Queering the Ure Museum
Queering the Ure is a research project that develops from the awareness that ancient myths evidence the attraction ancient gods and goddesses, as well as mortals, felt towards men and women alike, without shying away from explicit mention of erotic desire. Other stories addressed non-binary identities while intersecting with race and disability. Although the Ure Museum has been a strong LGBTQ+ ally, we aim to be permanently involved with the queer local community in our endeavour to become more inclusive, diverse and accessible.
Representations of these myths and other relevant material can be found in the Ure Museum collections and archives, which can help visitors, students and scholars to engage with the wide scope of experiences of gender and sexuality. Such an approach is in line with the educational programme of the Ure Museum, closely linked to active learning with objects, namely pedagogies that see artefacts as a tool to interact with the visitor. Our collections can be used as a way to look at the lives of people from the past and present through conversation, offering the chance to develop empathy and understanding for the other.
Do you want to know more?
Attis
Pausanias, Description of Greece 7.17-27
Ovid, Fasti 4.222 ff
Sfameni Gasparro, G. 1985. Soteriology and Mystic Aspects in the Cult of Cybele and Attis. Leiden.
Romero Mayorga, C. 2021. ‘Music in Mystery Cults: Towards a Comprehensive Catalogue.’ Telestes Archaeomusicology Archaeology and of Sound I, 87-101.
Dionysos
Seneca, Oedipus 418 ff
Seneca, Hercules Furens 472 ff
Bremmer, J.N.1999. ‘Transvestite Dionysos.’ Bucknell Review 43, 183-100.
Jameson, M. 2003. ‘The Asexuality of Dionysus.’ In Golden, M. & Toohey, P. (eds), Sex and Difference in Ancient Greece and Rome. Edinburgh.
Medusa
Hesiod, Theogony 287
Ovid, Metamorphoses 4.792
Bowers, S.R. 1990. ‘Medusa and the Female Gaze.’ NWSA Journal 2, 217-35.
Dolan, J. 2002. ‘Feeling Women’s Culture: Women’s Music, Lesbian Feminism, and the Impact of Emotional Memory.’ Journal of Dramatic Theory and Criticism Spring issue, 205-219.
Amazons
Homer, Iliad 3.185 ff.
Tryphiodorus, The Taking of Ilias 35 ff.
Penrose Jr., W. 2016. Postcolonial Amazons: Female Masculinity and Courage in Ancient Greek and Sanskrit Literature. Oxford.
Hardwick, L. 1990. ‘Ancient Amazons – Heroes, Outsiders or Women?’ Greece & Rome 37, 14–36.
Horus & Seth
Kahun Papyri.
Graves-Brown, C. (ed.) 2008. ‘Don your wig for a joyful hour.’ Sex and Gender in Ancient Egypt, Swansea: The Classical Press of Wales.
Peled, I. 2017. Structures of Power: Law and Gender Across the Ancient Near East and Beyond. Oriental Institute Seminars (12). Chicago.
Defixiones/Hermes
Gager, J.G. 1999. Curse Tablets and Binding Spells from the Ancient World. Oxford.
Pachoumi, E. 2013. ‘The Erotic and Separation Spells of the Magical Papyri and Defixiones.’ Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies 53, 294–325.
Kainis
Ovid, Metamorphoses 12.3
Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica 1.56-64.
Lateiner, D. 2007. ‘Transexuals and Transvestites in Ovid’s Metamorphoses.’ In Fogen, Th. & Lee, M. (ed) Bodies and Boundaries in Greco-Roman Antiquity, 125-54.
Northrop, C. 2020. ‘Caeneus and Heroic (Trans)Masculinity in Ovid’s Metamorpheses.’ Arethusa 53, 25–41.
War/Homoromanticism
Euripides, Orestes
Homer, Iliad
Foxhall, L. and Salmon, J. (eds) 1999. When Men Were Men: Masculinity, Power and Identity in Classical Antiquity. London:Taylor & Francis Group.
Masterson, M. 2014. ‘Studies of Ancient Masculinity.’ In T.K. Hubbard (ed), A Companion to Greek and Roman Sexualities. Place xxx.
Hatshepsut
Statues MMA 29.3.2 and MMA 31.3.164 at Metropolitan Museum of Art
Matić, U. 2016. (De)queering Hatshepsut: Binary Bind in Archaeology of Egypt and Kingship Beyond the Corporeal. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory 23, 810–31.
Roehrig, C.H., R. Dreyfus, and C.A. Keller (eds) 2005. Hatshepsut: From Queen to Pharaoh. New York.
General
Campanile, D., F. Carlà-Uhink, and M. Facella (eds) 2017. TransAntiquity: Cross-Dressing and Transgender Dynamics in the Ancient World, London.
Surtees, A. and J. Dyer (eds) 2020. Exploring Gender Diversity in the Ancient World. Edinburgh.