Trans People in the Roman World - Literature - Cheryl Morgan Moving Trans History Forward, March 2021
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Trans People in the
Roman World - Literature
Cheryl Morgan
Moving Trans History Forward, March 2021
What Is Trans (Plus)?
Transvestite
Transsexual
Transgender
Non-Binary
Genderqueer
Gender fluid
Agender
Two Spirit
Hijra
Fa’fafine
Etc.
Photo of Laverne Cox by Frazer Harrison - © 2016 Getty Images, via imdb.com
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1209545/mediaviewer/rm3878151168/
Gender Diversity in History
Affecting presentation
Adopting social roles
Signalling sexuality
A matter of identity
Culturally contextual
Explanations
Medico-scientific
model
Religious model
Intersex
Portrait by Hyacinthe Rigaud, via Wikipedia.com
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_XIV#/media/File:Louis_XIV_of_France.jpg
A Word on Sources
Most of our sources are
written by elite,
conservative Roman men
Up until recently, these
have been interpreted
for us by elite,
conservative Western
men
Sometimes we have to
read between the lines
Abductive reasoning –
what is the most likely
explanation?
The Great Mother
Cybele arrived in Rome
from Phrygia in 204 BCE
to aid the Republic
against Hannibal
The Romans called her
Magna Mater, the Great
Mother
Her followers included
people assigned male at
birth who were castrated
on joining the cult and
lived as women thereafter
They were known as Galli
Photo Marshall Astor via Wikipedia.com
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cybele#/media/File:Cybele_Getty_Villa_57.AA.19.jpg
Cybele & Attis
Attis hurries. Runs barefoot,
takes a fast boat to Asia,
runs again.
Mad with Her love so that he feels no pain.
He loves.
Comes to Her woods and groves.
Then starts to cut
cut with the flint that cut
feet.
Cuts deep and fast.
The blood begins to flow.
She plucks the last
Bits of her former flesh
Out by the chords
Catullus #63, translated by Roz Kaveney
Photo via Ancient Origins https://www.ancient-origins.net/myths-legends-
europe/pagan-attis-and-christian-jesus-spurious-connection-009634
Not So Deadly
• In 2002 a dig at Catterick
in Yorkshire revealed
possible 4th Century CE
Gallus burial
• “Cybelean priests often
died in the process.
Indeed, the Romano-
British transvestite
eunuch from Yorkshire
probably perished from
the wounds inflicted in
just such an act.” – David
Keys, The Independent,
May 21, 2002
Artist’s impression of the Catterick Gallus, via BBC
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/1999734.stm
A Well Practiced Operation
A castration clamp found
in the Thames and on
display in the British
Museum
This was an efficient
(and apparently well-
used) medical
instrument
Wait, is this medical
transition?
Photo by Cheryl Morgan
Transphobia in Court
In 77 BCE Genucius, was
left an inheritance by a
freedman friend, Naevius
Anius
Naevius’s family
challenged the will in
court
The magistrate ruled that
Genucius could not have
the money as wills only
applied to men and
women
So Rome had three legal
genders
Photo by Anna-Katharina Rieger via Wikipedia.com
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galli#/media/File:Relief_of_Archigallus.jpg
Roman Era Drag Queens
The Golden Ass by
Apuleius, a Roman
satirical novel
It describes the
adventures of Lucius
while transformed into a
donkey
In one chapter he is
purchased by a troupe of
Galli
“these 'girls' were a
troupe of queens, who at
once appeared jumping
for joy and squealing
untunefully in mincing
effeminate tones”
Image via BESTqUEST https://phillipkay.wordpress.com/2015/07/23/the-golden-ass/Or Beauty Queens?
In the play, Eumenides,
by Marcus Terentius
Varro, a young man has
an encounter with the
cult of the Great Mother
He describes the Galli at
the temple in Rome as
very beautiful and
looking “like Naiads”
Both descriptions can be
true
Photo by Alessandro Antonelli via Wikipedia.com
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcus_Terentius_Varro#/media/File:Statua_di_Marco_
Terenzio_Varrone_(Rieti)_02.jpgWere They Trans?
