Many people who only encounter the Greek and Roman myths as children never learn just how weird some of them are. In the versions told to young people, the gods can be capricious and cruel, but the darker aspects of their actions are often hidden. Zeus’s sexual conquests alone could fill a book with bizarre forms of assault.

Yet there is another aspect of the old myths and legends that is also often left out—their homosexual and transgender themes. The Greeks and Romans were a lot less squeamish about sex than we tend to be, and they celebrated it in all its forms. Here are ten myths from the ancient world with gay and trans stories to tell.

10 Karpos And Kalamos

In Nonnus of Panopolis’s epic poem the Dionysiaca is the sad tale of Karpos and Kalamos, two young boys in love. Kalamos was a handsome youth who lived by the river Meander—in fact, he was the son of the god who lived in the river. While Kalamos was quick and athletic, his friend Karpos was more attractive than any mortal. Together, the two would play and gambol along the riverbank. When they raced on land, Kalamos let Karpos win by pretending to stumble. When they had a swimming race, however, things went dreadfully wrong.^[1]

Kalamos again held back so that his beloved could win. When a jealous wind drove a wave into Karpos’s mouth, he was washed under and drowned, leaving a heartbroken Kalamos to swim to shore and cry out for him. In anguish, he offered himself up as a sacrifice, saying, “I cannot see the light for one later dawn without Karpos. Karpos and Kalamos had one life, and both one watery death for both together in the same stream.”

Saying that, Kalamos dove into the water and drowned himself. Though he died, his body was transformed into reeds. Wherever reeds are found beside water, you will hear the sound of sighing as they brush against each other, and that is the sound of Kalamos lamenting his lost love.

9 Hyacinthus

There are two versions of the death of the Greek hero Hyacinthus in myth, and both involve same-sex love.

In the first, the god Apollo falls in love with Hyacinthus, a prince of Sparta, because the boy is so handsome and quick. The two lovers, mortal and immortal, would often go hunting together in the mountains.^[2] One day “when the youth and Apollo were well stripped, and gleaming with rich olive oil, they tried a friendly contest with the discus.” Apollo cast the discus up into the clouds, and Hyacinthus raced after it to show his speed. Instead of Hyacinthus catching it, the discus caught the boy full in the face and killed him. Apollo mourned his lover and commanded the hyacinth flower to grow in memory of him.

The second version of the myth tells the same story, but it is no mere accident that slays Hyacinthus. The West Wind, Zephyrus, was also a lover of the boy but had been spurned for Apollo. Unable to contain his anger at being rejected, the god of the wind blew Apollo’s discus at Hyacinthus. If he couldn’t have Hyacinthus, then no one could.

8 Tiresias

Tiresias is a figure who turns up in many Greek myths. According to legend, he was a skilled soothsayer who could predict the future with uncanny accuracy. In some stories, he was struck blind for his prophecies by the gods, who felt he was stepping on their territory, but there is another tradition.

One day while walking on Mount Cyllene, Tiresias came across two snakes mating. For whatever reason, he struck them with a stick. This upset Hera, queen of the gods, and she “punished” Tiresias by transforming him into a woman. Tiresias now went about her life as a woman—even marrying and having children.^[3] Apparently untroubled by this gender-swap, Tiresias spent seven years as a woman before returning to the spot where he had injured the snakes to see if she could become a man again. Hera relented, and Tiresias underwent a second transformation.

Unfortunately, his time as a woman would cause Tiresias greater problems. One day, Zeus and Hera argued about whether women or men had more pleasure during sex. There was only one person who could say for sure, so they asked Tiresias. Tiresias said that women had ten times more fun during sex than men, which was not the answer Hera wanted, so she struck him blind. To make up for his lost eyesight, Zeus then gave Tiresias the gift of prophecy.

7 Eurybarus And Alcyoneus

Once, there was a huge cave in Mount Cirphis that was home to a terrible monster known as Sybaris. Every day, the monster would emerge from the gloom to gobble up flocks of sheep and even the shepherds who guarded them. People were so afraid that they thought of abandoning their towns and moving elsewhere. Finally, they asked the oracle at Delphi how they could get rid of their tormentor. The oracle gave them only one solution—they must offer a human sacrifice.^[4]

The person chosen was the beautiful and brave boy Alcyoneus. The priests of the town placed a garland of flowers on his head and led Alcyoneus toward his death. As luck, or the gods, would have it, however, just as they were leaving, Eurybarus happened by. He was so overcome with love for the handsome boy that he refused to let him be killed. Eurybarus grabbed the crown of flowers and put it on his own head, telling the priests to take him as a sacrifice instead.

When Eurybarus reached the cave of Sybaris, instead of being killed, he attacked the monster and cast her down the cliff to her death.

6 Achilles And Patroclus

For thousands of years, people have been wondering just what went on in Achilles’s tent. In the Iliad, the poet Homer tells us of the love between Achilles and Patroclus but never explicitly shows them as romantic lovers—but that hasn’t stopped people from thinking there was more than friendship between the two. The ancient playwright Aeschylus apparently wrote a play called The Myrmidons, which showed the two as lovers. Unfortunately, not enough of the play survives to tell us how he envisioned their relationship.

From the Iliad, however we can see just how much Patroclus means to Achilles. During the siege of Troy, Achilles, the greatest of the Greek heroes, feels insulted, so he goes to his tent and sulks. During his absence from the battlefield, the war begins to turn against the Greeks. To put heart into the army, Patroclus puts on Achilles’s armor to make them think the latter is back among them. All goes to plan until the Trojan Hector kills Patroclus.^[5]

Now Achilles does return to the fight. Nothing will stop his homicidal rage at the death of his “friend,” except the death of Hector. Achilles manages to kill him, lashes Hector’s corpse to his chariot, and drags it around the city of Troy. Back in the Greek camp, he throws elaborate funeral games for Patroclus. Sexual or not, love can make you do crazy things.

