In Greek and Roman mythology, Iphis or Iphys was a child of Telethusa and Ligdus in Crete, born female and raised male, who was later transformed by the goddess Isis into a man.

(/ˈaɪfɪs/ EYE-fis, /ˈɪfɪs/ IF-iss; Ancient Greek: Ἶφις Îphis [íi.pʰis], gen. Ἴφιδος Ī́phidos)

Mythology

According to the Roman poet Ovid‘s Metamorphoses, there was a humbly born, but well-respected, man named Ligdus who lived in Phaestus with his pregnant wife, Telethusa. Ligdus said he wished for two things: that his wife delivers the baby with as little pain as possible, and that the child would be a boy. As the couple was poor, they could not afford a dowry if their unborn child was born a girl. Ligdus was forced to come to the conclusion that they must kill the child if it was female. The couple cried, but Ligdus’ mind was made up. Telethusa despaired, but was visited in the middle of the night by the Egyptian goddess Isis, along with a train of other gods: Anubis, Bastet, Apis, Harpocrates, Osiris, and the Egyptian serpent. Isis advised her to disobey her husband’s orders and to keep the child, regardless of if it was a girl and guaranteed any needed future assistance. When Telethusa gave birth to a girl, she concealed the infant’s sex from her husband (saying “Feed the dear boy”) and raised her daughter as a boy. Lidgus named him Iphis, after his father; Telethusa was happy with the name, as it was gender neutral. Only Iphis’s nurse knew of his biological sex.

• Ovid. Metamorphoses, Section 9, Line 4-10.
• Ovid. Metamorphoses, Section 9, Line 13-21.
• Ovid. Metamorphoses, Section 9, Line 21-27.
• Ovid. Metamorphoses, Section 9, Line 28-53.
• Ovid. Metamorphoses, Section 9, Line 58-69.
• Ovid. Metamorphoses, Section 9, Line 92-151.

When Iphis turned 13, Ligdus arranged for him to marry Ianthe, daughter of Telestes, who was “praised by all the women of Phaestus for the dower of her unequalled beauty.” Ianthe fell in love with Iphis, with whom she had been instructed alongside and shared the same teachers. Likewise, Iphis fell deeply in love with Ianthe. However, Iphis expresses his lament about his situation, stating that he feels “monstrous” for desiring a female mate while being biologically female himself, and wishes he could change his sex to male. In modern terms, this may be considered gender dysphoria. Iphis prayed to Juno for assistance, because despite his love for Ianthe, he felt as though the marriage would be illegitimate.

• Ovid. Metamorphoses, Section 9, Line 92-151.
• Ovid. Metamorphoses, Section 9, Line 73-84.

Ianthe was impatient to marry, but Telethusa procrastinated the wedding with made-up illnesses, until she was unable to delay any longer. One day before the wedding, the deeply concerned and desperate Telethusa brought Iphis to the temple of Isis and prayed to the goddess for aid. Isis was deeply moved and responded by transforming Iphis into a man.

• Ovid. Metamorphoses, Section 9, Line 73-84.
• Ovid. Metamorphoses, Section 9, Line 154-162.
• Ovid. Metamorphoses, Section 9, Line 163-179.
• Ovid. Metamorphoses, Section 9, Line 180-194.

Iphis’s transition is described in Ovid’s Metamorphoses:

Her face seemed of a darker hue, her strength

seemed greater, and her features were more stern.

Her hair once long, was unadorned and short.

There is more vigor in her than she showed

in her girl ways. For in the name of truth,

Iphis, who was a girl, is now a man!

After his magical transformation, Iphis married Ianthe and the two lived happily ever after, their marriage being presided over by Juno, Venus, and Hymenaios.

• Ovid. Metamorphoses, Section 9, Line 203-206.

The story of Iphis is similar to that of Leucippus from Phaestus, Crete, and could be a variant thereof.

