WEBVTT 00:00:28.640 --> 00:00:32.960 Hello everybody and welcome to Lambda, the LGBT and Antiquity Podcast. 00:00:33.039 --> 00:00:38.880 I'm your host, Dominica Raven, episode 14, Athena the Nonbinary, Part 2. 00:00:39.200 --> 00:00:45.679 Jason and the Argonauts have reached the edge of Colchis, a kingdom on the eastern side of the Black Sea. 00:00:46.000 --> 00:00:55.840 Athena had been with the Argonauts from the very beginning, even helping the craftsman Argos construct the Argo itself and guiding the heroes throughout their journey. 00:00:56.159 --> 00:00:59.759 But now Jason must show his own strength and cunning. 00:01:00.000 --> 00:01:07.200 The whole reason the Argo left Greece in the first place was because the villainous King Pelias desired the Golden Fleece. 00:01:07.439 --> 00:01:15.040 Now it is time for Jason to go alone to the house of Aetes, the tyrant of Colchis, and ask for it as a gift. 00:01:15.359 --> 00:01:24.480 Aetes' reputation as a hard and unyielding man was well known, and the hero faced significant anxiety about the task at hand. 00:01:24.799 --> 00:01:28.480 So Athena and Hera discuss the perilous situation. 00:01:28.799 --> 00:01:35.760 Hera asks the cunning embodiment of tactics and strategy how they can aid Jason in his greatest trial. 00:01:36.079 --> 00:01:45.359 Athena pours over many possibilities, but none of them actually come up with a surefire way to bring Jason through Aeti's house alive. 00:01:45.519 --> 00:01:49.040 Finally, Hera suggests they recruit Medea to help. 00:01:49.280 --> 00:01:54.560 Medea is Aetis' gender queer child who is a powerful witch of Ekati. 00:01:55.040 --> 00:02:05.439 The deities agree that Medea's magic spells and tricks are the best way to aid Jason, but how do they recruit Medea to betray their own father? 00:02:05.760 --> 00:02:12.800 Athena suggests that, though they are unwed and immune to the pains of love, Medea is not. 00:02:13.039 --> 00:02:17.360 So Hera and Athena go to Aphrodite, the goddess of love and seek her help. 00:02:17.520 --> 00:02:26.879 Aphrodite deploys her impish son, Eros, in Latin better known as Cupid, to induce mad affection for Jason in Medea. 00:02:27.280 --> 00:02:36.400 After a bit of persuasion, Athena's plan works, and Eros flies to Aetes' court to shoot Medea with an arrow of desire. 00:02:36.800 --> 00:02:40.240 Once again, Athena's strategies work out in the end. 00:02:40.479 --> 00:02:44.719 Medea is immediately infatuated with Jason and chooses to assist him. 00:02:44.960 --> 00:02:52.000 First, they use the Prometheus charm to make Jason's body temporarily invulnerable to all physical attack. 00:02:52.159 --> 00:03:00.159 He uses this to great effect when Aetes has Jason fight some earthborn sown warriors of monstrous form. 00:03:00.639 --> 00:03:06.800 Then Medea and Jason go to claim the golden fleece itself, which is guarded by a great dragon. 00:03:07.120 --> 00:03:12.639 Medea sings a spell to get the dragon to sleep while Jason claims the fleece. 00:03:12.800 --> 00:03:17.759 Their quest over, Medea joins the Argonauts on their return journey to Greece. 00:03:18.000 --> 00:03:26.000 Once again we see a case where Athena uses others to carry out a plan that could have been much more easily accomplished alone. 00:03:26.319 --> 00:03:32.960 Athena mentor chose to encourage and build up a young heroine and hero instead. 00:03:33.360 --> 00:03:39.759 Last week we focused on Athena's non-binary aspects within the context of early poetry and mythology. 00:03:40.000 --> 00:03:48.000 The works of Homer and Hesiod provided more than enough content, but it did not even get us out of the archaic era in Greek history. 00:03:48.240 --> 00:03:54.639 This week we're going to continue the narrative by exploring some non-binary aspects of Athena in later tradition. 00:03:54.879 --> 00:04:01.039 Athena is a deity so queer that most ancient authors simply didn't know what to do with them. 00:04:01.280 --> 00:04:10.159 As we discussed last week, Athena is not clearly female or male, instead, manifesting both gendered expressions based on preferences and circumstances. 