Zeus the Pansexual

This week we are focusing on the abstraction known as Zeus whose sexual desires could best be described as pansexual. Zeus is the King of the Universe, and with that power comes a great amount of sexual experimentation with body and form.

We'll explore the episode of Zeus' courtship of Io a river spring turned into a heifer, the story of Europa a Phoenician Princess, the tragedy of Semele a Theban girl chosen for the highest honour in the cosmos, the courtship of Mnemosyne the abstract concept of Memory, and Ganymede, Zeus' eternal boyfriend. 

Taken together these stories show how important Zeus' sexual experimentation was during his life. Far from being random flings, each story reflects a deep loving romance. 

Transcript

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Hello, everybody, and welcome to Lambda, the LGBT and Antiquity Podcast, your home for all things LGBT in the ancient world. I'm your host, Dominica Raven, episode 15, Zeus the Pansexual. Once there was a niad named Io. She was the daughter of the river Inachus. Io played in the shallow, cool waters beneath the shade of the trees. Niads are not simply beautiful young women, they're immortal nymphs who manifested the power of the water themselves. Sometimes they were springs or waterfalls, fountains or wells. Each niad is tied to their progenitor, generally represented in familial relationships. The river is the father, the niad the daughter. However, nymphs were also brides for human heroes and preternatural beings like Satyrs and even the gods from Olympus. In fact, the word nymphi actually means brides. So one day Zeus came to the river and spied Ayo. He was immediately infatuated and started wooing her. While the two lay together on a grassy field, Zeus threw up a great dark cloud for a little privacy. Hera spied this unusual ground cloud and guessed what was going on. Furious at Zeus' infidelity, Hera entered the cloud. When she came to Zeus, all she saw was Zeus lying with a beautiful white heifer. Hera asked Zeus what was going on, and he said he was just enjoying the beautiful animal. But Hera asked for the heifer as a prize, and Zeus was in a bind. If he consented, he would lose his new girlfriend, but if he refused Hera, it would be all but admitting his infidelity. So he decided on a little trick of his own, letting Hera take Ao, who placed it under the watch of Argus, a monster with a hundred eyes spread all around his head. Eventually Zeus deployed Hermes to release Io. Hermes sang until the Argus monster was fast asleep, then returned Io to her family. Zeus restored her body as a manifestation of the river herself. Thus, in a very short period of time, Zeus had been attracted to a spring in the river, a human-like shape of a nymph, and a beautiful heifer. Sometime later there was a young Phoenician princess named Europa. She was the daughter of Agenor. One day as she was playing on the seashore, a majestic bull appeared. Europa was immediately stricken with love for the mighty animal. She climbed upon the bull and rode it across the beach, but then the bull turned and started running on the sea itself. Fishermen saw this strange miracle and marveled as if the sea had become pasture land. But Ajanor went into mourning for the loss of his daughter. He sent out his sons, including the blind seer Phineas, and Cadmus the dragonslayer, to locate their sister, but they were unable to find Europa, and so they were exiled from Ajanor's house. So in this story we have a female human who falls in love with a bull, who is, of course, Zeus, in disguise. We have already discussed Zeus' sexuality in several contexts. Zeus is famous for his amorous escapage, which include masculine figures, feminine figures, and characters who defy traditional gender norms. It is important to be clear here that Zeus is the king and reigning sovereign of the entire universe. This means that Zeus is able to engage in all sorts of sexual experiences which would have otherwise been unacceptable or unattainable for anybody else. There are some stories which are somewhat jarring, where Zeus, as the king, feels entitled to the bodies of people, regardless of their reluctance or active refusal. Zeus can also change forms and thus have intercourse in ways which are not available to anybody of lesser power. Many of these stories show Zeus engaging in powerful romantic connections, which, being a great deity, after all, tend to end in tragedy. There are numerous examples we could explore, far too numerous actually for us to get into in a single or even multi-part episode. So for the purposes of this episode, we are going to be exploring a representative sample of Zeus' attractions across the generations. I also want to make it clear that Zeus's real body is not technically a male or even vaguely human looking at all. When Zeus has relationships disguised as a bull, it's just that, a disguise, a false body he puts on so that the brilliance of his true form does not destroy the beloved. Nothing duplicitous like bestiality is going on here, any more than when Zeus puts on the body of a human-looking man. The argument we are making here is that the abstraction, known as Zeus, is a pansexual, not trying to equate pansexuality with bestiality or anything like that. Sometimes outsiders try to cut at queer identities using this type of comparison, but that is not