Androgynous/Homosexual Deities?

[Alice]

Are there any androgynous, genderqueer or homosexual gods or goddesses?

[monsno_leedra]

Re: Androgynous/Homosexual Deities?

The only one I can think of is HERMAPHRODITOS. http://www.theoi.com/Ouranios/ErosHermaphroditos.html Other's it's more difficult in that they may have laid with another man / women but did it in another form so is it homosexual or not? Loki is one that comes to mind for that aspect though you could probably ask it about a lot of gods who take various forms to seduce.

[Rae'ya]

Re: Androgynous/Homosexual Deities?

There sure are, in several different pantheons.

Agdistis of the Greek and Roman pantheons is hermaphroditic (or was, until s/he was castrated). And of course Hermaphroditus is an obvious one. Dionysis was male until he was castrated, thus changing his gendered status. Baphomet is only considered a deity by some but is hermaphroditic.

Androgynous deities include Jormungand of the Norse pantheons and the Rainbow Serpent of the Australian Aborigines. Also most of the Great Divine, overarching deities are considered to be androgynous, or both male and female, or ecompassing of the entire gender spectrum.

There are also some deities who present as a binary gender most of the time, but have some aspects or occasional escapades as another gender. Loki of the Norse pantheon is a good example of this... he spends whole months living as a woman and even gives birth while in the form of a mare. And almost all of the Hindu deities have an aspect that is the opposite gender, or merge with their consorts into a hermaphroditic deity at some point. There are many Demons who have identities in both genders.

And then there are some who are a particular gender, but who play societal roles outside of their gender. Athena is a good example of this. Artemis could loosely be considered in this category also. Othinn spends a period of time dressed as a woman learning seidhr, and is therefore accused of being 'unmanly'.

Many of the fertility, love and sex deities are bisexual, and inspire lust in both binary genders. Aphrodite, Eros and Freyr, for example. The Greek myths are rife with male deities and heroes who have homosexual relationships.

And quite aside from deities, there are many historical sects of priests, devotees and commoners who are identified to be genderqueer, trans, third gendered or otherwise outside of binary male or female.

[Riothamus12]

Re: Androgynous/Homosexual Deities?

There sure are, in several different pantheons.

Agdistis of the Greek and Roman pantheons is hermaphroditic (or was, until s/he was castrated). And of course Hermaphroditus is an obvious one. Dionysis was male until he was castrated, thus changing his gendered status. Baphomet is only considered a deity by some but is hermaphroditic.

Androgynous deities include Jormungand of the Norse pantheons and the Rainbow Serpent of the Australian Aborigines. Also most of the Great Divine, overarching deities are considered to be androgynous, or both male and female, or ecompassing of the entire gender spectrum.

There are also some deities who present as a binary gender most of the time, but have some aspects or occasional escapades as another gender. Loki of the Norse pantheon is a good example of this... he spends whole months living as a woman and even gives birth while in the form of a mare. And almost all of the Hindu deities have an aspect that is the opposite gender, or merge with their consorts into a hermaphroditic deity at some point. There are many Demons who have identities in both genders.

And then there are some who are a particular gender, but who play societal roles outside of their gender. Athena is a good example of this. Artemis could loosely be considered in this category also. Othinn spends a period of time dressed as a woman learning seidhr, and is therefore accused of being 'unmanly'.

Many of the fertility, love and sex deities are bisexual, and inspire lust in both binary genders. Aphrodite, Eros and Freyr, for example. The Greek myths are rife with male deities and heroes who have homosexual relationships.

And quite aside from deities, there are many historical sects of priests, devotees and commoners who are identified to be genderqueer, trans, third gendered or otherwise outside of binary male or female.

There's no suggestion that Freyr was. If there ever was, I have not heard of it.Also Jormungand was not considered a deity.

[monsno_leedra]

Re: Androgynous/Homosexual Deities?

There sure are, in several different pantheons.

Agdistis of the Greek and Roman pantheons is hermaphroditic (or was, until s/he was castrated). And of course Hermaphroditus is an obvious one. Dionysis was male until he was castrated, thus changing his gendered status. Baphomet is only considered a deity by some but is hermaphroditic.

Androgynous deities include Jormungand of the Norse pantheons and the Rainbow Serpent of the Australian Aborigines. Also most of the Great Divine, overarching deities are considered to be androgynous, or both male and female, or ecompassing of the entire gender spectrum.

There are also some deities who present as a binary gender most of the time, but have some aspects or occasional escapades as another gender. Loki of the Norse pantheon is a good example of this... he spends whole months living as a woman and even gives birth while in the form of a mare. And almost all of the Hindu deities have an aspect that is the opposite gender, or merge with their consorts into a hermaphroditic deity at some point. There are many Demons who have identities in both genders.

And then there are some who are a particular gender, but who play societal roles outside of their gender. Athena is a good example of this. Artemis could loosely be considered in this category also. Othinn spends a period of time dressed as a woman learning seidhr, and is therefore accused of being 'unmanly'.

Many of the fertility, love and sex deities are bisexual, and inspire lust in both binary genders. Aphrodite, Eros and Freyr, for example. The Greek myths are rife with male deities and heroes who have homosexual relationships.

And quite aside from deities, there are many historical sects of priests, devotees and commoners who are identified to be genderqueer, trans, third gendered or otherwise outside of binary male or female.

I'd not say castration served to create an androgynous being in Greek and Roman mythos. Figure nearly every male priest of Cybele / Kybele was castrated from what we can gather but it did not change how they were viewed in relationship to their gender. Some suggest the same may have applied to priest of Hecate / Hekate at Lagina given the influence Cybele / Kybele had upon that temple or potentially even at Ephesus / Ephesos considering Cybele / Kybele's influence there as well. Dionysus is still considered male and many times compared against Artemis in the forms of exstasy they created within their followers against one being structured and the other free flow and without restrictions.

