Queer mythology, p.1
Queer Mythology, page 1
Copyright © 2024 by Guido A. Sanchez
Interior and cover illustrations copyright © 2024 by James Fenner-Zuk
Cover copyright © 2024 by Hachette Book Group, Inc.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Sanchez, Guido A., author. | Fenner, James (Illustrator), illustrator.
Title: Queer mythology : epic legends from around the world / Guido A. Sanchez ; illustrated by James Fenner.
Description: First edition. | Philadelphia : RP | Teens, [2024] |
Audience: Ages 11 and up | Audience: Grades 7-9
Identifiers: LCCN 2023054412 (print) | LCCN 2023054413 (ebook) | ISBN 9780762487202 (hardcover) | ISBN 9780762487219 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Sexual minorities—Folklore—Juvenile literature. | Sexual minorities in literature—Juvenile literature.
Classification: LCC HQ76.26 .S36 2024 (print) | LCC HQ76.26 (ebook) | DDC 306.76/6—dc23/eng/20240102
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2023054412
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2023054413
ISBNs: 978-0-7624-8720-2 (hardcover), 978-0-7624-8721-9 (ebook)
E3-20240813-JV-NF-ORI
CONTENTS
COVER
TITLE PAGE
COPYRIGHT
DEDICATION
WE HAVE ALWAYS EXISTED: AN INTRODUCTION
Tu’er Shen Protects the Rabbits
Athena Gains Wisdom
Florinda’s Prayer
Lono and Kapa‘ihi Confront Pride and Pain
Achilles and Patroclus Discover Strength
Ghede Nibo Tells Untold Stories
Mawu-Lisa Creates Everything
Ananda’s Selfless Love
Hermes’s Gifts
Hi‘iaka and Wahine-Omao Seek Superheroic Adventure
Corydon Shepherds His Community
Fet-Fruners’s Blessed Curse
David and Jonathan Anchor Each Other
Hyacinthus and Apollo Accept Love and Loss
Lakapati Cultivates Prosperity
Lan Caihe and Their Jade Castanets
Philoctetes and Hercules Hold On
Sedna Finds Freedom in the Water
Xochipilli Celebrates Beauty and Pleasure
Loki Defies Rigid Boundaries
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
DISCOVER MORE
PRAISE FOR QUEER MYTHOLOGY
To everyone who has ever inspired,
nurtured, and supported my own
love of stories, or that of anyone else.
And especially to the person who,
all those years ago, let me bargain for
as many library books as I could fit in
a shopping bag: my mother, Helen.
And to my journey partner through
the omniverse of stories and life: Rob.
Explore book giveaways, sneak peeks, deals, and more.
Tap here to learn more.
WE HAVE ALWAYS EXISTED
AN INTRODUCTION
This book is about you. Stories are a part of who we are. As humans, we love creating and listening to stories. This love is part of us and always has been. And stories are incredibly powerful. They help us to make meaning from and understand the things that we feel and experience. Stories are a part of our identities, and we are a part of stories.
Some of our biggest and oldest stories are myths. Myths may try to explain things that seem like they cannot be explained, but there is more to myths. There is something that connects us to these stories underneath the tales of why and how: the feelings they express.
Mythological stories have been around for thousands of years because we connect with them and feel something when we read them. We relate to the characters and the trouble they get into. We might find that the imperfect god in the story is trying to make sense of a hard time, just like we are. Or we may see the mortals in these stories who are struggling to fit into the world, and that makes us feel seen. These stories show us something about who we are and who we want to be.
And in all these myths, there is—and has always been—queerness. None of the stories retold here have been significantly changed. They are being told now, in this moment, through my voice. But every single myth included in this book—plus many others, enough for whole other volumes—has a queer identity in it. Characters in countless myths are gay, lesbian, bisexual, pansexual, asexual, transgender, intersex, gender nonconforming, two-spirit, non-binary, and other LGBTQIA+ identities.
These identities reflect us, and they also reflect the people during the times the stories were first told. Queer people were part of every community. Some of the older myths are more than five thousand years old, and queer people are a part of them, even if labels, language, or definitions may have changed over time. What has always been true is proven true again by these stories: we have always existed.
In these twenty stories, I have kept the central parts of the myths—the “facts” about the fictional tales, if you will—true to the originals. Each myth has had many retellings over time. Sometimes each retelling adds or changes pieces, so I combined those with as many of the original parts as are known.
Sometimes when classic myths and stories are retold, identities are erased. For many myths, when some culture or group of people got a hold of the story, they began to remove aspects or reshape elements, or they tried to erase the story entirely. Even in modern myths and stories, there are people who are rendered invisible. But just as queer people have survived throughout time, these stories have persisted. Some of these myths have not been widely known for thousands of years. Others are myths that you may think you know but have more to learn about, particularly in the way queerness is a part of the story.