what we're doing here. I just wanted to make that clear before we get going. So then, what is Zeus's real form? Zeus' true body is a manifestation of lightning itself. And that brings us to the story of Semele. Cadmus, that Phoenician prince exiled by his father Agenor during the story of Europa, traveled the Mediterranean and founded the city of Thebes in Boeotia. He had several daughters, each of whom is the center of a Greek tragedy. Autonoe was the mother of Action, the tragic hunter transformed into a stag and ripped apart by dogs. Aino became the white goddess after her husband Athamas was driven mad by Hera, and Agave, whose son Pentheus was a monstrously homophobic tyrant, so arrogant, Agave eventually killed her own son with her own hands. But Semile is the one who caught Zeus's eye, and she became Zeus's consort. Zeus loved Semile so much she was selected to rebirth Dionysus. The original Dionysus, named Zagreus, was killed by Hera and the Titans, so Zeus decided to recreate Dionysus with Semile. By combining the remains of Zagreus with the agendered creation deity Phanes, he created this beloved queer offspring by way of Semile. This was a unique honor for Semile to help Zeus recreate his chosen heir to the throne of Olympus. But Hera could not let this stand. She tricked Semile into asking Zeus to behold him in his true form. Zeus swore a great oath he would honor any request she made, but when Semile revealed that she desired for Zeus to come to her bedroom as he came to Hera's, Semile sealed her own fate. Zeus knew that Hera had set Semile up to be killed, but could not refuse right after he'd just made his oath. So he revealed that his body, whatever body he was in, was just a shell. The true form was lightning. He put on a magnificent lightning show for his doomed bride, dancing around the bridal chamber, causing the whole room to glisten and the city of Thebes itself seemed to twinkle. Semele was later apotheost to Olympus, where the true honor she had achieved was revealed. Semile said she was even greater than Hera, because her child, Dionysus, was greater than any child Hera bore to Zeus. Dionysus was Zeus's chosen successor and heir, not Hera's son Ares. This is why Semile considered herself the happiest of all the consorts of Zeus. So in the story of Semile, we can see Zeus's romantic attachments are never simple flings or short-term affairs. Semele was chosen to bring the greatest of a new generation of gods back to life. With other stories like Io and Europa, the result was generally a hero or a family of heroes, but with Semile, Zeus begot the second greatest god in the Olympian pantheon. Zeus's official wife and the reigning queen of the universe is Hera. Now, being the archetypal image of a husband and dutiful wife, Hera is required by social custom to be bound to Zeus to the exclusion of all others. A few weeks ago, when discussing Athena, we noted how Hera grew fed up with Zeus's extramarital affairs, so she tried to procreate, and the result was the only Olympian with a bodily deformity, the craftsman Hephaestus. But whenever Hera did learn of Zeus's many affairs, she often took her fury out on the woman or nymph and the children born. Narratives like this are ubiquitous in stories of Greek heroes from the ancient world. An iconic example is Heracles, whose entire life was shaped by Hera's wrath. It literally begins even before he was born, when Hera conspired to have Eurystheus born a few minutes before Heracles. So the blessings of kinship were bestowed upon Eurystheus, not Heracles. Thus was Heracles enslaved to a far lesser man for his twelve trials. The irony of this is that by doing so, Hera actually made Heracles the most impressive hero of all time. Because Hera tried to destroy Heracles in so many different ways and with so many different monsters, Heracles' strength and legendary feats grew. This example is archetypal for how Hera and for other heads of household's wives are to treat their stepchildren. Every one of these stepchildren is a fundamental threat to her own role as Zeus's wife. Hera is the evil stepmother to so many people spread across time. This trend is important to bear in mind. While we know of many cases where the head woman in the house was able to engage in extramarital affairs with prostitutes, concubines, eunuchs, and even other women at her discretion, such actions carried significant social censure. A famous example of this dynamic is found in Lysaeus I, a legal speech written by one of Athens' great legal minds. In the speech, a woman has relations with another man outside of her marriage. Eventually the cuckold comes in and kills the adulterer in cold blood, leading to charges of murder. The case argues effectively that as an Athenian citizen, a man has a right, nay, an obligation, to protect his city, his family line, and his household from being interloped upon. Lysae states explicitly that all of Greece has a comparable law that if a man catches his wife in the act of adultery, he has every right to slaughter the adulterer. While it may have been acceptable for a Greek man to take on other lovers and visit prostitutes, there was a level of moral hectoring directed from philosophers and religious authorities on the subject. Meanwhile, ancient society viewed women who did the same with much more harsh language and suspicion. I guess the same thing is true