Transgender Day of Visibility Special

Happy International Transgender Day of Visibility!

Today we have a very special episode covering the stories of Dionysos and Caeneus, two narratives from the ancient world where transgender characters transcend visibility and are able to thrive by their gender transitions. 

Whatever is going on in your life, pause for a moment and think about what it means to be Trans, or else what it means to support Trans people, or else what it means to live in a world where Trans people are visible. 

Transcript

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Hello, everybody, and welcome to a special episode of Lambda, the LGBT and Antiquity Podcast, the show about all things LGBT in the ancient world. I'm your host, Dominica Raven, International Transgender Day of Visibility Special. Today is a very special episode of the show dedicated to instances of transgender visibility and antiquity. We are not going to go through a traditional Lambda deep dive. This is actually two smaller dives into myths where transgender folks are visible. For today, it's enough just to discuss this visibility, but either one of these stories would make an excellent standalone future episode. Dionysus, as when you feared the anger of your stepmother and grew yourself false limbs, pretending to be a blonde-haired maiden with a yellow sash around your dress. Later in life as well, you like soft dresses. Bacchus was raised as a girl, so Bacchus likes girly things throughout life. Dionysus is sometimes called androgeneos, literally man-woman, which can mean both effeminate male or mannish woman. Androgyny can be interpreted as a facet of the transformative powers of Dionysus, moving through not just clothing but gendered states. As a deity, Dionysus can appear in any shape, form, or guise. All throughout their adolescence, Dionysus was hidden from Hera, the evil stepmother who wants to punish her husband Zeus for all his extramarital affairs. So Zeus hid his child with the help of Athena and Hermes. They whisked away the infant and tried numerous plans to make sure the child was fostered in a safe environment. Dionysus was raised by numerous surrogate mothers, including filial relationships like Dionysus' maternal aunt Aino and paternal grandmother Rea Kybele. They use numerous disguises and bodily shapes to distract Hera, but each time Hera uses her all-seeing eyes to learn the truth. Probably the most common form Dionysus takes during this period was that of a young maiden. Nonos of Panopoulos, who wrote in the 5th century AD, presents a whole scene describing Dionysus in this period of their youth. Dionysus plays the woman's part and took the shape of a girl or nymph. The scene explains that Dionysus is wearing a crocoplos, which is literally a saffron cloth, and often denotes a yellow veil. This word is basically only ever used when describing women's clothing, such as the light of dawn in the Iliad is described as the crocopeblos of dawn, or the clothing of nymphs in Hesiod. The saffron cloth covers the face and especially eyes of young women. Additionally, Dionysus' juvenile body is controlled with feminine undergarments, including a maiden's girdle and a breast band. Dionysus' voice is disguised even further by making womanly noises, and scent is managed with a sweet-smelling head veil. So Dionysus is masked from Hera in a way that will likely avoid her gaze. In antiquity, whether in the realms of mortal or immortal beings, young women were habitually ignored. They were often expected to be in certain female-only spaces and performing very specific female-only household and farmyard tasks. They were literally meant to be neither seen nor heard when men were around. So a young woman could fundamentally be invisible to the wider public. So when Dionysus is disguised this way, it actually makes sense that just about everybody around was socialized to ignore them. However, Hera is the queen of the universe, which means her domain is all of the feminine stuff. So the disguises work for a while, but eventually Hera figures it out every time. Her all-seeing eye can penetrate disguise. I think this is a very potent idea when addressed from the transgender angle. We do see a trans girl being objectified by older cis women who lash out against the perceived attack on their own femininity the trans girl presents. These girls are not feminine enough for their standards, so older women have an obligation to protect the feminine domain from these interlopers. Though many desire acceptance from others, that acceptance is often substituted for disgust and aggression. I think it's interesting that a trans woman might read the story of Dionysus' youth and see what they craved, being socialized correctly in their correct gender as youths. They see the story of a feminine figure, a rough, non-conforming, but