I know most people think this is crazy but still I will post it here. I received an email from a client whose name was Hippolita. My first thought was 'that's the feminine form of Hippolytus' given the amount of time I spend reading this nonsense. But then it occurred to me ... Hippolytus is actually the male form of Hippolyta a much more famous figure associated with the legendary Amazons. I have no idea how common the masculine form of this famous female name. But surely it is something when we see time and time again early Christians associated with eunuchs, transsexuals and the like. There's the famous statement in Justin where he tells an anecdote about a Christian believer who wants to go to Alexandria to get a sex change operation. I could go on but I have to get back to work.
The curious thing is that Hippolytus - the male form of female name of the Queen of the Amazons - would have likely been the individuals baptismal name. We kind of have an idea when that likely took place - i.e. the reign of Commodus. Commodus was obsessed with the Amazons and he likened his concubine (and Christian) Marcia as an Amazon. Here is a bust of Commodus wearing the girdle of Hippolyta
Commodus thought of himself as the second Hercules. There are many representational symbolic features within this bust; the piece which he wears upon his head is Hercules lion hide, the 1st of 12 labours, the killing of the Nemean lion. He is holding Hercules club, and is shown wearing the Girdle of Hippolyta. This girdle depicts the 9th labour, the killing of the Amazon queen and the defeat of the Amazons.
For those interested Hercules was sent to retrieve it for Admete, the daughter of King Eurystheus. Most versions of the myth indicate that Hippolyta was so impressed with Hercules that she gave him the girdle without argument, perhaps while visiting him on his ship. Then, according to Pseudo-Apollodorus, the goddess Hera, making herself appear as one of the Amazons, spread a rumor among them that Hercules and his crew were abducting their queen, so the Amazons attacked the ship. In the fray that followed, Hercules slew Hippolyta, stripped her of the belt, fought off the attackers, and sailed away.
“Finally, from so little sleeping and so much reading, his brain dried up and he went completely out of his mind.”
― Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Don Quixote
Secret Alias wrote: ↑Tue Oct 30, 2018 10:13 amThere's the famous statement in Justin where he tells an anecdote about a Christian believer who wants to go to Alexandria to get a sex change operation. I could go on but I have to get back to work.
That Christian wanted a surgeon "to take his twins away" (τοὺς διδύμους αὐτοῦ ἀφελεῖν), "twins" being a byname for testicles. He wanted to be made a eunuch. Did the ancients think of eunuchs as transsexuals? Or is that concept an anachronism?
"Besides abusing freeborn boys and seducing married women, he [Nero] debauched the vestal virgin Rubria. The freedwoman Acte he all but made his lawful wife, after bribing some ex-consuls to perjure themselves by swearing that she was of royal birth. He castrated the boy Sporus and actually tried to make a woman of him; and he married him with all the usual ceremonies, including a dowry and a bridal veil, took him to his house attended by a great throng, and treated him as his wife. And the witty jest that someone made is still current, that it would have been well for the world if Nero's father Domitius had had that kind of wife. This Sporus, decked out with the finery of the empresses and riding in a litter, he took with him to the assizes and marts of Greece, and later at Rome through the Street of the Images, fondly kissing him from time to time..."
Charles Wilson wrote: ↑Tue Oct 30, 2018 10:33 am
Suetonius, 12 Caesars, "Nero":
"Besides abusing freeborn boys and seducing married women, he [Nero] debauched the vestal virgin Rubria. The freedwoman Acte he all but made his lawful wife, after bribing some ex-consuls to perjure themselves by swearing that she was of royal birth. He castrated the boy Sporus and actually tried to make a woman of him; and he married him with all the usual ceremonies, including a dowry and a bridal veil, took him to his house attended by a great throng, and treated him as his wife. And the witty jest that someone made is still current, that it would have been well for the world if Nero's father Domitius had had that kind of wife. This Sporus, decked out with the finery of the empresses and riding in a litter, he took with him to the assizes and marts of Greece, and later at Rome through the Street of the Images, fondly kissing him from time to time..."
Good one... but this is Nero we are talking about. And the ancient misogyny which deemed women to be little more than defective men may come into play, as well.
Were eunuchs, in general, treated in much the same way as transsexuals are now (for better or worse)?
Also look at the Syrian Goddess by Lucian of Samosata. From what I remember the castrated priests referred to one another as 'sister.' Or maybe it was the Golden Ass.
Last edited by Secret Alias on Tue Oct 30, 2018 11:09 am, edited 1 time in total.
“Finally, from so little sleeping and so much reading, his brain dried up and he went completely out of his mind.”
― Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Don Quixote
Gives new meaning to Didymus Thomas. Maybe he was so called because he was the only one with 'balls.'
“Finally, from so little sleeping and so much reading, his brain dried up and he went completely out of his mind.”
― Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Don Quixote
He carried his new servant home, and when he came
to the door of the house, he culled out his troop,
saying: "Behold, my daughter's, 1 what a gentle
servant I have bought for you." Yet were these
daughters a band of lewd and naughty fellows, and
at first they were marvellous glad, prattling and
shouting for joy with their broken and harsh voices,
like a troop of women, in discordant sounds, and
Therewithal babbling in this wise, they led me
into the stable, and tied me to the manger; and
there was a certain stout young man with a might v
body, well skilled in playing on flutes, whom they
had bought in a market with the money they had
collected; and he walked before their procession,
playing the horn when they carried round their
goddess, and at home he shared in all their labours
and they made great use of him. Now he, as soon as
he espied me, entertained me very well, for he filled
my rack and manger with meat, and spake merrily,
saying : " O master ass, you are welcome ; now you
shall take my office in hand : you are come to supply
my room, and to ease me of my miserable labour : 1
pray Godthou mayest long live and please my master
well, to the end thou mayest continually deliver my
weary sides from so great pain and labour." N\ lien
I heard his words, I did prognosticate my new mi-cry
to come. The day following I saw them apparelled
in divers colours, and hideously tricked out, havmi;-
their faces ruddled with paint, and their eyes tricked
out with grease, mitres on their heads, ve-,tmenl-
coloured like saffron, surplices of silk and linen : and
some ware white tunics printed with purple stripe-
that pointed every way like spears, girt with belts,
and on their feet were yellow shoes ; and they attired
the goddess in silken robe, and put her upon my
back. Then they went forth with their arms nakrd
to their shoulders, bearing with them great swords and
mighty axes, shouting and dancing like mad persons
to the sound of the pipe. After that we had passed
many small villages, we fortuned to come to a certain
rich man's house, where at our first entry they began
to howl all out of tune and hurl themselves hither
and thither, as though they were mad. They made
a thousand gests with their feet and their heads ;
they would bend down their necks and spin round so
that their hair Hew out in a circle ; they would bite
their own flesh ; finally, every one took his twy-
edged weapon and wounded his arms in divers places.
Meanwhile there was one more mad than the rest,
that fetched many deep sighs from the bottom of his
heart, as though he had been ravished in spirit, or
replenished with divine power, and he feigned a
swoon and frenzy, as if (forsooth) the presence of the
gods were not wont to make men better than before,
but weak and sickly. Mark then how by divine
providence he found a just and worthy recompense
after that he had somewhat returned to himself, he
invented and forged a great lie, noisily prophesying
and accusing and charging himself, saying that he
had displeased the divine majesty of the goddess by
doing of something which was not convcn .-il)U: to the
order of their holy religion, wherefore he prayr.i
that vengeance might be done of himself. And
therewithal he took a whip, such as is naturally
borne by these womanish men, with many twisted
knots and tassels of wool, and strung with sheep's
knuckle-bones, and with the knotted thongs scourged
his own body very strong to bear the pain of the
blows, so that you might see the ground to be wet
and defiled with the womanish blood that issued out
abundantly with the cutting of the swords and the
blows of the scourge : which thing caused me greatly
to fear to see such wounds and effusion of blood, lest
the same foreign goddess should likewise desire the
blood of an ass for her stomach, as some men long for
ass's milk After they at last were weary, or at
least satisfied with rending themselves, they ceased
from this bloody business : and, behold, they received
from the inhabitants, who offered eagerly, into their
open bosoms copper coins, nay silver too, vessels of
wine, milk, cheese, flour and wheat ; and amongst
them there were some that brought barley to the ass
that carried the goddess : but the greedy whoresons
thrust all into their sacks which they brought for the
purpose, and put them upon my back, to the end I
might serve for two purposes, that is to say : for the
barn by reason of my corn, and for the temple by
reason of the goddess that I bare.
In this sort they went from place to place robbing
all the country over ; at length they came to a certain
town, purposing to make good cheer there, being
glad at a great gain they had gotten, where, under
colour of divination, they brought to pass that they
obtained a fat ram of a poor husbandman for the
goddess' supper, and to make sacrifice withal. After
that the banquet was richly prepared, they washed
their bodies, and brought in a lusty young man of
the village to sup with them ; and when he had
scarce tasted a few herbs before the supper they
began to discover their beastly customs and inordi-
nate desires. For they compassed him round about
as he sat, to abuse him, but when" mine eyes would
not long bear to behold this horrible fact, I could not
but attempt to utter myinind and say, "O masters,"
but I could pronounce no more but the first letter "O,"
which I roared out very clearly and valiantly and like
an ass; but at a time inopportune, for some youin:
men of the town, seeking for a stray ass that thev
had lost the same night, and searching diligently all
the inns, heard my voice within the house ; whereby
they judged that I had been theirs, but concealed in
a hidden place, and resolving to manage their own
business, they entered altogether unawares, and found
these persons committing their vile abomination.
l The feminine is ironically used for the effeminate crew of
priests. So in the Attis poem of Catullus (LXlii) the hero,
after his emasculation, speaks of himself in the femimm-
gender.
“Finally, from so little sleeping and so much reading, his brain dried up and he went completely out of his mind.”
― Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Don Quixote
According to the author of the Aristotelian Problems eunuchs become female after castration:
Why is it that eunuchs, when they are disabled [i.e., castrated] (diafqei- romenoi), in other respects change into the female? For they have feminine voice, shapelessness [or shrillness], and lack of articulation (kai gar fwnhnqhlukhniscousinkaiamorfian[oroxuthta]kaianarqian),17 and so undergo a severe change, as do other animals when castrated. https://books.google.com/books?id=qdcOx ... ne&f=false
“Finally, from so little sleeping and so much reading, his brain dried up and he went completely out of his mind.”
― Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Don Quixote
In Gospel of Judas Thomas the Christian goal is the opposite:
114. Simon Peter said to them, "Make Mary leave us, for females don't deserve life."
Jesus said, "Look, I will guide her to make her male, so that she too may become a living spirit resembling you males. For every female who makes herself male will enter the kingdom of Heaven."
“Finally, from so little sleeping and so much reading, his brain dried up and he went completely out of his mind.”
― Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Don Quixote