00:04:10.400 --> 00:04:20.879 Athena can be seen as a craftsman to rival Hephaestus, the visibly male god of the forge, or a warrior, more than a rival for Ares, the god of war himself. 00:04:21.120 --> 00:04:30.000 Now some authors have counterintuitively chosen to see this non-binary manifestation as actually reinforcing the gendered binary. 00:04:30.240 --> 00:04:34.399 See, when Athena was born, they basically became Zeus's right hand. 00:04:34.959 --> 00:04:40.800 Athena is a warrior who does not necessarily operate independently very often. 00:04:41.040 --> 00:04:44.480 The Odyssey actually begins with Athena and Zeus talking. 00:04:44.560 --> 00:04:50.000 They describe the situation on Ithaca with the suitors invading Odysseus' house. 00:04:50.160 --> 00:04:58.480 Both deities agree the suitors are sinning and behaving outrageously, and that it is finally time for Odysseus to return home. 00:04:58.720 --> 00:05:06.639 So Athena's actions throughout the story are predicated on the fact that Zeus has decided it is the best course of action. 00:05:06.879 --> 00:05:13.759 While Zeus is not entirely omnipotent, Zeus is the force which orders the entire universe. 00:05:14.079 --> 00:05:20.319 So we can read this scene as Zeus making a plan, then Athena carrying it out. 00:05:20.639 --> 00:05:27.279 An excellent example of this interpretation in action is found in the Orestia series of plays. 00:05:27.600 --> 00:05:30.079 Agamemnon was the king of Mycenae. 00:05:30.160 --> 00:05:37.279 He was a brash and arrogant warlord who wasn't terribly well liked by anybody, but he was the rightful king. 00:05:37.600 --> 00:05:43.839 Because he was the most powerful lord in all of Greece, he was selected to lead the campaign against Troy. 00:05:44.000 --> 00:05:50.720 Once his vast armies were assembled, he plans to sacrifice his own daughter Iphigenia for a safe passage. 00:05:51.040 --> 00:05:58.639 Artemis whisks Iphigenia away at the last second, but Agamemnon's wife, Clytemnestra, never forgives him. 00:05:58.879 --> 00:06:04.959 When the war is over, she conspires with Aegisthus to kill Agamemnon when he gets home. 00:06:05.199 --> 00:06:09.120 Then they drive their young son Orestes into exile. 00:06:09.279 --> 00:06:17.199 Eventually Orestes returns to Mycenae and with the help of his sister Electra kills both Aegisthus and Clytemnestra. 00:06:17.439 --> 00:06:24.079 Now, with one bloody vengeance, Orestes has committed the crimes of matricide and regicide. 00:06:24.399 --> 00:06:32.160 Needless to say, the people of Mycenae are divided on whether to accept Orestes as a rightful king or violent usurper. 00:06:32.319 --> 00:06:40.959 Additionally, Orestes is tormented by the furies, hateful little sprites of vengeance, for spilling his own family's blood. 00:06:41.199 --> 00:06:45.199 Eventually, Orestes is put on trial, presided over by Athena. 00:06:45.360 --> 00:06:54.720 Though the vote to convict or acquit is a tie, Athena reveals that it is Zeus's plan for Orestes to go free, so the people consent. 00:06:54.959 --> 00:06:59.680 Later, the Furies continue to pester Orestes and insult Athena. 00:06:59.920 --> 00:07:06.079 Athena deals with the Furies by reminding them, I know where Zeus' thunderbolts are kept. 00:07:06.319 --> 00:07:17.680 There is a very real sense that in both instances, Athena is simply acting as a messenger carrying out the will of Zeus, not an independent actor in the story. 00:07:17.920 --> 00:07:32.079 This reading sees Athena's actions as reinforcing the gendered social order so they don't actually do anything of their own volition, rather relying on the vicarious power of Zeus to carry out the plan. 00:07:32.399 --> 00:07:36.240 Now, this is not an unreasonable reading of the stories. 00:07:36.480 --> 00:07:42.720 Athena often conspires with Zeus and agrees to a plan before actually carrying it out. 00:07:42.959 --> 00:07:51.360 Additionally, Zeus is the supreme power in the universe, and what he agrees to or denies will be upheld in the end. 00:07:51.519 --> 00:07:54.800 However, this dynamic is not unique to Athena. 00:07:54.959 --> 00:08:04.160 For a few quick examples, Poseidon says he would never kill Odysseus because Zeus had decreed Odysseus would one day reach his homeland on Ithaca. 