today, where people demean women who play the field much more harshly than men who do the same. But now back to Zeus. Zeus was not only interested in female forms, but abstract entities as well. Nemnosini is a sweet and vigilant being who gives coherence to our minds and helps humans think by storing our thoughts forever in our hearts. Nemnosini is not a body or a goddess, but the abstract concept of memory. She was the child of the sky, Orenos, who was called upon to remember everything. Memory is a powerful being that allows us to name the things we see, express ideas, and even carry on basic conversation. Without memory, none of us could communicate with one another. Plato takes this even one step further, saying that without memory, we literally could not learn or even think. Additionally, the underworld is a difficult and confusing place to navigate, so the spirits of mystics and initiates often call upon Memnosini to remind them of the topography and guide them to the blessed heroic afterlife. Most profoundly of all, memory is what allows humans to stave off oblivion when we die. Eventually Memnose became Zeus' consort. They had relations in the hills of Pieria every night for nine days straight. Then, memory bore the nine crowned muses, goddesses of the arts and proclaimers of heroes, heroes like Hercules. So we can see that Zeus is open to having relationships and bearing children even with the abstract concept of memory. One final example is Ganymedes. We have discussed Ganymede in the context of being an example of homosexuality. While many men interested in other men were also interested in women, often being married to Boot, Ganymede is only ever shown in homosexual interactions. In fact, with Ganymedes, we have a story of someone who has basically only ever had intercourse with Zeus. But this time, we're approaching the story from the perspective of Zeus. Zeus saw the most beautiful human male ever to walk the earth. He was immediately infatuated. Zeus took the form of an eagle this time and swooped in to carry him off. Though Ganymede was initially terrified, the two became close lovers ever after. It was common in ancient society for wealthy or powerful men to employ young, beautiful looking men as cupbearers during their meals and parties. Sometimes they were slaves or servants or paid employees of the household, but they were always beautiful young men, pouring cups for them. Before Ganymedes was brought to Olympus, Hermes played this role. Once Ganymede was made a deity, he was the cupbearer for Zeus for all time. The story leaves no room for ambiguity. Zeus loved Ganymede and made sure he was given a proper role in the divine household that was Olympus. So in these stories we see Zeus having numerous relationships with nymphs like Io, human women like Europa, heroines like Semile, human men like Ganymedes, and even abstract concepts like memory. Yet it's kind of hard to find any gendered pattern of attraction in them. What's even more important is that Zeus' body is an abstraction, lightning manifested in the corporal form. Yet the human form is just one Zeus' body could take on, opening up a world of possibilities for Zeus to explore. The same is somewhat true of his loves. Nymphs are not simply young women who live in a spring, rather their bodies are elemental, made up of spring water, or sea surf, or ether, or wood, depending upon the type of nymph we're talking about. So we get to say Zeus with gods and nymphs, abstractions and humans. It's also important to note that Zeus does not always have a quick fling and move on. Io was protected and saved from the Argus monster. Zeus ran across the water to his birthplace in Crete and set Talus, the bronze giant, to protect Europa. Memory is a titan, an immortal abstraction whose glory was made far greater by her association with Zeus and the wonderful daughters they bore together. Semele and Ganymedes were both humans who were made immortal and given divine honors on Olympus. Zeus may move on to his next affair, but he does not forget his previous loves. It's also important to bear in mind that many of these stories were later respun and had certain plot elements emphasized, particularly by later Christian authors, to show promiscuity and depravity with respect to the Olympian gods. Stories involving infidelity and sexual assault are often played up in later years out of an effort to downplay what is actually going on. Each one of these stories reflects a miraculous birth of a goddess or a nymph, a great hero, or a future deity. Therefore, each of these narratives of Zeus having intercourse with somebody else is in fact a story of immaculate conception. Far from the Nazarene being a unique occurrence, this story is simply one of hundreds involving the most high sky god using all sorts of powers to impregnate human beings. Sometimes this is through the act of coitus or some variation therein, but other times it's through something so mystical that it's hard to wrap your head around. For an example, Zeus impregnated Danae by showering her with golden rain. The resulting child was the gorgon slayer Perseus. So you see, these are not necessarily stories of debauchery and promiscuity or basal lust, but miracles. So the resulting child is almost always a great hero or heroine, or a god, or goddess, or in the case of Dionysus, the most blessed gender queer offspring