• Antoninus Liberalis, The Metamorphoses of Antoninus Liberalis translated by Francis Celoria (Routledge 1992). Section 17.

Interpretations

The story of Iphis and Ianthe is the only mythological account of female same-sex desire, not only in Ovid, but in all of Graeco-Roman mythology. Whether Ovid disapproves of or is sympathetic toward female homoerotic desire has been a point of contention for scholars. The main social inscription in this myth is the need for a male heir in a patriarchal society and the inevitable misogyny this creates.

• Kamen, Naturalized Desires and the Metamorphosis of Iphis. 39(1), 21.

Biblical Connection?

Iphis is the name used to refer to the daughter of Jephthah in early modern literature. Jephthah appears in the Book of Judges as a judge who presided over Israel for a period of six years (Judges 12:7). According to Judges, he lived in Gilead. His father’s name is also given as Gilead, and, as his mother is described as a prostitute, this may indicate that his father might have been any of the men of that area. Jephthah led the Israelites in battle against Ammon and, in exchange for defeating the Ammonites, made a vow to sacrifice whatever would come out of the door of his house first. When his daughter was the first to come out of the house, he immediately regretted the vow, which bound him to sacrifice his daughter to God. Jephthah carried out his vow.

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jephthah This page lists a couple of possible origins and names includingL
  • Sella
    • Philip Alexander (1988), “Retelling the Old Testament”, in It Is Written: Scripture Citing Scripture, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Cambridge.
    • Frederick Murphy (1993), Pseudo-Philo: Rewriting the Bible, New York: Oxford.
    • Pieter Van der Horst (1989), “Portraits of Biblical Women in Pseudo-Philo’s Liber Antiquitatum Biblicarum“, Journal for the Study of Pseudepigrapha, 5, 29–46, at 42.
    • Chrysostom. “Homily 14 on the Statues”. Church fathers. New advent.
  • Adah
    • The Builder: A Journal for the Masonic Student. 1922.
• Bohmbach, Karla (2009). “Daughter of Jephthah: Bible”. Jewish Women’s Archive.

The story of Jephthah’s daughter is also sometimes compared to that of Agamemnon‘s daughter Iphigenia. In his play Jephthas sive votum – Jeptha or the Vow, the Scottish scholar and dramatist George Buchanan (1506–1582) called Jephthah’s daughter “Iphis”, obviously alluding to Iphigenia, and Handel‘s 1751 oratorio, Jephtha, based on Buchanan’s play, uses the same name.

• Debora Kuller Shuger, The Renaissance Bible: Scholarship, Sacrifice, and Subjectivity, 1998, page 136
• George Buchanan, Sacred Dramas

Miscellaneous Notes

Another page says Iphis is the name of eight characters in Greek mythology and was attributed to the following individuals in Greek mythology.

The feminine name Iphis refers to the following personages.

• Iphis, daughter of Ligdus and Telethusa. Iphis was raised male and eventually transformed into a man by the goddess Isis in order to marry Ianthe, daughter of Telestes.
  • Ovid, Metamorphoses 9.666–797
• Iphis, as recounted in Homer‘s Iliad, was the slave of Patroclus, Achilles‘ companion-in-arms. A native of Scyros, she had been enslaved by Achilles when the latter conquered her home island, and given by him to Patroclus. Pausanias describes a painting of Iphis, Diomede and Briseis admiring Helen‘s beauty as the latter has been brought back to the Greek camp from the sacked Troy.
  • Homer, Iliad 9.667
  • Pausanias, 10.25.4
• Iphis, a Thespian princess as one of the 50 daughters of King Thespius and Megamede or by one of his many wives. When Heracles hunted and ultimately slayed the Cithaeronian lion, Iphis with her other sisters, except for one, all laid with the hero in a night, a week or for 50 days as what their father strongly desired it to be. Iphis bore Heracles a son, Celeustanor.
  • Apollodorus, 2.4.10; Tzetzes, Chiliades 2.222
  • Diodorus Siculus, 4.29.2
  • Apollodorus, 2.4.9
  • Pausanias, 9.27.6; Diodorus Siculus, 4.29.3, f.n. 51
  • Pausanias, 9.27.6–7; Gregorius Nazianzenus, Orat. IV, Contra Julianum I (Migne S. Gr. 35.661)
  • Athenaeus, 13.4 with Herodorus as the authority; Diodorus Siculus, 4.29.3, f.n. 51
  • Apollodorus, 2.4.10; Diodorus Siculus, 4.29.3; Tzetzes, Chiliades 2.224
  • Apollodorus, 2.4.10; Diodorus Siculus, 4.29.3
  • Apollodorus, 2.7.8
• Iphis, daughter of Peneus, mother of Salmoneus by Aeolus, the son of Hellen.
  • Hellanicus in scholia on Plato, Symposium 208 (p. 376)
• Iphis, variant for Iphigenia or Iphianassa.
  • Tzetzes on Lycophron, 323–324; Etymologicum Magnum s.v. Amphis

