100: Ovid: Metamorphoses - 10. Gender and Identity

The theme today is Gender and Identity.

In this session, we’ll explore how Metamorphoses engages with complex questions of gender and identity, revealing Ovid’s nuanced portrayals of fluidity in both personal and societal identities. Ovid challenges traditional gender roles through transformations, cross-gender desires, and ambiguous portrayals of gods and mortals. We encourage ourselves to reflect on how these ancient stories resonate with modern ideas about gender, fluidity, and self-definition.

1. Theme Introduction: Gender as Fluid and Transformable

· Gender and Transformation in Metamorphoses
In Metamorphoses, gender is often fluid, with characters undergoing transformations that alter their sex, identity, and societal roles. Ovid explores how physical transformation influences personal identity, blurring the lines between traditionally defined gender roles. Stories such as those of Iphis, Caenis, and Hermaphroditus illustrate themes of identity and societal expectations.

· Self-Identity and Divine Power
Ovid’s gods often shape human identity by force, which can complicate or liberate personal identities. Characters frequently find themselves trapped between divine power and personal will, raising questions about autonomy and self-identity.

2. Key Passages for Discussion

· 4.295-422 — The Story of Hermaphroditus and Salmacis
Hermaphroditus, the child of Hermes and Aphrodite, is fused with the nymph Salmacis, becoming both male and female.

· 9.720-873 — The Story of Iphis and Ianthe
Iphis, born female, is raised as a boy and ultimately transformed into a male by the goddess Isis to marry her beloved, Ianthe. One of Ovid’s most Sapphic stories

· 12.204-227 — Neptune Rapes Caenis/Caeneus
Caenis, a woman, is transformed into the invulnerable warrior Caeneus after wishing to become male.

· 10. 567–610 — Venus and Adonis
Venus’ infatuation with the mortal Adonis subverts traditional gender expectations by casting a goddess as the active pursuer.

· 10.263–324 — Pygmalion and His Statue
Pygmalion creates an idealized female statue, which Venus brings to life.

3. Artistic Reflections on Gender and Identity
· Renaissance Art: Titian’s Venus and Adonis (1554)

• This painting portrays Venus as both goddess and lover, exploring the dynamics of female desire and identity outside traditional roles.

· Omphale and Hercules. Omphale was a queen or princess of Lydia. As penalty for a murder, Hercules was to serve as a slave of Omphale, a queen of Lydia. He was forced to do women's work and to wear women's clothing, while she wore the skin of a lion and carried his olive-wood club. The gender bending relationship, unfortunately not explored in Ovid's Metamorphoses, was portrayed in Western art by many painters, such as Hans Cranach (1513-1537) and Gustave-Claude-Etienne Courtois (1852–1923),

· Post-1800 Art: Claude Cahun’s Self-Portrait (1928)

• Cahun’s photograph represents gender ambiguity, challenging fixed identities and reflecting themes similar to those in Ovid’s stories of transformation.

4. Musical and Literary Work

• Benjamin Britten’s The Turn of the Screw (1954)
• This opera explores themes of identity, ambiguity, and gender roles. Although not directly inspired by Metamorphoses, its eerie, questioning tone resonates with Ovid’s exploration of personal identity and transformation.
• Virginia Woolf’s Orlando (1954)
• Orlando is both man and woman at the same time but appears as one or the other at any particular moment. “Spanning three centuries, the novel opens as Orlando, a young nobleman in Elizabeth's England, awaits a visit from the Queen and traces his experience with first love as England under James I lies locked in the embrace of the Great Frost. At the midpoint of the novel, Orlando, now an ambassador in Constantinople, awakes to find that he is now a woman, and the novel indulges in farce and irony to consider the roles of women in the 18th and 19th centuries. As the novel ends in 1928, a year consonant with full suffrage for women. Orlando, now a wife and mother, stands poised at the brink of a future that holds new hope and promise for women.”

5. Culinary Exploration: Androgynous Fusion Dishes

• Dish: Surf and Turf with Seasonal Vegetables
• A dish blending both land and sea ingredients symbolizes the fusion of identities and the breaking of boundaries, much like the characters in Ovid’s stories who embody both masculine and feminine traits or transcend traditional roles.

6. Pantone Color

• Pantone 16-2124 Pink Lavender
• This delicate blend of pink and lavender symbolizes the fusion of traditionally feminine and masculine traits, representing gender fluidity and versatility.

7. Fragrance

• Tom Ford’s Violet Blonde (2011)
• This fragrance combines floral and woody notes, balancing masculine and feminine elements, much like Ovid’s stories of fluid identities.

8. Tree

• Olive Tree
• Symbolic of peace and endurance, the olive tree represents both adaptability and resilience, qualities central to the transformed identities in Ovid’s narratives.

9. Country

• India
• India’s diverse cultural heritage, esp. Hinduism, includes traditional and contemporary stories and perspectives on gender fluidity, making it a fitting country for this theme.

10. The USA Fit

• Gender Identity and Fluidity in American Culture
• Ovid’s stories of fluid gender roles and transformations resonate with ongoing discussions about gender identity in the U.S. From the LGBTQ+ rights movement to modern conversations on gender fluidity, America is actively engaging with themes Ovid explored, underscoring the lasting relevance of these narratives.

11. Gods Associated with Gender and Identity

• Venus/Aphrodite (goddess of love and desire, often breaking traditional female roles)

o Homeric Passages:

• Iliad 5.312-317 (Aphrodite wounded in battle).
• Iliad 3.396-413 (Aphrodite’s intervention in Helen’s life).
• Odyssey 8.266-366 (Aphrodite and Ares).
• Iliad 14.188-224 (Aphrodite’s charm on Zeus).
• Iliad 5.370-430 (Aphrodite aids Aeneas).

12. Sources and Influences

• Gender in Classical Mythology:

Ovid’s depictions of gender transformation and fluid identity draw from stories in earlier Greek mythology, including Apollodorus and versions in Homeric Hymns.

• Social Context of Rome:

Roman society had rigid gender roles, but Ovid’s narratives playfully challenge these norms, sometimes subverting or expanding them through mythological transformations.

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We're using a new translation of this wide ranging masterpiece that covers the history of the world, from its creation to the deification of Julius Caesar in 42 BC in a mythico-historical framework comprising over 250 myths, 15 books, and 11,995 lines. The translation is by Stephanie McCarter, a Classics professor at the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee: Metamorphoses (A Penguin Classics) – Published November 8, 2022.

This will take us well into 2025. BCE read the Metamorphoses before in 2020/2021.

A Latin text is online at https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3atext%3a1999.02.0029 (Hugo Magnus. Gotha (Germany). Friedr. Andr. Perthes. 1892).