“... and She became a Man”: Sexual Metamorphosis in Phlegon of Tralles’ {Mirabilia}
“... and She became a Man”: Sexual Metamorphosis in Phlegon of Tralles’ {Mirabilia}

Summary/Abstract: This paper is devoted to the motif of spontaneous sex change which appears several times in Phlegon of Tralles’ {Mirabilia}. The reports cited by the author concern mythical characters (Teiresias, Kainis) as well as historical (or allegedly historical) figures.All of these reports present female to male transformations, with exception of the myth of Teiresias who underwent a reverse metamorphosis. Each account has been truncated by the author and limited to the mere episode of the sex change; none of these stories have been annotated or explained. This indicates that the author tries to focus his readers’ attention only on the elements of the marvelous and supernatural in order to astonish them. This fact proves that {Mirabilia}, which are a literary collection of oddities, may be regarded as a part of a wider cultural phenomenon – a general demand for anomalies and curiosities observed in Phlegon’s times.

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