00:08:04.399 --> 00:08:10.319 Poseidon is just making it take a very long time and cause Odysseus a great deal of pain. 00:08:10.560 --> 00:08:22.560 Similarly, Apollo stands beside the Trojan hero Hector for the entire Trojan war, then abandons him at the moment Zeus decrees Achilles will kill Hector. 00:08:22.879 --> 00:08:35.120 But I think most vivid example is when another queer deity, Dionysus, claimed that though their vengeance on Pentheus was harsh, Zeus had decreed it would happen. 00:08:35.360 --> 00:08:41.360 Just like Athena, Dionysus is only carrying out a plan set in motion by Zeus. 00:08:41.600 --> 00:08:49.279 As Hermes says to Calypso in the Odyssey, Zeus carries the Aegis, it is fruitless to transgress his will. 00:08:49.679 --> 00:09:13.200 Though this interpretation would see Athena as a docile, feminine coded deity wholly subservient to Zeus, other male gods and female gods, and queer gods alike are all bound to obey Zeus, especially because Dionysus, Apollo, Hermes, and Athena are all the children of Zeus, and Poseidon is his brother. 00:09:13.519 --> 00:09:18.559 Zeus is the Potrop Familius, and everyone must honor and obey him. 00:09:18.799 --> 00:09:31.679 That Athena and Dionysus are feminine-coded queer deities does not necessarily matter if masculine-coded bisexuals like Hermes or Apollo are similarly bound by Zeus's plans and decrees. 00:09:31.919 --> 00:09:40.000 Now, there are definitely times when various deities try to follow a plan different from what Zeus ordains, but it never ends well. 00:09:40.240 --> 00:09:48.960 In fact, generally, their plans actually end up facilitating Zeus's ultimate plan without even coming close to upending it. 00:09:49.200 --> 00:09:53.279 So such scholarship is not necessarily seeing the whole picture. 00:09:53.519 --> 00:10:02.879 Olympus represents a family dynamic, and Zeus is the unquestioned, but not necessarily unquestionable, authority. 00:10:03.120 --> 00:10:09.919 So, here again in the Orestia, we can see that there is something exceedingly queer about the way Athena is represented. 00:10:10.159 --> 00:10:17.200 The very fact that Athena is playing a role in justice in the first place represents a departure from expectations. 00:10:17.440 --> 00:10:24.639 In Greece, justice and the law courts were almost exclusively the domain of citizen, heteronormative men. 00:10:24.879 --> 00:10:29.759 Athena's presence, then, is a direct violation of the way things are meant to work. 00:10:30.000 --> 00:10:41.039 Similar to the end of the Odyssey, Athena chooses to end the Orestia not in a bloodbath where they kill everyone left standing, but with persuasion and reconciliation. 00:10:41.360 --> 00:10:52.080 Persuasion of this sort is almost always considered a feminine art, where the type of persuasion where a man uses fancy rhetoric is the masculine art of persuasion. 00:10:52.320 --> 00:11:04.159 The story of Orestes thus shows Athena's non-binary aspects very clearly as they utilize both masculine and feminine aspects to fix a very complex dynastic problem. 00:11:04.720 --> 00:11:08.559 Now let's return to the voyage of Jason and the Argonauts. 00:11:08.960 --> 00:11:13.679 The story of Jason and the Argonauts is somewhat bookended with Dionysian elements. 00:11:13.919 --> 00:11:19.600 Remember, Dionysaic elements is another way to say there's queer stuff in this story. 00:11:19.919 --> 00:11:26.320 Phyxus and Heli were the children of Athamas, a king of Boeotia, during his first marriage. 00:11:26.480 --> 00:11:32.320 His second marriage was to Aino, a daughter of Cadmus the Dragonslayer, and they had two more children. 00:11:32.559 --> 00:11:38.240 Eventually Aino also fostered Dionysus after the death of their mother Semele. 00:11:38.559 --> 00:11:43.200 Aino took the child in and, if you remember, raised Dionysus as a girl. 00:11:43.440 --> 00:11:49.600 Now issues start to arise when Dionysus' stepmother, Hera, realizes what is going on. 00:11:49.840 --> 00:11:54.320 She induces madness in Adamas, and he attacks his own family. 00:11:54.559 --> 00:11:59.679 Adamas kills one of his sons and drives Aino with her other son out of the house. 