When I started my research on the history of religions and mythologies, I was horrified by what the colonialism did to erase and deform the other religions to bend them to their own, erasing enormous parts of the culture around the world. Nowadays, many indigenous tribes around the globe are trying to recover their suppressed culture, but some of it will be tainted forever.
This is when I decided to focus more my studies on deities and mythological heroes who fall under the wide umbrella term of transgender. Deities who transcend genders, deities who are fluid on the gender spectrum, deities who are something that can’t be well translated into the occidental colonialism culture.
This post, focusing on the Phrygian deity Agdistis, will be the first post of this series.
Agdistis
Agdistis, written Ἄγδιστις, is a deity from Phrygia who also appears in a certain way in the Greek, Roman and Anatolian mythologies. They are a deity born with both male and female reproductive systems, making them intersex. They are more often associated with Cybele and have been worship as this goddess, therefore many talk about them as a feminine goddess.
Myth
The myth has been changed in all the different mythologies Agdistis has been referred too, but it is generally the same, only some details changes depending on the version or the translation.
It all starts with the sky god, or father figure, or Zeus, having an undesirable lust for the mother earth, or mother figure, or Gaia. One day, either the sky god impregnates the mother while she was asleep, or he masturbates thinking of her and ejaculate on a hill. This act of self relief gave birth to what has been described as a monster, a superhuman, not a god, with both male and female reproductive systems, Agdistis.
Agdistis was described as being violent, forceful, uncontrollable, with a very high libido. They were proud and temperamental. The gods were afraid of Agdistis and discussed a plan to make them more controllable.
Liber, or sometimes Dyonisus, came up with a plan to put wine into the river where Agdistis always come to drink. Not being used to the liquor, Agdistis then fell asleep. Liber then took the opportunity to tie the foot of Agdistis to their male part. So, when they woke up, they castrated themselves without realizing it.
From the blood, an almond tree came to life.
It is then said that Nana, the daughter of the river god Sangarius, took an almond and either put it to her breasts or her anus and from that, become pregnant. She gave birth to a beautiful boy named Attis.
Attis grew up and become so beautiful, Agdistis fell in love with him. They often were together in the woods, Agdistis teaching him the joy of the wild and excess. Being in disgust by this almost incestuous proximity, the king Pessinus gave his daughter as a bride to Attis.
On the day of the wedding, Agdistis was not welcome. But Cybele, who took care of Attis as a child, knowing the love Agdistis had for the child, raised the wall to let Agdistis see the wedding. The whole attendance was so in shock, the bride cut her breasts, and Attis and the king Pessinus castrated themselves and died.
Full of regrets, Agdistis then asked Zeus that the body of Attis could say the same as he is for eternity, but with his hair still growing and his little finger still moving. And Zeus agreed to that demand. It is then said that in Phrygia, there’s a hill called Agdistis, and Attis his buried at his foot.
Meaning
At that time, it was believed that someone is not complete until they are married to someone of the opposite gender. Therefore, Agdistis being born with both genders was considered an anomaly, an uncontrollable monster. Only a god was able to control the power that comes with having both genders, and Agdistis was not. By making them castrate themselves, it was a way to resolve the anomaly, to suppress it to make Agdistis correspond to the normal definition of society.
The myth accepts the fact that intersex people exist, but says also that they must be suppressed in one sex or the other to regulate and control them.
After the castration, Agdistis were then associated with their feminity, a fact that is made clearer since the almond tree from the blood was blessed with fertility. Only a woman has such power. Agdistis is not considered the father of Attis, more like a second mother. It also shows that Agdistis didn’t have a voice in the decision of their own gender. The gods decided to cut the male part without asking their opinion. They were then associated with a woman because of their absence of male part, not because they themselves decided they were feeling like a woman. The gender is then strictly associated with the reproductive part and only that.
Agdistis then seek to claim back their other half, and fall in love with Attis like a vengeful and protective mother who has a dangerous closed love with their son.
Cult
There’s no historical proof that temples or specific worship were attributed specifically to Agdistis. However, they were often worshiped alongside Cybele, be it as another name of the goddess, or as two different entities.
As a minor deity, it seems that the worship of Agdistis has long stopped and there’s no organization or group of people publicly worshiping specifically the deity nowadays.
In the end, while Agdistis may not represent intersex and people under the trans umbrella in the best light, it still a representation that deserves more recognition today. The part of the myth of the castration is sadly still an issue around the world where intersex babies are surgically “fixed” in a gender or the other without having a voice in the matter.
To know more about intersexes individual, to find more resources and to donate to help spread awareness, visit the site web https://interactadvocates.org/
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