{"id":1609,"date":"2025-06-05T16:44:39","date_gmt":"2025-06-05T16:44:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sbedwards.co\/staging\/9372\/?p=1609"},"modified":"2025-12-04T17:41:00","modified_gmt":"2025-12-04T17:41:00","slug":"the-myth-of-siproites","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sbedwards.co\/staging\/9372\/the-myth-of-siproites\/","title":{"rendered":"The Myth of Siproites"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"The Myth of Siproites | Ancient Transgender History and Mythology\" width=\"1290\" height=\"726\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/anmjvOwLPIo?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-91433bb1a0096a2c5854ce4af2dec711\"><strong>How do we know stuff?&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-37f8881464ee469768888a89d01821f5\">It might seem like a simple question on the surface, but there\u2019s an entire field of philosophy, called epistemology, dedicated to exploring the topic.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-03c25ea21629d8ce95175cee410c1ff2\">There\u2019s a particular tool I want to take a look at today that will help us understand today\u2019s topic.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-e297d53244f9a5ef7e36200baf320f04\">It\u2019s unfortunately been associated with noted war criminal, \u201cenhanced interrogation techniques\u201d supporter, and nutritious worm food Donald Rumsfeld. He didn\u2019t invent it, but it\u2019s come to be known as the Rumsfeld Matrix (Krogerus and Tschappeler, 87-88). I guess you can separate the art from the artist when they\u2019re dead, huh?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-94f99e04de7861558a1123caefc8d62a\">Anyway, it looks at some different types of knowledge.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-ddfacd092002e1b8cb015a3340426c9b\">The first is what we know we know. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-2f7af0a364cd9a2e9b1893f39d68db7f\">My name is Sophie. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-72b665194adbdef305d75d1ad0437826\">I\u2019m recording a video in my studio. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-8ab0f4c6158949179b999c7dc56f391c\">I\u2019m holding translations of both the Iliad and the Odyssey in my hand. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-884cee6129747951b0f64c5960f4e84b\">I know these things, and I\u2019m also aware of my knowledge of them.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-dafd7bb4f04743acb5cf335d2c469a59\">We also know the Iliad and Odyssey were just a small part of the epic cycle of the Trojan War. We know there were several other epic poems that went along with it, taking place both before and after the Iliad.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-236ee0fdd8198ba1b73dc602d9427363\">First, the Cypria \u2013 the Judgment of Paris, which sparked the Trojan War, and the first nine years of the war.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-dd2bc46cdd922e71ef2b3bd2011553e7\">Then the Iliad, which we all know and love.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-bd93850d1ad0c0c80a0646bfa7cebda4\">After comes the Aethiopis, where Amazon and Ethiopian forces join the Trojan side of the war, and Akhilles himself dies. (SPOILER ALERT)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-0cde7d3cfc8b6014236334375e55d3f8\">There was the Little Iliad, which told the story of what happened after the death of Akhilles, including the construction of the Trojan Horse.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-855ae9e5db7dc86bce7764d07c3ea72b\">Then, the Iliupersis \u2013 the actual destruction of Troy by the Greeks.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-d74e037a8546bf77b587bca1f3591442\">There was the Nostoi, telling the tale of the Greek generals (except Odysseus) returning home.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-2dbe847f7ef50789daa6450e2d254c88\">Then the Odyssey, and finally, the Telegony, a final voyage of Odysseus to Thesprotia, return to Ithaka, and death at the hands of the son he didn\u2019t know he had, Telegonus.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-28df892069bb2ad9de77498b31705990\">We know these poems existed. They\u2019re referenced throughout classical literature, enough that we know the basic plot points. In the Hypsikrates video, we referenced two different poems called Posthomerica, one by Quintus Smyrnaeus, the other by John Tzetzes. They both cover the events of most of the above poems, after the Iliad but before the Odyssey.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-d70fe10248ef55f7017fd022db8bbfe0\"><strong>RELATED: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/sbedwards.co\/staging\/9372\/hypsikrates-the-transgender-spouse-of-mithradates\/\">Hypsikrates, the Transgender Spouse of the Poison King Mithradates<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-8b2855ae8f33b73929468a87b1cf87b5\">These are things we know that we know.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-4e95c33d4d79a48213670fa8cf16a7e7\">Then, there are things we don\u2019t know that we don\u2019t know. It\u2019s knowledge that exists, in theory, but not only do we not know it, we aren\u2019t aware of its possibility as knowledge in the first place.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-45ad036d476f4304dc5995ee562973a4\">It\u2019s hard to think of an ancient example of this, so let\u2019s consider the principles of nuclear fission. You know, the process of splitting an atom into two or more smaller pieces, creating an enormous amount of clean, sustainable energy? It wasn\u2019t until 1938 that humans figured out how to do it (Planck Institute).&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-677248de52428e8ae7d8ef7721505baa\">A hundred years before then, not only did we not know nuclear fission existed, we didn\u2019t even know we didn\u2019t know. But it was always possible. They can even occur naturally, as is the case with Oklo, in modern day Gabon, west Africa, about 1.7 billion years ago. Did you know about that? A naturally occurring nuclear reactor \u2013 absolutely wild stuff (Meshik)!&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-5ea8d0016e51d2afec65fa1e9954410d\">But even if nuclear fission had existed in the prehistoric past, it just wasn\u2019t something that had occurred to us to do yet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-989c94c59d2d3bd81b0d418911a62d8b\">Finally, there\u2019s what we know we don\u2019t know.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-739353f04e146b21e4ca10663dfa8a60\">Let\u2019s come back to those lost epic poems we talked about a moment ago. We have thirty surviving lines of the Little Iliad, for example, and we know the basics of what happened, but other than that, we don\u2019t know any of the words used in that poem. They were there, once upon a time. Perhaps we\u2019ll rediscover a manuscript of them some day. But currently, we don\u2019t know.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-d41f08cfc7fc9902c44549b72e1c292d\">But we at least know that we don\u2019t know.