WEBVTT 00:00:28.320 --> 00:00:35.439 Hello everybody and welcome to Lambda, the LGBT and Antiquity podcast, your home for all things LGBT in the ancient world. 00:00:35.600 --> 00:00:39.840 I am Dominica Raven, Episode 11, Dionysus the Queer. 00:00:40.079 --> 00:00:49.520 Dionysus' actual mother Semele was killed by Hera out of vindictive spite, so they're brought up in Phrygia by Rhea Kybele and Attis. 00:00:49.920 --> 00:01:01.600 The feminine coded intersex deity and transwoman couple raise Dionysus as a girl and a nymph, and they flourish in this affirming, though unconventional environment. 00:01:01.920 --> 00:01:11.840 Dionysus learns to hunt and play sports like wrestling and javelin throw, as well as the feminine wiles and deception which will serve them so well throughout their life. 00:01:12.079 --> 00:01:16.480 Then Dionysus meets a young satyr named Ampelos. 00:01:16.799 --> 00:01:21.519 Ampelos and Dionysus become infatuated at the sight of one another. 00:01:21.760 --> 00:01:26.879 Starting as playmates, they hike and frolic in the hills and the mountain streams together. 00:01:27.120 --> 00:01:30.159 They make music on drums and cymbals. 00:01:30.400 --> 00:01:34.719 Then they play with Caibala's lions as if they were house pets. 00:01:34.879 --> 00:01:37.599 They even go hunting and wrestling together. 00:01:37.840 --> 00:01:46.879 Dionysus eventually becomes lovesick, even going so far as to say they would willingly forsake Olympus if it meant spending a life on earth with Mpelos. 00:01:47.040 --> 00:01:52.799 The two were inseparable for a long time until Mpelos tries to ride a wild bull. 00:01:53.040 --> 00:01:57.840 The bull eventually bucks and tramples Mpelos, killing him outright. 00:01:58.159 --> 00:02:04.000 Dionysus is so distraught that the forest and the stones weep along with them. 00:02:04.239 --> 00:02:10.000 First they lay out Ampelos' body, cleaning it and purifying it ritually with ambrosia. 00:02:10.159 --> 00:02:13.840 The satyrs all gather round and lament the death of their kin. 00:02:14.080 --> 00:02:18.879 Dionysus starts speaking and gives out a literary trope called Egoas. 00:02:19.039 --> 00:02:25.840 Critically, Dionysus curses the loss of future happiness which had been taken by this untimely death. 00:02:26.080 --> 00:02:34.080 They imagined carrying Mpelos to the bridal chamber to enjoy life replenishing marriage together. 00:02:34.400 --> 00:02:41.919 It ends with a long prayer that Zeus take away Dionysus' immortality so they can join Mpelos in death. 00:02:42.159 --> 00:02:43.680 But this is not the end. 00:02:43.919 --> 00:02:48.159 Ampelos is not fated to die but to live on as the grapevine. 00:02:48.479 --> 00:02:51.680 Ampelos literally means the vine. 00:02:52.000 --> 00:02:58.879 Thus the wine god and the grapevine are able to live together forever, in a slightly altered form. 00:02:59.120 --> 00:03:03.840 I would like to draw your attention to two discreetly queer elements at work here. 00:03:04.159 --> 00:03:11.520 First is that male figures traditionally lament in a more dignified and emotionally controlled expression of grief. 00:03:11.680 --> 00:03:20.080 Wealthy Greeks and Romans might even go so far as to hire professional mourners so they could remain stonefaced and stoic in public. 00:03:20.719 --> 00:03:23.599 Women are able to sing the Goas. 00:03:24.240 --> 00:03:32.000 Dionysus is literally crossing gender boundaries to mourn like a woman over the loss of beloved Empelos. 00:03:32.400 --> 00:03:38.400 Second, this is the part of the story where Dionysus is being raised as a nymph by Rea and Attis. 00:03:38.639 --> 00:03:44.879 Though Nonos uses masculine language throughout this passage, it's crucial to keep in mind this disconnect. 