Lambda: the LGBT in Antiquity Podcast

Today is Transgender Parent's Day, a chance to reflect on Transgender and Nonbinary folx who raise children.  We celebrate  Trans parents’ strength, resilience, kindness, and ability to pass these on to their children. In Antiquity there were some cross-dressing Eunuchs who were able to have biological children. Others rescued children at risk of dying from exposure to raise as their own. In...

The Oschophoria is an Athenian festival celebrating Dionysos' arrival. The celebration includes citizens dressing up in costumes and eating sweet treats. The festival included Queer elements such as radical equality and gender nonconformity. Dionysos encourages gender nonconformity as a means of catharsis from the crushing hierarchies and gendered expectations of Athenian life. Some may have...

On this International Pronouns Day Special, we are exploring some of the terms Romans used to describe their own loves.  Many of these terms originated to describe wholly unrelated contexts, before becoming associated with certain lifestyle choices, and eventually with queerness. Additionally many of the terms can be used either to describe one's own affection, or else used as a way to attack...

In 186BC, Queer people in Rome and Italy faced discrimination and violence from the Senate in the form of the Senate's Great Decree on Bacchanals.  The decree banned the formation of Bacchic societies and the practice of the Mysteries throughout Italy. In the wake of the crisis thousands of Romans and Italians were hunted and executed by the state. It was a dark time for Queer people in Rome,...

This episode explores the significance of using our own words to describe sexuality and gender in the past.  First we are able to describe a much wider range of gender and sexuality when we use our own words to describe them!  Second we are able to add much needed nuance to the interpretive possibilities the records present.  Third there is a much greater visibility of sexuality and gender in Anti...

Today is International Lesbian Day! We are going to try to answer a seemingly simple question: What is Sapphic Love? The question is surprisingly difficult to answer. Sappho's love for other women is the stuff of legend, but it is not the entire picture. Sappho experiences intense love for her brother Charaxos. Their relationship may be a bit stormy, but she always expresses concern and deep...

October is LGBT History Month, and this is an LGBT History Podcast! Join us all month long for specials covering Queer events and people from Antiquity.  Our tentative schedule: October 1 - Introduction October 8 - What is Sapphic Love?  October 15 -  Senatus consultum de Bacchanalibus October 21 - Pronouns and Terms of Sexuality in Antiquity October 31 - Halloween Special 

Phanes was the first born of all the Gods. This was a chaotic period, where nothing had been established or delineated from anything else. Chimeric creatures represented multiple bodies and forms in the same body. This is true of Phanes. Phanes is represented in a human form with great wings coming out the back, the heads of various animals protruding out of the chest and sides, and a great serpen...

This week we are discussing Iakkhos and Mise, the mysterious chorus leader in the Eleusinian and Bacchic Mysteries.  Iakkhos and Mise are an extremely intimate deity. They literally lead processions such as the one from Athens to Eleusis. They also played a key role in the afterlife. When initiates died, they were guided through the Underworld to the Blessed afterlife by Iakkhos and Mise.  The Mys...

This week we are discussing Enyo, the embodiment of Warfare, as a manifestation of aromantic identity from the Greek Pantheon.  Across numerous conflicts, Enyo never actually is shown to have any particular loyalty to any faction. During the Trojan War, Enyo goes out ahead of the Greek armies with Athena, then later she rallies the Trojans with Ares. Enyo delights in conflict and warfare in all it...

Hestia is the Goddess of the Hearth.  She was the first born child of Kronos and Rheia, and the first to be eaten by the Crooked Kronos. Once Zeus claimed the celestial throne for himself, she and the other Kronian Gods were regurgitated and took up their new roles on Olympus.  Rather than be married to anyone, Hestia strongly declared her refusal to marry, and Zeus granted her the 'opposite...

This is a special episode reviewing the new movie version of the Odyssey, produced by Christopher Nolan, published by Universal Pictures.

This week we are exploring Dionysos as a manifestation of demisexuality.  While scholars have long discussed an asexuality represented in Dionysos, we can be a bit more specific when we detach from asexuality as an academic construct and consider the full asexual spectrum.  Human rituals often represent this, but they are representing the same sexuality of satyrs and nymphs. Dionysos is surrounded...

