 92, 94,
phallus, 14–15, 17, 62, 113, 177 95–101, 104, 115
phallocentricity, 83, 86, 159, satyr, 11, 12, 20, 22, 56, 57–62, 64,
178, 180 65, 81, 85, 88–9, 90, 91, 93,
see also genitalia; penis 143, 151, 155
Phlegon of Tralles, 68, 69–71, 73–7 Scythians, 29–30, 37–41
physician, 21, 40, 43–6, 47, 51–2, seed, 33, 50–1, 52, 59
53, 68, 70, 71–2, 76, 125, self-representation, 144, 157, 166,
164, 186 198, 199, 202
physiognomy, 21, 29, 36, 89, 125–6 sex
Physiognomics, 35, 41 assigned sex, 2, 9, 10, 13–14, 23,
Plato, 8, 22, 30, 35, 52, 95, 99–101, 24, 67, 157, 161, 169, 171,
178, 181 173–4, 176, 178, 179
Pliny the Elder, 67, 69–71, 73–6 biological sex, 2, 3, 7, 8, 19, 23,
posthumanism, 22, 82–3 106, 112, 198
Priapus, 14, 18, 91, 145, 148 perceived sex, 14, 173
prostitution see sex: sex work physical sex, 13, 14, 112
puer, 20, 81, 93, 96, 102–3, 111, sex change, 67–8, 74, 77, 85,
113, 114, 115–16, 140–1 106, 109–10, 112, 114–15,
116; see also transition
queer theory, 3, 6, 14, 16, 17, sex essentialism, 82
18, 19 sex work, 5, 36, 124, 167, 182,
queerness, 16, 17, 29, 175 188, 193
Silius Italicus, 23, 131–2, 137, 142
race, 11, 18, 25, 158, 171–2, Sophocles, 21, 31–2, 56, 57–62,
210, 212–13, 216–17; see also 64–5
ethnicity spikenard see myrrh
rape, 25n, 96, 135, 148, 151, 163, Statius, 23, 131–7, 139–42
185, 186, 193, 215–16, 218
reproductive matter see seed testes see testicles
rhetoric, 23, 24, 115, 166, 170, 186, testicles, 69, 70–1, 73, 114
195, 197–9, 202, 206; see also Thecla, 24, 185–7, 189–91, 193–6
oratory Tiresias, 12, 67, 74, 114–15, 132,
role 135, 174, 177
gender role, 2, 8, 9, 13, 124–5, trans theory, 3, 6, 14, 16, 17–18
173, 197, 206–7 transgender, 1, 2, 6, 18, 23,
sexual role, 75, 109, 159, 24, 29–30, 37–42, 55, 162,
161, 179 177; see also identity
social role, 70, 145, 150, transition, 39–40, 67, 72–4, 77–8,
161, 173 110, 114, 115, 116, 161, 173,
Ruth, 185–6, 191–6 177; see also sex: sex change

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transvestism, 40, 150–1, 157, virgin, 9, 25n, 31, 32,

190, 195 65, 189
transvestite, 23, 29, 135, 161 virtus, 125, 131, 133–4, 137,
140, 141–2
Valerius Maximus, 24, 197–8, Virtus, 23, 131–42
200–8
violence, 5, 9, 15, 16, 17–18, 21, 116, womb, 11, 25n, 33, 43, 47–8,
200, 201, 215, 217–18, 220 51, 69, 72

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