In different eras and spanning separate cultures, numerous famed legendary and mythical male figures were featured in tales where they were described as dressing, or disguising themselves, in women’s clothing. Stories such as these were notably present in tales of Greek and Norse mythology, but you can find similar episodes in the myths, legends and folklore of other cultures as well. Here are a few prominent examples.
Achilles
According to popular ancient accounts of the Achilles saga, this demigod hero was forced to dress in women’s clothing after his parents, Thetis and Peleus, received a prophesy that their son would die in the Trojan War. Horrified by this oracle, the worried parents smuggled Achilles to King Lycomedes on the island of Scyros, who had a large household of daughters. With Lycomedes’ cooperation, Thetis and Peleus concocted a plan to disguise Achilles as a girl and hide him among the princesses of Scyros. Pseudo-Apollodorus (c. 1st-2nd century) summarized the ancient accounts of the tale:
“When Achilles was nine years old, Calchas declared that Troy could not be taken without him, but Thetis—who knew in advance that he was fated to be killed if he joined the expedition—disguised him in women’s clothing and entrusted him to Lycomedes in the semblance of a young girl…Achilles’ whereabouts were betrayed, however, and Odysseus, searching for him at the court of Lycomedes, discovered him by causing a trumpet to be sounded. And so it came that Achilles went to Troy” (Apollodorus, Library, 3.13.8).
As the quote conveys, the ploy failed and the Greek recruiters ultimately discovered Achilles in his disguise. This curious scene, interestingly, was a favorite subject of master painters. Several museums display artworks that feature Achilles being dressed as a woman, as well as his eventual discovery by Odysseus.
Heracles
Heracles, also known as Hercules, was another famous Greek hero and god who had tales written about him being dressed in effeminate garb. Namely, some storytellers insinuated that Heracles was forced to wear feminine dress in the tale of his divinely-imposed three years of servitude under Queen Omphale of Lydia. The variant of myth and legend in question was a rather late development in the Heracles storytelling, but it was ancient nonetheless, as tales of Heracles being dressed in women’s clothing were circulating in the Roman Empire by the 2nd century. The satirist, Lucian of Samosata (c. 120-180), poked fun at these effeminate and subservient accounts of Heracles, writing:
“[If you] season your history unreasonably with fictions and eulogies and other sorts of flattery, you’ll very soon make it look like Heracles in Lydia. You must have seen him portrayed as a slave to Omphale, dressed in a most extraordinary fashion, while she is wearing his lion’s skin and holding his club. She is Heracles, you see, and he is clad in saffron and purple, carding wool and getting slapped with Omphale’s sandal. It’s a truly shameful sight: his clothes don’t fit and fall off him, and a god’s masculinity has become shockingly effeminate” (Lucian, How to Write History, section 10).
Just as artists liked to re-create the scene of Achilles being hidden among the daughters of Lycomedes, so too did the master painters enjoy bringing to life this episode of Heracles being dressed up and bullied by Omphale and the women in her court.
Dionysus
Dionysus (also spelled Dionysos), according to ancient Greek myth, was a son of the high-god Zeus. His mother (usually identified as Semele or Persephone) was not Zeus’ main consort, Hera, so the high-god decided to hide the young godling away from prying eyes and threats. The ruse reportedly included dressing Dionysus as a girl. This was reported by the mythographer, Psuedo-Apollodorus, who wrote, “When the appropriate time arrived, Zeus brought Dionysos to birth by untying the stitches, and handed him over to Hermes, who took him to Ino and Athamas, and persuaded them to bring him up as a girl” (Apollodorus, Library, 3.4.3). Even when Dionysus grew into a fully mature god of earth, wine, and inebriation, his character still maintained touches of flamboyance and feminine fashion. The following description of Dionysus from Euripides (c. 485-406 BCE) is a prime example:
“Release his hands, for caught in the nets he is not so swift as to escape me. But your body is not ill-formed, stranger, for women’s purposes, for which reason you have come to Thebes. For your hair is long, not through wrestling, scattered over your cheeks, full of desire; and you have a white skin from careful preparation, hunting after Aphrodite by your beauty not exposed to strokes of the sun, but beneath the shade.” (Euripides, Bacchae, approximately lines 454-459).
This description aside, Dionysus was a god whose appearance and fashion could change from region to region. In addition to the youthful appearance that was popular among the Roman audience, Dionysus was described elsewhere as a pot-bellied and bearded man.
Thor and Loki
Thor, the hammer-wielding and giant-slaying Norse god, was another famous figure from mythology who had a tale written about him in which he was dressed in women’s clothing. During one humorous episode from Norse mythology, Thor’s hammer was stolen and held for ransom by the giant, Thrym. The thief’s terms for the hammer’s return was the hand of the goddess, Freya, in marriage. Thor was more than willing to sacrifice Freya for his hammer, but the other gods convinced Thor to don the wedding gown himself and impersonate Freya as a way to infiltrate Thrym’s stronghold. The poem, Þrymskviða (or Thrymskvida), which translates to The Lay of Thrym or Thrym’s Poem, contained this story of Thor disguising himself as a bride. Thrym’s Poem, included in the 13th-century Poetic Edda, stated:
“Then Heimdall said, the whitest of the gods—
he knows the future as do the Vanir too:
‘Let’s tie on Thor a bridal head-dress,
let him wear the great necklace of the Brisings.
