WEBVTT 00:00:28.320 --> 00:00:35.920 Hello, everybody, and welcome to Lambda, the LGBT and Antiquity podcast, your home for all things LGBT in the ancient world. 00:00:36.079 --> 00:00:41.520 I'm your host, Dominica Raven, episode 7, Apollo the Bisexual. 00:00:41.840 --> 00:00:47.600 Apollo burned with love for a young man named Edmitos, a prince of Thessaly. 00:00:47.920 --> 00:00:55.759 Apollo comes down to earth disguised as a shepherd, becoming Apollo Nomios, the pastoral Apollo. 00:00:56.000 --> 00:01:01.920 Under his watchful eye, Edmitos' herds and flocks were fruitful beyond reasoning. 00:01:02.240 --> 00:01:07.680 Apollo tamed horses and induced milk production in unheard-of quantities. 00:01:07.920 --> 00:01:11.519 The two had a very close relationship for over a year. 00:01:11.760 --> 00:01:19.760 Edmitos knew that Apollo was a god in disguise the whole time, but his humility and piety were on display. 00:01:20.000 --> 00:01:23.760 During this year, Edmitos began courting Elchestes. 00:01:23.920 --> 00:01:29.760 Though Elchestus did love Edmitos, her father Pelaius was unwilling to let them get married. 00:01:30.000 --> 00:01:34.480 Pelaius is never shown as a respectable, moderate, and just king. 00:01:34.719 --> 00:01:40.480 In fact, he's often known for setting dangerous and difficult labors before different Greek heroes. 00:01:40.719 --> 00:01:50.560 Pelaius is the same corrupt and foolish king who would a few years later send Jason and the Argonauts to the far corners of the earth to find the golden fleece of Phrixos. 00:01:50.799 --> 00:01:58.879 Here, too, Polaius refuses to let them get married until Edmitos can yoke a lion and a wild boar to a war chariot. 00:01:59.040 --> 00:02:05.280 Dejected by this seemingly impossible task, Edmitos asked his lover Apollo for help. 00:02:05.519 --> 00:02:12.000 Apollo already knew and presents Edmitos with a chariot yoked to the wild animals. 00:02:12.240 --> 00:02:20.080 Edmitos and Elchestis ride triumphantly away from Pelaias' house on the silly-looking chariot. 00:02:20.319 --> 00:02:25.520 Though Apollo was heartbroken, he did not bear any ill-will against his lover. 00:02:25.680 --> 00:02:30.400 Sometime later Apollo asked the fates to release Edmitos from death. 00:02:30.560 --> 00:02:33.840 They agreed, but provided an ironic stipulation. 00:02:34.159 --> 00:02:37.520 Someone else had to die willingly in his place. 00:02:37.759 --> 00:02:44.319 When the day of his death came, it was his wife Elchestis who died in place of Edmitos. 00:02:44.719 --> 00:02:47.120 This destroyed Admitos. 00:02:47.280 --> 00:03:00.000 Though he had escaped his own death, he cries out, To misery was I born, wretch who I am, I envy the dead, I long for them to repose me in that house. 00:03:00.479 --> 00:03:04.879 Edmitos has survived death, but does not get to enjoy it. 00:03:05.199 --> 00:03:12.800 Apollo even tried to convince death to let Elchestus survive, but implacable death refused. 00:03:13.599 --> 00:03:16.800 Eventually Heracles takes pity on Edmetos. 00:03:17.039 --> 00:03:22.719 Heracles returns to Hades, he remembered the way after his labor of fetching Cerberus. 00:03:22.879 --> 00:03:26.719 He brings Elchestus out, but she keeps her veil down. 00:03:26.960 --> 00:03:39.120 Heracles offers her to Edmetos as a new replacement wife, but Edmetos confesses his love and his grief to Elchestus herself, and only then are they reunited. 00:03:39.439 --> 00:03:46.000 Apollo is ultimately happy for the couple, even as he departs the palace he loves so much. 00:03:46.240 --> 00:03:49.759 There are many famous stories of love between gods and mortals. 00:03:49.919 --> 00:03:52.479 The canon literally begins with Homer. 