Writers: When Writing About Mythological Gender/Sex

 

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Remember that in most traditions, the Deities/Gods are pansexual for a variety of reasons:

1. They were the first beings at or before the creation of the universe. In order for the creation to make sense, the deities need to be flexible in a multiplicity of forms and that includes sex and gender.

2. Deities are metaphysical representation of concrete and abstract concepts. Most deities represent both a Chthonic  (an earth/nature) aspect as well as an aspect of civilization. So deities of fertility, love, and sex embody multiple aspects of human gender/sexuality.

3. They are metaphysical beings that simply do NOT conform (although they tend to enforce) gender/sexual norms.

4. Sexual norms change over time and are different from culture to culture in ways that do not fit the Victorian/Modern/Western ideas/ideals of sex and gender. Some cultures practiced prostitution as part of religious rituals, others allowed and even encouraged homosexual behavior on the part of the young adults and yes even pedophilia (as disgusting as it is to us, for obvious reasons). Sexual mores do not follow a straight line of decline/improvement, they simply reflect the realities of any given society at any given time.

5. Also remember that all mythology is, for a lack of better term, fan fiction. We only have the accounts from second, third and even fourth hand writers and those writings will reflect contradicting concepts based on the those writing the surviving accounts.

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