Let keys jingle by his side
and women’s clothing fall down over his knees,
and on his breast display jewels,
and we’ll put a pointed head-dress properly on his head!”
(Poetic Edda, Thrym’s Poem, stanzas 15-16).
Fortunately for Thor, he did not have to undergo this peculiar adventure alone. Loki decided to tag along, and the trickster god also dressed himself as a woman for the journey. Thrym’s Poem stated:
“Then said Loki, Laufey’s son:
‘I’ll go with you to be your maid,
we two shall drive to Giant-land”
(Poetic Edda, Thrym’s Poem, stanza 20).
In their womanly attire, Thor and Loki traveled to Thrym’s hall and participated in a marriage feast, where the disguised gods gave the giants ample opportunity to notice that something was amiss. Thor spent much of the evening glaring angrily at the giants, insulting anyone who tried to talk to him, while eating whole oxen and downing several barrels of mead. As the feast continued, the giants eventually made the poor decision to let the bride hold the stolen hammer. As can be expected, once Mjölnir was reunited with the annoyed and angry Thor, the wedding feast quickly turned into a massacre.
Although Thor was happy to get out of his bride disguise, Loki would go on to dress himself as a woman on other occasions. In Snorri Sturluson’s Prose Edda, Loki was said to have used the stealthy tactic of “changing himself into the likeness of a woman” to sneak into Frigg’s company and learn of the weakness of her son, Baldr. (The Prose Edda, Gylfaginning, chapter 49).
Honorable mentions
Figures who dressed effeminately, but were described openly as eunuchs.
Arjuna
Arjuna, a son of the Hindu god, Indra, and a major character in the Mahābhārata, was described as disguising himself in feminine clothing. The tale can be found in the Mahābhārata, in which Arjuna states, “’Lord of the earth,’ replied Arjuna, ‘I shall claim to be a eunuch…I shall deck my ears with earrings that flash like fire, and braid the hair of my head, lord, and my name shall be Brhannadā! In woman’s form I shall amuse the king and those who live in the women’s quarters by reciting tale after tale…I shall disguise myself with my illusory appearance, son of Kuntī. If the king asks me, heir of Bharata, I shall say, ‘I lived as Draupadī’s maid in Yudhisthira’s household!” (Mahabharata, 4.2, approximately line 20). Womanly form and charms aside, this tale is an honorable mention due to the insistence that Arjuna was disguising himself as a eunuch instead of a woman.
Attis
Attis was a mysterious deity involving vegetation and the sun who was worshipped in the Greco-Roman world. He was the consort of the Great Mother goddess, Cybele, who, despite her motherly connotations, had a cult that was incredibly bloody. Attis’ myth, unfortunately, contributed greatly to the unpleasant nature of the Great Mothers’ cult. In the defining moment of his tale, Attis was stricken by madness and ultimately castrated himself. According to ancient poets, such as Catullus (84-54 BCE), Attis also began dressing in womanly clothing once he became a eunuch. Notably, Catullus began describing Attis as a she after the transformation. The poet wrote:
“Over the vast main borne by swift-sailing ship, Attis, as with hasty hurried foot he reached the Phrygian wood and gained the tree-girt gloomy sanctuary of the Goddess, there roused by rabid rage and mind astray, with sharp-edged flint downwards dashed his burden of virility. Then as he felt his limbs were left without their manhood, and the fresh-spilt blood staining the soil, with bloodless hand she hastily took a tambour light to hold, your taborine, Cybele, your initiate rite…” (Catullus 63).
Unfortunately for the priests of Cybele, they were expected to reenact Attis’ ordeal of castration in order to join the Great Mother’s priesthood. Like Attis, the eunuch priests (known as Galli) also adopted a feminine demeanor and dress as part of their religious duties.
Picture Attribution: (left: Achilles by Jean Lemaire (c. 1598-1659), center: Thor by Elmer Boyd Smith (c. 1860-1943), right: Hercules by Lucas Cranach The Elder, all [Public Domain] via Creative Commons, LACMA, and the National Museum in Warsaw).
Sources:
- The Prose Edda by Snorri Sturluson, translated by Jesse Byock. New York: Penguin Classics, 2005.
- Apollodorus, The Library of Greek Mythology, translated by Robin Hard. New York, Oxford University Press, 1997.
- Thrym’s Poem, an old poem which was preserved in the 13th-century Poetic Edda which was produced anonymously in Iceland. Translation by Carolyne Larrington (Oxford University Press, 2014).
- The Mahābhārata, abridged and translated by John D. Smith. Published by Penguin Classics, 2009.
- https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0092%3Acard%3D434
- https://www.britannica.com/topic/Arjuna
- https://www.britannica.com/topic/Attis
