Caeneus Tells His Story: Andrea Dugonicius, Argonauticorum book 8

Caeneus and Tiresias were seen as the archetypal trans heroes of Greek myth, and occasionally their stories would be conflated. In this account of Caeneus, the author here is using elements from the myths of both Tiresias [who transforms back into a man after 7 years] and the myth of Iphis & Ianthe [who is transformed into a man on his wedding day]. 

Vix e conspectu Deli discessimus, illico variae cogitationes mortalium animos occuparunt. Non alia potior cogitandi materies, quam edita in Fano oracula. Suam quisque fortunam aut amabat in iis, aut metuebat. Sed Caeneo magis nemo angebatur, quem iterum foeminam futurum Apollo praedixerat. Quid vero est, inquiebam, mi Caeneu, hoc ne ego ignorare adhuc potui, olim te fuisse foeminam? Fui, reposuit ille, foemina, at nunc Neptuni beneficio virum noveris. Cum dein nihil reponeret, ego socium, uti rem aperiat, rogare; tum ille ita recensere historiam:

            "Pater meus Elatus, nescio, quo Deorum responso certior redditus: fore, uti a filia, quam primam sustulisset, necaretur, diu a mulierum societate penitus abstinuit; tandem multis Amicorum suasionibus inductus Antippo genitam in coniugem adlegit, quae cum me in lucem ederet, et puellam videret, eorum, quae Patri responsa erant, non immemor, sexum occultavit, atque adepllavit Caeneum. Post, ubi ad eam aetatem perveni, qua uxor e civibus deligenda erat, ego Matris Hippeae monitu omne coniugium respuere, aversari omnes virgines; cum Iuvenibus libenter conversari, contra urgere coniugium Pater, et, ni voluntati obsequerer, mala comminari omnia. Vicit obstinatam. Despondi unam e magnesiis invita, simulque Neptunum, uti nunc demum miserae succureret, voto precata, et suppliciis. Tam fervens oratio fuit, ut penetrare in maria potuerit. Cum enim ad Aras accederem, virum me esse sensi, quo cum sexu omnia mihi pariter bona contigerunt: mens praestantior, et ratio; sollers cura Reipublicae; fervor in amando purior, et decoctus magis; adhoc arctum cum amicis vinculum; postremo gloriae adpetitus verae, atque solidae. His ego omnibus, si sexum mutavero, orbus, quid agam? quo me vertam socii? Haec de sua sorte Caeneus."

 --Andrea Dugonicius, Argonauticorum, sive de Vellere Aureo  Libri XXIV, Book 8, p. 203 (1778)

We had scarcely left sight of Delos, and were contemplating what we’d learned. I wasn’t the only one who was worried about the prophecies we’d been given in the shrine. Everyone was either really happy or really terrified about it, but nobody was more worried than Caeneus--for Apollo predicted that he would again become a woman.

I told him, “Hey Caeneus, buddy, what’s going on? Fill me in so I’m not still in the dark—you used to be a woman?”

He replied, “I was a woman, but now, thanks to the blessings of Neptune, you know me as a man.”

When he didn’t respond anything else, I asked him, friend-to-friend, to tell me more, and then Caeneus told me everything:

“My dad Elatus got a prophecy from the gods, I guess, that he’d be killed by his firstborn daughter, so he avoided getting married. Finally, a bunch of his friends convinced him to do so, so he married the daughter of Antippus. When she gave birth to me and saw she’d birthed a girl, she ignored my father’s prophecy and hid my gender and called me Caeneus. Later on, when I became old enough to get married, I listened to my mother Hippea’s advice and put off getting married. I kept rejecting all of the girls, and really liked hanging out with guys. My father kept hounding me about getting married, and even threatened me with terrible things if I didn’t obey his will. Well, he finally got his way (even though I didn’t want to). I was betrothed to one of the Magnesian girls, and I kept praying and giving offerings to Neptune to save me.

My prayers were so desperate, that they even found their way underwater. For when I approached the altar on my wedding day, I felt that I had become a man—and that everything got better when I had the body of a man. My mind was now sharper, as well as my reasoning powers; my civic duty was more productive; my romantic love was more purified, and more mellow; my relationships with my friends were stronger, finally, I gained a yearning for true and wholesome glory. If I change back to a girl, if I lose all of this, what will I do? What friends will I have? Where will I turn?”

This was what Caeneus was worried about.

