“Orpheus' tendency toward the effeminate - he is Jason's helpmeet; he is overly uxorious - points to the ways that the image of Orpheus in antiquity revealed the illusion of masculine mastery and self-mastery. Retellings of Orpheus' story depict a counterproductive masculinity that is striking for its failure to generate. Orpheus' mediations were tied to sexual structures, which allowed for discussion around the social implications of object choice. Plato, for instance, denounced Orpheus as an effeminate musician in the Symposium and a misogynist (for his rejection of women) in the Republic. According to Phanocles, Orpheus loved the young Argonaut Calais. This is not in itself problematic, since Orpheus is rendered as the active participant, but given Orpheus' pacific presence, his attentions do not sit entirely comfortably with Greek presumptions about sexual roles. Orpheus' pederasty sometimes dropped from sight: stories, including Euripides' Alcestis, refer to Orpheus as successfully retrieving his wife from death.”
- The Sexual Culture of the French Renaissance, by Katherine Crawford (2010). Cambridge University Press. p. 28.
I love that we have scholarship that boils down to: Orpheus was a bisexual twink top. Here is the Calais fragment for the curious (me)
“Or how Thracian Orpheus, the son of Oeagrus, loved Calaïs, the son of Boreas, with all his heart and often he would sit in the shady groves singing his heart’s desire; nor was his spirit at peace, but always his soul was consumed with sleepless cares as he gazed on fresh Calaïs.” link
