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Let's talk about gender switching in the ancient world.
Part of my research project (you can read about it here) is to investigate portraits of gender in the ancient world. As you can imagine, a lot of work has been done in this area. A LOT. Curiously, even when people do switch genders, which happens periodically in ancient texts, it is almost always interpreted through the modern lens of feminism. This has yielded some very cool insights. But so far very few people have looked at these ancient gender switching as examples that might parallel transgender experiences today.
So, I'm not saying that these examples show transgender persons in the ancient world, because we think about sex and gender very differently than ancient Greeks, Romans and Hebrews. But still interesting, yes?
Here's one example. The Roman poet Ovid (43 BC - AD 17/18) wrote about Iphis, which was a gender neutral name. Iphis' father was grumpy and declared that if his wife had a daughter, she'd be killed. Of course, stories like this always end with --you guessed it -- a daughter being born. Iphis' clever mother gave her this handy gender-neutral name and raised her as a boy. The father, apparently not into changing diapers, never noticed. Iphis was raised as a boy. (I'm switching pronouns to he/him now). When it was time for Iphis to marry Ianthe, Iphis becomes worried about the wedding night and that he won't be able to perform penetrative sex. (OK, penetrative sex is a big deal. More on that ancient obsession later).
He's concerned because he loves Ianthe so much and doesn't want too many surprises on the wedding night. Iphis' mother is worried too and prays to Isis to help fix this situation. Isis, being a nice international goddess at the time, intervenes and changes Iphis anatomically from female to male, confirming the gender identity that Iphis had lived with for his entire life (at least, that's my interpretation). Below is a quote of the changes that occurred to Iphis:
Let's talk about gender switching in the ancient world.
Part of my research project (you can read about it here) is to investigate portraits of gender in the ancient world. As you can imagine, a lot of work has been done in this area. A LOT. Curiously, even when people do switch genders, which happens periodically in ancient texts, it is almost always interpreted through the modern lens of feminism. This has yielded some very cool insights. But so far very few people have looked at these ancient gender switching as examples that might parallel transgender experiences today.
So, I'm not saying that these examples show transgender persons in the ancient world, because we think about sex and gender very differently than ancient Greeks, Romans and Hebrews. But still interesting, yes?
Here's one example. The Roman poet Ovid (43 BC - AD 17/18) wrote about Iphis, which was a gender neutral name. Iphis' father was grumpy and declared that if his wife had a daughter, she'd be killed. Of course, stories like this always end with --you guessed it -- a daughter being born. Iphis' clever mother gave her this handy gender-neutral name and raised her as a boy. The father, apparently not into changing diapers, never noticed. Iphis was raised as a boy. (I'm switching pronouns to he/him now). When it was time for Iphis to marry Ianthe, Iphis becomes worried about the wedding night and that he won't be able to perform penetrative sex. (OK, penetrative sex is a big deal. More on that ancient obsession later).
He's concerned because he loves Ianthe so much and doesn't want too many surprises on the wedding night. Iphis' mother is worried too and prays to Isis to help fix this situation. Isis, being a nice international goddess at the time, intervenes and changes Iphis anatomically from female to male, confirming the gender identity that Iphis had lived with for his entire life (at least, that's my interpretation). Below is a quote of the changes that occurred to Iphis:
“Iphis walked beside her as she went, but with a longer stride than was her wont. Her face seemed of a darker hue, her strength seemed greater, her very features sharper, and her locks, all unadorned, were shorter than before. She seemed more vigorous than was her girlish wont. In fact, you who but lately were a girl are now a boy!”
(Ovid, Metamorphoses 9.786-791, Miller translation, Loeb Classical Library).
Very cool story, yes? Obviously there's a lot more that we could say, but I'll save that for another day. The big point here is that gender, gender identity and anatomy do have some flexibility, including in the ancient world.
This handy picture is "Isis' cortege appears to Telethusa." Engraving by Bernard Picart et al. for Ovid's Metamorphoses Book IX, 669-701. OK, so the picture is really of Isis appearing to Iphis' mother, Telethusa, but still pretty cool. It is part of the public domain and you can find out more at Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Picart_-_Isis_Telethusa.jpg)
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