Uncategorized 31 Jul 2005 11:48 pm
sex changes in classical mythology?
With both Canyonwren and Kill musing about mythological matters, I’ve been thinking about that stuff myself. And I’ve been thinking about sex changes in classical mythology. Three come to mind:
- Tiresias, who was transformed into a woman when he hit some mating snakes with a stick. After seven years as a woman, she ran across another pair of mating snakes, hit them with a stick, and became a man again. Zeus and Hera went to him to settle the question of which sex enjoyed intercourse more. Never be the mortal to whom the gods go to settle a bet.
- Iphis, a girl raised as a boy, who fell in love with a girl and was transformed into a young man on the day before their wedding.
- Caenis, who was raped by Poseidon. After the rape, Poseidon turned her into a man at her request, and also granted her invulnerability.
ETA: Wim mentions Siproites below. (Good catch!) And in the Metamorphoses somebody named Sithon is mentioned in passing: “Neither will I tell you how, the laws of nature conspiring to alter, Sithon became of indeterminate sex, now man, now woman.” (Or Humphries’ translation: “Nor do I think I will tell you about Sithon, who alternated being man and woman.”)
Does Hermaphroditus count? I’m not sure. It’s a good yarn, though.
on 31 Jul 2005 at 11:58 pm 1.Canyonwren said …
I’ve run across two examples, I think, although my head is getting muddled with mythology. Does Hermaphroditus count?
Pretty boy…nymph sees his bathing and falls in love. He was shy and tried to repulse her, but the nympth (Salmacis) thre her arms around him and covered him in kisses. When he resisted, she said, “Gods grant that nothing may separate him from me or me from him.” Immediately, their bodies were united and became as one. In double form they were neither man nor woman, they seemed to have no sex yet to be of both sexes. (Copying directly from the book here.) Hermaphroditus, before he became assimilated, laid a curse on the water that whoever bathed in it shall lose their virility. Doesn’t sound like he was too thrilled.
on 01 Aug 2005 at 12:00 am 2.Canyonwren said …
Oh yes, the book continues:
Some have interpreted this strange fable as a survival of the cult of the Bearded Aphrodite of Cyprus.
on 01 Aug 2005 at 11:31 am 3.Wim said …
I was going to mention Actaeon, but Google informs me that I had Actaeon’s story mixed up with that of Siproites (both of them saw Artemis naked; she turned Actaeon into a stag and Siproites into a woman.)