I chose to retell these stories you hold in your hands because of my own relationship to stories. I love stories; each and every day stories take up space in my mind and heart. I have always treasured myths. Not just classical myths, but also modern myths and true historic tales that read as myths. I am (and have nearly always been) an avid reader of comics and watcher of cinema and television, constantly looking at how stories get told and how they affect me and others around me. As a queer person, I can trace throughout my entire life the connections I made to stories because I saw myself in them. These connections were not just around queer identities, but that always added power to stories that I already found important.
I have many hopes for you, readers. I hope that no matter who you are, you can relate to each story in some way. And I hope that you are inspired to go out and learn more about each of these myths, or the countless others there are. (Be careful, though; mythology has a lot of trauma and violence embedded in it!)
Most importantly, I hope that everyone goes out and shares the myths that matter to them—that reveal something about who they are. Perhaps these are stories that you create, or perhaps you find other ancient stories to cherish. Perhaps you like true tales of history and seek out ways people with less visible identities start to show up in the stories we thought we knew. Or maybe you just keep returning to these stories here, sharing them far and wide, out loud (like the oral traditions of yore) or in print with the book you have in your hand now!
TU’ER SHEN PROTECTS THE RABBITS
The myth of the rabbit god, who protects and safeguards queer love (particularly that of gay men), originates in the 1600s, or earlier, in China. Worship of the rabbit deity was illegal starting in the 1700s, though the myth was revitalized more recently, with temples celebrating the deity.
Hu Tianbao was a young man who lived his whole life in the same village. With his hair as black as the night sky, a constant smile across his slender face, and a sparkle in his eyes, he’d go out every day to explore the world around him.
Everyone in his community—his family, his teachers, his friends, and his neighbors—knew Hu Tianbao for his most treasured pastime: he loved learning. He took in all the sights, sounds, and feelings around him. To him, these observations were more than just information—they were feelings tha
Each day, Hu Tianbao strolled from the library to the park. He was always looking for something. Every single time, he was searching. He looked for new places and new people. Or sometimes he’d notice how the same old places and the same old people would change around him. Sometimes the light hit a house differently, or the wind made a tree a whole new shape.
And in the bright-green grass in the central park, Hu Tianbao always found his favorite thing. Inevitably, a pointed ear sticking up, with the other flopped over, would emerge from the tall grass. It was a rabbit.
Hu Tianbao watched as many bright-white rabbits hopped up and down the hill—small rabbits, large rabbits, rabbits of all sizes. Some kept to themselves, while others huddled together. Some were still, staring around or wiggling their noses as they munched on some tiny shreds of grass. Others were actively hopping from place to place, dotting the hill as they moved about. Hu Tianbao’s curious mind flitted like these rabbits—moving from rabbit to rabbit, idea to idea, place to place, person to person.
“Why do you like watching the rabbits so much, Hu Tianbao?” his friends would ask.
“They are agile, they are cunning, and they are friendly,” he answered.
“But why is it that they fascinate you with their agility and their cunning?” they’d reply.
“They keep themselves safe. These beautiful, kind creatures in their quick movements are almost always free from danger. And their crafty, clever ways keep them and their families—even the rabbits that are not their relatives—all protected.”
One day, as Hu Tianbao left the library to head to the park, he noticed something different emerge in his view: a visitor making regular stops in the village. The visitor was an inspector wearing a drab dark-blue uniform and carrying around a plain black satchel for his papers. Each week he visited to examine different parts of the village, then report back to the emperor.
Hu Tianbao became fascinated with what the inspector was learning during his trips. “What could I learn from him about the village?” he wondered. So Hu Tianbao sought out the inspector on each of his visits. And just as he found the white rabbits bouncing up the hill, he began to see this man bouncing around the neighborhoods, albeit with smaller ears! And he began to see the inspector as beautiful. He began to care for him, from afar, and wonder more about him.
Hu Tianbao found the inspector intriguing and attractive. He needed to learn everything about him he could. Every time the inspector—with his mesmerizing dark eyes and sharp, square jaw—came to visit, Hu Tianbao felt more jitters.
The feeling—the “jitters”—was the flutter of love growing inside him. His attraction grew and grew. His stomach felt like the pitter-patter of rabbits’ feet hopping all over. And Hu Tianbao loved the feeling.
One day, while Hu Tianbao was watching the bunnies flitting around the green hills they so loved, he lost track of the inspector. But this time, the inspector had noticed Hu Tianbao, and he approached him with a scowl.
“Who are you and why do you watch me so?” asked the inspector.
