Myth
On the island of Krete lived King Drieticus and his daughter Transia, whose exquisite beauty had captured the hearts of all who saw her. Over the years, men from all over Greece had come and asked for her hand in marriage, hoping that they may be the one to take her home as their wife. Arrogant of her beauty, she turned down each and every proposal, considering them beneath her.
One day while walking in a meadow, her beauty caught the eye of Zeus, who came before her in the form of a beautiful doe and seduced her. Upon realizing that the almighty Lord of Heavens had approached her, her heart filled with glee. She sang to the winds, “Lord Zeus himself has fallen for my beauty. I must be the most beautiful woman on Earth, for I have captured the heart of a god. I must be more beautiful than Hera, than Athena, than Artemis. More beautiful than Aphrodite.”
The moment the last words left her lips, a flash of light appeared, from which Aphrodite emerged. “You foolish girl,” she said, “You may have captured the hearts of a few mere mortals, but do not fool yourself into thinking you are more beautiful than any goddess, especially not me.”
“From now on, no mortal man will ever look at you in the way you desire. Your beauty will cease to be admired, breaking this shameful illusion of yours. You mocked beauty and now Beauty will mock you,” and with that, the goddess vanished as quickly as she had appeared.
Transia ran across the meadow to the nearby lake to see what the goddess had done. She looked into the clear water and screamed aloud. Her feminine body had been transformed into that of a man’s. Now in the wrong body, no man will ever look at her with desire in his eyes. She was stuck in this organic cage, with a soul that contradicted her physical appearance.
She wept by the lake for a long time, not for her beauty but her womanhood. Men passed by her, asking the man they saw if he knew of the beautiful Kretian princess. Seven days later, the god Dionysus stumbled across the field, followed by his band of maenads. Being a god, Dionysus was unfazed by her false appearance. Feeling pitiful, he said, “Though you look like a man, I see the woman you really are. While I cannot undo the curse placed on you by Aphrodite, as her powers are beyond my jurisdiction, I feel your pain from being unjustly judged for being different, which is why I’ll tell you this. As long as you no longer display the arrogance that cost you your body, know that one day a son of mine will come, and will force Aphrodite to lift this cruel curse of hers. Wait for him.”
And that person did come years later, by the name of Gendaris, but that’s a story for another time.
Analysis
The tale of Transia exemplifies many of the motifs and traits present in ancient Greek mythology, as it alludes to themes of love, punishment and divine intervention while simultaneously innovating upon new ideas of gender orientation through the aetiology behind transgender identities.
To start off, the idea of punishment for insubordination plays into the story, where disrespecting or thinking one is above a god/goddess has dire consequences, often presented as an amplified version of the problem itself. For instance, in the story of Athena and Arachne, the latter boasted to be an exquisite weaver and better than the goddess herself (Ov. Met. 6). This notion of superiority lead to Arachne being transformed into a spider by Athena, forced to spend the rest of her days weaving (Ov. Met. 6). This same idea can be extended to examples of Aphrodite severely punishing those that mock her or any of the attributes she stands for, the most notable of which is with Hippolytus. Angered by his scornful nature towards love, Aphrodite punished him by causing his step-mother to fall in love with him, ultimately resulting in his death by the hands of his jealous father (Philostr., Life of Apollonius of Tyana 6.3). In the case of this myth, rather than solely encompassing the love aspect of Aphrodite’s many jurisdictions, the idea has been innovated to include beauty as well, as this attribute is just as important. Transia’s boastful attitude and thinking that she is more beautiful than Aphrodite, the Goddess of Love and Beauty, leads to her being stripped of her feminine appearance, through transforming her body into that of a man. However it must be noted that Aphrodite’s curse does not change anything about Transia’s absolute beauty, but instead is directed at the source of Transia’s disrespectful attitude, or her arrogance towards her femininity that stems from the knowledge that many men that had taken an interest in her over the years and strongly desired her. Thus rather than changing her features from beautiful ones to those that are average or even ugly, Aphrodite’s curse causes Transia to lose all the things she is overly proud of and is ungrateful towards: her feminine beauty, her many admirers and as a result her body. This ultimately shows that all actions have consequences, and when it comes to the gods, said consequences are often amplified versions of the action itself.
Moving on, multiple divine beings can be seen throughout this story, showcasing divine intervention in the lives of mortals. Each of said deities have a vital role to play in the foundation of the myth, either by predicting Transia’s future transformation, causing the transformation itself or helping to reverse it.
