277: ANCIENT GENDER-BENDERS
LGBTQIA2S+. How long before they take over the entire alphabet? Was there an ancient equivalent? Not in so many words or letters. But, as usual, there are some classical inklings.
Lots of academic and medical literature and websites for every topic here covered.
Surely significant that transitioning had its roots in Greek mythology – namely, the prophet of Apollo and general clairvoyant Tiresias. Displeased by him, the goddess Hera changed him into a woman. He spent seven years in this condition, marrying and spawning children. Eventually, he was allowed to regain his masculinity.
These gender shifts gave authority to his claim that women derive 10 times more pleasure from sex than men. True, he was uniquely fitted to know, but one would rather think in terms of mutual 50-50 enjoyment.
One major source for this superhermaphrodite is Phlegon of Tralles, freedman of the emperor Hadrian, who compiled a fortean-like Mirabilia – see ch.4 for Teiresias; English translation by William Hansen (1996). One of his major topics is sex-changes. Notably, all his examples are from woman to man. In chapter six, having mentioned an hermaphodite at Antioch, he recounts the story of a 13-year-old girl who after three days and nights of excruciating stomach pains suddenly experienced an eruption of male genitals and became a man. She was sent to Emperor Claudius, who was sufficiently impressed to build a temple to Jupiter the Averter of Evils.
Pliny (NH bk7 ch4 para37) asserts that women turning into men is “no idle story”, citing several cases on record, capping these with the claim that he himself saw a woman transmogrify into a man on her wedding day – beat that for being stood up! For more on all this, see the online article by Danielle Hone & Siobban McElduff.
For what follows, see the online article ‘Hermaphroditism in Greek and Roman Antiquity’ by George Androutsos. The Superstitious Man in Theophrastus (Characters 16) is especially wary of them. For a long time, intersex births were regarded with horror. Livy (bk31 ch12 paras6-8) records such cases, the unfortunate infants being routinely killed, often as part of religious ritual. Over time, attitudes mutated from fear to fascination – witness the mentions of them by Phlegon.
One notable Roman case was the philosopher Favorinus of Arles (AD c.60-c.160), the subject of anecdotes in Aulus Gellius’s Attic Nights. Depending on which source, he is variously described as an hermaphrodite or eunuch. Happily, we need not here dwell on the latter condition – their balls are in another court, save to note their high rank in Byzantine politics, specific positions being reserved for them. Some medical writers think Favorinus’s condition matches Reifenstein Syndrome.
Ancient lesbianism is here a topic of relevant choice. Sappho is, of course, the most famous example. I am leaving out male homosexuality, save to quote Juvenal’s distinction (Satires 2, vv. 49-50: “Tedia does not suck off Cluvia nor Flora Camilla; Hispo goes with young boys and is pale from having it both ways.” See Kristin Martin’s online essay. Martial penned some epigrams (1.90; 7.67 & 70) on ‘Tribads’ (Friction Girls) who supposedly had clitorises so large that they could be used as penises to fuck their girlfriends and bugger young boys – sounds like a daft male fantasy.
One frequently overlooked text is the Fifth of Lucian’s Dialogues of the Prostitutes. One tart, Clonarium, questions another, Leaena, about a ‘strange rumour’ she’s heard about the latter having sex with women. Leaena confesses, expressing “some shame”. She goes on to describe and name her female bed partners, but refuses to go into details of what they actually did.
Here, one recalls the apocryphal story about Queen Victoria declaring “Women Do Not Do Such Things” when discussing the 1885 Criminal Amendment Act with Disraeli, effectively debunked in Jason Loch’s online essay.
Three Roman emperors enter the picture. According to Suetonius’s biography (ch52), Caligula liked to dress up as Venus, thereby betraying a drag-queen inclination; see David Woods’s essay, available online.
Nero (Suetonius, ch22) castrated a young lad called Sporus, married him, and paraded him about as his wife, supposedly because of his likeness to his more orthodox predecessor Poppaea, whom he had allegedly kicked to death.
Most notable is that wild teenage (14 at accession) Emperor Elagabalus (AD 218-22). According to Dio Cassius (bk80 ch16), “He carried his lewdness to such a pitch that he asked his doctors to implant a vagina in his body by means of an incision, promising them a handsome reward for doing so.”
Dio (also his biography in the Augustan History) says he preferred being addressed and thought of as a woman. Catherine Jacquet in her essay on the outhistory website follows suit, always referring to him as ‘she’ and ‘her’. For full details of this hyper-precocious teenager, see Martin Icks, The Crimes of Elagabalus (London 2011).
One Byzantine item. In his book SameSex Unions in Pre-Modern Europe (Yale/ London, 1994), John Boswell argued that such ‘marriages’ were widespread and socially acceptable. However, his ‘evidences’ for this claim were nugatory, and his thesis is generally rejected by other scholars in this field. Furthermore, as they nowadays ungrammatically say, Boswell had an agenda; he was homosexual.
Athenaeus (Deipnosophists – Savants at Dinner) devotes his 12th book to Decadent Luxurious Living, first by nation, then (paras528c-531a) to individuals. For a detailed account, see Maria Gambato, ‘The Female Kings’ in Athenaeus and his World (Exeter, 2000), 227-230.
The Graeco-Roman sources comport their standard denunciations of Oriental effeminacy, so a pinch or two of salt may sometimes be needed. Herodotus (bk9 ch122) thought climate a factor, claiming: “It is natural that soft men arise from soft soil.”
These monarchs were men who went overboard in identifying as women. Sardarnapalus was the most notorious. His face was covered with a cosmetic of white lead, he wore female clothes and jewellery, sported mascara, his face beardless and pumiced. Androcottas the Phrygian wore ultra-bright clothes and “adorned himself more brilliantly than a woman.”
Weirder yet was Sagaris, who into old age would only eat from the lips of a nurse – seems to have regressed to weaning. He was also notable for never putting his hand below his navel. Athenaeus glosses this on the subject of a certain Xenocrates, who never held his penis whilst urinating – contra the popular lavatorial graffito, “The country’s future is in your hands.”
Gruesome footnote: Thracian king Cottys cut his wife into little pieces, beginning with her vagina – the ultimate bodily/ genital mutilation.
If the Greeks and Romans had had trolling and twitter storms, one might have adapted one of Fort’s most famous dicta – One Measures a Vicious Circle Beginning Anywhere.