00:11:59.840 --> 00:12:05.200 Fearing for their lives, Aino leaps into the sea with the infant to escape the violence. 00:12:05.360 --> 00:12:10.559 Now the gods take pity on the pair and transform the two into immortal sea nymphs. 00:12:10.799 --> 00:12:16.480 Aino becomes Leucothea, the white goddess, and the child becomes Palamon. 00:12:17.039 --> 00:12:22.399 Hermes whisks away Dionysus to the safety of Rhea Chibalae's house. 00:12:22.639 --> 00:12:26.879 Meanwhile, Athamus attacks his elder children, Phrixus and Heli. 00:12:27.279 --> 00:12:37.679 The two fly away on a magical golden ram over the Dardanelles, or the Strait of Gallipoli, which divides Anatolia in Asia from the rest of Europe. 00:12:37.919 --> 00:12:42.480 In this waterway, Heli falls from a great height and dies in the sea. 00:12:42.720 --> 00:12:54.159 The Greeks and Romans called the Dardanelles the Hellespont after this tragic death, but Phrixus makes it all the way to the Black Sea where he is taken in at King Aetes' court. 00:12:54.399 --> 00:13:01.840 He kills the golden ram as a sacrifice to Hermes and gives its golden fleece to Aetes as a gift. 00:13:02.080 --> 00:13:12.720 Now, a full generation later, King Pelaias, the tyrant of Boeotia, desires the golden fleece, but can never get a ship successfully through the Hellespont. 00:13:12.960 --> 00:13:18.799 Because of an oracle he had received, he also fears that his rule will be usurped by Jason. 00:13:18.960 --> 00:13:24.240 So when Jason does come before him, Pelias decides to send him to fetch the fleece. 00:13:24.639 --> 00:13:28.720 Every other ship he'd sent was destroyed and everyone drowned. 00:13:28.960 --> 00:13:31.279 So two birds, one stone. 00:13:31.600 --> 00:13:34.000 Well, technically two birds, two stones. 00:13:34.159 --> 00:13:39.360 There was a narrow strait in the Bosphorus called the Simplegades, or Clashing Rocks. 00:13:39.600 --> 00:13:48.799 These are two islands not anchored to the seabed which smash together, crushing any ship that ever tried to make it to the Black Sea. 00:13:49.039 --> 00:13:55.600 This prompts Athena to create a new kind of ship which is capable of making this journey. 00:13:55.840 --> 00:13:59.679 They recruited a craftsman named Argos to build the boat. 00:13:59.919 --> 00:14:04.960 Though Argos was the craftsman, Athena was the designer and architect. 00:14:05.120 --> 00:14:11.120 Athena even added a piece of Dodonin oak, a tree sacred to Zeus himself, to the ship's hull. 00:14:11.279 --> 00:14:19.919 This oak and plank allows the Argo to become very stable and sturdy, and even speak to Jason with advice throughout the journey. 00:14:20.159 --> 00:14:27.759 It's important to note here that the Argo is not simply a well-built ship, but a whole new kind of sailing vessel. 00:14:28.000 --> 00:14:32.639 See, up to this point the Greeks had been confined to, well, Greece. 00:14:32.879 --> 00:14:47.200 Though some travelers had been set out of the Aegean before, in fact, Dionysus was the one who invented traveling abroad, the Argo is the first ship ever to sail through the Hellespont and enter the Black Sea. 00:14:47.440 --> 00:14:52.399 So we can see Athena's role as one of the finest craftsmen in the universe. 00:14:52.639 --> 00:14:55.919 More than this, there's a plan in mind for the whole journey. 00:14:56.080 --> 00:15:03.600 The Argo is the only ship in existence which is capable of voyaging all the way to Colchis and retrieving the Golden Fleece. 00:15:03.840 --> 00:15:10.399 But after the voyage, the Argo became a template for all future sailing vessels throughout antiquity. 00:15:10.639 --> 00:15:16.559 Athena is fundamentally redefining the way Greeks travel and trade forever. 00:15:16.799 --> 00:15:28.799 Athena could have done this all by themselves, but once again, Athena chooses to build up the human hero craftsman Argos and hone his skills along the way. 00:15:29.120 --> 00:15:43.840 Athena's role as the greatest craftsman in the universe is shown a little later in the story during the Lamnian Women episode, the Argo Lambs at Lemnos, a relatively large island halfway between mainland Greece and the coast of Asia Minor. 