00:03:52.719 --> 00:04:12.479 The Iliad is strangely coy about this type of love, even though Achilles, Aeneas, Psarpedon, Brisus, Helen, the list goes on, are all direct children of a god and a mortal in union, and literally everybody else on the fields of Troy is either a grandson or a great-grandson of some god. 00:04:13.039 --> 00:04:18.240 However, during the Odyssey, Odysseus is taken in by the hospitable Phaeacians. 00:04:18.399 --> 00:04:23.759 They give him gifts and offer him a ride home, but before they depart, there is a party at the palace. 00:04:24.000 --> 00:04:30.560 During this party, some youths pick a fight with Odysseus, only for the aging hero to put them right back in their place. 00:04:30.800 --> 00:04:37.439 Then the Phaeacians show off their skill at dancing, casting a great glass ball up into the air. 00:04:37.600 --> 00:04:48.399 Then the bard Demodocus starts unabashedly singing pornography about a steamy love affair between Ares and Aphrodite, while the crookshanked cuckle Tephaestus sets a snare. 00:04:48.639 --> 00:04:55.360 The offspring of this union is Harmonia, who will be the wife of Cadmus the Dragonslayer. 00:04:55.600 --> 00:05:00.480 This is the first in a long line of narratives of God Mortal Love. 00:05:00.720 --> 00:05:08.319 Several of the most important, influential, and iconic narratives of gods and mortals involve the god Apollo. 00:05:08.560 --> 00:05:12.480 Apollo is an archer god who deals death from afar. 00:05:12.720 --> 00:05:22.319 He is a powerful male deity shown fighting at Troy, employed by Admitus, and beholding the whole world as a manifestation of the sun. 00:05:22.800 --> 00:05:40.079 Athena consistently appears as a mortal man to pass messages at the front, or as a young woman to make suggestions to young women, and that's all part of her nature, where Apollo is practically never shown crossing gendered boundaries or taking the form of a woman. 00:05:40.399 --> 00:05:44.480 Apollo is a god of music and art and song. 00:05:44.800 --> 00:05:47.439 He's the son of Zeus and the Titan Leto. 00:05:47.759 --> 00:05:54.319 An iconic story of Apollo as a god of the arts occurs when Hermes was first born. 00:05:54.480 --> 00:06:02.000 When Hermes was born, he constructed the very first lyre out of a turtle shell and then tried to steal Apollo's favorite cattle. 00:06:02.240 --> 00:06:05.439 Apollo found out immediately and confronted Hermes. 00:06:05.839 --> 00:06:13.839 But the god of song was absolutely entranced by this brand new instrument he had never heard before. 00:06:14.079 --> 00:06:27.680 So Apollo arranges to have Hermes take control of his bull whip, and a specific type of divination using magic rocks, in exchange for the lyre, and the two gods are close allies from that moment on. 00:06:27.920 --> 00:06:36.560 The lyre became an important manifestation of Apollo's role as a god of music and song and just general artistry and craftsmanship. 00:06:36.800 --> 00:06:40.720 In time he would have relationships with most of the muses. 00:06:40.959 --> 00:06:51.120 Each of the nine muses is a physical embodiment of the individual arts, so when Apollo and a muse have a child together, they're generally powerful singers or artists. 00:06:51.279 --> 00:06:58.639 Apollo once courted Calliope, the muse of epic poetry, and their children were Orpheus and Linos. 00:06:59.040 --> 00:07:02.319 Linus was a great lyric poet and tragic figure. 00:07:02.480 --> 00:07:06.560 He once trained a young Heracles himself in the art of the lyre. 00:07:06.720 --> 00:07:12.079 Heracles grew impatient and characteristically violent with his progress in the art. 00:07:12.240 --> 00:07:18.879 Eventually, while Linus is correcting and instructing, he makes a fatal error and strikes the great hero. 00:07:19.040 --> 00:07:25.040 As a result, Heracles strikes Linus over the head with his own lyre and murders him right there. 