The masculine name Iphis refers to the following personages.

• Iphis, in Ovid’s Metamorphoses, was a Cypriot shepherd who loved a woman named Anaxarete. Anaxarete scorned him and Iphis killed himself in despair. Because Anaxarete was still unmoved, Aphrodite changed her to stone.
  • Ovid, Metamorphoses 14.802
• Iphis, son of Alector, was one of the kings in Argos. Polynices came to him for advice on how to get Amphiaraus to join the Seven against Thebes. He advised him to give Eriphyle the necklace of Harmonia. He was the father of Eteoclus, Evadne (wife of Capaneus) and Laodice (mother of Capaneus). He left his kingdom to his grandson Sthenelus, the son of his son-in-law Capaneus.
  • Apollodorus, 3.6.2; 3.6.3 & 3.7.1
  • Scholia on Euripides, Phoenissae 189; on Pindar, Nemean Ode 9.30
  • Pausanias, 2.18.5
• Iphis or Iphitus, one of the Argonauts, son of Sthenelus and brother of Eurystheus, from Argos. He was killed in battle in Colchis by Aeetes.
  • Diodorus Siculus, 4.48.4
  • Scholia on Apollonius Rhodius, 4.223 & 228; Valerius Flaccus, 1.41 & 7.407
• Iphis, one of the defenders of Thebes in the war of the Seven against Thebes. He was killed by Acamas.
  • Statius, Thebaid 8.445
• Iphis, father of Ligdus (see above).

In popular culture

• The 17th-century publisher Humphrey Moseley once claimed to possess a manuscript of a play based on the Iphis and Ianthe story, by William Shakespeare. Scholars have treated the claim with intense skepticism; the play has not survived.^{[citation needed]}
• Ali Smith‘s 2007 novel Girl Meets Boy is based on Ovid’s story of Iphis and Ianthe, and is part of the Canongate Myth Series.
• The Mechanisms’ 2013 album Tales To Be Told features a song called “Iphis” based on the story of Iphis and Ianthe.
• Liberty of London has fabric and leatherwork patterns named after both Iphis and Ianthe.
• Iphis, an opera by Elena Kats-Chernin
• Iphis et Iante, a comedy by Isaac de Benserade 1637

In biology

• Iphis monarch, a species of bird
• Aleuron iphis, a species of moth
• Iphis casalis, a species of mite
• Coenonympha iphis, a species of butterfly
• Ogyris iphis, a species of butterfly in the genus Ogyris
• Culex iphis, a species of mosquito, see List of Culex species
• Pyrrochalcia iphis, a species of skippers in the genus Pyrrhochalcia

See also

• Leucippus of Crete, Greek mythological character, transformed into a man by the goddess Leto

Note

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Iphis and Ianthe.

