this is feeding me so so deeply Sophie. thank you for weaving together so many of the things that feel like deep nourishment for me, and for so many others.
love this. i often think with the dreaming that many ancient cultures have some kind of snake or dragon as the "original mother" figure )often associated with the sea/water/ocean). its telling to me that many worms & reptiles can reproduce "asexually", and if we are going back even further to some pre-cellular "grease bubble" that was the mother of the dragon that was the mother of us all.... that our mitochondria carries all of these kinds of trans/multi gender memories.
omg yes "our mitochondria carry trans/multi gender memories". that's it in a nutshell. or lipid bubble to be more precise. this "bothness" is our deepest ancestral tie.
Sophie, I have read this piece twice and I absolutely love it. While I was already aware of the Gala priests, the way you have written about this (and the images) opens up so many new layers for me.
I do want to ask about your choice to both use "goddess" and they/them pronouns to refer to Aphrodite. I am very intrigued by the way in which Aphrodite seems to be constructed as a goddess even in cultures that portrayed her as trans or gender nonconforming (if I am not misunderstanding this), and I am curious if you have any further thoughts on this element. I find myself torn between using they/them pronouns to acknowledge Aphrodite's gender nonconformity and wanting to use she/her to acknowledge Aphrodite's identity as a goddess, with the idea that Aphrodite's gender nonconformity will still be present to queer and expand the meaning of those pronouns. Thoughts?
As per the dissonance between the pronouns and the term goddess...I'll confess this is a first draft and I'm actively struggling with the correct approach! In the ancient world Aphrodite is called a "she" later on, but that doesn't seem to encompass the complexity of this figure - at least for me. It seems very interesting that goddess becomes a "container" for gender nonconformity although...it could be argued the oldest versions of Dionysus are similar. I was actually thinking about how in the Greek pantheon Dionysus is the only god not called a human god. He is called a eudamon. A non-gendered, non human attendant spirit rather than a theós for human god. I was wondering if a better term for Aphrodite would be a word with a similar resonance. Eudamon. Intermediary. Or the original malakh for angel meaning intermediary and messenger. Channeler of the divine. Please let me know what your thoughts are! This is a first draft and I am currently cogitating on how to address these semantics and terminologies going forward.
Thanks for your thoughts here. I really don't know the historical record on this the way you do, but something about Aphrodite still says "goddess" to me, and I don't have the historical background to assess whether this came later, as she was cut down into a more traditional woman, or whether she was understood as a goddess even in her more nonconforming presentation. I will say that I don't experience the images that you have presented as being "both" or "androgynous" so much as being a "woman with"--a woman with a penis, a woman with a beard. Her role with the Gala further suggests to me a particular relationship with the feminine rather than an all-purpose androgyny.
I will acknowledge that my thoughts and feelings here are of course influenced by my own experience. As a binary-identified trans man, he/him, I have been increasingly faced with the irritating experience of having people suddenly switch to they/them pronouns for me when they learn that I tried to get pregnant or that I like having a menstrual cycle. Experiencing my own body as a "man with" breasts, a vulva, etc, I'm sure affects my desire to read Aphrodite in a similar way. Likewise, I can see how nonbinary folks might want to see their experience reflected by reading Aphrodite as nonbinary.
Part of this has to do with a larger issue around understanding that gender identity is separate from biological sex, yet with physical representations such as statues, we of course ascribe gender identities based on the signifiers we see in the statues. (This used to be a huge issue for me during my early transition -- I kept asking myself, what does the trans Buddha look like? I wanted a deity that looked like my own body, but I knew that any such representation would be read as female.)
I'll leave this here for now. As I don't have your familiarity with the historical record on this, I feel a bit in the dark in terms of what the historical record supports in terms of how Aphrodite was positioned at the time in terms of being a goddess or thought of as a more androgynous deity, but I am very interested in hearing your thoughts on all of this. It does feel like, as you say, "goddess becomes a 'container' for gender nonconformity" and I feel like maybe there is more to unpack around this...
It means a lot that you offered your own personal experience, Finn. Thank you for widening the lens. Yes, I think its really tricky "reading" images for identity. We tend to make assumptions. Identity exists beyond the realm of the extrinsically legible and the static. It exists in the process. The moving, breathing deity themselves. I will say that the earliest statues that will ultimately lead to Aphrodite on Cypress are definitely not female or male. They are barely human. Which is fascinating. For reference, if you want, look up the The Lady of Lemba and the other picrolite figures with bird and phallus heads on Cypress. Fascinating if in no way definitive.
However, I'm really moved by your perspective. It feels crucial to understand that a female goddess can easily have a phallus. That a male god, like Dionysus, can have breasts and often does. As I continue to work with Aphrodite I'm going to lean into the mystery and ask more questions. And maybe that's all I'll get, more questions in return! As an ancient deity of mysteries, that may be the ultimate lesson.
Oh wow! The picrolite figures blow things wide open. Thank you for pointing me to this. Yes, always more mysteries, and as you say, perhaps these are the ultimate lesson. Loved getting to discuss all this with you!
Thank you. I too have been following these threads of Aphrodite as of late. I have been moving them through my body in dance and meeting the vastness of liminality there. It is such a gift, encouragement and orientation point to read and feel these threads woven with word as well. Thank you thank you thank you. 🧵
this is feeding me so so deeply Sophie. thank you for weaving together so many of the things that feel like deep nourishment for me, and for so many others.
Thank you so Elisa. Aphrodite has been medicinal for me lately and I thought I should share some of these rumination
Genius. Boundaries disssolve and evolution takes quantum steps. I bow before Aphrodite.