00:07:25.279 --> 00:07:27.920 The other child, Orpheus, needs no introduction. 00:07:28.160 --> 00:07:36.480 He was the greatest bard in all history, capable of charming the trees and animals and stones to dance with him up in the mountains. 00:07:36.720 --> 00:07:47.439 His skills were legendary to such a point that even when he goes to the underworld to grab back Eurydice, he actually plays his lyre to win Persephone's favor. 00:07:47.839 --> 00:07:50.720 But Apollo did not marry the muse Calliope. 00:07:50.959 --> 00:07:55.519 In fact, he had a relationship with her sister, Telea, the muse of comedy. 00:07:55.759 --> 00:08:00.480 Their child was named Coribas, and their descendants are called Corebantes. 00:08:01.120 --> 00:08:06.319 The Corebantes are integral players in the Samo Thracian mysteries. 00:08:06.480 --> 00:08:13.600 They would dance around in full armor, but acting more like wild animals or possessed men than anything else. 00:08:13.839 --> 00:08:18.879 These two stories are iconic episodes where Apollo has relations with one of the muses. 00:08:19.040 --> 00:08:23.040 Yet there are many more stories pairing Apollo and various muses. 00:08:23.199 --> 00:08:32.080 Even these stories have variations, such as the one where Linos was a child of Apollo and Orania, the muse of astronomy. 00:08:32.399 --> 00:08:37.120 Apollo is the leader of the muses, often shown in art as a chorus leader. 00:08:37.279 --> 00:08:43.919 Their relationship is significant because though Apollo loves all nine muses, he never married any of them. 00:08:44.159 --> 00:08:48.960 This is possibly because he knew he could never marry all nine at once. 00:08:49.200 --> 00:08:52.960 But beyond this, Apollo never actually married anybody. 00:08:53.120 --> 00:09:01.519 As we touched on before, marriage is a social and political business arrangement which neither required nor encouraged monogamy. 00:09:01.759 --> 00:09:07.759 Yet Apollo chose not to marry, electing instead to remain a bachelor forever. 00:09:08.000 --> 00:09:17.679 The implication is that where many deities have their official spouse and uncountable extramarital affairs, Apollo seems to represent something a little different. 00:09:17.840 --> 00:09:21.279 He was sometimes interested in men and sometimes in women. 00:09:21.600 --> 00:09:31.200 Taken together, this shows an excellent example of a deity who is attracted to both men and women, an archetypal bisexual figure. 00:09:31.440 --> 00:09:39.279 The love between Apollo and Hyacinthos is one of the best-known love stories between a god and a mortal from the ancient world. 00:09:39.600 --> 00:09:44.240 Hyacinthos is sometimes called a son of Cleo, the muse of history. 00:09:44.480 --> 00:09:58.879 Another common version is that Hyacinthus was actually the grandson of Lacedaemon, the eponymous progenitor of Lacedayamon, which is what the Greeks called the southeastern corner of the Peloponnesian peninsula, whose chief city-state was Sparta. 00:09:59.120 --> 00:10:09.279 Some modern scholars have argued that Hyacinthos was actually an archetype for the Spartan model of initiatory homosexuality practiced in their famous military. 00:10:09.600 --> 00:10:17.279 The Hyacinthia festival was an important coming-of-age rite for boys and girls in the highly militarized city. 00:10:17.519 --> 00:10:22.559 In any case, Hyacinthos was a beautiful youth who became Apollo's boyfriend. 00:10:22.720 --> 00:10:26.399 The two were seen hunting and romping in the Spartan countryside. 00:10:26.559 --> 00:10:33.440 It even became problematic when Apollo neglected his duties at the oracle at Delphi and no longer sang on his lyre. 00:10:33.840 --> 00:10:42.720 His days were wholly devoted to Hyacinthos, and a long intimacy fed his familiar, blazing passion. 