00:03:45.199 --> 00:03:50.159 Dionysus is wearing a purple chitun and a dappled fawn skin. 00:03:50.639 --> 00:03:57.039 Dionysus is crossing gender boundaries linguistically and physically throughout this section. 00:03:57.520 --> 00:04:02.000 So everything about this story is capital Q queer. 00:04:02.240 --> 00:04:09.280 Dionysus neither represents gender nor sexuality with an acceptable societal norms. 00:04:10.080 --> 00:04:13.680 Dionysus is an enigma to all who study them. 00:04:13.919 --> 00:04:18.959 Pretty much nothing that could be said which holds true in one place holds true in another. 00:04:19.199 --> 00:04:28.639 Though Dionysus is among the best attested deities from antiquity, we're never able to confirm or prove anything decisively. 00:04:28.879 --> 00:04:34.720 Even all the research I've ever done creates unknowable riddles, not answers. 00:04:35.040 --> 00:04:41.040 Dionysus is habitually portrayed as a gendered synthesis, but what does that actually mean? 00:04:41.279 --> 00:04:50.480 In the dawn of the universe, before the sun, the stars, or the earth, there was nothing but chaotic space and a single cosmic egg. 00:04:50.879 --> 00:04:54.800 The egg was the first thing, and it created itself. 00:04:55.040 --> 00:04:59.920 This is Protagonus, the firstborn, who was called Phanes. 00:05:00.639 --> 00:05:08.879 Phanes was a bigender deity, they're called Defes or two natured, which implies two gendered natures. 00:05:09.199 --> 00:05:15.199 In those early days of the cosmos all physical traits were not yet divided from one another. 00:05:15.439 --> 00:05:20.399 This is why the primordial beings tend to be polyform figures. 00:05:20.639 --> 00:05:38.079 This is where creatures with a lion's head, a goat's body, and a serpent's tail, or a vaguely human-looking figure with four arms and four legs, or a human like Kecrops, the founder and first king of Athens, who was half man, half snake. 00:05:38.319 --> 00:05:46.560 In the early universe, Physis, the embodiment of nature, hadn't divided or defined the forms creatures would eventually take. 00:05:46.720 --> 00:05:50.480 This is an epoch of Protean Chimera creatures. 00:05:50.720 --> 00:05:57.360 But beyond physical traits, the early universe was also a period before gender had been properly defined. 00:05:57.600 --> 00:06:04.560 Figures from this era, like Phanes and Proteus, and Physis were all mixtures of genders. 00:06:04.800 --> 00:06:09.120 It was by mixing forms that these figures were shown to have great power. 00:06:09.279 --> 00:06:14.639 Now, while it is a chaotic power, it is an overwhelming power nonetheless. 00:06:15.040 --> 00:06:22.879 The simple fact that Phanes could create themselves when there was no other being in the universe is proof of this power. 00:06:23.040 --> 00:06:30.639 They were able to procreate with themselves and bore a child, Nyx, Sacred Night. 00:06:31.040 --> 00:06:38.800 The ability to create life from oneself alone is a manifestation of supreme power. 00:06:39.120 --> 00:06:43.519 Consider Zeus, whose creative power is often linked to intercourse. 00:06:43.759 --> 00:06:53.279 Most Christian retellings focus on the promiscuity or sexual assault so they can emphasize the amorality, but in truth, it is a miracle. 00:06:53.600 --> 00:06:59.279 There were just too many stories of immaculate conception floating in the antiquity ether. 00:06:59.519 --> 00:07:05.519 They wanted to cheapen all these other miracles as crude when compared with their own. 00:07:05.839 --> 00:07:10.000 But Zeus doesn't really have the power to create alone. 00:07:10.399 --> 00:07:21.040 Now Athena was carried in Zeus's head, but she was conceived by Metis, the original goddess of wisdom, and Zeus just carried the child to term. 00:07:21.360 --> 00:07:28.480 Similarly, Hera tried to procreate with only herself, and the result was the crookshanked craftsman Hephaestus. 