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-b5a68ee4375c4db5d914c19ddb055de6\">The field of classical studies spends quite a bit of time in this area. There\u2019s so much we know that we don\u2019t know. And that can apply to transgender history, and mythology, as well.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-6f3ca3809ab8da48746c46316c8ee81b\">In case this is your first time joining us, welcome. I\u2019m <a href=\"https:\/\/sbedwards.co\/staging\/9372\/\">Sophie Edwards<\/a>, and this is We Have Always Existed. It\u2019s a series where we look at the wealth of transgender history from the ancient Mediterranean.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-ca2f6342d9f96e6ffc4befe0f33e98e8\">Today, we\u2019ll be living in the known unknowns, as we take a look at the story of Siproites.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-6989e4b211834be9b26b88d2acadd768\">If you\u2019ve not heard of this one, you\u2019re not alone. It only survives in a single literary reference in an obscure ancient text called the Metamorphoses.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-8e4df723a896b4938bf4dd4afcc536fd\">(Hold up Ovid\u2019s Metamorphoses)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-475dfcb4b9a5acd15cc3a588a9c1c522\">No, not <em>that<\/em> Metamorphoses. We\u2019ve talked about Ovid a lot on this channel, and yeah we\u2019re going to talk about him more today. I guarantee we\u2019ll talk about him more in a future video.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-4f939a57a07732b80e8a7630302cf191\">But <em>this<\/em> Metamorphoses is by Antoninus Liberalis.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-0e9f309a8d679ca094be5403b00981cd\">We\u2019ll start by exploring what we know about this author and his work. From there, we\u2019ll take a look at the tantalizingly tiny bit of information we know about Siproites, and what we could possibly draw from it.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-5699d3c8bd7577cd2cd4397135ab77d9\">As always, your support on Patreon makes a big difference in helping support this channel. This book was ninety bucks with shipping, and it\u2019s not the only expensive and obscure book I\u2019ve had to track down in the process of making these videos.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-6e19fcfbb96b1aec24ecce519a2f6b3a\">So when I say your Patreon support helps this become more than a very expensive hobby, I\u2019m not kidding. It *is* expensive to do this stuff, and I\u2019m grateful for your support.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-buttons is-content-justification-center is-layout-flex wp-container-core-buttons-is-layout-a89b3969 wp-block-buttons-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-button\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link wp-element-button\" href=\"\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Support The Channel On Patreon<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-6c2c585b7459413a497f66449e5653db\">You can also support the channel by offering your likes, comments, and subscribes, or by purchasing a copy of my book, The Bottom Line, which is <em>not <\/em>ninety bucks, I promise.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-b0661891dc369e09e1ecf5ddd0d13511\">Trans people deserve to know, and own, our own histories. That\u2019s why this channel exists. If you think these stories are worth spreading, your likes, comments, and subscribes go a long way.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-0d38f9f4a99f292a3d2e33b3d49a6111\">Do it, you coward.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-58d5cae637ebc34a9ee7b9f0e803c277\">What are you waiting for? Christmas?&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-045aa567ee59e84073d707a072308f34\">Let\u2019s go already!&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<nav class=\"wp-block-stackable-table-of-contents stk-block-table-of-contents stk-block stk-27f1876 stk-block-background\" data-block-id=\"27f1876\"><style>.stk-27f1876 {background-color:var(--theme-palette-color-5, #384b56) !important;}.stk-27f1876:before{background-color:var(--theme-palette-color-5, #384b56) !important;}<\/style><p class=\"stk-table-of-contents__title\">Table of Contents<\/p><ul class=\"stk-table-of-contents__table\"><li><a href=\"#chapter-i-antoninus-liberalis\">Chapter I: Antoninus Liberalis<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"#chapter-ii-metamorphoseses\">Chapter II: Metamorphoseses<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"#chapter-iii-metamorphoses-book-xvii\">Chapter III: Metamorphoses, Book XVII<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"#chapter-iv-angry-goddesses-messing-with-men\">Chapter IV: Angry Goddesses Messing With Men<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"#chapter-v-cretan-mythology\">Chapter V: Cretan Mythology<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"#chapter-vi-really-is-that-it\">Chapter VI: Really? Is That It?<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"#primary-sources\">Primary Sources:<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"#secondary-sources\">Secondary Sources:\u00a0<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-align-center\" id=\"chapter-i-antoninus-liberalis\"><strong>Chapter I: Antoninus Liberalis<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-d44f4c9e5dd36ce754da567896fec5d3\">When we look at an ancient source on this channel, I like to start by talking about the writer themselves. It\u2019s nice to remember that while it\u2019s only their writings that survive today, they were real, living, breathing human beings with lives as rich as our own.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-77c242e3e050b89e54581c5c1ad5edfc\">So here\u2019s what we know about Antoninus Liberalis.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-cc2caad45a70779d10c7082d90a38459\">He wrote in Greek, but he had a Latin name.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-af997b8bb81eceb612036845b94d5f02\">That\u2019s it.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-dda2460228926df43a7293dce58a7d97\">There are a few things we can guess about him, though.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-73e889a33750c551649ae002f7362f59\">His first name, Antoninus, was more popular after the emperor Antoninus Pius, who ruled from 138 to 161 CE.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-6ab15d9e14925e6cc2d4f9268c06040e\">Most emperors have absolute trainwrecks of names, so we shorten them to make it easier to remember. It\u2019s a lot easier to talk about Antoninus Pius than it is Imperator Caesar Titus Aelius Hadrianus Antoninus Augustus Pius.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-534ee38663444b51a709ef7b096603e5\">Some of them had the same name too. For example, both Marcus Aurelius and Caracalla were named Imperator Caesar Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Augustus, and Imperator Caesar Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Augustus I and Imperator Caesar Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Augustus II is just a little inconvenient of a naming convention.