Tag: cybele

“trans people have existed the entire time” yo i studied greek and roman literature in college and this dude Lucian (2nd century CE) wrote a piece called Dialogue of the Courtesans and one chapter called “The Lesbians” (unfortunately misnamed) has a courtesan named Leaina tell about a lover she had named Megilla who was AFAB but preferred to be called Megillus and presented himself as male and insisted in very detailed dialogue he was male in every way except for his birth, check it out

support-our-trans-sisters:

thank you! it’s seriously ridiculous how terfs think trans people just popped up in the sixties?? like?? talk about not knowing your own history

there’s also the Cult of Cybele, an important religion to the Roman empire that had a priestess-hood made up of trans women. Catallus, a very famous latin author, wrote about their mythology, where apparently dysphoria is treated as a sacred calling from the goddess. Here’s my fave translation, it doesn’t add in any unnecessary misgendering that wasn’t there in latin, because apparently translators feel the need to do that sometimes. TW for descriptions of intense dysphoria, and a gorey description of ancient bottom surgery.

a good rule of thumb is that if you see the word ‘eunuch’ in a history book, that’s usually a reference to trans women that’s been lost in time thanks to the rise of Christianity.