who will one day be seated at the right hand of the great Sky Father. When we consider all of this through a queer lens, Zeus could be best interpreted as pansexual. Zeus does not appear to have any overarching preference, rather he follows his heart to whatever bedroom it may lead. Being a divine entity, Zeus' actual body is not male but lightning, and similarly his consorts could be any number of abstractions as well. But there is one body Zeus could never partake in sex within. A female. Once Zeus and Hera squabbled over whether the male or female received the greater pleasure during Coitus. They eventually went to Tiresias, who had once been changed from male to female and back, at least once, but in some versions multiple times throughout their life. Tiresias sided with Zeus, but it is unclear whether they were taking the male's sexual pleasure as superior or simply siding with the king of the universe. In any case, Zeus could take on any form except female, so Zeus does not know the pleasure of sex as a woman. Other than that, there are no real boundaries on Zeus' celestial pansexuality. Next week we're going to explore Dionysus as a manifestation of demisexuality. Much like Apollo, Dionysus has decidedly bisexual orientation, but unlike Apollo, Dionysus' sexuality is often not on display. Whether in art or poetry, Dionysus is practically never showed having sex at all. Scholars have noted Dionysus' asexuality, but I think we could get a little more specific than that. Dionysus does form attachments, but they are very few and far between. When they do occur, they are eternal. Dionysus transforms their loves like Ampelos and Ariadne into immortal entities so they can be together forever. This is a description of demisexuality. We'll see in two weeks. Notes and comments. For the purposes of this episode, we have focused on stories involving consenting characters, leaving out stories involving sexual assault. I think that there are enough stories like this that we can make the case of Zeus as a pansexual without incorporating the use of violence. Technically speaking, Zeus's preferences do continue to follow no meaningful pattern if we do incorporate instances of violence. However, this is a distinct Distinct choice for our presentation. The story of Io is best preserved in Ovid's Metamorphosis, Book 1, verse 567 through 746. The best version of the story of Europa is found in Nonos Dionysia, Book 1, verses 46 through 157. We meet Phineas, the son of Aginor, who was attacked by the monstrous harpies while he was seeking his sister Europa, during the voyage of the Argonauts. Jason and the sons of the North Wind drove off the harpies and released Phineas in the second book of Apollonius of Rhodes Argonautica. The voyages of Cadmus the Dragonslayer and the tragedies of his children make up the first five books of Nonos Dionysia. We learn Zeus's true form as lightning during the fiery wedding of Semele. She asked to see Zeus in the same form he took with Hera in Dionysia, Book VII, verse 310 through 406. The story is also relayed in Ovid's Metamorphosis, Book 3, verse 287 through 315. Lisaus 1 is an iconic legal speech, often turned into a translation exercise for students. The blood-sucking, professional, bottom-feeding native criminal class known as the lawyer was technically invented by the Romans. In ancient Athens, everyone, every citizen, that is, was expected to represent himself in the law courts. Due to the overwhelmingly technical nature of Athenian law and the difficulty in interpreting often arcane and sometimes decades or even centuries old statutes, many citizens would turn to the services of a professional law speech writer. Figures such as Lysaeus were hired to compose the speech defending their actions against prosecution, but it was up to the citizen himself to speak on his own behalf. In the event that the defendant was female, it was practically always expected that her patrifamilius or another male relative would take charge and speak on her behalf in the court. Slaves, eunuchs, and resident foreigners were rarely represented in courts, save when their injuries related to damages incurred by their masters. Many scholars believe that Lysaus was a sort of sample speech, not actually a real legal defense. The details of Lysaus I presented a narrative a little too neatly aligned with the details of the law to be an actual case. Many say that Lysaus wrote this speech to attract clients for his speech writing business. In any case, it remains a very clear instance of how a woman having an affair with another man represented damage to her husband's household. A key source of information about Nemnosony is found in the Orphic Hymn No. 77 to Memory. There are lines which tell about the power to recall what is in our hearts. Memory, allowing us to communicate, comes from Deodorus of Sicily's Library of History, Book 5, section 67. Plato's line about memory allowing us to think comes from Theatius, section 191c. Memory as the key to navigating the afterlife is found in Orphic Hymn No. 77 and manifested in the Bacchic Gold Tablets. The story about Zeus and Memnostone creating the muses comes from Hesiod's Theogony, verse 55. The judgment of Tiresias is found in Ovid's Metamorphosis, Book 3, verse 316 through 358. That's all for this week, folks. We'll see in two weeks for our discussion of Dionysus the Demisexual.