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-a4344f0b94c5939381ec090c1652def1\">But yeah, you see how the name Antoninus became popular. Commodus also had Antoninus in his name, and so did Diadumenianus and Elagabalus. After that, it seemed to fall out of vogue \u2013 no emperor after Elagabalus had the name Antoninus. But that wasn\u2019t because Elagabalus sullied that name or anything \u2013 they had the names Marcus and Aurelius as well, and tons of later emperors took those names.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-9ad4dbcecc8c943a558029e792997f1e\">So the name Antoninus seemed to be the most popular between the reigns of Antoninus Pius and Elagabalus, or 138 to 222 CE.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-73806dd4aabf0009203c06d381be5d2f\"><strong>RELATED:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/sbedwards.co\/staging\/9372\/transgender-roman-emperor-elagabalus\/\">Elagabalus, the Transgender Roman Emperor (maybe)<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-8d15a6eca7a67a668f1168004f130809\">As well, his last name, Liberalis, means \u201cbefitting a <em>libertus<\/em>\u201d \u2013 <em>libertus<\/em> (the feminine form is <em>liberta<\/em>) was a social class in Roman society that meant a person who used to be a slave, but gained their freedom through legal means. You might see them referred to as \u201cfreedmen\u201d in other sources. They were, in some cases, granted the same freedoms as a Roman citizen. In others, they were given Latin rights, which is like a step below citizenship (Smith, 705-706).&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-66aca7c4a377a9da322cde99b21b7202\">Based on all that, we suspect that Antoninus Liberalis lived some time after the reign of Antoninus Pius, he was a former slave who earned his freedom, and he was born somewhere where they spoke Greek predominantly. But there\u2019s currently no way to confirm any of it (Celoria, 2).&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-404cf70d06bd174627808c507332ee72\">The fact that he could write might give us some hints about his life too. Literacy was by no means a given in the ancient world. It might have been more widespread than we think, however, considering how much graffiti we\u2019ve found in Pompeii and Herculaneum (Harvey, Benefiel).&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-e48b42e1946f30837ea57053d0596a8d\">Do you know about that? Maybe you don\u2019t, but you should.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-e91fe68dc859aebc907214c096ce5bf0\">I love this stuff, it\u2019s one of the most fascinating things in the world to me. In the video on eunuchs, I waxed poetic about how beautiful Pompeii and Herculaneum are, and the graffiti is a big part of that.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-931d804d6a8982e66daf16c30bcef094\"><strong>RELATED:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/sbedwards.co\/staging\/9372\/eunuchs-in-the-roman-world-everything-you-ever-wanted-to-know\/\">Eunuchs in the Roman World: Everything You Ever Wanted to Know<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-9c6030dad9b253b1dd4ead1c1fb8fa62\">We often have the impression that Roman civilization was this enlightened, erudite time of philosophers and high art. And it was, just as today is. But trans people aren\u2019t the only people who\u2019ve always existed.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-d0c83ee536481a997e7a976b9b1bf5ca\">Men who love men have always existed. On the side of the house of Orpheus, we found:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-a78771a953a0ba4674363a0d560ab12b\">\u201cI have sodomized men\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-ea167f38cac4ddfb3b67070dea066ed2\">And on the side of a bar:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-50221ec7f802ff9d6ed6c1411f2b43cd\">&#8220;Weep, you girls. My penis has given you up. Now it penetrates men&#8217;s behinds. Goodbye, wondrous femininity!&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-e604dbc0f95e093f0a31a8a4a860721c\">Best friends have always existed. We found the following written on the side of a bar:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-660a665572e039a8f90be604c9b3f28e\">&#8220;We two dear men, friends forever, were here. If you want to know our names, they are Gaius and Aulus.&#8221;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-169d458e8ba4d44d072fe564ac8f16d6\">I love it, so cute.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-d6137d4a6857b0c37cfdbdc47f70bd48\">Best friends who hire hookers have always existed too:&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-2befb7768b102b6d5f687559c4c45195\">\u201cTwo friends were here, and they had a servant named Epaphroditus who was terrible at everything for the whole time, so they finally kicked him out. Then they spent 105 1\/2 sestertii most delightfully when they had sex.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-aee0d8af0a41eef3b43d5be9159e1071\">Shitposters have always existed.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-26fb6af650155910028637d07fbef003\">We found \u201cSecundus took a shit here\u201d written three times on the same bathroom wall. Absolute champ.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-9483f206032dcedd563a73c938aebf16\">And in the basilica, \u201cthe one who sodomizes a fire burns his penis\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-d163e2cce8fa080acb3f176bb2f97959\">And apparently my girlfriend is a lot older than she says, because on the side of the House of Pinarius we found:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-1e4ffffd933ef4cf0005d2a81546f145\">\u201cIf anyone does not believe in Venus, they should gaze at my girlfriend\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-837fae87e7e32b3bf285894b15c0e033\">Gosh I love her&#8230;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-31c3c77f2c3587bc79e7fde51004f3bb\">Anyway, literacy tended to be higher in cities, which is why we\u2019ve got so much stuff like this. But most people didn\u2019t live in cities, so they couldn\u2019t read or write \u2013 they didn\u2019t need to. Scholar William Harris estimates in his book \u201cAncient Literacy\u201d that during the early Roman Empire, likely less than 10% of people were literate.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-c03223b83478250c70fd2a99d3096ac0\">So Antoninus Liberalis may have grown up in a city and had more of a privileged upbringing, having been given the opportunity to learn to read and write, and was enslaved later on. It\u2019s also possible he demonstrated an aptitude for literacy while he was enslaved, and had some sort of role as a slave that involved it. Maybe he was a teacher \u2013 it wasn\u2019t unheard of for teachers to be slaves.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-d5fd87dec5c33eb0d9f8b987de4adba3\">But the truth is, all we really know about Antoninus Liberalis is he wrote in Greek, but had a Latin name.