LGBTQ themes in mythology
[2] Devdutt Pattanaik argues that myths "capture the collective unconsciousness of a people", and that this means they reflect deep-rooted beliefs[3] about variant sexualities that may be at odds with repressive social mores.
[1] Devdutt Pattanaik writes that myths "capture the collective unconsciousness of a people", and that this means they reflect deep-rooted beliefs about variant sexualities that may be at odds with repressive social mores.
[11] The sources that do exist indicate that same-sex relations were regarded negatively, and that penetrative sex was seen as an aggressive act of dominance and power, shameful to the receiver (a common view in the Mediterranean basin area).
[15] The celestial creator deity of Dahomean religion is Mawu-Lisa, formed by a merger of the twin brother and sister gods Lisa (the moon) and Mawa (the sun).
[21] The mythology of the Shona people of Zimbabwe is ruled over by an androgynous creator god called Mwari, who occasionally splits into separate male and female aspects.
[24] In the Codex Chimalpopoca, the male deity Tezcatlipoca and his alter ego sorcerer [necoc] Yāōtl "Enemies on Both Sides" once transformed themselves into women to copulate with Huemac.
[39][40] The now defunct Iglesia Católica Tradicional México-Estados Unidos, also known as the Church of Santa Muerte, recognized gay marriage and performed religious wedding ceremonies for homosexual couples.
According to "The Tale of the Rabbit God" in the What the Master Would Not Discuss, Tu Er Shen was originally a man called Hu Tianbao, who fell in love with a handsome young imperial inspector of Fujian.
[51] In modern times, the priest Lu Weiming (盧威明) founded a temple in Yonghe City, Taiwan that worships Tu'er Shen and provides spiritual comfort for homosexual Daoists.
While both Mizi Xia and Lord Long Yang may have existed, nothing is known about them beyond their defining stories, and their presence in Chinese literature was very much that of legendary characters who served as archetypes of homosexual love.
Kojiki-den by Motoori Norinaga emphasized that it was a way to obtain the protection of Yamatohime-no-mikoto and more specifically Amaterasu, and most commentaries of Kojiki and historians such as Kazuo Higo [ja][60] supported Kojikiden’s view.
[66] Toshihiko Moriya appealed to “common sense” and made the case for visiting Ise Shrine,[67] but Mariko Hoshiyama was skeptical and saw the cross-dressing by Yamatotakeru as a part of the rites of coming-of-age.
In Bai Juyi's Song of Everlasting Regret, there is a passage in which Emperor Xuanzong sees Yang Guifei’s soul floating in Mount Penglai after her death.
[72] Hisashi Yamada shares a similar view, and believes that the example of armed Kikoe-ōgimi in Omoro Sōshi pointed out by Ifa Fuyū is also related to this cross-dressing.
[77] 八つの舟に酒をいれ、美女のすがたをつくッて、たかき岡にたつ。“(Susanoo) filled eight barrels with sake, disguised himself as a beautiful woman, and stood on a high hill.”Amaterasu, the supreme deity in Japanese mythology and the imperial ancestor, is also called Ōhirume (ō-hiru-me; lit.
Nichiiki Hongi, Daijingū Hon’en (大神宮本縁), and Nihongi Sanrin-ryū (日本記三輪流) consider Kuni-no-Tokotachi's spiritual essence to be an androgynous third gender.
[83] In the Edo period, Deguchi Nobutsune [ja] wrote in his Naikū Dantai Kōshō (内宮男体考証) that Amaterasu was female as a sun goddess and male as an imperial ancestor.
[90] Kei Chiba points out that in early modern Japan, ohaguro was a feminine grooming habit and may have signified a certain third gender nature of the emperor, the human deity and a descendant of Amaterasu.
Kei Chiba argues that Amaterasu's queerness and dissident traits were an obstacle to the Meiji government's aims of Westernization and the emperor-centered family system of heteronormativity and patriarchy.
The shintai worshipped by the Jikōson’s sect, which arose after the war and was banned by Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers, is considered as an androgynous deity that was a fusion of Emperor Jimmu and Amaterasu.
[93][94][95] According to Nihon Shoki, when Empress Jingū defeated the rebellion of Emperor Chūai’s and Ōnakatsu Hime's son, prince Oshikuma [ja], it became dark as night even though it was day.
[96] In traditional Thai Buddhism, accounts propose that "homosexuality arises as a karmic consequence of violating Buddhist proscriptions against heterosexual misconduct" in a previous incarnation.
In one story of one of his previous lives, Ānanda was a solitary yogi who fell in love with a nāga, a serpent king of Indian folklore, who took the form of a handsome youth.
In a similar epic, the female binukot Matan-ayon, in search of her husband Labaw Donggon, sailed the stormy seas using the golden ship Hulinday together with her less powerful brother-in-law Paubari.
[119] Richard A. Kaye wrote, "contemporary gay men have seen in Sebastian at once a stunning advertisement for homosexual desire (indeed, a homoerotic ideal), and a prototypical portrait of tortured closet case.
The word Jinn means "hidden from sight"[122] and they are sometimes considered to be led by Iblis,[123] representing powers of magic and rebellion, and posing as bringers of wealth as the devil acclaim.
The Green Knight's attractiveness defies the homosocial rules of King Arthur's court and poses a threat to their way of life, with the friendship between him and Gawain being seen with homoerotic overtones.
Following his premature death before his 20th birthday, Antinous was deified on Hadrian's orders, being worshipped in both the Greek East and Latin West, sometimes as a god and sometimes merely as a hero.
[216] Stories about them show them to be completely uninterested in romance or sex with men, and any man forcing his attention upon them could die, due to the "evil magic in their vaginas".
[231] Non-divine LGBT characters also exist in Polynesian mythology, such as the male priest Pakaʻa and his chief and lover Keawe-nui-a-ʻUmi,[232] and the famed fisherman Nihooleki, who was married to a woman but also had a relationship with the pig god Kamapuaʻa.