Ace Champion Atalanta: Hyginus, Fab. 185

 Trigger Warning: execution, rape

It is said that Schoeneus had a beautiful daughter named Atalanta who surpassed men on the racetrack with her own athletic ability. She asked her father to remain unmarried, so whenever one of her many suitors asked for her hand in marriage, her father would set up a contest. A suitor who wanted to marry his daughter had to first run a race with Atalanta, but he would run the track unarmed, while she pursued him with a spear. After she hunted him down and killed him, she would put his head on display on the racetrack. After Atalanta had defeated and killed many suitors this way, she was finally defeated by Hippomenes [the son of Megareus and Merope]. Venus gave Hippomenes three special apples, and told him how to use them. During the race, he tossed the apples to the girl to slow down the race. She slowed down while she collected them and marveled at their golden appearance, and so the youth ended up winning the race. Schoeneus was impressed by the trick and happily married off his daughter to Hippomenes. But while he led her back to his homeland, Hippomenes forgot that he only won the race by Venus’ help, and did not thank her. Venus grew angry at that, and while Hippomenes was sacrificing to Jupiter the Winner on Mount Parnassus, he became overcome with lust and slept with Atalanta in the god’s sacred shrine. Because of this act, Jupiter turned them into lions, so they could no longer sleep together again*.

* According to ancient superstition, lions and lionesses could not mate with each other.

--Hyginus, Fabulae 185 

Schoeneus filiam Atalantam virginem formosissimam dicitur habuisse, quae virtute sua cursu viros superabat. ea petiit a patre ut se virginem servaret. itaque cum a pluribus in coniugium peteretur, pater eius simultatem constituit, qui eam ducere vellet prius in certamine cursu cum ea contenderet, termino constituto, ut ille inermis fugeret haec cum telo insequeretur; quem intra finem termini constituta fuisset interficeret, cuius caput in stadio figeret. plerosque cum superasset et ocidisset novissime ab Hippomene Megarei et Meropes filio victa est. hic enim a Venere mala tria insignis formae acceperat, edoctus quis usus in eis esset. qui in ipso certamine iactando puellae impetum alligavit. illa enim dum colligit et ammiratur aurum, declinavit et iuveni victoriam tradidit. cui Schoeneus ob industriam libens filiam suam dedit uxorem. Hanc cum in patriam duceret, oblitus beneficio Veneris se vicisse, grates ei non egit. irata Venere in monte Parnasso cum sacrificaret Iovi Victori, cupiditate incensus cum ea in fano concubuit. quos Iupiter ob id factum in leonem et leam convertit,  quibus dii concubitum Veneris denegant.

HYGINUS

MAP:

Name: Gaius Julius Hyginus

Date: 64 BCE – 17 CE

Works: Fabulae*

               De Astronomica

REGION 1 / 4*

 

BIO:

Timeline:

Hyginus was a freedman of the Roman emperor Augustus who was in charge of the Imperial library on the Palatine Hill in Rome. His work, the Fabulae, are a sourcebook for Greek and Roman myths. Although there is quite a bit of overlap between his writings and his contemporary and friend Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Hyginus’ works are much more succinct.

GOLDEN AGE ROME

 

 

 

* There is evidence that Hyginus may have been from Alexandria, Egypt (Suetonius, de Gramm. 20)

 

I Will Never Be Yours: An Ace Daphne Confronts Apollo, M. Marullus

I am now safe from your divinity,

as a newly transformed bay tree;

I, a maiden who was mean to her stalker.

And now he hugs my naked branches and tells me to rejoice that I am now his.

I may be yours, but I’ll not be your spouse.

--M. Marullus, Picta Poesis Ovidiana (1580) 

 

Tuta suis monstris, et iam nova Laurea Daphne:

Aspera amatori sic quoque virgo suo:

Nunc ait, exulta ramos complexus inanes:

Ut tua sim, coniunx non ero nempe tua.

 

 

Aeneas Says Trans Rights: Chloreus, Vergil, Aen.11.768-789

Galli were worshippers of the goddess Cybele who renounced their masculinity by voluntarily undergoing castration. They lived as women, and held a separate legal status from men in ancient Rome. In the Aeneid, one of Aeneas' warriors is a gallus named Chloreus, whom the Amazon warrior Camilla intends to fight. The author Vergil uses this scene to play with gender roles in the epic genre, but it is uncomfortably easy to note the author's use of stereotyping here (particularly the fixation on the warrior's clothing instead of their valor).

