Siproites

 ( Metamorphoses Into The Opposite Sex In Greek Mythology ) 

In Greek mythology, Siproites ( ; ), also romanized as Siproetes or Siproeta, is the name of a minor Crete hero, a hunter who saw the goddess Artemis naked while she was bathing and was then transformed into a woman as punishment, paralleling the story of the hunter Actaeon. Siproites' very brief story only survives in the works of Antoninus Liberalis; if any larger narrative concerning him existed, it has been lost.

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Etymology The origin of Siproites' name is hard to pin down. Carnoy suggested a derivation from the word σιπαλός meaning "ugly, coarse" but this etymology is rather unlikely. Höfer meanwhile proposed that the si- syllable is a dialectal form for θεός, "god". Carnoy taking this further alternatively suggested "he who advances towards the gods".

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Mythology The Cretan Siproites, while hunting, saw Artemis bathing naked; in response to the offence, the virgin goddess turned him into a woman. The myth is only narrated in a single line of a total of twelve words in the original Greek:

The full story of Siproites has been lost to time; the above passage is all that remains, as Antoninus Liberalis alone preserves the tale in a brief and obscure reference, and that within the context of an altogether different myth in which a Cretan woman named Galatea lists various occasions of gods changing the sex of mortals while begging the goddess Leto to change her daughter Leucippus into a boy, fearing her husband Lamprus's (who had been told that their child was a son) reaction should he find out the truth.

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Symbolism This sex-change tale shares some similarities with the myth of the goddess Athena blinding a man named Tiresias for seeing her naked, as well as the story of Actaeon, who saw Artemis naked and was transformed into a stag that was hunted down and devoured by his own hunting dogs; it has been noted that in comparison to Actaeon, Artemis was rather lenient toward Siproites for what was the same offence. The sex-reversal story brings its hero Siproites into line with several other male hunters and soldiers who were emasculated by a goddess, both literally and metaphorically, such as Attis and Orion.

In Greek mythology, female-to-male transformation is treated as a positive outcome and a solution to a problem, whereas the opposite situation where a man is transformed into a woman (which is the case for Siproites and Tiresias) is presented as a negative experience, synonymous with distress and punishment.

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See also Other people who had their sex changed by the gods include:

• Caeneus
• Leucippus
• Iphis
• Tiresias
• Calydon, who was petrified for seeing Artemis naked

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Notes

• Antoninus Liberalis, The Metamorphoses of Antoninus Liberalis, translated by Francis Celoria (Routledge 1992). Online version at topos text.
• Francis Celoria (1992). 9780415068963, Routledge. . ISBN 9780415068963
• Joseph Eddy Fontenrose (1981). 9780520096325, University of California Press. . ISBN 9780520096325
• Paul M. C. Forbes Irving (1990). 9780198147305, Oxford University Press, Clarendon Press. . ISBN 9780198147305
• Robin Hard (2026). 9780415186360, Psychology Press. . ISBN 9780415186360

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