Leucippus of Crete
Cretan youth transformed from female to male by Leto.
Leucippus was a young person from Phaistos, Crete, whose story involves a gender transformation granted by the goddess Leto. He is considered a transgender male figure in Greek mythology. His narrative appears in the Metamorphoses by Antoninus Liberalis.
Quick Facts
- Name
- Leucippus (Λεύκιππος)
- Origin
- Phaistos, Crete
- Parents
- Lamprus (son of Pandion) and Galatea (daughter of Eurytius, son of Sparton)
- Deity involved
- Leto
- Festival
- Ecdysia
- Epithet of leto
- Phytia
Facts from the source article.
Mythology
Galatea, pregnant with Leucippus, was told by her husband Lamprus that he would accept only a male child. While Lamprus was away pasturing cattle, Galatea gave birth to a daughter. Following seers' advice, she gave the infant a masculine name, Leucippus, and told Lamprus she had borne a son. The child was raised as a boy, but as puberty approached, concealing the female sex from Lamprus became necessary.
Galatea went to Leto's sanctuary and prayed for Leucippus to become male. Leto pitied them and changed Leucippus into a boy. In commemoration, the people of Phaistos surnamed Leto Phytia, from the Greek word for "to grow." They established the Ecdysia feast, named from "to undress," because Leucippus removed his maidenly peplos after transformation.
This became an annual initiation ritual where young men put on women's clothing, swore a citizenship oath, and then stripped off their peploi publicly. Before weddings, brides and bridal couples of Phaistos would lie beside an image of Leucippus.
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