Leucippus of Crete

In Greek mythology, Leucippus (Ancient Greek: Λεύκιππος Leukippos, "white horse") was a young man of Phaestus, Crete. Leucippus was born to Lamprus, the son of Pandion, and Galatea, daughter of Eurytius the son of Sparton. He is notable for having undergone a magical gender transformation by the will of the goddess Leto. Due to his transition from female to male, Leucippus can be considered a transgender male figure in Greek mythology.

For other uses, see Leucippus (mythology).
Leucippus
Contemporary depiction of Leucippus removing his peplos.
AffiliationGreek
AbodePhaestos
FestivalsEcdysia in honor of Leto
Personal information
ParentsGalatea and Lamprus

His story was included in the Metamorphoses by Antoninus Liberalis. It shares several elements with the myth of Iphis, another female child raised as and transformed into a male from Ovid's Metamorphoses.

Mythology

Leucippus was born in Phaestus, Crete. When his mother Galatea was pregnant, her husband Lamprus told her he would only accept a male child. Galatea gave birth while Lamprus was away pasturing his cattle, and the infant was female. Following the advice of seers, Galatea gave her child a masculine name, Leucippus, and told her husband that she had given birth to a son.[1]

Leucippus was raised as a boy, but upon approaching puberty, it became necessary to conceal his female sex from Lamprus, presumably to avoid drawing his ire. Galatea went to the sanctuary of Leto and prayed that Leucippus could become biologically male.[1]

Leto took pity on Galatea and granted the prayer, and Leucippus became male.[1]

In commemoration of this event, the people of Phaestus surnamed Leto Phytia (from Greek φύω "to grow"). They established a rite of passage[2] feast in honor of Leto,[3] which was called Ecdysia (from Greek ἑκδύω "to undress").[4] It was named for Leucippus who was able to remove his "maidenly" peplos after his transformation.[5] The festival became an annual initiation ritual, focused on the transition of boys to men as they joined the youth corps, agela.[6] The "young [men] were required to put on women's clothes and swear an oath of citizenship,"[6] after which "herds of youth [would] strip off their peploi publicly," reenacting Leucippus's transformation.[7][8]

It became a custom for brides and bridal couples of Phaestus to lie beside an image or statue of Leucippus before weddings.[1][9][10][11]

See also

Note
  1. Fontenrose, Joseph Eddy; California, University of (1981). Orion: The Myth of the Hunter and the Huntress. University of California Press. pp. 50–55. ISBN 978-0-520-09632-5.
  2. McCrary, Susan Niehoff (1987). El Último Godo and the Dynamics of Urdrama. Scripta Humanistica. ISBN 978-0-916379-36-0.
  3. CARR, Thomas Swinburne (1846). A Manual of Classical Mythology, or a Companion to the Greek and Latin poets ... With a copious lexicon-index. Simpkin, Marshall & Company.
  4. Numismatic Chronicle, and Journal of the Royal Numismatic Society. Royal Numismatic Society. 1841.
  5. Boehringer, Sandra (2021-09-06). Female Homosexuality in Ancient Greece and Rome. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-000-39616-4.
  6. Leitao, David D. (1995). "The Perils of Leukippos: Initiatory Transvestism and Male Gender Ideology in the Ekdusia at Phaistos". Classical Antiquity. 14 (1): 130–163. doi:10.2307/25000144. ISSN 0278-6656. JSTOR 25000144.
  7. Hermathena. University of Dublin. 2003.
  8. Phoenix. University of Toronto Press. 1997.
  9. Antoninus Liberalis, Metamorphoses, 17, with reference to Nicander
  10. Heslin, P. J.; Heslin, Peter Joseph (2005-08-11). The Transvestite Achilles: Gender and Genre in Statius' Achilleid. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-85145-9.
  11. Celoria, Francis (2018-10-24). The Metamorphoses of Antoninus Liberalis: A Translation with a Commentary. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-317-79948-1.
  12. Menoni, Burton (2016-01-24). Kings of Greek Mythology. Lulu.com. ISBN 978-1-329-85427-7.

References


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