00:10:42.960 --> 00:10:52.879 The two engaged in all the activities expected of young men, such as hunting for wild game in the forests with dogs and gets, and showing off their athletic accomplishments. 00:10:53.039 --> 00:11:00.399 The two lovers bathed together in the mountain streams, the gods sensuously rubbing his boyfriend's body with oil. 00:11:00.639 --> 00:11:12.080 It was generally a good time for Apollo in the arms of Hyacinthos, but of course, we are madly in love and everything is going great, just has to be the beginning of a Greek tragedy. 00:11:12.320 --> 00:11:22.080 One day, while the two played at an athletic competition with javelins and discuses, Apollo threw a discus an incredible distance across the plain. 00:11:22.320 --> 00:11:25.759 Laughing, Hyacinthos chases the discus. 00:11:26.000 --> 00:11:31.200 Now Zephyros, the West Wind, beholds the beautiful youth sprinting. 00:11:31.360 --> 00:11:36.639 He had also desired the beautiful Hyacinthos, though the lad rejected him for Apollo. 00:11:36.799 --> 00:11:42.399 When Zephyros saw him frolicking with Apollo, he became mad with jealousy. 00:11:42.639 --> 00:11:48.399 He caused the discus to rebound back into Hyacinthos, killing him immediately. 00:11:48.639 --> 00:11:54.320 Though Apollo is a great healer god, his arts are useless to bring someone back from the dead. 00:11:54.559 --> 00:11:56.639 Apollo grieves for his boyfriend. 00:11:56.879 --> 00:12:02.240 His own hands have killed Hyacinthus, and Apollo feels extremely guilty. 00:12:02.480 --> 00:12:08.240 The two couldn't live together any longer, leaving Apollo yearning for more time together. 00:12:08.559 --> 00:12:16.639 Apollo even wanted to bring Hyacinthos up to Olympus and make him immortal, like Aimedes, but that is impossible now. 00:12:16.960 --> 00:12:19.440 So Apollo performs a miracle. 00:12:19.600 --> 00:12:26.559 The boy's body changes into a white flower, which gets stained blue and purple with the blood of Hyacinthos. 00:12:26.879 --> 00:12:35.840 In incalculable grief, Apollo inscribes the letters Alpha and Iota, AI, on each flower petal. 00:12:36.159 --> 00:12:41.519 AI doesn't actually mean anything, but it is a common vocalization for grief. 00:12:41.759 --> 00:12:50.639 Ay, I is a common phrase in the Greek tragedies as a mournful cry after the real words have failed. 00:12:50.879 --> 00:12:55.519 So Hyacinthos has been changed from a human into a flower. 00:12:55.840 --> 00:13:02.080 So for all eternity, Apollo is comforted by his boyfriend as his constant companion. 00:13:02.320 --> 00:13:11.360 Even to this day, echoes of love emerge every spring, reminding us of the very first time a man loved another man. 00:13:11.840 --> 00:13:15.360 So Apollo was a bisexual individual. 00:13:15.600 --> 00:13:22.720 Being a deity, he was able to engage in his bisexuality in ways that might have been close to an average person. 00:13:23.120 --> 00:13:31.200 Apollo was able to engage in homosexuality without anybody ever really questioning his masculinity or his divinity. 00:13:31.600 --> 00:13:39.679 Apollo, much like Artemis, was allowed never to wed, without ever causing a problem within his extended familial network. 00:13:39.919 --> 00:13:46.320 For my part, I kind of wonder if this might have to do with their mother Leto not actually being married to Zeus. 00:13:46.559 --> 00:13:53.279 Zeus's proper wife was Hera, so those offspring are absolutely critical for the extended network. 00:13:53.440 --> 00:14:04.000 But in any case, these stories show visibly that Apollo was never stoically resigned to heteronormativity, nor was he rebelling against social expectations. 