1. Ovid. Metamorphoses, Section 9, Line 4-10.
2. Ovid. Metamorphoses, Section 9, Line 13-21.
3. Ovid. Metamorphoses, Section 9, Line 21-27.
4. Ovid. Metamorphoses, Section 9, Line 28-53.
5. Ovid. Metamorphoses, Section 9, Line 58-69.
6. Ovid. Metamorphoses, Section 9, Line 92-151.
7. Ovid. Metamorphoses, Section 9, Line 73-84.
8. Ovid. Metamorphoses, Section 9, Line 154-162.
9. Ovid. Metamorphoses, Section 9, Line 163-179.
10. Ovid. Metamorphoses, Section 9, Line 180-194.
11. Ovid. Metamorphoses, Section 9, Line 203-206.
12. Antoninus Liberalis, The Metamorphoses of Antoninus Liberalis translated by Francis Celoria (Routledge 1992). Section 17.
13. Kamen, Naturalized Desires and the Metamorphosis of Iphis. 39(1), 21.
14. Ovid, Metamorphoses 9.666–797
15. Homer, Iliad 9.667
16. Pausanias, 10.25.4
17. Apollodorus, 2.4.10; Tzetzes, Chiliades 2.222
18. Diodorus Siculus, 4.29.2
19. Apollodorus, 2.4.9
20. Pausanias, 9.27.6; Diodorus Siculus, 4.29.3, f.n. 51
21. Pausanias, 9.27.6–7; Gregorius Nazianzenus, Orat. IV, Contra Julianum I (Migne S. Gr. 35.661)
22. Athenaeus, 13.4 with Herodorus as the authority; Diodorus Siculus, 4.29.3, f.n. 51
23. Apollodorus, 2.4.10; Diodorus Siculus, 4.29.3; Tzetzes, Chiliades 2.224
24. Apollodorus, 2.4.10; Diodorus Siculus, 4.29.3
25. Apollodorus, 2.7.8
26. Hellanicus in scholia on Plato, Symposium 208 (p. 376)
27. Tzetzes on Lycophron, 323–324; Etymologicum Magnum s.v. Amphis
28. Ovid, Metamorphoses 14.802
29. Apollodorus, 3.6.2; 3.6.3 & 3.7.1
30. Scholia on Euripides, Phoenissae 189; on Pindar, Nemean Ode 9.30
31. Pausanias, 2.18.5
32. Diodorus Siculus, 4.48.4
33. Scholia on Apollonius Rhodius, 4.223 & 228; Valerius Flaccus, 1.41 & 7.407
34. Statius, Thebaid 8.445
35. Ovid, Metamorphoses 9.709

