Lambda: the LGBT in Antiquity Podcast

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 its aspects. She is drawn not to causes or heroes, rather to the most adroit warriors and disp...

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 of marriage'. So Hestia became the Goddess of the Hearth, who tends the hearth on Olym...

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 by supernatural beings engaging in hypersexuality, while practically never taking part...

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 small cats like lynxes. The very fact that Artemis hunts with a bow at all could be seen as a facet of gender n...

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 Semele a Theban girl chosen for the highest honour in the cosmos, the courtship of Mnemosyne the abstract concep...

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 the quest of the Golden Fleece. Following one’s own desires, duty to protect one’s famil...

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 nonbinary attributes allow them to be the kind of non-binary mentor we all need sometimes.&nb...

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, intersex conditions reflected a fundamental challenge to the established social order. Everything ...

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 stories. But where many Gods viewed their human loves as conquests, Dionysos shows far more ...

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 Dionysos. Features of life such as athletics and chariot races which Attis feared loosing actually ...

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, to aid in her courting. Later she describes Anactoria as the best sight in the world, a...

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 the story through the lens of a woman lamenting a social death in the hours immediately after...

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 after is found in Catullus 63. Though he reflects the general Roman attitude that Attis has bec...

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 Thessaly whom he tried to save from death. His romance with Hyacinthos is among the most ico...

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 support Trans people, or else what it means to live in a world where Trans people are visible.&...

Today's episode covers the story of Ganymedes, a young man so beautiful that the cosmic king Zeus snatches him away to be his immortal boyfriend. Though the story is among the oldest pieces of Greek Mythology which comes down to us, many scholars have questioned when the narrative became homoerotic. It was a long time before any author explicitly stated that Zeus and Ganymedes were lovers, though it may well have been coyly presented from the beginning. Once it was established, ga...

This week we are talking about the Goddess of the hunt Artemis (Diana). Her world is a world of women, and none of them are terribly heteronormative. From her birth, Artemis desired to live a life surrounded by women, shunning city life for the wild lands of the mountains and forests. Ancient sources are generally coy about female homoeroticism, however when we read the texts' silences and contradictions a picture of female intimacy is clear. We will discuss the story of Artemis a...

This episode covers the creation of humankind. After Prometheus created men and women, Dionysus showed up to make sure humans could never be a simple heteronormative binary. We dissect the resulting creation of Tribadas and molles mares, the archetypal LGBT+ people!

Episode focuses on stability in the way we construct the ancient world. We seek a continuity when what we are discussing has undergone seismic changes across time. The way ancient societies constructed heteronormative marriage and heteronormative sex are fundamentally foreign from our own constructions.

This episode explores what the lives of the poet Sappho and Roman Emperor Hadrian show about the way Classicists and historians construct and deconstruct ancient identities.

Episode one explores the diverse ways we can study the LGBT+ experience in antiquity.

This is the Trailer for Lambda, the LGBT in Antiquity Podcast!