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-align-center\" id=\"chapter-ii-metamorphoseses\"><strong>Chapter II: Metamorphoseses<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-ca30fdd6599d897e17f494e5ddea7265\">Earlier, we talked about Ovid\u2019s Metamorphoses. It\u2019s certainly the most famous work with that title. No, Kafka\u2019s doesn\u2019t count because it\u2019s Metamorphosis \u2013 singular. Metamorphoses is plural. It\u2019s a different word, it\u2019s not the same thing.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-592b73a89e5e76ca831f641ea1395c97\">Clearly, Antoninus Liberalis wrote a Metamorphoses as well. So did Apuleius \u2013 ever read The Golden Ass? Originally it was called Metamorphoses too. It\u2019s also full of transformation stories \u2013 mostly people turning into animals, or living people turning into dead people. No gender transformations though, but there are a group of gallae who show up in book 8.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-8cf136163fe90115870391c240422d05\">There are plenty of other magical transformation stories from the ancient world as well. But Ovid\u2019s and Antoninus\u2019 are the most interesting for us today.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-c30fb9f2d6ba0347b25465800096057a\">Both Ovid and Antoninus were heavily influenced by a work by the 2<sup>nd<\/sup> century BCE Greek writer Nicander of Colophon. It was called the Heteroeumena, which is Greek for, you guessed it, Metamorphoses, because of course it is. This work is mostly lost, but we have a few fragments.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-0701db1e5103d0980caf412445b885e3\">Antoninus\u2019 and Ovid\u2019s Metamorphoses have some overlaps, but not entirely. Antoninus doesn\u2019t talk about Hermaphroditus, for example, and Ovid doesn\u2019t talk about Siproites. So either Nicander\u2019s work wasn\u2019t the only source for ancient transformation stories, or Ovid and Antoninus just decided they didn\u2019t like some of Nicander\u2019s stories and left them out. It\u2019s probably the former.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-f177fb1515dadd6308e446fe9bd4e58a\">In fact, there\u2019s another source Antoninus probably drew on quite heavily \u2013 Boios. His book is also lost \u2013 we don\u2019t even have any fragments \u2013 but it seemed to be a catalogue of the various transformations of people into birds in mythology, and thank the muses it\u2019s not called Metamorphoses. It\u2019s called <em>Ornithogonia<\/em> (Forbes, 33). A fair number of Antoninus\u2019 transformations are about birds too, so it makes sense that he\u2019d have drawn on this one.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-0374104a4ec220939adae76c28899d53\">Anyway, Antoninus and Ovid are the two most significant sources of ancient transformation stories that survive today.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-0237b192253e97903fd3001a02d660b2\">But Ovid\u2019s work is creative, fun, and innovative. Different threads are woven together to connect different myths. The myth of Hermaphroditus, for example, is told along with several others, in the context of the two daughters of Minyas weaving in honour of Athena while the rest of the city of Thebes is celebrating Dionysus. The two sisters then tell each other stories \u2013 Pyramus and Thisbe, the affair of Venus and Mars, Salmacis and Hermaphroditus, and others. It\u2019s part of a broader, creative narrative.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-53374417a196c86e3be00395a494a6f6\">On the other hand, Antoninus\u2019 stories are brief and lifeless. It\u2019s more of a summary of previous work than it is a unique take on it. Here\u2019s what happened in this story. Here\u2019s what happened in that story. Here\u2019s what happened in the other story. Etc. etc.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-630956a075d03635743ad9dfb1433eb5\">That\u2019s a real drag, because it leaves us with these wonderfully tantalizing little bits of mythology that don\u2019t appear anywhere else, but there\u2019s so little to go on as a result.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-ac43570e438e6b4694bbd7b7105aa852\">The section involving Siproites is pretty short, so I\u2019ll read the whole thing here, in translation of course, by Francis Celoria. Then, we\u2019ll explore what little we could possibly glean from what we do know. It\u2019s not the only transy bit in this text, so clearly, I\u2019ve gotta make some more videos about this at some point. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-a9c2e895a9e3fb19776aa1f637ac66bc\">Sometimes I wish there were three of me&#8230;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-buttons is-content-justification-center is-layout-flex wp-container-core-buttons-is-layout-a89b3969 wp-block-buttons-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-button\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link wp-element-button\" href=\"\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Support The Channel On Patreon<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-align-center\" id=\"chapter-iii-metamorphoses-book-xvii\"><strong>Chapter III: Metamorphoses, Book XVII<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-81ef60f11e1d19a9a7ca140304cd4388\">Galatea, daughter of Eurytius, who was son of Sparton, married at Phaestus in Crete Pandion\u2019s sun, Lamprus, a man of good family but without means.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-177a4a35dc6f4114b3495a9d52581892\">When Galatea became pregnant, Lamprus prayed to have a son and said plainly to his wife that she was to expose her child if it was a daughter. When Lamprus had gone off to tend his flocks, Galatea gave birth to a daughter.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-d2acc94f6d0c9179ad47b754b237b8cc\">Feeling pity for her babe, she counted on the remoteness of their house and &#8211; backed by dreams and seers telling her to bring up the girl as a boy &#8211; deceived Lamprus by saying she had given birth to a son and brought the child up as a boy, giving it the name Leucippus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-e171deb00f83f0a6fc1e268ba8bf4106\">As the girl grew up, she became unutterably beautiful. Because it was no longer possible to hide this, Galatea, fearing Lamprus, fled to the Temple of Leto and made many a prayer to her that the child might become a boy instead of a girl, just as had happened to Caenis, daughter of Atrax, who by the will of Poseidon became Caeneus the Lapith.