“You fascinate me,” replied Hu Tianbao.
“Why?” the cold, stern man demanded.
“You love learning and investigating, as do I. I feel lucky to have met you, almost like I have a lucky rabbit’s foot, which I would never have because rabbits need their feet! And when I see you, I get these feelings—” continued Hu Tianbao.
The inspector cut him off and went back to the central city, far, far away from Hu Tianbao’s village. The next day Hu Tianbao was arrested. The inspector had alerted the city officials to this exchange. At this time, in this place, these feelings were not allowed to be shared. Hu Tianbao was sentenced to death for his feelings. Even Hu Tianbao could not understand why this was happening. This situation was fueled by the one thing beyond his learning: hate.
Hu Tianbao was tragically killed because of his feelings. As his spirit descended to the underworld, Hu Tianbao was sure his story was not over. He knew that his time learning, exploring, caring, and protecting could not be over.
The underworld was abuzz upon Hu Tianbao’s arrival. The other spirits—the ones who had been there the longest—had gathered. This council of the underworld nicknamed Hu Tianbao “Rabbit” because they knew of his curiosity. They saw his agility and understood the pitter-patter of love he experienced.
“Rabbit,” they said, “you think you do not belong here. Why is that?”
“It was for my love that my life was taken, and it is for love that I will continue to fight,” said Hu Tianbao.
The other spirits were confused. People weren’t supposed to arrive in the underworld wishing to live. The spirits also worried about an injustice; no one was supposed to die in this manner.
“We can fix this,” said one.
“We have to repair this,” said another.
“Rabbit has more to do.”
“He can protect others.”
Suddenly, far away from the village Hu Tianbao lived and died in, a young villager had a peculiar dream. The young villager, a teenager, had just begun to feel his own jitters when he was with a friend at school. In his dream, he saw a rabbit. The rabbit was a beautiful white creature, with a sparkle in his eyes, hopping along a green hill. It was Hu Tianbao, or Tu’er Shen, the rabbit god, as the spirits called him now.
“I will protect you,” said Tu’er Shen in the young villager’s dream. “I will protect your love. Live in the world as you are. Fall in love and feel love. I will protect your affections. Know that I am here for you.”
Since that dream occurred, anyone who felt affection of a queer nature could call upon Tu’er Shen. As the rabbits used their speed, agility, and cunning to protect themselves and one another from danger, Tu’er Shen would protect those who felt a love that was not accepted in the world.
ATHENA GAINS WISDOM
Athena is one of the most written about and well-known ancient Greek mythological characters. As an oral tradition, her stories existed well before the eighth century BCE. But Athena is not well-known for her romantic relationships, a trait all too common in stories of strong, independent female characters, and so her queer loves are rarely part of her mythology.
Athena had a lot going for her as the goddess of—among other things—wisdom. But wisdom and emotion do not always work in sync, and Athena had yet to realize this. In fact, on more than one occasion Athena’s feelings interfered with her ability to be the wisest of beings, mortal or goddess.
Many stories were told about Athena’s birth. They varied, but common among them was that she was born fully grown, which is why she was known for her wisdom. She simply knew what she needed to know. Athena’s wisdom was highly revered, and her sense of strategy also made her the goddess of war. However, never one for needless conflict, she always strategized to resolve wars and bring about peace and, most important of all, justice. It was a constant balance for her.
Tragically—and perhaps ironically—the wisdom she used to guide so many others was not something she could readily apply to herself. Being wise and having life experience are two different things, and perhaps the lack of the challenges every other growing person goes through led her to make mistakes.
Athena fell in love with Myrmex, a maiden from Attica, who was also known throughout the land as one of the wisest mortals. Athena was always searching for someone who matched even a fraction of her own great wisdom. In this way, Myrmex was more than a match. Athena also found Myrmex physically beautiful, with a round figure and curly brown hair that framed her cherubic face. The two began a relationship, and Myrmex was deeply beloved by the goddess.
Athena also greatly admired Myrmex’s passion for farming and her need to see everyone from her community properly fed. Myrmex’s wisdom guided her toward such goodness, as she was always thinking about the ends before the means. But Myrmex wasn’t all wisdom and altruism; she had a real trickster streak as well. Once Myrmex told some villagers that she was responsible for their good harvest, even though Athena knew this was not the case.
Athena and Myrmex wanted very much to help even more people get enough food, so they started to experiment with different ways of improving agricultural growth. Demeter, the goddess of the harvest, was responsible for the crops, but Athena wanted to go a step further to aid her love and their people. So Athena created the plow, sharing the important agricultural innovation with Myrmex so that all the crops could be harvested in greater quantities, ensuring everyone was fed well.