Artemis would also be hard to see as being outside of her gender roles when most of her punishments are against trangressors of those roles. Especially when you consider that the Artemis most know would be more of a pre-pubscent girl than and adult goddess in her Olympian role. When seen in her adult roles at Ephesus, Orthia, Syracuse, etc she is not outside of the normal gender roles but plays heavily upon the fertility & fecundity roles.

[Ula]

Re: Androgynous/Homosexual Deities?

There's no suggestion that Freyr was. If there ever was, I have not heard of it.Also Jormungand was not considered a deity.

I would say both of these are considered pretty standard UPG in the Northern Tradition.

[Riothamus12]

Re: Androgynous/Homosexual Deities?

I would say both of these are considered pretty standard UPG in the Northern Tradition.

With regards to stuff like this I look to the original sources. Those people had been communing with them for thousands of years before we came along and if they didn't get it then I'm skeptical. That said there was connection to Freyr that seems to deal with some manner of "pleasure". It can be inferred that given his relationship to fertility rites that this pleasure likely included the sexual variety. That is pretty much certain. Even if Freyr himself was not considered to be so, I don't believe the holiest ones would just revoke their blessings because of someone's sexual orientation. Even if it were against their will, I think there are a number of things that would far exceed it in terms of importance to the point where it may as well not matter.

As for Jormungand, there was no apparent cult of Jormungand, he was an enemy of the Gods, and I don't think that in either the prose or poetic edda or any similar source is the world serpent referred to as a God.

[Satu]

Re: Androgynous/Homosexual Deities?

Set might fit with the homosexual label, or at least bisexual. Atum came before the gender binary so He is, in a sense, both male and female (and this has been my experience with Him). To a certain degree Nit (Neith) goes beyond the gender binary in Her creatrix aspects. Kemetic theology is complicated on this subject, however, and you could easily refute these opinions. Well, except with Set. Lol. Anyway, especially in later Kemetic literature, you often read about the "mother-father" of the universe.

I've heard that Athena of the Hellenic pantheon is androgynous in a lot of ways, or at least ambiguous. I haven't worked with Her much so can't say a lot more than that. I got the same ambiguity from the few Hindu deities I've had contact with, which makes sense, if you understand Hindu theology even a bit.

[Corvus]

Re: Androgynous/Homosexual Deities?

Several Hindu divinities are of the "third gender" or otherwise intersex, which could be considered an androgynous or hermaphroditic state. Ardhanarishvara is a prime example where the lord Shiva and his consort Parvati become one being. Ardhanarishvara represents a form of Shiva which encompasses both the masculine and feminine. A list of such deities can be found here

The Greeks are perhaps the most well known for choices of bisexual deities. Such deities are Zeus, Apollo, Pan, and many many many

[Rick]

Re: Androgynous/Homosexual Deities?

Let us not forget Ymir, the first Jotun in Teutonic myth. He gave birth from his armpits, and one of his legs begat on the other.

[Riothamus12]

Re: Androgynous/Homosexual Deities?

Let us not forget Ymir, the first Jotun in Teutonic myth. He gave birth from his armpits, and one of his legs begat on the other.

I'm not certain how the Norse would feel about the reverence of Ymir. I'm not really sure that qualifies as "queer"/androgynous/or even really related to such things either. Not an expert on such things exactly, but you get what I'm saying.

[B. de Corbin]

Re: Androgynous/Homosexual Deities?

In Alchemy, the Rebis (product of the mating of Hermes and Venus) is a hermaphrodite, if that counts...

[monsno_leedra]

Re: Androgynous/Homosexual Deities?

..I've heard that Athena of the Hellenic pantheon is androgynous in a lot of ways, or at least ambiguous. I haven't worked with Her much so can't say a lot more than that. I got the same ambiguity from the few Hindu deities I've had contact with, which makes sense, if you understand Hindu theology even a bit.

I've seen a number of discussions where Athena is non-sexual in her capacity due to her being born of a though than born of an emotion. As such she is more logical and structural in mannerisms thus thinking vice emotional with its connection to biological birth. So she chooses to act upon which aspect not be seen as responding to an aspects influences upon her.

[Riothamus12]

Re: Androgynous/Homosexual Deities?

In Alchemy, the Rebis (product of the mating of Hermes and Venus) is a hermaphrodite, if that counts...

Speaking of that, I had heard somewhere that some variant of Hermes was a hermaphrodite of some form.

I know Ghede Nibo, the loa lord of Voodoo is said to not only be a crossdresser, but also said to inspire all manners of sexuality. Baron Samedi is said to have links to non-heterosexual relationships but did not have the androgynous element. Mawu-Lisa is an important androgynous deity from the religion of certain African peoples.. Hi'iaka of Hawaiian belief is said to have engaged in a number of lesbian relationships with other Goddesses.

[Ula]

Re: Androgynous/Homosexual Deities?

With regards to stuff like this I look to the original sources. Those people had been communing with them for thousands of years before we came along and if they didn't get it then I'm skeptical. That said there was connection to Freyr that seems to deal with some manner of "pleasure". It can be inferred that given his relationship to fertility rites that this pleasure likely included the sexual variety. That is pretty much certain. Even if Freyr himself was not considered to be so, I don't believe the holiest ones would just revoke their blessings because of someone's sexual orientation. Even if it were against their will, I think there are a number of things that would far exceed it in terms of importance to the point where it may as well not matter.

As for Jormungand, there was no apparent cult of Jormungand, he was an enemy of the Gods, and I don't think that in either the prose or poetic edda or any similar source is the world serpent referred to as a God.

Hence UPG. Not all of us that fall under the Heathen umbrella are reconstructionist.