00:15:44.080 --> 00:15:50.720 There's a lot of trepidation as the Argonauts do not know how they will be received by Hippsippy, the queen of Lemnos. 00:15:51.039 --> 00:15:55.840 So Jason puts on his finest armor and a magnificent purple cloak. 00:15:56.080 --> 00:16:01.440 The cloak is a majestic blend of colors and mythical stories. 00:16:01.679 --> 00:16:15.279 In one area, Cyclopes forge Zeus's thunderbolts while Amphion and Zephos build the walls of Thebes, and the flight of Phrixus itself all play out across the cloak's purple canvas. 00:16:15.600 --> 00:16:22.639 These figures were woven into the cloak so intricately that they seem to move across the fabric. 00:16:22.879 --> 00:16:26.000 The whole cloak gleams like the sun. 00:16:26.559 --> 00:16:32.960 This is the masterwork of Athena's finest weaving, who gave it to Jason back at the start of the journey. 00:16:33.200 --> 00:16:41.039 This is not merely a beautiful showing of woven skill, it is a token to identify Jason as beloved of the gods. 00:16:41.200 --> 00:16:48.000 When a human hero is given a gift directly by a deity, it shows the gods favor. 00:16:48.559 --> 00:16:55.919 Jason appears so splendid in the robe that the Argonauts and the Lemnian women all marvel at him. 00:16:56.159 --> 00:17:01.919 Athena's craftsmanship is key to him being welcomed and respected on Lemnos. 00:17:02.559 --> 00:17:10.400 Next, the Argonauts engage in a diverse series of adventures, eventually reading the Simpledes or Clashing Rocks. 00:17:10.720 --> 00:17:17.359 Remember, no ship had ever sailed through this dangerous strait and entered the Black Sea. 00:17:17.680 --> 00:17:21.279 Jason first sends a dove through, and it survives. 00:17:21.519 --> 00:17:26.400 This is a portent that the Argo itself will survive the passage as well. 00:17:26.720 --> 00:17:30.319 So the Argo begins the treacherous path. 00:17:30.559 --> 00:17:35.920 But even with such a great ship, they never would have made it through on their own efforts. 00:17:36.160 --> 00:17:41.519 It was by Athena's assistance that they were able to successfully enter the Black Sea. 00:17:41.839 --> 00:17:48.000 Athena held the clashing rocks apart, giving them a very small opening to sail through. 00:17:48.240 --> 00:17:59.519 Finally, like a child pushing a little boat, Athena knocks the Argo through that opening, and the ship sped on like an arrow past the rocks and into the Black Sea. 00:17:59.759 --> 00:18:07.680 After this episode, the clashing rocks were forever rooted in the seabed, no more to clash and destroy ships. 00:18:07.920 --> 00:18:12.000 The Black Sea is now open to Greek trade. 00:18:12.319 --> 00:18:19.279 The Argo now sails across the Black Sea and finally reaches the border of Aetes' kingdom in Colchis. 00:18:19.599 --> 00:18:21.680 This is that scene we opened with. 00:18:21.920 --> 00:18:28.799 Athena and Hera go to Aphrodite and Cupid to recruit Medea, the teenage witch. 00:18:29.039 --> 00:18:31.839 Medea is a gender-queer sorcerer. 00:18:32.000 --> 00:18:38.240 Though loosely feminine coded, it is clear that this figure's gendered expressions are not heteronormative. 00:18:38.480 --> 00:18:47.920 They're shown pursuing a life as a devotee of Akati, not being married off as a docile pawn in Aeti's business deals with his neighbors. 00:18:48.160 --> 00:18:55.200 In fact, Medea controls their own sexuality by pursuing Jason in the first place. 00:18:55.680 --> 00:18:59.359 All Eros did was get the infatuation going. 00:18:59.680 --> 00:19:01.440 Medea did everything else. 00:19:01.680 --> 00:19:04.880 Medea chose Jason over filial piety. 00:19:05.039 --> 00:19:12.720 Medea figured out how to use the Prometheus charm and the serpent song to deliver Jason from peril. 00:19:13.039 --> 00:19:19.839 Medea chose their path in life and in love, and not the parent Aetes. 00:19:20.319 --> 00:19:27.920 Of course, the ending of the story of Jason and Medea is tragic, not triumphant, but that's over a decade away. 00:19:28.240 --> 00:19:31.440 For now the two are united in purpose. 00:19:31.680 --> 00:19:39.039 The Argonauts return to Greece and Jason eventually does use Medea's magic potions to usurp Pelaias as the king. 00:19:39.200 --> 00:19:44.559 Once Pelaias is dead, the Bacchic element returns at the end of the story. 