Happy International Non-Binary People's Day! Today we have a very special episode interpreting Artemis as a demi-woman non-binary person.  Artemis is the wild deity associated with forests, mountains, and other wild spaces. Yet as a hunter, Artemis is as at home engaging in men's hunts like stags, boars, or lions as they are engaging in women's hunts like doe, fauns, hares, and smal...

This week we are focusing on the abstraction known as Zeus whose sexual desires could best be described as pansexual. Zeus is the King of the Universe, and with that power comes a great amount of sexual experimentation with body and form. We'll explore the episode of Zeus' courtship of Io a river spring turned into a heifer, the story of Europa a Phoenician Princess, the tragedy of Semel...

This week we are going to continue our discussion of Athena as a nonbinary manifestation. Whether pursuing masculine-coded activities like conflict and competition or feminine-coded activities like weaving and homemaking, Athena strove for excellence.  Athena used this trademark blend of masculinity and femininity to aid Orestes after he usurped the King of Mycenae and to aid Jason and Medea on th...

This week we are going to interpret Athena as a nonbinary manifestation. Whether pursuing masculine-coded activities like conflict and competition or feminine-coded activities like weaving and homemaking, Athena strove for excellence.  Athena-Mentor is kind and compassionate, encouraging everyone to strive to be their best, and to pursue the most excellent things they are capable.  Athena’s nonbin...

This week's episode covers the story of the Agdistis. They were created through an immaculate conception with an intersex condition resulting in the manifestation of male and female sexual characteristics. The other Gods were so terrified by Agdistis, that they violently exposed and publicly castrated them.  This episode explores the Intersex condition in Antiquity. Whether human or divine, i...

This week we are discussing Dionysos as a manifestation of all things Queer.  They are constantly shown moving between gendered expressions, never really settling on any one for long. This creates a being able to manifest the raw creative power of the primordial cosmos into the most powerful Olympian deity.  Dionysos is also shown in long lasting relationships with men and women in different stori...

Today's episode concludes our deep-dive into Attis, the Phrygian fertility deity assigned male at birth who underwent gender transition. After the emotional turmoil subsides, Attis settles into the house of Rheia. Though Attis had a few stumbling blocks at the beginning, she was able to grow in this affirming environment. Eventually Rheia and Attis got married and raised a foster child in Dio...

Happy Lesbian Day of Visibility! Today we have a very special episode covering  stories of Lesbian desire. There is a spell found in the Greek Magical Papyri which was intended to bind Serapias to Herais, two women whose desire to be together transcended even death. The other stories of Lesbian desire are drawn from the incomparable poetry of Sappho. Sappho calls upon Aphrodite, Goddess of Love, t...

This week we are continuing our deep-dive into Attis, a figure assigned male at birth who travelled to Asia and underwent a gender transition. Following the surgery itself, Attis experiences first the manic highs of gender euphoria before falling into a depressive low.  Rather than interpreting the anxiety through the lens of a hero acting shamefully and later regretting their acts, we will read t...

This week we are looking at Attis, a figure assigned male at birth who travelled to Phrygia and underwent a gender transition. The experience of Attis mirrors closely the experience of modern trans-women as we start with a figure who was never all that comfortable with male societal roles who is able to flourish upon gender affirmation.  The story of this transformation and the first few hours aft...

This week we are talking about the God of the Arts Apollo. Apollo was a deity whose amorous escapades are split between men and women.  Some of the most widely known stories of love between Gods and Mortals involve Apollo in some way.  Apollo was involved with many of the Muses, often bequeathing remarkable artists and bards in the process. He was involved with many men, including Admetos of Thess...

Happy International Transgender Day of Visibility! Today we have a very special episode covering the stories of Dionysos and Caeneus, two narratives from the ancient world where transgender characters transcend visibility and are able to thrive by their gender transitions.  Whatever is going on in your life, pause for a moment and think about what it means to be Trans, or else what it means to sup...