Caeneus - Tumblr Posts
This whole discussion about Caeneus (AKA the Trans Hero of Greek Mythology) reminded me of a famous romanian fairy tale. It's called "Ileana Sînziana" (usually translated in English as The Princess Who Would be a Prince, Iliane of the Golden Tresses or Helena Goldengarland) and it's about the youngest daughter of an emperor who then becomes a man and marries the princess from a neighboring kingdom.
If you don't believe me here's the Synopsis of the story:
The tale introduces an emperor with three daughters, who is sad that he didn't have a son. The oldest daughter goes to the emperor and asks him what problem he is having and tells him that she will go to serve another emperor as a soldier only to make him happy. Then the emperor makes a copper bridge and turns into a wolf. The oldest daughter gets scared and goes back to the palace. The same happens with the middle daughter, who also gets scared of the wolf. The youngest daughter goes on a journey with her father's old horse, and defeats him on three bridges, first as a wolf, then as a lion, then as a twelve-headed dragon. The girl arrives at the court of a "great and strong emperor" and he tells her to rescue Ileana Simziana, his daughter, who had been kidnapped by the giant. The youngest daughter rescues her, and the emperor asks her to retrieve his herd enchanted mares, the girl succeeds in this spree. Then Ileana Simziana asks the emperor's daughter to bring the Holy Water kept in a small church above the Jordan and guarded by nuns who neither slept in the day nor in the night. The girl succeeds but the monk who takes care of the church prays to God and asks him if the thief is a man to make him a woman and vice versa, so that the princess becomes a prince - Făt-Frumos (Prince Charming figure). Now a prince, He marries Ileana Simziana and they live happily ever after.
There are also lots of variants of this story in many balkan countries. Which is kinda ironic, considering the fact that many balkan countries are against or have negative views on gay people, let aside trans individuals. At this point I'm slowly starting to believe that reality is a multi-layered joke.
But hey, it’s interesting to see that many cultures have their own Caeneus in their mythology/folklore as well.
I've seen someone claiming not only that Kaos has good trans representation, but that Caeneus' relationship with Eurydice is everything.
I had for the first time in six months a suicidal ideation, after I thought that I'm over it. (Just kidding.)