References

• Publius Ovidius Naso, Metamorphoses translated by Brookes More (1859-1942). Boston, Cornhill Publishing Co. 1922. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
• Publius Ovidius Naso, Metamorphoses. Hugo Magnus. Gotha (Germany). Friedr. Andr. Perthes. 1892. Latin text available at the Perseus Digital Library.
• Apollodorus, The Library with an English Translation by Sir James George Frazer, F.B.A., F.R.S. in 2 Volumes, Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1921. ISBN 0-674-99135-4. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library. Greek text available from the same website.
• Athenaeus of Naucratis, The Deipnosophists or Banquet of the Learned. London. Henry G. Bohn, York Street, Covent Garden. 1854. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
• Athenaeus of Naucratis, Deipnosophistae. Kaibel. In Aedibus B.G. Teubneri. Lipsiae. 1887. Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library.
• Diodorus Siculus, The Library of History translated by Charles Henry Oldfather. Twelve volumes. Loeb Classical Library. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann, Ltd. 1989. Vol. 3. Books 4.59–8. Online version at Bill Thayer’s Web Site
• Diodorus Siculus, Bibliotheca Historica. Vol 1-2. Immanel Bekker. Ludwig Dindorf. Friedrich Vogel. in aedibus B. G. Teubneri. Leipzig. 1888-1890. Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library.
• Gaius Valerius Flaccus, Argonautica translated by Mozley, J H. Loeb Classical Library Volume 286. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1928. Online version at theio.com.
• Gaius Valerius Flaccus, Argonauticon. Otto Kramer. Leipzig. Teubner. 1913. Latin text available at the Perseus Digital Library.
• Homer, The Iliad with an English Translation by A.T. Murray, Ph.D. in two volumes. Cambridge, MA., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1924. ISBN 978-0674995796. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
• Homer, Homeri Opera in five volumes. Oxford, Oxford University Press. 1920. ISBN 978-0198145318. Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library.
• Pausanias, Description of Greece with an English Translation by W.H.S. Jones, Litt.D., and H.A. Ormerod, M.A., in 4 Volumes. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1918. ISBN 0-674-99328-4. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library
• Pausanias, Graeciae Descriptio. 3 vols. Leipzig, Teubner. 1903. Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library.
• Publius Papinius Statius, The Thebaid translated by John Henry Mozley. Loeb Classical Library Volumes. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1928. Online version at the Topos Text Project.
• Publius Papinius Statius, The Thebaid. Vol I-II. John Henry Mozley. London: William Heinemann; New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons. 1928. Latin text available at the Perseus Digital Library.
• Tzetzes, John, Book of Histories, Book II-IV translated by Gary Berkowitz from the original Greek of T. Kiessling’s edition of 1826. Online version at theio.com
• Finkelstein, Israel (2016), The Old Jephthah Tale in Judges: Geographical and Historical Considerations, vol. 97, Biblical Studies on the Web
• Bonnard, A. (1945) Iphigénie à Aulis, Tragique et Poésie, Museum Helveticum, Basel, v.2, pp. 87–107
• Croisille, J-M (1963) Le sacrifice d’Iphigénie dans l’art romain et la littérature latine, Latomus, Brussels, v. 22 pp. 209–25
• Decharme, P. “Iphigenia” In: C. d’Auremberg and E. Saglio, Dictionnaire des Antiquités Grecques et Romaines v.3 (1ère partie), pp. 570–72 (1877–1919)
• Evans, Bergen (1970). Dictionary of Mythology. New York: Dell Publishing. ISBN 0-440-20848-3.
• Graves, Robert (1955) The Greek Myths, Penguin, London, pp. 73–75
• Jouan, F. (1966) “Le Rassemblement d’Aulis et le Sacrifice d’Iphigénie”, In: ______, Euripide et les Légendes des Chants Cypriens, Les Belles Lettres, Pris, pp. 73–75
• Kahil, L. (1991) “Le sacrifice d’Iphigénie” in: Mélanges de l’École française de Rome, Antiquité, Rome, v. 103 pp. 183–96
• Kerenyi, Karl (1959) The Heroes of the Greeks, Thames and Hudson, London and New York, pp. 331–36 et passim
• Kjelleberg, L. (1916) “Iphigenia” In: A.F. Pauly and G. Wissowa, Real-Encyclopädie der Classischen Altertumswissenschaft, J.B. Metzler, Stuttgart, v. 9, pp. 2588–622
• Lloyd-Jones, H. (1983) “Artemis and Iphigenia”, Journal of Hellenic Studies 103, pp. 87–102
• Nelson, T.J. (2022) ‘Iphigenia in the Iliad and the Architecture of Homeric Allusion’, TAPA 152, 55-101.
• Peck, Harry (1898) “Iphigenia” in Harper’s Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, Harper and Brothers, New York
• Séchen, L. (1931) “Le Sacrifice d’Iphigénie”, Revue des Études Grecques, Paris, pp. 368–426
• West, M.L. (1985) The Hesiodic Catlogue of Women, The Clarendon Press, Oxford

Categories: 

• Metamorphoses into the opposite sex in Greek mythology
• Metamorphoses characters
• Cretan characters in Greek mythology
• Characters in Roman mythology
• Transgender topics and mythology
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• Princesses in Greek mythology
• Women of Heracles
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