At the beginning, Zeus is seen to mingle with Transia, through changing his appearance to resemble a beautiful animal, alluding to the future transformation of the main character. Before discussing that however, it is important to understand that similar events can be found to occur in a multitude of myths, where Zeus would take on the form of an animal to seduce women while staying hidden from the eye of his wife Hera. An example of this is how Zeus transformed into a swan to fulfill his amorous needs with Leda, the Queen of Sparta, a union from which the famous Helen of Troy was born (Ps.-Apollod., Bibl. 3. 10. 5-7.). Here, his choice to transform into a beautiful female deer, despite the fact that he has always been portrayed as the epitome of masculinity, predicts the future sex transformation the central character will undergo in this myth, showcasing the innovative side of the writer.
As for the Goddess of Love and Beauty, Aphrodite appears and bestows a curse of a sort on Transia, causing a massive problem in her life. While the details of this encounter have been expanded on already, it is important to note that had Aphrodite not desired to punish her for her mockery of love and beauty, Transia’s life would be very different than the way it turned out. This brief interaction was evidently a pivotal one, and resonates with the ideas Aphrodite has generally associated herself with (ie. beauty).
Ending off the topic of divine intervention with Dionysus, he interacts with Transia at the end of the myth, in a way that is brief, yet bringing about a much deeper meaning. Dionysus is known to represent all that is “other”; he and his disciples bring about madness and chaos, as opposed to the orderly structure most other gods are associated with. His acceptance of the untamed, real and wide side of humanity brings to light all the things that are considered against the norm by society and perceived as “different”. Having Dionysus himself interact with Transia highlights the way heteronormative society contemporarily thinks of the idea of someone being transgender: something that is against the norm and labelled as “other”. This thereby Dionysus as the patron of gender fluidity, something that he has already started to embody via cross-dressing and breaking down the rigid barriers present between the “male” and “female” labels. This idea is portrayed in book 14 of Dionysiaca by Nonnus as it discusses how Dionysus would often dress up as a young girl, such as tie scented veils in his hair and “fit a purple girdle over his hips like a band of maidenhood” (143). Dionysus is shown to be someone who is open to the idea of cross-dressing, as well as presenting oneself as a woman even though they self-identify as a man, creating a parallel between the ancient text and the myth, where Transia self-identifies as a woman yet is forced to present herself as a man. To expand on this, a future descendant of Dionysus being said to break the curse and allow Transia to transition into a body that is better suited for her, solidifies the intricate relationship present between Dionysus and those who identify as transgender.
Lastly, a common motif in many aetiological myths is the importance of names, and how they connect to words spoken in contemporary languages. One prominent example of this the notion of an echo, whose origin can be traced back to a myth involving Echo, a young woman who was cursed to spend her days repeating back the last words any one spoke, as shown by, “To the right of the sanctuary of Khthonia (Chthonia) [i.e. Demeter of the Earth, in the town of Hermione, Argos] is a portico, called by the natives the Portico of Ekho (Echo). It is such that if a man speaks it reverberates at least three times” (Paus., Description of Greece, 2.35.10). The writer Ovid also touches upon this same figure in his work by discussing the cause of Echo’s condition: with her incessant talking, Echo would prevent Hera, the Queen of the Heavens, from catching her husband, Zeus, red-handed with other nymphs. Upon learning about this deception, Hera cursed Echo to only speak when someone else speaks first, and even then only return the last words of their speech back to them (Met., 3.350 ff). Alongside further strengthening the idea of dire consequences for disrespecting divine beings, this example thoroughly shows how important names are in aetiological myths as they end up forming the root of the word expressing the phenomenon. The myth being analyzed here embodies a similar idea, as the names of the main character and the man who is to help her revert the effects of the curse, Transia and Gendaris respectively, can be related to the word, “transgender” in the English language. This showcases the deep, underlying meaning of the myth, and allows it to present as the origin behind transgender individuals.
In summary, the myth embodies many ideas and notions found throughout a variety of myths, and showcases how disrespectful attitudes towards gods, punishment and divine intervention all play crucial roles in aetiological myths.
Bibliography
Nonnus. Dionysiaca. 14.143 ff, trans. W.H.D. Rouse, Loeb, 1940.
Pausanias. Description of Greece. 2.35.10, trans. W.H.S. Jones, Loeb, 1918.
Ovid. Metamorphoses. 3.350 ff, trans. Brookes More, 1922.
Ovid. Metamorphoses. 6.1, trans. Arthur Golding, 1567.
Philostratus, Life of Apollonius of Tyana. 6.3, trans. Conybeare, 1912.
Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca. 3.10.5-7, trans. J.G. Frazer, 1921.
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