my excuse to infodump about history from 1850-1970, he/faun/prince/they/it 💙 18

51 posts

What's Your Favorite Color?

What's your favorite color?

Honestly i really love jewel tones and neutrals, but if I had to pick just one it'd be cerulean blue <: that or maybe something closer to navy

Thanks for the ask, dear /p

  • 1234mira
    1234mira liked this · 1 year ago
  • beetrootbug
    beetrootbug liked this · 1 year ago
  • the-sinkmire-symphony
    the-sinkmire-symphony liked this · 1 year ago

More Posts from Secretly-your-history-professor

give me more of an excuse to talk <:

Reblog If You Want More Interaction W Your Lovely Followers

reblog if you want more interaction w your lovely followers

yay ancient trans people <:

An Ancient Greek Transgender Person

We read this passage in class yesterday and I thought it might interest youse guys. The passage is from Lucian’s Dialogues of the Courtesans 5; it’s a discussion between Clonarium, a young man, and Leaena, a courtesan who had an unusual experience at a drinking party.

Eventually Megilla, being now rather heated, pulled off her wig, which was very realistic and fitted very closely, and revealed the skin of her head which was shaved close, just as on the most energetic of athletes. This sight gave me a shock, but she said, ‘Leaena, have you ever seen such a good-looking young fellow?’ ‘I don’t see one here, Megilla,’ said I. ‘Don’t make a woman out of me,’ said she. ‘My name is Megillus, and I’ve been married to Demonassa here for ever so long; she’s my wife.’ ‘Then, unknown to us, Megillus, you were a man all the time, just as they say Achilles once hid among the girls, and you have everything that a man has, and can play the part of a man to Demonassa?’ ‘I haven’t got what you mean,’ said she, ‘I don’t need it at all. You’ll find I have a much pleasanter method of my own.’ ‘You’re surely not a hermaphrodite,’ said I, ‘equipped both as a man and a woman, as many people are said to be?’; for I still didn’t know, Cleonarium, what it was all about. But she said, ‘No, Leaena, I’m all man.’ ‘Well,’ I said, ‘I’ve heard the Boeotian flute-girl, Ismenodora, repeating tales she’d heard at home, and telling us how someone at Thebes had turned from woman to man, someone who was also an excellent soothsayer, and was, I think, called Tiresias. That didn’t happen to you, did it?’ ‘No, Leaena,’ she said, ‘I was born a woman like the rest of you, but I have the mind and the desires and everything else of a man.’ ‘And do you find these desires enough?’ said I. ‘If you don’t believe me, Leaena,’ said she, ‘just give me a chance, and you’ll find I’m as good as any man; I have a substitute of my own. Only give me a chance, and you’ll see.’

Translation: M. D. Macleod, Loeb, 1961.

So Megilla - who, as a side note, is from Lesbos - was born a woman but identifies as a man, going by Megillus. Still, for some reason, they* disguise themselves as a woman. The whole situation is a bit confusing but the bolded bit is clear: Megilla/Megillus is, in modern terms, transgender.

Lucian’s Dialogues are fictional, but the fact he mentions a trans person speaks for their existence at the time. Remember that whenever people claim trans people are a recent phenomenon!

*I’m using they/them pronouns because it’s unclear exactly how they refer to themselves. Greek conjugated verbs are mostly non-gendered (so what the translation renders as ‘she said’ is actually ‘he/she/they said’), but there is one participle in the feminine (οὐδὲν ἐνδέουσάν με τῶν ἀνδρῶν, I’m as good as any man) despite Megilla/Megillus asking Leaena not to refer to them as a woman. So, unclear.


Tags :

update: did not die, was not fired, was in fact praised and said praise was passed to higher ups <:

next week im helping with a summer camp group

a little help please, students

slightly terrified for tomorrow

i volunteer at a battlefield and im giving my first tour of our field hospital all on my own tomorrow afternoon

i know my stuff but being autistic makes it kind of hard to properly articulate it without rambling on, especially since this is my special interest

any tips ?

In regards to the “wanna be nosy post”, 25, 31 and 44! (:

25. museum date, drive-in movie, or a nice dinner out <:

31. "hey honey, i don't think ill be able to make it, im sorry /:"- sent to my friend about a graduation party

44. up to 98% of civil war surgeries used anesthetic, most commonly chloroform or ether (chloroform was preferred though, because ether is very volatile and flammable).

Do u know anything about non-binary genders in non-modern history?

I do actually <: one of my favourite examples is Her Majesty the King, a pharaoh of ancient Egypt who took over after the death of her husband and was incredibly successful as a ruler. She changed her name to the male version and wore male regalia, but still used she/her pronouns. Most modern scholars refer to her as nonbinary or genderqueer. I can't for the life of me remember her real name right now, but if I do later I'll drop it in the comments.

Thank you for such an intelligent and interesting question dearest student /gen <:


Tags :