00:14:04.399 --> 00:14:10.720 He chose not to get married to a woman, but rather pursue different women throughout his life. 00:14:11.039 --> 00:14:16.960 He chose to pursue men, creating some of the most iconic love stories of all time. 00:14:17.279 --> 00:14:23.679 But above all, Apollo demonstrates clear love for each individual relationship. 00:14:23.919 --> 00:14:26.639 This is not quite possible in the human world. 00:14:26.879 --> 00:14:31.360 If you remember, Sappho has a husband and Hadrian has a wife. 00:14:31.679 --> 00:14:38.799 Humans were required to engage in a type of bisexuality, even if it was purely performative. 00:14:39.279 --> 00:14:47.200 But there are some beings who genuinely pursued affection from males and females because their desires were such. 00:14:47.519 --> 00:14:51.600 Thus, Apollo reflects an archetype of bisexuality. 00:14:51.840 --> 00:14:58.799 This is not bisexuality by compulsion, but a deity allowed to follow his desires. 00:14:59.120 --> 00:15:07.519 Next week we're going to explore Attis, a figure assigned male at birth, though they never really expressed any straightforward heteronormativity. 00:15:07.679 --> 00:15:14.720 Eventually, Attis travels to Phrygia, where they are transformed into a bride of the goddess Rea Kaibala. 00:15:15.279 --> 00:15:24.879 This story is a real contender for a representation of trans women finding an acceptable social space in an unyielding ancient world. 00:15:25.200 --> 00:15:26.879 See you next Monday. 00:15:54.720 --> 00:15:58.720 His hymns survived almost in their entirety. 00:15:58.960 --> 00:16:11.759 The story of Edmetos and Elchestus' courting is drawn from Hygienus Fabulae, sections 50 and 51, and from Apollodorus's Library, Book 1, section 104 through 106. 00:16:12.159 --> 00:16:19.039 The story of Elchestus taking Admitos' place in death is found in Euripides' play Elchestus. 00:16:19.279 --> 00:16:25.759 The tragedy was produced in 438 BC and won second place at the city Dionysia. 00:16:26.000 --> 00:16:28.480 This is the most famous version of the story. 00:16:28.720 --> 00:16:35.759 The reason Apollo had to become a servant for a mortal king in the first place had to deal with Apollo's own son Asclepios. 00:16:36.000 --> 00:16:44.000 Asclepios was a remarkable healer whose medical knowledge allowed him to break Zeus's laws and retrieve people from death. 00:16:44.240 --> 00:16:48.799 So Zeus eventually strikes Asclepios the healer with a lightning bolt. 00:16:49.039 --> 00:16:54.320 So in grief, Apollo replies by killing the Cyclops who made that lightning bolt. 00:16:54.480 --> 00:16:59.120 As punishment, Zeus makes Apollo serve Edmitos, with whom Apollo falls in love. 00:16:59.279 --> 00:17:08.160 This is the most famous version of the story, but in many versions, like Callimachus's hymn, there is no divine drama preceding the relationship between the two. 00:17:08.400 --> 00:17:12.319 The quotation is from Euripides' Elchestus, translated by R. 00:17:12.480 --> 00:17:16.799 Potter for Morley's Universal Library in 1887. 00:17:17.039 --> 00:17:20.799 It is now in the public domain and is available at the Internet Archive. 00:17:20.960 --> 00:17:32.880 The version of the story from the Euripides play ends with Heracles retrieving Elchestus from the underworld, but some other versions actually have Persephone sending her back directly. 