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-604e4fc71ea89c560160f081e3acadbf\">So also Teiresias changed from man to woman because he had encountered and killed 2 snakes that had been mating at a crossroads. He changed again from woman back to man by killing another serpent. Hypermestra had frequently sold her body in the form of a woman for a fee, becoming a man to bring food to her father, Aethon. The Cretan Siproites had also been turned into a woman for having seen Artemis bathing when out hunting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-e61b764bd9d04041a982c5a3b77068ac\">Leto took pity on Galatea because of her unremitting and distressed prayers and changed the sex of the child into a boy\u2019s. In memory of this change, the citizens of Phaestus still sacrifice to Leto the Grafter because she had grafted organs onto the girl, and they gave her festival in the name of Ecdysia (stripping), because the girl had stripped off her maidenly peplus. It is now an observance in marriages to lie down beforehand beside the statute of Leucippus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-align-center\" id=\"chapter-iv-angry-goddesses-messing-with-men\"><strong>Chapter IV: Angry Goddesses Messing With Men<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-565309aa479a21d1444281d2650ac567\">I was really hoping to make this a shorter video&#8230;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-515b3fbf0eb47817e742d251fda7e638\">*sigh*<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-0557a0cfc3cfbf943f07d74e6760f7b4\">No, it\u2019s going to be a shorter video! We\u2019re manifesting the video of our dreams! Not everything has to be dozens of pages long.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-4f9e82bf6a83ce038e9e5abc23678765\">There are tons of gender transformations there.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-6b246700efabe3d1561671d4944f3309\">Who\u2019ve we got? Caeneus, Leucippus, Teiresias, Hypermestra, and of course Siproites.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-fa90bc94f20366ed79550f817a53b1e9\">Each of these deserves their own video. We\u2019ll get to them another time, I hope.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-9087b2bcfe6d3a80f6429b3bddbbc0d5\">I know this is the second time I\u2019ve said that about Teiresias, but yeah, one of these days we\u2019ll get to their myths.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-2e0c6db6411ed7443667e494f8649040\">You want me to get to it faster?&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-e3bb3357c040126ddf603246f3907264\">PATREON, this ain\u2019t my full-time job. I wish it were. Manifest some more cash in my pocket, and then we\u2019ll talk.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-885e95575d0c574f9478133376e0c1ec\"><strong>RELATED: <a href=\"\/transgender-wisdom-the-myths-of-teiresias\/\">Transgender Wisdom: The Myths of Teiresias<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-e66e7e1a3e9539b3594e630c478e1253\">But okay, Siproites.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-14c2dc1ba534990ee60382c95930c9bc\">\u201cThe Cretan, Siproites, had also been turned into a woman for having seen Artemis bathing when out hunting.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-a81cea8f027f39a70d9884194868d80c\">That\u2019s all we\u2019ve got.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-6a536f45a8b05a2054203f578356bbad\">And yeah, is that ever spicy.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-a817e46e0f6302068bdfe1aab1da309e\">Where can we go with this?&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-797bf279865058e49f30e9d8f4576beb\">Actually, there are a few different threads we can pull on there. We\u2019ve got the transformation, the fact that it was Artemis who did it, and the fact that Siproites was a Cretan.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-e104fd98fd92b833062d8a972017f529\">First of all, the circumstances of Siproites\u2019 transformation aren\u2019t terribly uncommon. Goddesses get mad when men see them bathing in the forest pretty often.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-3aacaea4da1d02a9cd9cc4288240072d\">Actaeon is a great example of this. His story shows up in quite a few sources, and as usual each telling says something different. But the way Ovid tells it, Actaeon was out hunting, and accidentally saw Artemis bathing. As a result, she changed him into a stag, and poor Actaeon was devoured by his own dogs (Ov. Met. III.CXXXVIII-CCL).&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-db1800a5016e2b0448a57e5e0eaef7c9\">Why did Artemis not do the same with Siproites? We don\u2019t know.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-9bd939c07df3f371a96acf7a242ed22f\">One version of Teiresias\u2019 myth, from Callimachus\u2019 Hymns, is basically the same premise. But instead of Artemis, it\u2019s Athena he sees, and instead of being turned into a stag, he\u2019s blinded (Callim. Hymn V.LVII-CXXX).&nbsp;We talked about Teiresias in the <a href=\"https:\/\/sbedwards.co\/staging\/9372\/uncovering-ancient-transgender-stories-in-lucians-dialogues-of-the-courtesans\/\">video on Lucian and Megillus<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-62849f3e0058e5a0f843474e4bd1c29d\">Pseudo-Plutarch talks about another similar myth in <em>De Fluviis<\/em>, a work that explores the mythology, geography, and biology of 25 different rivers. In Book 22, on the Achelous River in Epirus, we learn about Calydon, the son of Mars and Astynome. He accidentally saw Artemis bathing in the river, so she transformed him into a rock. As a result, they changed the name of the nearby mountain to Calydon as well (De Fluviis, XXII).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-904b068f4875bf13ce46317f4cf490b0\">So if you ever see the most beautiful woman you\u2019ve ever seen in a river bathing, avert your eyes because it\u2019s probably my girlfriend, give her some privacy you perv!&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-b98e7821f377f56f95e3eed522d9e0a4\">Gosh I love her&#8230;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-4ac67c560f32dc8c42dc3efe38d02d53\">And if it\u2019s not her, you should probably still avert your eyes because it seems like your options are:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li class=\"has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-95915c9564f944a9baf210689b7af1ac\">Be blinded<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li class=\"has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-0d174862133755d54d118673d2672ee6\">Be turned into a stag<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li class=\"has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-360ea2259ceb2eb23ecbbd814242e48f\">Be turned into a rock<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li class=\"has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-6a63a47cd667e4746717c78fbc34c200\">Be turned into a woman<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-2c6c519a7395c4801cbf1cb8b8584880\">And if that last one sounds appealing to you, I get it, it was more appealing to me too, but there are far less risky ways to make that happen.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-align-center\" id=\"chapter-v-cretan-mythology\"><strong>Chapter V: Cretan Mythology<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-1a9321ea892bae4c025b7f768f774677\">Okay, what else do we know?&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-7c6977e0a0273a392a44fbb72deb8fbd\">Siproites was from Crete, and that\u2019s pretty notable.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-70957caed1d972c04414774f847c806b\">If you\u2019ve not heard of Crete before, hoo boy. It\u2019s a lot of fun.