#catullus 63

[doodleomi]

every time i read catullus' plea for cybele to leave him alone at the end of cat63 i just imagine him being plagued by godly visions telling him to Become A Gallus Right Now

[pessinos]

one thing i've been thinking abt recently is the portrayal of transmasculinised vs transfeminised characters in greek mythology. to be turned from a woman into a man is usually a solution to a problem whereas being turned from a man to a woman tends to be a punishment. think of caeneus, leucippus and iphis, who are spared from death and allowed to marry Because they become men....and i don't think that the ancient greeks Liked trans men in any way and the idea of these transmasc characters being women who only transition to gain male privilege is a transphobic argument in and of itself, but more than anything it shows how masculinity is seen as an ideal and femininity as a curse and the idea that reoccurs again and again is that theres no worse punishment than being a woman...like contrast the characters listed above with ones like attis, tiresias, siproites, pentheus, who are punished and humiliated in this very way...and texts like the bacchae and cat63 are often read as warnings about straying too far away from the ideals of masculinity. and often these characters arent Literally transformed into cis women but instead more metaphorically transformed so instead theyre seen as men forcing their way into womens spaces. which is certainly something.

and i'd always be cautious to read these characters as transfem because i dont believe theyre good or intentional transfem rep, but the texts will always be about transmisogyny even unintentionally, and the scholarship surrounding these characters is always mired in transmisogynistic assumptions surrounding what they Must Be Like, often taking it as a given that these characters are crazed, perverted, ridiculous, even when that isnt explicitly stated in the text and Never questioning why they think these characters must be explicitly so...like these texts are Always going to be about transmisogyny even if they dont have good opinions on it.

and lastly i think the most interesting thing about these texts that isnt rlly discussed is how in a lot of cases Being A Woman isnt always a wholly negative experience for these people...its considered that his time as a woman might have made tiresias a greater prophet, and of course he said that women experienced more pleasure in sex. so although in cat63 attis ends up alone and isolated and in the bacchae pentheus is torn apart by their own mother, for a moment theres a kind of happiness where attis has community and belonging and pentheus is pleased to look like agave, and certainly theres a very potent message there.

[girlattis]

all of those people praying to the gods to get their gender transed are weak shit. i'm just going to do it myself, no strong wine no knife no gods just a sharp stone and a high pain tolerance. and ☝️a tympanum

[transfempentheus]

when you climb mountains to partake in religious rituals, it makes you a woman. studies have shown this. studies have shown this. when you're out kidnapping priests or shouting at messengers, out at the racecourse or the palaestra with people decking your house with flowery garlands, you are around other guys. you're not around ecstatic female worshippers and gods of transformation that give you estrogen

[thethebaid]

just learnt about this myth???

[actaeonshounds]

yet again i actually prefer the lineart to the finished piece

[enlitment]

First date tip: It's never a bad idea to use poetry to set the mood!

That's why you should immediately pull out your copy of Catullus, start reading Attis, and try to gauge your date's reaction.

[tisiphonon]

tshirt that reads “I am normal and can be trusted around catullus 63”