00:17:33.039 --> 00:17:40.799 Technically speaking, nobody ever leaves Hades without Persephone's consent, so both versions can be true at the same time. 00:17:41.039 --> 00:17:45.200 Every hero at Troy is a direct descendant of one of the gods. 00:17:45.440 --> 00:17:51.759 Achilles is the son of Thetis, a goddess associated with the unfathomable depths of the sea. 00:17:52.079 --> 00:17:55.440 Aeneas's mother is Aphrodite, the goddess of love. 00:17:55.680 --> 00:17:58.240 Sarpedon's father is Zeus. 00:17:58.559 --> 00:18:06.720 Rhesi's mother is one of the muses, which one varies by the version, and Helen's father was Zeus, disguised as a swan. 00:18:06.960 --> 00:18:13.680 Odesseus himself is a grandson of Hermes on his mother's side and a great-grandson of Zeus on his father's side. 00:18:13.920 --> 00:18:22.960 The story of Apollo and Hermes comes from the Homeric hymn, number four, to Hermes, written at some point between the 7th and the 5th centuries BC. 00:18:23.279 --> 00:18:27.279 Both Linos and Orpheus have other versions of their ancestry. 00:18:27.519 --> 00:18:37.599 They're generally children of Calliope the Muse, but sometimes have different fathers, and sometimes aren't even closely related, but rather master, bard, and student. 00:18:37.920 --> 00:18:47.039 In any case, the version where their brothers, who are sons of Apollo and Calliope, comes from Apollodorus' library, book 1, section 14. 00:18:47.279 --> 00:18:55.039 The language indicates that though Calliope and Oegros begat the two, the father was actually Apollo. 00:18:55.279 --> 00:19:02.400 Linos' death by Hercules comes from Apollodorus' library, Book II, section 63 and 64. 00:19:02.640 --> 00:19:10.480 The story of Apollo and Talia bequeathing the Coribantes comes from Apollodorus' library, Book 1, Section 18. 00:19:10.640 --> 00:19:25.359 There are other versions of the story that say they're actually the children of Apollo and the mountain nymph named Raetia on Zamothrace, which is found in Strabo's geography, Book 10, chapter 3, section 20 through 22. 00:19:25.519 --> 00:19:38.319 Another version has them being the children of Rea Kaibalae and the mortal Eason on Zamothrace, which is a version found in Deodorus of Sicily's Library of History, Book 5, Section 48. 00:19:38.559 --> 00:19:47.279 The best known story of Hyacinthos comes from Ovid's Metamorphosis, Book 10, verses 162 through 219. 00:19:47.440 --> 00:19:52.400 Ovid was a Roman poet who lived between 43 BC and around 18 AD. 00:19:52.559 --> 00:20:01.200 The lineage of Hyacinthus as a child of the Muse Cleo comes from Apollodorus's library, Book 1, section 16 through 17. 00:20:01.519 --> 00:20:10.240 The lineage of Hyacinthus as a child of the Spartan royal line comes from Apollodorus' library, Book III, Section 116. 00:20:10.480 --> 00:20:26.400 The argument that the story of Hyacinthus reflects an initiatory homosexuality is drawn from Bernard Sargent's Homosexuality in Greek Myth, originally published in French in 1984, translated by Arthur Goldhammer in 1986. 00:20:26.559 --> 00:20:31.599 The story of Hyacinthos is in chapter 8, pages 84 through 97. 00:20:31.920 --> 00:20:36.960 The quote is from Ovid's Metamorphosis, Book 10, verse 173. 00:20:37.279 --> 00:20:44.400 The part of the story where Zephyros got jealous of Apollo was drawn from Lucian's Dialogues of the Gods, No. 00:20:44.640 --> 00:20:50.799 16, which detailed a conversation between Hermes and Apollo shortly after Hyacinthos' death. 00:20:51.039 --> 00:20:55.440 Lucian was a Greek poet who lived around 120 through 180 AD. 00:20:55.599 --> 00:21:03.200 He was known to mix myth and satire in often humorous retellings of stories into a commentary on Roman life. 00:21:03.519 --> 00:21:07.759 Ovid makes no reference to the West Wind in his version. 00:21:08.079 --> 00:21:16.160 Much like Ganymedes from a couple weeks ago, Hyacinthos is often credited with being the first homosexual man in history. 00:21:16.400 --> 00:21:21.119 For example, Apollodorus's Library, Book I, Section 16. 00:21:21.599 --> 00:21:22.960 That's all for this episode. 00:21:23.119 --> 00:21:24.960 We'll see you next Monday.