Discussion & More

Social acceptance and laws were generally harsher towards homosexuality in Rome and content regarding  this faced similar issues as the film industry. Any direct references were forbidden so things had to be coded or transformed.

This brings us to Ovid and his tale of Iphis and Ianthe.

In order to achieve propriety, this became a tale of transformation where a female-female relationship is “fixed” by becoming a male-female relationship. As in many traditional cultures, families wanted to give birth to a son rather than a daughter. Here are some excerpts of how Iphis was born, regarded, and matched with Ianthe. As we can see, Iphis is marked to be a boy despite being a girl, a choice that sets the course for her whole life.

When the pains grew, and her burden pushed its own way into the world, and a girl was born, the mother ordered it to be reared, deceitfully, as a boy, without the father realising. She had all that she needed, and no one but the nurse knew of the fraud. The father made good his vows, and gave it the name of the grandfather: he was Iphis. The mother was delighted with the name, since it was appropriate for either gender, and no one was cheated by it. From that moment, the deception, begun with a sacred lie, went undetected. The child was dressed as a boy, and its features would have been beautiful whether they were given to a girl or a boy.

 

Thirteen years passed by, meanwhile, and then, Iphis, your father betrothed you to golden-haired Ianthe, whose dowry was her beauty, the girl most praised amongst the women of Phaestos, the daughter of Telestes of Dicte. The two were equal in age, and equal in looks… From this beginning, love had touched both their innocent hearts, and wounded them equally, but with unequal expectations. Ianthe anticipated her wedding day, and the promised marriage, believing he, whom she thought to be a man, would
be her man. Iphis loved one whom she despaired of being able to have, and this itself increased her passion, a girl on fire for a girl.