Gender variance in spirituality: Difference between revisions
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* '''Eros''', the god (daemon) of love, was usually male. In Apulian vase painting of the Hellenistic period (323 BC–30 BC), Eros was depicted as androgynous, with breasts and a penis. This Eros wore feminine figure and attire, the hair worn in a top-knot tied with ribbon, wearing earrings, necklaces, bangles and ankle bracelets. According to Cicero in his ''Nature of the Gods'', a Cupid was born of Mercury and Venus, thus an aspect of the deity Hermaphroditus. | * '''Eros''', the god (daemon) of love, was usually male. In Apulian vase painting of the Hellenistic period (323 BC–30 BC), Eros was depicted as androgynous, with breasts and a penis. This Eros wore feminine figure and attire, the hair worn in a top-knot tied with ribbon, wearing earrings, necklaces, bangles and ankle bracelets. According to Cicero in his ''Nature of the Gods'', a Cupid was born of Mercury and Venus, thus an aspect of the deity Hermaphroditus. | ||
* '''Hercules''' was a masculine male demigod who wore feminine clothing for three years as part of his servitude. | * '''Hercules''' was a masculine male demigod who wore feminine clothing for three years as part of his servitude. | ||
* '''Hermaphroditus''' was a Greek deity who was both male and female, who was shown in art as a beautiful woman with a penis. One version of this deity's origin was that Hermes (the messenger god) united with Aphrodite (the goddess of love) to become Hermaphroditus.<ref>Walker, A Woman’s Dictionary, p. 195.</ref> Another story said instead that Hermaphroditus was originally the beautiful male son of Hermes and Aphrodite. The lake nymph Salmacis raped him, wishing | * '''Hermaphroditus''' was a Greek deity who was both male and female, who was shown in art as a beautiful woman with a penis. One version of this deity's origin was that Hermes (the messenger god) united with Aphrodite (the goddess of love) to become Hermaphroditus.<ref>Walker, A Woman’s Dictionary, p. 195.</ref> Another story said instead that Hermaphroditus was originally the beautiful male son of Hermes and Aphrodite. The lake nymph Salmacis raped him, wishing them to never separate again, so the gods made them one being. The gods also granted the victim's wish that anyone who bathed in that lake would lose their virility.<ref>Pierre Grimal and Stephen Kershaw, ''The Penguin Dictionary of Classical Mythology'', p. 197.</ref> This is the origin of the word "hermaphrodite." | ||
* '''Hermathena''' was a composite form of the Greek god Hermes and the goddess Athena. Being unified they symbolized Academia and presided over knowledge, eloquence, the arts and sciences. | * '''Hermathena''' was a composite form of the Greek god Hermes and the goddess Athena. Being unified they symbolized Academia and presided over knowledge, eloquence, the arts and sciences. | ||
* '''Janus (Ianus, Jana).''' The month of January is named after Janus, the gatekeeper ("janitor") deity who oversees beginnings and endings. Janus has two faces, usually one old man and one young man, but originally these were depicted as one male and one female, the latter being "the Jana who was assimilated to Juno. […] Having accepted the all-male Janus as the New Year god, however, medieval writers continued to refer to him as the archetypal duality."<ref>Walker, ''A Woman’s Dictionary'', p. 208. </ref> Janus is the god of time, space, movement, gateways, bridges, growing up, aging, change, beginnings/endings. Janus represents transition and liminality between different places, phases, conditions, and concepts. | * '''Janus (Ianus, Jana).''' The month of January is named after Janus, the gatekeeper ("janitor") deity who oversees beginnings and endings. Janus has two faces, usually one old man and one young man, but originally these were depicted as one male and one female, the latter being "the Jana who was assimilated to Juno. […] Having accepted the all-male Janus as the New Year god, however, medieval writers continued to refer to him as the archetypal duality."<ref>Walker, ''A Woman’s Dictionary'', p. 208. </ref> Janus is the god of time, space, movement, gateways, bridges, growing up, aging, change, beginnings/endings. Janus represents transition and liminality between different places, phases, conditions, and concepts. | ||