undeniably feminine figure, who is affirmed throughout the story. But a trans man might read the story and see the exact opposite. We have a male figure who was gentle but wild male all along. They see the boy being feminized in youth only for that soft but undeniably masculine figure to emerge in adulthood. Meanwhile, gender-fluid folks might read a figure acting masculine or feminine at different parts of the story. And what's important is that they're all right. Dionysus is a mysterious figure of ambiguous gender, but gendered fluctuation is a permanent part of Dionysus' life. Dionysus is shown fully comfortable in female clothing, lounging with nymphs, and in masculine clothing, partying at the symposium, depending upon the scene. Any attempt to categorize Dionysus as male or female is doomed. Gender is nothing but a temporary mask for Dionysus, so everybody can see themselves in Dionysus. Canaus. Canaus was a child of the Lapith King and was assigned female at birth. They were given all the usual feminine roles and courted by numerous suitors from throughout all of ancient Greece. But Canaus does not desire marriage or femininity at all, so they refused all human suitors. They took lonely walks on the beach, and generally were a bit of an outcast from Lapith's society. But then one day Poseidon, the king of the sea, approached and sexually assaulted Canaus. Once this violence was complete, Poseidon offered them any wish they desired as recompense. So Canaus requests to become a man, and the god complies, making them not only male, but a warrior whose body is impenetrable to steel. Cainius rejoiced in the gift as he went on his way, and Canaus spent many years in every manly pursuit, roaming the plains of Thessaly. Canius became the king of the Lapiths, a position he was now entitled to. In time a war broke out between the Lapiths and the Centaurs, called Centauromachi. This conflict began when the humans and centaur neighbors were invited to the marriage of Perithous and Ipodemea. After a bit of wine, the centaurs dragged the bride and the other women away from the feast, and the war was on. Cainius killed five centaurs in the opening attack alone. Then a centaur named Latrius challenges Canais for a duel. He shouts out an insult that pretty much all trans folks have heard. Then he sputters further insults, misgendering them and shouting that they should leave and go be spinning wool and other appropriate womanly activities. Not in war. All Latrius sees is the counterfeit form of a man. Showing grace and dignity against such an assault, Cainius does not reply or argue. He simply stands tall, readies his spear, and strikes Latrius. The wounded centaur tries to attack with his sword, but Canius slays that arrogant centaur. At this, another centaur named Monicus shouts, Our mighty hosts are defeated and defied by one who is hardly a man. Even after such an incredible show of prowess, Canaus is still being insulted for not being manly enough. The centaurs then rally and counterattack Canius again. This time they're able to neutralize Canius by burying him. They throw thousands of trees, great oaks from the mountains in a pile on the head of the hero. The centaurs assumed they had killed the hero after suffocation. It seemed the fighter was overwhelmed and killed. Now the other Greek heroes were so outraged that so many centaurs had ganged up on just one hero, Canaus, that the humans counterattack again and routed the centaurs. But that's not the end of the story, because Canaus was never actually dead. The human army's seer named Mopsis actually saw a small bird with glorious golden wings arise from that rubble piled upon Canaus' body. The famous seer and bird reader had never seen another bird like it in his entire life. This unique bird hovered over the battlefield and flew circles around the mountains, giving hope to the warriors below. Canius has been transformed again into a unique bird. Something crucial happens in this story. Prior to the first transformation from female to male, Canius is shown tormented by suitors and lonely as they walk on the beach alone. But after the transformation, Canius is affirmed and successful as a male in ways they could never have even imagined before. Once Canius is free, they excel in so many ways, earning a seat among the best warriors of their generation. This is a very common trend in trans lives. Once we're free and safe and able to be ourselves, we tend to flourish. As we become more confident in ourselves, we soar. So we can actually see the transgender people visible in both of these stories. Dionysus uses gender affirmation to become feminine, but is rejected aggressively by their stepmother Hera. This reflects a very difficult and real fact for many trans people. We often look to acceptance from older relatives during our confusing and frustrating adolescence, and