00:07:28.720 --> 00:07:42.879 So Zeus, the most powerful god, can only carry fetuses conceived by others to term, while Hera, the most powerful goddess, produced the only disabled and imperfect of all the immortals. 00:07:43.360 --> 00:07:51.199 In time, Zeus would merge with Phanes and gain that power of celestial creation for himself. 00:07:51.439 --> 00:07:53.360 Now we come to Dionysus. 00:07:53.600 --> 00:08:01.759 The story goes that before humanity was even created, Zeus claimed Primanacta and slept with Persephone before she was wed to Hades. 00:08:02.079 --> 00:08:09.120 The resulting offspring was called Zagreas, who would become the critical Chthonic or underworld deity. 00:08:09.360 --> 00:08:15.360 The underworld is a cosmic collection bin for all the souls of humans and gods and titans. 00:08:15.600 --> 00:08:21.120 Parts were pleasant like the Elysin fields, while other parts were torturous, like Tartaros. 00:08:21.360 --> 00:08:28.800 Because the topography of the underworld is so confusing, the souls need a guide to ensure they received their proper reward. 00:08:29.120 --> 00:08:35.360 Zagreus was ultimately the one who guided souls through the underworld to their destined reward. 00:08:35.600 --> 00:08:46.639 Because Zagreus was the most powerful of all Zeus's children, he chose Zagreus as his successor, even put the child on the cosmic throne of Olympus. 00:08:47.120 --> 00:08:56.960 Hero was furious that this illegitimate child of Zeus was given such a treatment, so she schemed to kill Zagreas before they could take the throne of the gods. 00:08:57.120 --> 00:09:02.960 Eventually she set some titans on the child who tried to escape by changing bodily forms. 00:09:03.200 --> 00:09:10.000 Zagreus flashes between elemental bodies like lightning and fire and every animal imaginable. 00:09:10.240 --> 00:09:11.600 But it was not enough. 00:09:11.840 --> 00:09:20.720 Those titans destroyed Zagreas, dismembering the child with their bare hands and eating the flesh in a ghastly meal. 00:09:20.960 --> 00:09:28.399 Zeus was so distraught at Zagreus' death that he executed the Titans with a cobalt lightning blast. 00:09:28.799 --> 00:09:32.639 The ash of their destroyed bodies rained down on the earth. 00:09:32.879 --> 00:09:41.759 Later, when Prometheus, god of forethought, scooped up the clay to make humanity, there was Titanic ash included in the mix. 00:09:42.000 --> 00:09:46.320 So there is something divine included in the souls of all human beings. 00:09:46.720 --> 00:09:53.039 This is the part of the soul Zagreus can transport to the blessed afterlife, or punishment. 00:09:53.279 --> 00:10:01.440 Because Zagreus was also dead, they were able to play intermediary intercessor for the souls of the dead. 00:10:01.759 --> 00:10:04.240 But here's where the stories all tie together. 00:10:04.480 --> 00:10:10.480 After Zeus is done mourning, he has Athena search for any remains of Zagreus that survived. 00:10:10.720 --> 00:10:15.200 The heart is the only part Athena can find of her younger sibling. 00:10:15.519 --> 00:10:19.919 Zeus consumes the heart so he could recreate Xagreus. 00:10:20.159 --> 00:10:26.399 The heart of Zagreus was combined with Thanes, whose essence was still merged with Zeus. 00:10:26.639 --> 00:10:32.720 Then Zeus selected Semele, daughter of Cadmus the dragonslayer, to bear the child. 00:10:32.879 --> 00:10:36.720 After an immaculate conception, Semele carried Dionysus. 00:10:37.120 --> 00:10:45.840 But she wanted to behold Zeus in all his glory, and she was fated to die when she saw the lightning of Zeus' true essence. 00:10:46.159 --> 00:10:52.559 So Zeus stitches Dionysus into his thigh and carries that fetus to term himself. 00:10:52.799 --> 00:11:04.080 There's a lot to unpack in these stories, but most critically, Dionysus is a manifestation of life whose power is drawn from that same place as those primordial gods. 00:11:04.320 --> 00:11:10.000 Because Phanes was a combination of gendered expressions, so too was Dionysus. 