CONTENT WARNING: misogyny

It happened that Chloreus,

a sacred retired priest of Cybele,

Was sparkling conspicuously in Phrygian armor

As they rode their horse onward. Their horse

Was covered in gilded bronze adornments

The way feathers adorn a bird.

Chloreus was equally conspicuous

Wearing bright purple armor

Shooting Gortynian arrows from a Lycian bow.

There was a golden ceremonial bow on their shoulders

And they wore a priest’s helmet, also golden;

They tied their purple cloak with a golden tie;

They even wore pants—how barbaric!—embroidered with a needle.

Camilla spotted them from far away,

And wanted to seize the Trojan armor

Either to dedicate it as an offering in a temple

Or perhaps she wanted to wear the golden outfit herself.

The Amazon hunter blindly targeted Chloreus   

For single combat, and,

While she burned with a womanly love of treasure

And was caught off guard,

Arruns used the advantage to brandish his weapon deceitfully…

--Vergil, Aeneid 11.768-789

Forte sacer Cybelo Chloreus olimque sacerdos
insignis longe Phrygiis fulgebat in armis
spumantemque agitabat equum, quem pellis aenis              
in plumam squamis auro conserta tegebat.
ipse peregrina ferrugine clarus et ostro
spicula torquebat Lycio Gortynia cornu;
aureus ex umeris erat arcus et aurea vati
cassida; tum croceam chlamydemque sinusque crepantis   
carbaseos fulvo in nodum collegerat auro
pictus acu tunicas et barbara tegmina crurum.
hunc virgo, sive ut templis praefigeret arma
Troia, captivo sive ut se ferret in auro
venatrix, unum ex omni certamine pugnae              
caeca sequebatur totumque incauta per agmen
femineo praedae et spoliorum ardebat amore,
telum ex insidiis cum tandem tempore capto
concitat …

VERGIL / VIRGIL	MAP:
Name:  Publius Vergilius Maro Date:  70 BCE – 21 BCE Works:  Aeneid*               Eclogues              Georgics	REGION  1
BIO:	Timeline:
Vergil was born in Mantua (Cisalpine Gaul, located in northern Italy) and lived during the tumultuous transition of Roman government from republic to monarchy. His masterpiece, the Aeneid, tells the story of Aeneas’ migration from Troy to Italy; it was used for centuries as the pinnacle of Roman literature.	GOLDEN AGE ROME

M/M: Dying like a flower: Hyacinthus & Euryalus, Servius In Aen. 9.433

9.433: “Like when a purple flower is cut by a plow.” This is the rationale for the comparison:  it is appropriate to compare Hyacinthus to Euryalus, because he was also a very beautiful man and he also turned into a flower when he died.

 

433] PURPUREUS VELUTI CUM FLOS SUCCISUS ARATRO habetur ratio comparationis: videtur enim Euryalo Hyacinthum comparare, qui pulcherrimus fuit et post mortem conversus in florem est 

--Servius, In Aen. 9.433

 

SERVIUS	MAP:
Name:  Maurus Servius Honoratus Date:  4th – 5th c. CE (???) Works:  In Vergilii carmina comentarii	REGION  1
BIO:	Timeline:
Little is known about the author or manuscript tradition for the grammatical commentary of Vergil’s Aeneid.	BYZANTINE / LATE LATIN

 

Apollo and Venus, United in Grief: a poem by Faustus Sabaeus

Dum Venus in Cypro, & Phoebus per prata vagantes

F1orida: habere solum* sidera picta vident:

Dumque Hyacinthus ibi, atque rubens occurrit Adonis:

Pulcher uterque suo funere, Phoebus ait:

Dic soror, haec nostris num exultat amoribus istis?

An luctu & nostro terra dolore gemit?

Hic meus, iste tuus dolor, & gratissimus ignis:

Ille Hyacinthus erat: alter Adonis erat.

 

* solum, i: soil (not from solus, a, um)

----Faustus Sabaeus, Picta Poesis Ovidiana (1580)  

While Venus and Apollo were wandering through the blossoming fields on Cyprus,

They noticed that the soil had vibrant stars*.

And over here they ran into the Hyacinth flower,

And over there they spotted the red Adonis flower,

Each one beautiful even in death.

Apollo said, “Tell me, sister,  does this land

Gloat over the death of our boyfriends,

Or is the earth weeping alongside us in pain?

This star is my grief, and that star is yours;

This one was Hyacinth, the other was Adonis.”

 

* a metaphor for flower