Well yes, obviously, but
how did they see
themselves?
“Those of them who […]
have desired to be
completely changed into
women and gone on to
mutilate their genital
organs” – Philo of
Alexandria
Image by André Thévet via Wikipedia.com
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philo#/media/File:PhiloThevet.jpgThe Galli and the Law
Castrated people could not
be citizens
Giving up everything for
femininity
But an Empire-wide network
of trans folk with an HQ on
the Palatine Hill
“It is hardly an exaggeration
to claim that the galli were
the Roman emperor’s closest
neighbours” – Mary Beard
Emancipation under Claudius
(41-54)?
The Rites of Attis become
part of the Roman religious
calendar
Please remember March 24th
Derek Jacobi from I Claudius (BBC) – photo via Almay https://www.alamy.com/stock-
photo/i-claudius.htmlIn Other Cultures
Were there trans people
in other cultures known
to Rome? Yes!
Scythian shamen called
Enarees said to be a
third gender by
Herodotus, etc.
Were almost certainly
castrated because
Scythians were horse
people
But probably did not
drink mare’s urine
Image via National Clothing http://nationalclothing.org/110-scythian-traditional-gold-
jewelry-and-clothing-with-gold-decorations-5th-4th-century-b-c.htmlThe Trans Emperor?
Elagabalus, Emperor of
Rome (218-222)
“He carried his lewdness
to such a point that he
asked the physicians to
contrive a woman's
vagina in his body by
means of an incision,
promising them large
sums for doing so.” –
Cassius Dio, Roman
History Book 79
Bust of Elagabalus from the Capitoline Museum, Rome – image via Pinterest.com
https://www.pinterest.co.uk/leterrae/rome-musei-capitolini/Nero and Sporus/Sabina
Sabina (a.k.a. Sporus) is
generally portrayed as a
victim, but…
“Calvia had been entrusted
with the care of the boy and
with the oversight of the
wardrobe, though a woman
and of high rank” – Cassius
Dio
“that youth of Nero’s actually
wore his hair parted, young
women attended him
whenever he went for a walk,
he wore women’s clothes, and
was forced to do everything
else a woman does in the
same way” – Dio Chrysostom
Bust of Nero from the Capitoline Museum, Rome – image via Wikipedia.com
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nero#/media/File:Nero_1.JPGThe Trans Empress
“All the Greeks held a celebration
in honour of their marriage,
uttering all the customary good
wishes, even to the extent of
praying that legitimate children
might be born to them.” – Cassius
Dio
Nero wanted his wife to be “in
muliebrem naturam transfigurare”
woman - Suetonius
She was loyal to him to the end
But was then courted by both
Nymphidius Sabinus and Otho
And ended her life like a true
Roman Matron to defy Vitellius
Sporus/Sabina as played by Daniela Marinova from the Bettany Hughes TV series,
Eight Days that Made RomeWhere Are the Boys?
There is almost nothing
about people who might
be trans men (or even
lesbians) in Roman
literature
Lucian (2nd C) has
Megillus of Lesbos in The
Courtesans, but this is
satire
In Christian times trans
men are suddenly
everywhere (as per
Nico’s paper from
yesterday)
Image by William Faithorne via Wikipedia.com
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucian#/media/File:Lucianus.jpgAugustine is Disgusted
The Festival of Tanit in
Carthage
“These effeminates …
going through the
streets … with anointed
hair, whitened faces,
relaxed bodies, and
feminine gait” – Saint
Augustine of Hippo, City
of God
Image via Dover Beach
https://lifeondoverbeach.wordpress.com/2014/09/16/augustine-of-hippo-but-my-sin-
was-this-that-i-looked-for-pleasure-beauty-and-truth/You can also read