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-5d63288cc3a0f643413279afb337812e\">Crete is an island in the Aegean Sea. It\u2019s the fifth largest \u2013 Sicily, Sardinia, Cyprus, and Corsica are larger. And it was also the home of the Minoan civilization, which is arguably the first actual civilization in Europe. They began somewhere around 3100 BCE (Tomkins &amp; Schoep, 66), and stuck around, with various highs and lows, until the Bronze Age collapse around 1075 BCE (Hallager, 149). In particular, they\u2019re known for their large, elaborate, completely awesome palaces. Knossos is the most famous, but it\u2019s not the only one.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-aa6908e8e80761561b16f0fa8b7ca310\">There\u2019s so much to say about the Minoan civilization that I\u2019m sure you could create an entire channel around them.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-83733a52d440f3d94c6675ff5a56e330\">They Minoans left behind tons of fantastic art and architecture, and a lot of writing too. Hundreds of tablets, in fact.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-06e45b9297fd181d6fdd1d5040b00f27\">Is there anything in there that could help us understand Siproites?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-0cf910409d17abf68dad0027043ad320\">From what we can tell, the Minoans had three different written languages. Minoan hieroglyphics, Linear A, and Linear B.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-446cc70301c51b674cd5ff1c70393ce6\">As far as Minoan hieroglyphics go, we can\u2019t do much in terms of translating them. There are too few pieces surviving to give us much to go on.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-5cdef498f0552c34c617c7fc8b04cce4\">We have quite a bit more Linear A tablets, but thus far scholars have been unable to translate them either (Chadwick, 12-13).&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-e57e0ca87bd7a4c426ed8c9db23ff295\">So, what\u2019s on Linear A? Could we be sitting on a treasure trove of preserved epic tales, each tablet its own Iliad, just waiting to be deciphered?&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-111877db5a8a28642a40949286f23527\">Probably not.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-a7de3eea6e8401cdc2e56816daf444e5\">See, we <em>have<\/em> been able to translate its successor language, Linear B. And its contents are mostly palace records. Tallies of grain, wool, sheep. That sort of thing. Pretty boring stuff (Chadwick, 151-4).&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-c37d8ec15b93e0cc1ee589003f89f9e7\">But either way, it\u2019s unlikely the Classical era Greeks or the Romans could read it any better than we can.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-e42050bb24670cb1d1c9dfe50c981f39\">Scholar EJ Forsdyke mentions an anecdote in Plutarch, where King Agesilaos II of Sparta finds a grave in Boeotia where a bronze tablet is buried. He didn\u2019t know how to decipher it, but thought it looked a bit like Egyptian hieroglyphs, so he sent a copy of it to Egypt to see if they knew what it said (Forsdyke, 41-42).&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-ca3c0397f1c7b2baf1633019ed172313\">And I mean, if you squint, and tilt your head, and drink a couple fingers of scotch, Minoan scripts do kind of look like Egyptian hieroglyphics, in I guess the same way that this (Cancer) looks like a crab, or this (Cygnus) looks like a swan, or this (Cassiopeia) looks like a queen on a throne? These never made any sense to me. Hercules and Orion, okay, I can see that. But how is this (Aries) a ram??? Anyway, consider the frame of reference of a Spartan king from the 4<sup>th<\/sup> century BCE. Egyptian hieroglyphics would have been the closest thing he\u2019d know to this. This anecdote is probably referring to Linear B considering where it was discovered, but they probably couldn\u2019t read Linear A or the Minoan hieroglyphics either.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-92fab4844991e9d789fa7a64e05406d7\">Besides, the Minoans stopped using Linear B around 1450 BCE from what we can tell (Chadwick, 12-13), and the other two earlier than that. For reference, it would be around a thousand years before Plato, Herodotus, and the Classical Greek writers showed up. Linear A would make about as much sense to them as Beowulf does to the average person today.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-91247934df1a550afbd961e2975dbbed\">Alright, so whatever secrets remain sealed behind Minoan Hieroglyphics and Linear A likely won\u2019t help us understand Siproites, but that\u2019s not all we\u2019ve got.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-5e2b042d8a5d62dbd61cf1aeaa21c126\">In fact, there\u2019s plenty of Classical mythology centred on Crete.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-d81661d6653d38a7f2d244fc62e7b7ae\">Obviously, there\u2019s a lot to do with bulls. We see bull motifs all over the place in Cretan art \u2013 we even know they played some sort of bull jumping game, though we don\u2019t know the details. That\u2019s clearly where the story of King Minos and the Minotaur comes from. The labyrinth part, we think, comes from just how bloody big and complex the Cretan palaces were. If you didn\u2019t know any better, you might think they were a maze, especially if you stumbled upon them centuries after they were abandoned.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-894320c0994dd45382994ac619eeb14e\">But Antoninus Liberalis doesn\u2019t say anything about a bull or a palace, so that doesn\u2019t help much one way or another.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-aac49dc296493dcd77590b0cf41f841a\">Back in the video on the gallae, we talked about Zeus being hidden away after he was born. Hungry Kronos was told his son would overthrow him as ruler of the universe, so every time his wife Kybele gave birth to a new child, Kronos would devour them. That\u2019s what happened with the first five kids, but when it was Zeus\u2019 time, Kybele gave Kronos a boulder to eat instead, which he did. After, Kybele hid Zeus in a cave, where he stayed until he grew to be an adult, and overthrew Kronos. That cave was on Crete.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-7e9ce46df4850d0d04a470e103db363b\">But baby Zeus cried, as babies sometimes do. So Kybele\u2019s devotees made a lot of noise as they worshipped near the cave to drown it out, which might be the reason why the gallae were so fond of loud, ecstatic worship in Rome.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-61071856b0d0757d59cebd4cca3f0e00\">But that doesn\u2019t give us much to go on with Siproites either.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-b1af47e6e37643034709dfc0ed8d7390\">Leto, the mother of Apollo and Artemis, was worshipped at Phaistos, another Minoan palace \u2013 Antoninus Liberalis himself told us that in the passage we read earlier. That, too, was related to a gender transformation. In that case, it was Leucippus\u2019 mother praying to Leto to change her child into a man.