00:19:44.880 --> 00:19:52.160 Dionysus appears and asks Medea to mix up another potion which will heal their aged nurses. 00:19:52.400 --> 00:20:00.799 When Medea does heal Bacchus nurses, Dionysus bestows an everlasting favor upon Medea. 00:20:01.119 --> 00:20:10.079 Medea does not die, but instead is whisked away to the Eleusinian fields, where they marry another genderqueer hero, Achilles. 00:20:10.240 --> 00:20:12.880 But that's another story for another time. 00:20:13.200 --> 00:20:24.400 For today, Athena Mentor chose to encourage Jason and build him up, giving him the tokens he would need to be deemed acceptable in everybody's eyes. 00:20:24.640 --> 00:20:31.519 Athena Mentor chose to build up Medea and allow them to choose their own path. 00:20:31.839 --> 00:20:43.759 Athena Mentor chose to send both of them on their greatest adventure with the tools they needed to accomplish their greatest feats as heroes, claiming the Golden Fleece. 00:20:44.240 --> 00:20:51.759 Athena is not about bringing strong masculinity or strong femininity to achieve heroic ends. 00:20:52.079 --> 00:20:58.319 In fact, Medea just barely represents somebody slightly feminine coded. 00:20:58.640 --> 00:21:10.480 Medea makes plans without the will of their father, uses a mix of masculine and feminine wiles and attricts to achieve every victory, and ultimately chooses their own path. 00:21:10.799 --> 00:21:14.960 Athena can mentor Jason into becoming a better young hero. 00:21:15.200 --> 00:21:19.839 Athena can also mentor Medea into becoming a better young queer. 00:21:20.559 --> 00:21:25.759 When we consider all the stories about Athena, one thing is painfully clear. 00:21:26.000 --> 00:21:30.880 A straightforward masculine and feminine binary never works very well. 00:21:31.119 --> 00:21:50.640 Sometimes Athena shows very clear masculine attributes, specifically related to justice, competition, or a tree or fighting skill, where at other times Athena shows overwhelming abilities associated with the feminine sphere related to weaving, persuasive arguments, and encouraging others. 00:21:50.960 --> 00:21:58.640 Athena chose to use feminine kindness and shows of unyielding masculine strength and power. 00:21:58.880 --> 00:22:09.519 Athena is able To achieve these desired outcomes by moulding masculine and feminine attributes into a single, unified strategy. 00:22:10.160 --> 00:22:27.440 Following one's own desires, feeling a duty to protect one's family, striving for excellence in whatever one does, ignoring gender binaries, seeking a fulfilled life, and bringing others up while you are doing it. 00:22:27.759 --> 00:22:33.039 Athena represents an excellent non-binary role model for us all. 00:22:33.359 --> 00:22:37.599 Next time, we're going to explore the king of the universe himself. 00:22:37.839 --> 00:22:41.759 Zeus is a singularly unique figure in the whole pantheon. 00:22:41.920 --> 00:22:49.920 While there are innumerable examples of Zeus' escapades, they don't seem to follow a meaningful pattern of attraction. 00:22:50.160 --> 00:22:59.359 Zeus has relationship with other gods and goddesses, nymphs and satyrs, preternatural abstractions, human men and human women. 00:22:59.680 --> 00:23:07.440 When we consider this through a queer lens, Zeus appears to be an excellent example of a pansexual in the Pantheon. 00:23:07.680 --> 00:23:12.400 We'll see you in two Mondays to discuss Zeus, the pansexual. 00:23:36.640 --> 00:23:45.200 Though this is a difficult but natural position for everybody, I'm trying to navigate it while being a vaguely feminine coded queer as well. 00:23:45.440 --> 00:23:51.119 There's a lot of emotion as I've struggled with not really knowing how to be an older queer person. 00:23:51.359 --> 00:23:56.720 I never had the privilege of having a queer mentor, or a professional mentor either for that matter. 00:23:56.960 --> 00:24:06.160 At one point, I struggled with figuring out how to be a good positive influence when I have so many of my own internal struggles and insecurities. 00:24:06.480 --> 00:24:21.279 If I can show some of that restraint, resilience, striving for excellence, and well thought out strategies while I try to bring up the rest of my community, I will be proud to have had some impact on other queers. 