Happy Pride Month, mythology fans!
To start off the month of June, I present instances of homosexuality, gender non-conformity, intersexuality, asexuality, and agenderism in world mythology.
In both Chinese and Aztec mythology, the deities Tu'er Shen and Xochipilli oversee same-sex relationships.
Some scholars believe that the friendships between Gilgamesh and Enkidu in Mesoptamian myth, Achilles and Patrolcus in Homer's Iliad, and David (of "and Goliath" fame) and Jonathan in the Bible might be homosexual relationships.
Though Zeus (the king of the Greek gods in world mythology) usually has his affairs with females, he once had a fling with a mortal male named Ganymede.
This would make Zeus bisexual.
The goddesses Athena and Artemis are both strictly asexual.
In their eyes, even seeing them in all their Greek goddess glory is a dire offense punishable by a curse.
Loki, the Norse god of mischief, once shapeshifted into a mare and distracted a stallion to save Freya from the clutches of the builder of the Asgard wall.
Loki later gave birth to Sleipnir, Odin's eight-legged steed.
Lan Caihe, one of the Eight Immortals of Chinese myth, is said to be genderfluid...as is Inari, the Japanese god of rice.
In Hinduism, the wives of otherwise male deities are considered their female aspects.
The Abrahamic God too has a female aspect, known as Shekinah.
The Greek myth of Hermaphroditos (and his unfortunate encounter with the nymph Salmacis) explains the origin of intersex people...as well as how the term "hermaphrodite" originated.
Intersex creator deities also show up in world mythology...such as the Aztec Ometeotl, the Zuni Awonawilona from the Southwestern U.S.A., and Mawu-Lisa from the Fon people of Benin, a country in West Africa.
Mari, the Great Goddess of Basque mythology, has two children named Atarrabi and Mikelats.
It is unknown if Mikelats is male or female...but my interpretation is that Mikelatis is neither.
Ultimately, this grand compliation shows that people who are not cisgender, heterosexual, or biologically male or female have always existed all over the world across human history.
I first learned about intersex people in high school biology class when I was 16.
I learned about intersex conditions such as Klinefelter syndrome and Turner syndrome.
When I went to college, I learned of the existence of third-gender categories in different cultures such as the Native American two-spirits, the Indian hijras, and the Samoan fa'afafines.
Although most mythological love stories all over world mythology revolve around opposite-sex relationships, I find it a breath of fresh air to know that same-sex relationships are also a thing in mythology.
Fun Fact:
The word "lesbian" comes from the Ancient Greek female poet Sappho of Lesbos, known for her erotic poetry revolving around women.
After I have performed some some soul-searching of my own, I have found that I myself might be asexual, given that I have no interest in sexual relationships.
As the weather gets hot in the north of the world, I wish you all a happy Northern Hemisphere temperate summer/Southern Hemisphere temperate winter/tropical wet season/Arctic light season/Antarctic dark season.
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