yet what we actually receive is our first taste of trans misogyny. Canius also experienced that changing anatomy, then proving themselves as a man is just not enough. People still find reasons to misgender and attack you, regardless of how ridiculous the whole situation may appear from the outside. But both stories really showcase how both of these figures were able to thrive and live once the stress of gender conformity was taken away. What outsiders think has no bearing on this trajectory. Nonos constantly calls Dionysus the greatest child of Zeus, even Zeus's successor as celestial ruler. Dionysus uses gender in ways that help drive the plot forward, but never in ways that are bound to societal expectations. Canaus was never just a man, but the most powerful of all the lapis. Sometimes just being allowed to be yourself is enough to get you to thrive. Whatever is going on in your life, pause for a moment today and think about what it means to be trans, or what it means to support trans people, or just what it means to live in a world where trans people are visible. Have a good trans visibility day. The stories of Dionysus in hiding from Hera are found in books 8 through 10 of the Dionysia of Nonos of Panopolis. The specific part about Dionysus in disguise is drawn from Book 14, verses 143 through 186. This passage is actually during the catalogue of the Bacchants, which is a great listing of all the companions of Dionysus. During this description, a host of centaurs arrives, and the narrative voice recounts the story of Dionysus' feminine manifestation as a child. Nonos describes Dionysus in Krokopeplos in Book 14, verse 160. The references to Homer using the same word are drawn from the Iliad, Book 8, verse 1, and Book 19, verse 1, and the reference to Hesiod is in the Theogony, verse 273. Dionysus wearing a girdle is found in Book 14, verse 166. Dionysus wearing breastbands are from Book 14, verse 165. The female sounds are referenced in Book 14, verse 162, and the sweet smelling veil is from Book 14, verse 163. Whenever you study clothing in antiquity, it's particularly difficult because there's lots of words used to describe numerous articles of clothing that change over time. As such, there are unisex garments in one generation that by the next century are only acceptable for men or only for women, or sometimes would be acceptable for, say, a young woman, but not an older, more respectable married woman. In fact, many older scholars actually used this fact to make the argument that Dionysus is actually shown in a way that would have been acceptable for an archaic prince to be represented, but in later eras was counted feminine. This is not accurate because Dionysus is shown violating gender boundaries throughout the early narratives, even if the clothing remains ambiguous. The book Greek and Roman Dress from A to Z by Cleland, Davies, and Lulin Jones, 2007, is an invaluable resource when studying clothing in the ancient world. The story of Canaus is also an extremely old piece of mythology, with the first calling out being in the Iliad, Book 1, verses 262 through 268, when old Grandpa Nestor is listing all the mighty warriors he has ever known in his entire lifetime. This version of the story, which we discussed here, is from the most famous version in Ovid's Metamorphosis, Book 12, verses 146 through 535. Again, old Grandpa Nestor recites other wild stories of heroics during the downtime between battles. The quoted passages are drawn from Ovid's Metamorphosis, translated by Brooks Moore, in 1922 by Cornhill Publishing. This translation is now in the public domain. The death of Canaus presented here is the best known version found in Ovid's Metamorphosis. This may be the same version of Canaus' death as was found in Apollonius of Rhodes's Argonautica, Book 1, verses 55 through 64, or in the Orphic Argonautica, verses 170 through 174, both of which take place in the catalogue of the Argonauts, and claim that while Canaus was driven beneath the earth, they were not killed. There is another more difficult and tragic version of Canaus' death. Verschil says in the Aeneid, Book 6, verses 448 through 449, that Canius is in the fields of mourning in the underworld, where they have been turned back by fate into her form of old. This version is particularly tragic from the trans perspective. I don't actually see a way to reconcile these two narratives. Canaus is either alive and enjoying heroic afterlife or heroic transformation or something like that, or else Canaus is in a tragic afterlife, pining away in the underworld. This would be an excellent subject for another day, but for today I really did want to focus on uplifting instances of transvisibility. That's all for this very special episode of Lambda. We'll see you again for our regularly scheduled programming next Monday. Hope to see you there.