"All this he saw, for one moment breathless and intense, vivid on the morning sky; and still, as he looked, he lived; and still, as he lived, he wondered."
A Flame Between Us: Lament in the Poetry of Kassia “You meet your friend, your faceBrightens – you have struck gold.”-- Hymn and epigrammatic poetry by Kassia (Kassiani), 9th century Byzantium Kassia (Kassiani) was a Byzantine abbess, poet, composer, and intellectual who lived in Constantinople in the...
Swapped Lives, Eternal Forms: Visualising Gender Fluidity in the Torikaebaya Monogatari Torikaebaya Monogatari (literally "If only I could exchange (them)!" often translated as "The Changelings") is a 12th-century Japanese narrative that tells the story of two siblings: a boy raised as a girl and a girl...
Wallada bint al-Mustakfi: the Caliph’s Daughter Who Loved Women and Lived Free Wallada bint al-Mustakfi (Córdoba 1001 – 1091), daughter of a deposed Umayyad caliph, was not merely a noblewoman—she was a poet, provocateur, and cultural icon in the intellectually radiant courts of Al-Andalus. Refusing to...
Love and Lament in the Songs of Jonathan and David “I am distressed for you, my brother Jonathan;very pleasant have you been to me.Your love to me was wonderful,surpassing the love of women.”-- Samuel 1:26 Spoken by David upon the death of Prince Jonathan, this lament is...
7th-century icon of Saints Sergius and Bacchus, Monastery of St. Catherine, Sinai (Egypt) Saints and Soldiers: the Embrace of Saints Sergius and Bacchus One of the oldest surviving icons from the early Byzantine world, this image depicts two Roman soldiers and Christian martyrs standing side by side—clad...
Brothers in Arms, Lovers in Death: the Sacred Band of Thebes In the 4th century BCE, the Greek city-state of Thebes forged one of the most extraordinary fighting forces in history: the Sacred Band, an elite military unit composed of 150 pairs of male lovers. Yes,...
In a Kiss, a World “Sweet boy, with honeyed eyes,if I could kiss you as many times as I wish,I'd kiss you three hundred thousand times —and not once would I be satisfied.”-- Gaius Valerius Catullus, Poem 48 (1st century BCE) Catullus, the Roman poet whose work...
Marble relief of a Galli priest (1st–2nd century CE) – from the Temple of Magna Mater, possibly in Ostia or Rome The Galli of Cybele: Queerness in Roman Religion The Galli were priests of Cybele (Magna Mater), whose worship was introduced at Rome from Phrygia. Often dressed...
Singing for the Goddess: the Queer Voices of Inanna’s Gala Priests Long before modern notions of gender came into form, the streets of ancient Sumer — in what is now southern Iraq — roamed with people whose identities didn't feel the need to toe the lines...
He Is the Wine, I the Cup: Queer Devotion in the Poetry of Abu Nuwas “O my heart’s beloved,You are the sun of beauty,And I — merely the eye that follows you.He kissed me, and I becameThe chalice, trembling in the hand of joy.”- Abu Nuwas...