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-2e33ac2aeb28a42e7f230cef0015ba13\">So okay, there\u2019s some gender happening on Crete. But that story isn\u2019t related to seeing a goddess bathing \u2013 it was a deliberate transformation by a goddess who took pity on a human family.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-5d22d9e3d3f4280da00066772a0276d0\">Earlier, we talked about four different mythological men who saw goddesses bathing, and their various fates. Actaeon was turned into a stag and torn to pieces, Teiresias was blinded, Calydon was turned into a rock, and Siproites was turned into a woman.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-69525e60823e4c5578d09de647c64a42\">Now, from a mythological perspective, being turned into a woman was generally considered to be a bad thing, a punishment. But even so, it\u2019s clear to see Siproites\u2019 fate was the least bad. And yes, I know my audience \u2013 chances are if you\u2019re watching this, you\u2019d definitely choose Siproites\u2019 fate over any of the others.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-8462dbca3d498010bb64afc6fa240a48\">But even if you were the ancient equivalent of a cis man, you\u2019d probably rather be a woman than be dead. Teiresias is I think the only one that might give you pause.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-c4c88fb2b13f4e36867e0e0c8ea5665a\">Could Siproites\u2019 lighter sentence, relatively speaking, be related to the fact that they\u2019re Cretan?&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-87b94e25deb64f7165c9cdcd7f120628\">Possibly. Siproites might have been a devoted follower of Artemis, who had the misfortune of stumbling upon her bathing. Artemis might have recognized she had to punish Siproites, but because of his devotion to her, perhaps she simply turned Siproites into a woman. After all, Artemis\u2019 followers, her huntresses, saw her naked as she bathed, and that wasn\u2019t a problem \u2013 it was only men who were forbidden from such things.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-36d947e3ac9ee62c6faf19700044eff1\">But here\u2019s the thing \u2013 gender transformations in Greek mythology aren\u2019t just taking a man\u2019s brain and sticking it in a woman\u2019s body. They seem to transform both body and mind.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-bfd267cb8495cf7d557d63215ff1a865\">In the stories where Teiresias was transformed into a woman, she seemed to largely take it in stride. She became a priestess of Hera, the one who turned her into a woman in the first place. She married a man, and even had a daughter by him as well, before being turned back seven years later.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-66b3600c8b2f76549dfd73376e8d1030\">Perhaps something similar happened with Siproites. Perhaps she became one of Artemis\u2019 huntresses, continuing her devotion to the goddess who punished her, and continuing to hunt along with her sisters, forever living and hunting together.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-53299b44f53d912b3884ad93201f27c6\">Or perhaps not.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-4eb7d866face669ae855d22e19ed58dc\">We don\u2019t know.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-align-center\" id=\"chapter-vi-really-is-that-it\"><strong>Chapter VI: Really? Is That It?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-3b7351d99c649cd7c6334b408c5b85f5\">Unfortunately, yes.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-f986e55078709bf68bc87e23893ac4a8\">Ancient history and mythology are like that sometimes.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-bafe8435e60656ce0ef294a12156556b\">Tantalizing, but ultimately disappointing, the story of Siproites is unmistakably transgender mythology.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-2e7d568b5894435579f827e036e043c8\">There are things we know we know.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-fdf3ef0ff30b451426188aa12936d84e\">There are things we don\u2019t know we don\u2019t know.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-3bcf6d6eca590575882db95496d8653e\">And there are things we know we don\u2019t know.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-8884fef7f9799d24f6269f0835e5b619\">The story of Siproites falls into the last category.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-480beaabefa460c75c483cf0ddd9f93e\">If not for Antoninus Liberalis, though, Siproites would have joined the countless myths who\u2019ve been lost to the sands of time altogether.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-e03d06ce312ea3097abdb3af15ca2a63\">At least we\u2019ve got something. And should we ever find a manuscript of Nicander\u2019s works, perhaps we can build on it.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-74db5a8f25a4fb056b724858e9ae236f\">But for now, that\u2019s all we know.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-c39a0294e96a5c0fb7ed0e1fc7e0a255\">So, what does this story tell us?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-417d831e3c8868201534f029f6fd07c1\">It tells us that stories about people like us, whether in reality or in fiction, have been around for a very long time.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-ab4325f7a5327fff47d9cdcabbade1cc\">Nicander\u2019s Metamorphoses doesn\u2019t survive. But two of his other works do, and from there we can glean enough information to think he wrote some time during the 2<sup>nd<\/sup> century BCE. Certainly not the oldest thing we\u2019ve looked at on this series, but not the newest either.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-9417719cdfc71b962745a96f738c1948\">Was Nicander the originator of the Siproites story? We don\u2019t know that either, but mythological stories are often older than the sources we have for them.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-9183ffe958ab4c65adac3c5ced6c3c5e\">Either way, people were thinking about, and writing about, gender transformations for thousands of years. This little bit of Antoninus Liberalis\u2019 work gives us five different examples of that \u2013 Leucippus, Caeneus, Teiresias, Hypermestra, and Siproites.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-eb39826be8650d4f2a4346322bc85fcd\">Whether through divine punishment, or through estrogen soaked cheese snacks, through fusion with an obsessed lover, or through division of self with a dagger, the ancient Mediterranean is full of transgender stories.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-54aa5cd865531b489c857684313e8147\">We have always existed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-4f4dec778bcebe2e59014b72f63ad547\">And so long as humanity continues to endure, so to shall we.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-buttons is-content-justification-center is-layout-flex wp-container-core-buttons-is-layout-a89b3969 wp-block-buttons-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-button\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link wp-element-button\" href=\"\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Support The Channel On Patreon<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-align-center\" id=\"primary-sources\">Primary Sources:<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-5c44a0b95968bd0ca44016541b138615\">\u25baAntoninus Liberalis. \u201cMetamorphoses\u201d. Translated by Francis Celoria, Routledge, 1992.