Crossdressing in Antiquity
“In Cyprus there was a bearded and masculine image of Venus (probably Astarte) in female attire: according to Philochorus, the deity thus represented was the moon, and sacrifices were offered to him or her by men clad as women, and by women clad as men…. A similar exchange of garments took place between Argive men and women at the festival of the Hybristica, which fell in the month of Hermes, either at the new moon or on the fourth of the month…. On the thirteenth of January flute-players paraded the streets of Rome in the garb of women…”Â
—J. G. Frazer, Adonis, Attis, Osiris, part 2 (The Golden Bough, vol. VI, 1914, p. 259, n.3)
A woman with a lyre and a false beard (copied from a red-figure amphora).
(Source: Alexis Louis Pierre Housselin [1], Public Domain, Internet Archive)
[1] See Pl. XC in Élite des monuments céramographiques (1844), by Charles Lenormant, t. IV (p. 509; description on pp. 238-240).