🧬🙏🏻💙🌿
love this. i often think with the dreaming that many ancient cultures have some kind of snake or dragon as the "original mother" figure )often associated with the sea/water/ocean). its telling to me that many worms & reptiles can reproduce "asexually", and if we are going back even further to some pre-cellular "grease bubble" that was the mother of the dragon that was the mother of us all.... that our mitochondria carries all of these kinds of trans/multi gender memories.
omg yes "our mitochondria carry trans/multi gender memories". that's it in a nutshell. or lipid bubble to be more precise. this "bothness" is our deepest ancestral tie.
Sophie, I have read this piece twice and I absolutely love it. While I was already aware of the Gala priests, the way you have written about this (and the images) opens up so many new layers for me.
I do want to ask about your choice to both use "goddess" and they/them pronouns to refer to Aphrodite. I am very intrigued by the way in which Aphrodite seems to be constructed as a goddess even in cultures that portrayed her as trans or gender nonconforming (if I am not misunderstanding this), and I am curious if you have any further thoughts on this element. I find myself torn between using they/them pronouns to acknowledge Aphrodite's gender nonconformity and wanting to use she/her to acknowledge Aphrodite's identity as a goddess, with the idea that Aphrodite's gender nonconformity will still be present to queer and expand the meaning of those pronouns. Thoughts?
Hi Finn! Thank you so so for reading.
As per the dissonance between the pronouns and the term goddess...I'll confess this is a first draft and I'm actively struggling with the correct approach! In the ancient world Aphrodite is called a "she" later on, but that doesn't seem to encompass the complexity of this figure - at least for me. It seems very interesting that goddess becomes a "container" for gender nonconformity although...it could be argued the oldest versions of Dionysus are similar. I was actually thinking about how in the Greek pantheon Dionysus is the only god not called a human god. He is called a eudamon. A non-gendered, non human attendant spirit rather than a theós for human god. I was wondering if a better term for Aphrodite would be a word with a similar resonance. Eudamon. Intermediary. Or the original malakh for angel meaning intermediary and messenger. Channeler of the divine. Please let me know what your thoughts are! This is a first draft and I am currently cogitating on how to address these semantics and terminologies going forward.
Thanks for your thoughts here. I really don't know the historical record on this the way you do, but something about Aphrodite still says "goddess" to me, and I don't have the historical background to assess whether this came later, as she was cut down into a more traditional woman, or whether she was understood as a goddess even in her more nonconforming presentation. I will say that I don't experience the images that you have presented as being "both" or "androgynous" so much as being a "woman with"--a woman with a penis, a woman with a beard. Her role with the Gala further suggests to me a particular relationship with the feminine rather than an all-purpose androgyny.
I will acknowledge that my thoughts and feelings here are of course influenced by my own experience. As a binary-identified trans man, he/him, I have been increasingly faced with the irritating experience of having people suddenly switch to they/them pronouns for me when they learn that I tried to get pregnant or that I like having a menstrual cycle. Experiencing my own body as a "man with" breasts, a vulva, etc, I'm sure affects my desire to read Aphrodite in a similar way. Likewise, I can see how nonbinary folks might want to see their experience reflected by reading Aphrodite as nonbinary.
Part of this has to do with a larger issue around understanding that gender identity is separate from biological sex, yet with physical representations such as statues, we of course ascribe gender identities based on the signifiers we see in the statues. (This used to be a huge issue for me during my early transition -- I kept asking myself, what does the trans Buddha look like? I wanted a deity that looked like my own body, but I knew that any such representation would be read as female.)
I'll leave this here for now. As I don't have your familiarity with the historical record on this, I feel a bit in the dark in terms of what the historical record supports in terms of how Aphrodite was positioned at the time in terms of being a goddess or thought of as a more androgynous deity, but I am very interested in hearing your thoughts on all of this. It does feel like, as you say, "goddess becomes a 'container' for gender nonconformity" and I feel like maybe there is more to unpack around this...
It means a lot that you offered your own personal experience, Finn. Thank you for widening the lens. Yes, I think its really tricky "reading" images for identity. We tend to make assumptions. Identity exists beyond the realm of the extrinsically legible and the static. It exists in the process. The moving, breathing deity themselves. I will say that the earliest statues that will ultimately lead to Aphrodite on Cypress are definitely not female or male. They are barely human. Which is fascinating. For reference, if you want, look up the The Lady of Lemba and the other picrolite figures with bird and phallus heads on Cypress. Fascinating if in no way definitive.
However, I'm really moved by your perspective. It feels crucial to understand that a female goddess can easily have a phallus. That a male god, like Dionysus, can have breasts and often does. As I continue to work with Aphrodite I'm going to lean into the mystery and ask more questions. And maybe that's all I'll get, more questions in return! As an ancient deity of mysteries, that may be the ultimate lesson.
Oh wow! The picrolite figures blow things wide open. Thank you for pointing me to this. Yes, always more mysteries, and as you say, perhaps these are the ultimate lesson. Loved getting to discuss all this with you!
Love this ride on these foamy liminal waves of more than human Eros and trans-formations!
Thank you Taran!! 🌀
I'm absolutely falling in love with your writing. I love the idea of myths as mushrooms, what a perfect analogy
Thank you. I too have been following these threads of Aphrodite as of late. I have been moving them through my body in dance and meeting the vastness of liminality there. It is such a gift, encouragement and orientation point to read and feel these threads woven with word as well. Thank you thank you thank you. 🧵
Thank you for sharing this dance with me!!
A true pleasure—a regulated nervous system and a sense of belonging to the infinite 🍯