00:24:21.519 --> 00:24:30.000 Right now, Athena is a queer mentor for me, and I valued having a chance to explore Athena mentor with you these past few weeks. 00:24:30.240 --> 00:24:34.880 This was a very powerful opportunity for me, and I thank you for it. 00:24:35.119 --> 00:24:41.519 The Argonautica was written by Apollonius of Rhodes, a scholar and poet living in the 3rd century BC. 00:24:41.759 --> 00:24:49.039 Apollonius lived in Alexandria, where he actually became the chief librarian for the famous library at Alexandria. 00:24:49.279 --> 00:24:56.880 He was either a friend, pupil, or male lover of Callimachus, the finest poet from the entire Hellenistic age. 00:24:57.039 --> 00:25:02.880 We don't know much else about his life, even whether he actually lived in Rhodes at any point or not. 00:25:03.119 --> 00:25:09.200 His Argonautica ranks second only to the Odyssey on my personal favorite epics. 00:25:09.519 --> 00:25:09.599 R. 00:25:09.759 --> 00:25:09.839 C. 00:25:10.000 --> 00:25:15.200 Seaton's 1912 Loeb Classic Library Edition remains a standard translation. 00:25:15.440 --> 00:25:24.559 This year the notable American classicist Stanley Lombardo and Cynthia Pulsley translated it as well, and it is available at Hackett Publishing. 00:25:24.799 --> 00:25:33.200 Also, Christopher Kelk's 2020 translation is available online for free at PoetryandTranslation.com. 00:25:33.680 --> 00:25:40.960 Athena helps Argos build the Argo at the very beginning of the Argonautica in Book 1, verse 23-25. 00:25:41.359 --> 00:25:48.960 The scene of Athena and Hera discussing recruiting Medea is from the Argonauca, Book 3, verse 1 through 37. 00:25:49.119 --> 00:25:57.359 The story of Orestes is found in Aeschylus Orestia, which won the first prize at the city Dionysia in 458 BC. 00:25:57.759 --> 00:26:15.200 This is a trilogy of plays which began with Agamemnon, which detailed the conspiracy and death of the king, followed by the Libation Bearers, which tells of Orestes' vengeance, and concludes with the Eumenides, which includes Orestes being tormented by the Furies and put on trial. 00:26:15.440 --> 00:26:25.279 Greek plays were generally written in trilogies, and the Orestia is the only extant example where all three are transmitted down to the present day. 00:26:25.519 --> 00:26:32.480 Athena threatens the Furies with thunderbolts at the Eumenides, verse 822 through 824. 00:26:32.960 --> 00:26:41.759 The line where Hermes explains that they almost obey Zeus to Calypso occurs in the Odyssey, Book 5, verse 103-104. 00:26:42.000 --> 00:26:49.599 The discussion about Athena's non-binary aspects in the Orestia is drawn in part from Poppy Joe Robin's treatment of the subject. 00:26:49.759 --> 00:27:04.799 While I argue a few aspects a little differently, the general idea to interpret Athena's role in the play through a non-binary lens is drawn from their dissertation titled The Gendered Presentations of Athena, which is available online at academia.edu. 00:27:05.279 --> 00:27:14.160 The madness of Athamas is described most vividly in Ovid's Metamorphosis Book 4, verse 464 through 542. 00:27:14.480 --> 00:27:25.279 Athena is listed as the main builder of the Argo, with Argos as the assistant in Argonautica Book 1, verse 133 through 135. 00:27:25.519 --> 00:27:34.400 Athena's edition of the Dodona Oak Plank is taken from the Argonautica Book 1, verses 611 through 614. 00:27:34.640 --> 00:27:41.119 The Lemnian Women episode is found in the Argonautica Book 1, verse 700 through 1050. 00:27:41.279 --> 00:27:47.440 The story is interesting to interpret from a queer angle, and we may revisit it at some point in the future. 00:27:47.839 --> 00:27:55.200 The mantle of Jason is described at length in the Argonautica, Book 1, verse 829 through 899. 00:27:55.920 --> 00:28:03.599 The Argonauts passed through the clashing Brocks in the Argonautica, Book 2, verse 630 through 694. 00:28:04.079 --> 00:28:05.599 That's all for this week, folks. 00:28:05.759 --> 00:28:11.680 We'll see you next time for our presentation of Zeus, the pansexual in the Pantheon.