Gender Transition in Ancient Crete: Leucippus and the Ecdysia Rite of Passage

Exploring the story of the FTM gender transition of Leucippus (mentioned in the Abbot episode) in more depth, including the rite of passage that was associated with it, the Ecdysia of ancient Crete.

Check out the substack for the transcript.

Celoria, Francis, The Metamorphoses of Antoninus Liberalis: A Translation with a Commentary, Routledge, 1992

Lampsas, Giannis, Dictionary of the Ancient World (Lexiko tou Archaiou Kosmou), Vol. II, Athens, Domi Publications, 1984, p. 80.

Leitao, David D. The Perils of Leukippos: Initiatory Transvestism and Male Gender Ideology in the Ekdusia at Phaistos, Classical Antiquity, Vol. 14, No. 1 (Apr., 1995), pp. 130-163. Accessed through JSTOR

Hermanthena, Issues 173-178.

Thanks to the contributors at Freesound for the use of these clips:

Irish Whistle by Nigelnix

Cym-fill 23 by oldmanrhythm

DavulCinematixFX1 by Panotsi

DavulCinematicFX9 by Panotsi

Thumbnail image (Peplos in Roman sculptures from Herculaneum, before 79 CE) by JMF - Own work, CC0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=191753040

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:12

Volture Harja. Welcome, friends, to for the rest of us podcast. It's Misha, Julian, your host. On Will Chevre. Are y'all ready? Here we go. In ancient Crete, a large island off the southern tip of Greece, and homeland of the Bronze Age Minoans long ago, there was a curious transition rite, the Ectesia, whose name means stripping or to undress. In this, young boys who had been living in women's society would transition to men, removing their feminine garments to signify their transition. It was, as lore goes, based on a gender transition that happened on this island, driven by the mother of Artemis and Apollo, Lotto. Here is the tale of young Leucopus, a Cretan FTM, female to male youth. Nicander tells this tale in the second book of his metamorphosis, Galatia, daughter of Eurytius, who was son of Spartan, married at Festus in Crete, Pandian's son, Lamprus, a man of good family but without means. When Galatia became pregnant, Lampus prayed to have a son, and said plainly to his wife, that she was to expose her child if it was a daughter. When Lampris had gone off to tend his flocks, Galatia gave birth to a daughter. Feeling pity for her babe, she counted on the remoteness of their house and, backed by dreams and sears, telling her to bring up the girl as a boy, deceived Lampris by saying she had given birth to a son, and brought the child up as a boy, giving it the name Leucopus. As the girl grew she became unutterably beautiful. Because it was no longer possible to hide this, Galatia, fearing Lampus, fled to the sanctuary of Leto and made many a prayer to her that the child might become a boy instead of a girl, just as had happened to Cineus, daughter of Atrex, who, by the will of Poseidon, became Canaius the Lapith. So also Tiresius changed from a man to woman, because he had encountered and killed two snakes that had been mating at a crossroads. He changed again from woman back to man by killing another serpent. Hypermestra had frequently sold her body in the form of a woman for a fee, becoming a man to bring food for her father, Athan. The Cretan, Spiroitas, had also been turned into a woman for having seen Artemis bathing when out hunting. Leto took pity on Galatia because of her unremitting and distressed prayers, and changed the sex of a child into a boy's. In memory of this change, the citizens of Phaestus still sacrificed to Leto the grafter, because she had grafted organs onto the girl, and they give her festival the name of Ecdesia, stripping, because the girl had stripped off her maidenly peplis. It is now an observance of marriages to lie down beforehand beside the statue of Leucopus. This account comes to us from the 2nd century CE Common Era, Greek mythographer Antoninus Liberalis in his Metamorphosis, who cites 2nd century BCE before the Common Era, Greek author Nicander as his source, a 400-year gap between the pair. Nicander's work itself was likely drawn from an older source, perhaps placing this rite into the 5th century CE long before the Hellenistic period. Indeed, the presence of this sort of transition into adulthood rite involving the stripping and replacing of clothes was present in seven Cretan cities, suggesting a common older origin. This rite had brought thousands of children into manhood for centuries, and brought them there from the world of women, a transition in Phaistos, in honor of the goddess