00:11:10.399 --> 00:11:19.919 It's important here to remember how in those early days man and woman weren't meaningful concepts any more than a lion without a serpent's tail. 00:11:20.159 --> 00:11:30.799 The early universe manifested the untapped, unregulated, unorganized potential of life and creation into hybrid animals and beings. 00:11:31.039 --> 00:11:38.879 Phanes was able to reproduce because they contained both male and female in one perfected, united deity. 00:11:39.600 --> 00:11:45.519 Later generations were more limited by sexual reproduction, as we see with Hera and Zeus. 00:11:45.759 --> 00:11:55.759 When Dionysus becomes one with Phanes, there is no longer a meaningful distinction between male and female in the figure of Dionysus. 00:11:55.919 --> 00:12:02.559 Dionysus' gender is fundamentally a synthesis, a mixture of both male and female. 00:12:02.799 --> 00:12:06.480 This is actually the original meaning of androgynus. 00:12:06.799 --> 00:12:12.399 Androguinos means man and woman at the same time. 00:12:12.639 --> 00:12:20.720 It can mean physical traits such as a eunuch or intersex, but it also means gendered expectations and social roles too. 00:12:20.879 --> 00:12:25.919 Dionysus as a deity is a mixture of male and female from the beginning. 00:12:26.159 --> 00:12:35.519 If you recall when we talked about Dionysus helping Prometheus create queer people, this dynamic is brought into the human world as well. 00:12:35.840 --> 00:12:44.080 Dionysaic ritual spaces and festivals habitually involved a blending of gendered expectations within the sacred sphere. 00:12:44.559 --> 00:12:55.360 A scholar of the Dionysaic tradition, Walter Otto, once said that when Bacchus comes to town, the whole world is bewitched with its own primeval nature. 00:12:55.600 --> 00:13:02.399 He meant that when Dionysus appears in Greek myth, everything becomes wholly foreign from its current state. 00:13:02.720 --> 00:13:04.639 Society is turned on end. 00:13:04.879 --> 00:13:07.840 Women are out in public, unescorted. 00:13:08.159 --> 00:13:12.399 Men don a woman's cheetone dress and dance in public. 00:13:13.039 --> 00:13:17.600 Women and men become ritual equals, if only for a little while. 00:13:17.840 --> 00:13:26.320 In stories, milk and wine flow freely out of the earth like springs in the mountainside, just like they did in that primeval world. 00:13:26.559 --> 00:13:34.639 It is not surprising that mythological figures, as well as historical kings and Roman emperors, found this extremely distressing. 00:13:34.879 --> 00:13:43.200 Gender roles were thrown out the window, and the social order they had worked so hard to construct and maintain crumbled. 00:13:43.440 --> 00:13:47.919 None of these scenes are permanent, but rather temporary ritual states. 00:13:48.080 --> 00:13:57.600 The Greeks and Romans often connected such breaches of gender as madness brought on by the raving mad god Dionysus. 00:13:57.840 --> 00:14:04.159 Even in ancient times there was a sense that queer people must have been driven mad to act in such ways. 00:14:04.399 --> 00:14:19.440 Though there was no DSM or ICD in antiquity, it was clear to all that queer people whose genders and sexualities did not necessarily match societal expectations had something fundamentally wrong with them. 00:14:19.679 --> 00:14:25.840 So we've covered Dionysus' gender, or lack thereof, but what about sexuality? 00:14:26.159 --> 00:14:30.320 Dionysus was known to have a divine relationship with Aphrodite. 00:14:30.960 --> 00:14:38.159 Their three children were the graces, or the charities, representing splendor, joy, and good cheer. 00:14:38.480 --> 00:14:40.960 Dionysus got married to Ariadne. 