\u00a0<br>\u25baApuleius. \u201cThe Golden Ass\u201d. Translated by Robert Graves, Penguin Classics, 1950.<br>\u25ba<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theoi.com\/Text\/CallimachusHymns1.html\">Callimachus. \u201cHymns\u201d. Translated by A.W. &amp; G.R. Mair. Loeb Classical Library, London, 1921<\/a>.<br>\u25baOvid. \u201cMetamorphoses\u201d. Translated by Rolfe Humphries, Indiana University Press, 1955.\u00a0<br>\u25ba<a href=\"https:\/\/www.perseus.tufts.edu\/hopper\/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A2008.01.0400\">Pseudo-Plutarch. \u201cDe Fluviis\u201d. Translated by William W Goodwin, Boston, Little, Brown &amp; Company, 1874<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-align-center\" id=\"secondary-sources\">Secondary Sources:&nbsp;<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-palette-color-8-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-28a83a3d06156a40f826b8ecdf61ed16\">\u25ba<a href=\"https:\/\/ancientgraffiti.org\/Graffiti\/\">Benefiel, Rebecca R. \u201cThe Ancient Graffiti Project\u201d. 2024<\/a>.<br>\u25ba<a href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Nicander\">Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopedia. \u201cNicander\u201d. Encyclopedia Britannica, 2024<\/a>.<br>\u25baForbes Irving, P.M.C. \u201cMetamorphosis in Greek Myths\u201d. Oxford University Press, 1990.\u00a0<br>\u25ba<a href=\"https:\/\/archive.org\/details\/greecebeforehome0000fors\">Forsdyke, EJ. \u201cGreece Before Homer\u201d. New York, Norton, 1964<\/a>.<br>\u25baHallager, Erik. &#8220;Crete&#8221;. In Cline, Eric (ed.). The Oxford Handbook of the Bronze Age Aegean. Oxford University Press. pp.\u00a0149\u2013159, 2012.<br>\u25baHard, Robin. \u201cThe Routledge Handbook Of Greek Mythology\u201d. Routledge, 2004.<br>\u25ba<a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.2307\/j.ctvk12q35\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Harris, William V. \u201cAncient Literacy\u201d. Harvard University Press, 1989<\/a>.<br>\u25ba<a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20170711130347\/http:\/www.pompeiana.org\/Resources\/Ancient\/Graffiti%20from%20Pompeii.htm\">Harvey, Brian. \u201cGraffiti From Pompeii\u201d. 2007<\/a>.\u00a0<br>\u25baKrogerus, Mikael, and Tsch\u00e4ppeler, Roman. \u201cThe Decision Book: Fifty Models for Strategic Thinking.\u201d New York, W.W. Norton &amp; Co. 2012.<br>\u25ba<a href=\"https:\/\/www.mpic.de\/4469988\/die-entdeckung-der-kernspaltung\">Max Planck Institute for Chemistry. \u201cThe Discovery of Nuclear Fission. Mainz, 2024<\/a>.\u00a0<br>\u25ba<a href=\"https:\/\/www.scientificamerican.com\/article\/ancient-nuclear-reactor\/\">Meshik, Alex. \u201cThe Workings of an Ancient Nuclear Reactor\u201d. Scientific American, 2005<\/a>.\u00a0<br>\u25baSmith, William. \u201cA Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities\u201d. John Murray, London, 1875.\u00a0<br>\u25ba<a href=\"https:\/\/interestingliterature.com\/2020\/10\/ovid-metamorphoses-analysis\">Tearle, Oliver. \u201cOvid\u2019s Metamorphoses: Notes Towards An Analysis\u201d. 2020<\/a>.\u00a0<br>\u25ba<a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.ca\/books\/edition\/The_Oxford_Handbook_of_the_Bronze_Age_Ae\/wBpsDw6R96sC?hl=en&amp;gbpv=1&amp;printsec=frontcover\">Tomkins, Peter, &amp; Schoep, Ilse. &#8220;Crete&#8221;. In Cline, Eric (ed.). The Oxford Handbook of the Bronze Age Aegean. Oxford University Press. pp. 66\u201382, 2012<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>How do we know stuff?&nbsp; It might seem like a simple question on the surface, but there\u2019s an entire field of philosophy, called epistemology, dedicated to exploring the topic.&nbsp; There\u2019s a particular tool I want to take a look at today that will help us understand today\u2019s topic.&nbsp; It\u2019s unfortunately been associated with noted war [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1624,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[183,4],"tags":[162,144,121,161,165,158,166,160,169,168,170,172,138,164,136,112,149,113],"class_list":["post-1609","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-transgender-mythology","category-we-have-always-existed","tag-ancient-greece","tag-ancient-history","tag-ancient-rome","tag-classical-antiquity","tag-classical-athens","tag-classical-greece","tag-hellenistic-greece","tag-history-of-the-roman-empire","tag-history-of-transgender","tag-history-of-transgender-people","tag-history-of-transgenderism","tag-lgbt-history-documentary","tag-roman-empire","tag-roman-greece","tag-trans-history","tag-transgender","tag-transgender-ancient-history","tag-transgender-history"],"blocksy_meta":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The Myth of Siproites - Sophie Edwards<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sbedwards.co\/staging\/9372\/the-myth-of-siproites\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Myth of Siproites - Sophie Edwards\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"How do we know stuff?&nbsp; It might seem like a simple question on the surface, but there\u2019s an entire field of philosophy, called epistemology, dedicated to exploring the topic.&nbsp; There\u2019s a particular tool I want to take a look at today that will help us understand today\u2019s topic.&nbsp; It\u2019s unfortunately been associated with noted war [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/sbedwards.co\/staging\/9372\/the-myth-of-siproites\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Sophie Edwards\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/queer.trans.writer.sophie\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/queer.trans.writer.sophie\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-06-05T16:44:39+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-12-04T17:41:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/sbedwards.co\/staging\/9372\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/siproites-transgender-ancient-history-mythology.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1920\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1080\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"sophie\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@https:\/\/twitter.com\/SBElikeswords\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@SBElikeswords\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"sophie\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"24 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Myth of Siproites - Sophie Edwards","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/sbedwards.co\/staging\/9372\/the-myth-of-siproites\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Myth of Siproites - Sophie Edwards","og_description":"How do we know stuff?&nbsp; 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