Iphis (daughter of Ligdus)
In Greek mythology, Iphis was the daughter of Ligdus and his wife Telethusa from Crete .
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Ligdus had announced to his pregnant wife Telethusa that he would kill the newborn after it was born if it became a daughter:
- “ My wish is twofold: that you suffer little of pain
and that you bring me a boy. The other sex is a burden "
The Egyptian goddess Isis appears to the desperate Telethusa at night , accompanied by Anubis and Apis , who promise her help. When Telethusa gives birth to a daughter, the goddess advises her to devoutly deceive : to pass the newborn baby off for a boy and to keep this from the father, the latter
- “ Names the child after the ancestor,
he was called Iphis. The mother's name was dear,
because in case of doubt he left it and did not fool anyone with this ",
because the name Iphis applies to both sexes in ancient times.
Telethusa raises and dresses Iphis as a boy in the following years. Now the father Iphis is engaged to the girl Ianthe , but: the virgin burns for the virgin , and the lovers are in great despair. The wedding is approaching. Since dreams and signs not help Telethusa brings the Iphis into the temple of Isis, imploring mercy and help. Isis is a sign, and the departure follows the Iphis mother:
- “ But with a bigger step than usual; Also the white
does not stay in the face, and the strength increases, and the expressions get a
sharper look and a shorter measure of the unbound hair.
Courage, too, as it was not in women, is urgent now. "
Hymenaios and Venus and Juno and appear at the wedding feast
- " Iphis as a man unites with his Ianthe ".
The Roman poet Ovid describes the story of a gender reassignment in his “ metamorphosis stories ” from ancient legends, the metamorphoses (Publius Ovidius Naso, Metamorphoseon libri 9, 666–797).
Others
In the 17th century the publisher Humphrey Moseley declared to be in possession of a manuscript by William Shakespeare , in which the story of Iphis is described.
swell
- The quotations are from: Metamorphoses, Latin and German from Gottwein [1]
- Metamorphoses, near Gutenberg [2]
literature
- Ali Smith : Girl Meets Boy (= The Myths. 7). Canongate, Edinburgh et al. 2007, ISBN 978-1-84195-869-9 (In German: Girl Meets Boy. The Myth of Iphis. From English by Silvia Morawetz . Berlin-Verlag, Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-8270 -0764-3 ).