00:14:41.360 --> 00:14:48.879 After she had helped Theseus navigate the labyrinth and slay the Minotaur, Ariadne fled Crete with the Athenians. 00:14:49.120 --> 00:14:56.000 Technically the Minotaur was her half brother, it's a long story, so she committed a murder of a family member. 00:14:56.159 --> 00:15:03.519 The reasons vary, but Theseus eventually abandons her on Seagirt Dea, the island called Naxos. 00:15:03.759 --> 00:15:07.840 Dionysus eventually finds her and rescues her from her exile. 00:15:08.000 --> 00:15:15.759 For some time Ariadne was part of Dionysus' retinue and the two got married, but then Ariadne died. 00:15:15.919 --> 00:15:22.080 Again the reasons vary, but the most cinematic version is when Dionysus and Perseus duel. 00:15:22.399 --> 00:15:27.200 Ariadne is turned to stone by Perseus Medusa head. 00:15:27.440 --> 00:15:40.399 Dionysus was so distraught they apotheosed Ariadne to the heavens, planting her crown up in the sky as Ariadne's crown, the constellation Corona Borealis. 00:15:41.120 --> 00:15:53.279 Now on the male side, Dionysus was in love with Orpheus, the greatest priest of Dionysus ever to live, who would later form a religious reform movement centered around Dionysus. 00:15:53.519 --> 00:15:57.600 There was also Empelos the Satyr, discussed in our introduction. 00:15:57.840 --> 00:16:02.559 Additionally, Dionysus has a wartime boyfriend named Opheltes. 00:16:02.799 --> 00:16:11.840 Opheltes will eventually be killed, and Dionysus will mourn this death in a wartime funeral, closely mirroring Achilles and Patroclus. 00:16:12.080 --> 00:16:18.720 The implication is that they were lovers, but it was never explicitly stated in this queer coded romance. 00:16:19.519 --> 00:16:25.360 So we ultimately have a figure whose gender and sexuality can only be described as queer. 00:16:25.600 --> 00:16:29.519 There is no distinction between loving men or loving women. 00:16:29.759 --> 00:16:36.879 In fact, Dionysus generally shows more respect and admiration for the strength of women than any other Greek god. 00:16:37.200 --> 00:16:45.759 Additionally, many gods see their homosexual encounters as flings, but Dionysus is ready to marry a male. 00:16:46.080 --> 00:16:53.039 In these stories, a queer reading may well be the only way to actually get anywhere useful. 00:16:53.279 --> 00:17:04.640 These are not sexual conquests of a powerful deity, rather they are the relationships of a deeply emotional yearning to form strong, queer bonds. 00:17:05.039 --> 00:17:10.960 For today it was enough to discuss Dionysus as a manifestation of all around queerness. 00:17:11.119 --> 00:17:17.920 Their gendered expressions are well beyond queer, and their sexual preferences are totally queer. 00:17:18.160 --> 00:17:33.440 In antiquity there were so many authors from the mythical tyrant Pentheus to a sonatus consultium banning Bacchanals in Italy, all of which associate Dionysaic worship with something fundamentally dangerous. 00:17:33.680 --> 00:17:42.319 The blending of gendered roles ritually could well have led to a clamoring to change gender roles in the secular world as well. 00:17:42.559 --> 00:17:54.640 If citizens are able to express some autonomy with respect to their sexuality, the whole system of marriage as an institutional business deal between families is challenged. 00:17:54.960 --> 00:18:04.559 It's not surprising that many religious authorities, even before the rise of Christianity, felt fundamentally threatened by Dionysaic rituals. 00:18:05.119 --> 00:18:13.359 It is not surprising that many in the queer community find something to reflect their own experiences when they look at Dionysus. 00:18:13.680 --> 00:18:17.599 Dionysus devotees remain overwhelmingly queer. 00:18:17.920 --> 00:18:25.920 Dionysus reflects a section of humanity that is often not reflected in those mainstream gods. 00:18:26.160 --> 00:18:33.519 Ultimately, we will have much more to say about Dionysus' sexuality in a few weeks when we get to the demisexual episode. 