who, herself, changed the sex of one of their own. This rite, the Ecdesia, was called stripping because of its core ceremony and one half of its dual purpose. During this sacred festival, the boys of Phaestos, clad in women's clothing, gathered and swore an oath of citizenship to their city and its people. As Leucopus removed forever the maidenly peplus, the boys in Phaestos then publicly removed their own womanly clothing. Once discarded, they would then don some form of masculine clothing, or sometimes remain nude, or a combination of clothing or weaponry and nudity, and enter the society of adult men via the youth corps, the Agela. Once entered, the world they had known before, that of women, was closed to them. As mentioned, there were other similar rites of passage around Crete, and one even in mainland Greece and Athens. These four Cretan cities held annual rites that included disrobing with the swearing of citizenship oaths, Axos, Drados, Lytos, and Mala. In Lytos, these oaths were sworn during a parable Maia, also recorded as parable mata, the festival of dawning. These are attested in inscriptions. In Athens, the dawning festival was Oscophoria, held in autumn to honor Dionysus. The focus of this festival was an agricultural one, but there were initiatory overtones as well. Adolescent boys who led the procession to the sanctuary of Athena Schirus, carrying branches with grape clusters attached, wore feminine soli, styled their hair in a womanly fashion, wore women's adornments, and adopted their mannerisms. The Ecdesia, we think, also took place in autumn. In three Cretan cities, these rite of passage oaths took place at a festival called the Theodasia, which likely fell in the month of Theodasios, the last month of their year. This likely corresponds to September or October in our calendar. This reckoning is uncertain, as not all of the Cretan cities even had this month, but in light of the agricultural aspects and the other rites, it does seem likely. Like the Oscophoria in Athens, the Ectesia in Phaistos also has agricultural ties. The other prong of this festival was in tribute to, in honor of the goddess Leto, who had changed the body of Leukopus. In this place and time, she was known as Leto Phytia. The epithet Phytea may refer to her role in this place as a fertility goddess. Here she was focused on the growth of children and vegetation. Remember too, that the last line of Antoninus's text says this. It is now an observance in marriages to lie down beforehand beside the statue of Leukopus. To me, this signifies a connection with Leukopis and fertility, as the marriage bed would lead, hopefully, to many couples, to children, the products of the union. Another interpretation of the epithet is that it refers to the city's welfare in general, which, again, would be intertwined with its fertility, both of crops and of children. The products of a successful harvest may have been present in more ways in this festival, as great feasts would also be held. The echdesia is, in its essence, the fruits of Phaestos and their continuing perpetuation. For some, that continuation would be in a new social world, that of men. But why wear a peplos to do it? Especially considering that if the right is based on Leukopis's experience, that would have been one of a boy, wouldn't it? Why was Leukopis, whose mother had gone to every effort to present him as a boy, wearing a peplos, a girl's attire? Stories explain the things we do, even when we've forgotten our original intent. It's possible then that this rite predates the story, and that the story was used to explain it. Children were already wearing, then removing, women's clothing. In fact, we assume the peplos was the garment worn during the Ecdesia because of its mention in the Leukopis tale. The peplos was perhaps a symbol of girlhood, a reflection of the feminine world in which these children had lived. Because of the intense gender segregation in these societies, children spent most of their time with their mothers. We can see that within Leukopis's own story, his parents were separated to such an extent that his father never noticed what was going on and wasn't present at the birth. Although, as the story says, because of their poverty, he may have been working afield in a distant location. When the youths remove the clothing, they are leaving the world of their mothers. They are discarding their feminine identity. They are transitioning, in a sense, from girls to mene and shale. That's it for today. I hope you enjoyed, found it interesting, and see ya next time. Bye bye.