00:18:33.680 --> 00:18:44.400 It's critical to note that Dionysus could be thought of as nearly asexual, however, when they do form romantic attachments, they're pretty much always eternal. 00:18:44.640 --> 00:18:53.599 Ultimately, we will have much more to say about Dionysus' gender when we discuss Iakos and Misa in the upcoming gender fluidity episode. 00:18:53.759 --> 00:19:04.160 It is crucial that while any one aspect of Dionysus might be thought of as male or female, any such distinction breaks down when the context is broadened. 00:19:04.400 --> 00:19:10.160 There really isn't much more to say today except that Dionysus is a queer. 00:19:11.119 --> 00:19:16.640 Next week we're going to explore Rea Kaibala, the wild intersex deity. 00:19:16.799 --> 00:19:24.400 We have already talked about them, but up to this point it has only been in connection with other figures such as Attis or Dionysus. 00:19:24.880 --> 00:19:29.519 Next week we're finally going to devote a standalone episode to Rhea Kaibele. 00:19:30.000 --> 00:19:31.680 See you next Monday. 00:19:41.599 --> 00:19:43.039 Notes and comments. 00:19:44.400 --> 00:19:46.079 I wanted to apologize again. 00:19:46.240 --> 00:19:51.200 I am still employed in contract archaeology and recording this in a hotel room. 00:19:51.359 --> 00:19:59.039 The audio quality here is a bit better than at the last hotel, but it's still an environment where I can't control much of the ambient noise. 00:19:59.279 --> 00:20:00.960 Thank you for understanding. 00:20:01.920 --> 00:20:07.920 The Ampelos episode is described in books 10 through 12 of Nonos Dionysia. 00:20:08.559 --> 00:20:17.039 Nonos was a poet composing his work in the 5th century AD from his home base at the Library of Alexandria. 00:20:17.279 --> 00:20:26.000 Nonos Dionysiaca is the longest epic from antiquity, containing as many books as the Odyssey and the Iliad combined. 00:20:26.240 --> 00:20:34.880 Though Nonos wrote at the tail end of antiquity, his book is a wellspring of queer material. 00:20:35.759 --> 00:20:36.720 Walter F. 00:20:36.960 --> 00:20:47.839 Otto published his seminal Myth and Cult of Dionysus in 1933, and it was translated to English by Robert Palmer in 1965. 00:20:48.240 --> 00:20:57.680 You should know that though he lived during the Nazi era, his work was heavily scrutinized as Oto had willingly affiliated with Jewish historians. 00:20:57.920 --> 00:21:12.400 Though he was eventually co-opted by the Nazis as an archivist, he kept his principles and had to flee for his life when he made the bold claim that he did not approve the direction classics was heading under the influence of Hitler. 00:21:12.640 --> 00:21:20.640 His work on Dionysus and the Homeric gods in general remains practically required reading almost a century on. 00:21:20.880 --> 00:21:27.680 I admire him a great deal for his classical insights and integrity in the face of the Nazis. 00:21:28.000 --> 00:21:47.599 With regards to Ariadne's death, Homer says only that Artemis shot Ariadne after Dionysus told her he saw her on Siegert Dia in the Odyssey Book eleven, three hundred twenty one through three twenty five, when Odysseus is talking to the ghosts of the heroic women. 00:21:47.759 --> 00:21:53.680 The duo between Dionysus and Perseus takes place in Nonos Dionysia, Book forty seven. 00:21:53.920 --> 00:21:59.680 The funeral of Opheltes is found in Book 37 of Nonos Dionysiaca. 00:22:00.240 --> 00:22:08.079 Everything about this scene harkens back to when Achilles mourns Patroclus in a well established, queer relationship. 00:22:08.400 --> 00:22:09.839 That's all for this week, folks. 00:22:09.920 --> 00:22:13.279 We'll see you next Monday for our discussion of Rea Kybele.