5 Narcissus

Many people have heard of the myth of Narcissus. Because he was so attractive, Narcissus was used to being lusted after by everyone, and this made him arrogant. In the most famous tale, he ignores the love of the nymph Echo, and she wastes away, leaving nothing but her voice, which can still be heard reflecting back whatever is said to her. Many people will also know that Narcissus fell so in love with his own reflection in a pool of water that he died of starvation, unable to tear himself away. But many will not know why this happened.

According to legend, one of the people who loved Narcissus was a man called Ameinias. Narcissus cruelly gave Ameinias a sword, with the clear hint that he should kill himself. Ameinias took the sword and plunged it into his chest on Narcissus’s doorstep—as well as calling down a curse on the proud young man.^[6] Nemesis, goddess of revenge, heard his plea, and it was she who made Narcissus fall so suicidally in love with his own image.

4 Orpheus And Calais

The most famous myth of Orpheus, the greatest of all singers, is a very straight one. When his wife Eurydice dies and goes to the underworld, Orpheus follows her to win her back. He is promised that she will walk just behind him as he leaves the underworld, but if he looks back even once, she will be returned to death. Unable to resist a little glance to be sure she is there, Orpheus loses his wife.

Other myths have Orpheus as one of the famous Argonauts who went in search of the Golden Fleece. The poet Phanocles tells us that while on the ship, Orpheus fell in love with Calais “the son of Boreas, with all his heart, and went often in shaded groves still singing of his desire, nor was his heart at rest. But always, sleepless cares wasted his spirits as he looked at fresh Calais.” Other ancient sources describe Orpheus as a hater of women and someone who seduced husbands away from their wives.^[7]

Orpheus’s misogyny was apparently repaid in his death. When he refused to sing in honor of any god but Apollo, a group of female worshipers of Dionysus ripped the singer to pieces.

3 Heracles And Hylas

Heracles was quite the man. He once deflowered 49 out of 50 daughters of a king and impregnated all of his conquests. Yet there was another side to him. The ancient writer Plutarch tells us that his male lovers were beyond count. One lover, though, is worth particular mention—Hylas. One poet described how “even Amphitryon’s bronze-hearted son [Heracles], who defeated the savage Nemean lion, loved a boy—charming Hylas, whose hair hung down in curls. And like a father with a dear son he taught him all the things which had made him a mighty man, and famous.”

While on the adventure of the Argonauts, Heracles and Hylas became separated. While out collecting water at a spring, Hylas was seen by the nymphs who lived there. Falling in love with the beautiful youth, they decided they must have him.^[8] They pulled him under, and Hylas was never seen again.

Heracles was unable to leave without Hylas, so the rest of the Argonauts carried on without the great Heracles. Whether Hylas was happier with the nymphs or Heracles is not recorded.

2 Ganymede

In many museums, there are strange classical statues of a boy looking fondly at an eagle. These are images of Ganymede and the god Zeus, in avian form. Even when other stories of the homosexual loves of the gods were suppressed or ignored, the story of Zeus and Ganymede remained popular. For gay men on the Grand Tour of Europe, images of Ganymede became a symbol they could display without too much shame.

According to myth, “Verily wise Zeus carried off golden-haired Ganymede because of his beauty, to be amongst the Deathless Ones and pour drink for the gods in the house of Zeus.”^[9] Zeus did this because Ganymede was said to be extraordinarily attractive. But Zeus was not one to make his move in a normal way. Instead of simply offering Ganymede the chance for a date, he swept down on the young man while Ganymede was tending to his flock in the form of an eagle and hauled him up to heaven.

Given the role of cup-bearer to the gods, Ganymede became an immortal and was worshiped. When Ganymede’s father mourned the loss of his son, Zeus repaid the grieving father with some nice horses, which he was apparently very thankful for.

1 Callisto

Artemis was known as one of the virgin goddesses. This hunting deity had no time for sexual relations, and she demanded equal purity in her followers. When Callisto joined the goddess’s company, she was sworn to virginity. It was not a promise that the overly sexed god Zeus would let her keep.

In some versions of the myth, Zeus approached Callisto while taking the form of Artemis. While still in the guise of a woman, Zeus seduced Callisto.^[10] Even as a woman, Zeus was potent, so a pregnancy arose from the lesbian affair. This was not something that could be hidden, as the company of Artemis often bathed together. When Artemis saw one of her maidens was pregnant, she was outraged. “Why?” asked Callisto. It was Artemis’s child, Callisto thought. Callisto had her child and called him Arcas. For her impudence, Artemis turned Callisto into a bear and sent her away.

When Arcas grew up, he became a mighty hunter. One day, he saw a bear that did not try to flee from him or attack him. As it approached, he slew it. The bear was Callisto, and she had simply been trying to see her son. Zeus took pity on the woman he had wronged and placed her in the heavens as the constellation Ursa Major—the Great Bear.

Now that the US government has acknowledged UFOs exist, modern skeptics and others with a faith in mediocrity may want to reexamine ‘ancient aliens’ evidence. The following 10 classical close encounters range from lights in the sky to craft on the ground and even sightings of the pilots. And most of them were identified by a NASA scientist as the least explainable by weather, meteorites, and so on… 

10. Golden balls – Central Italy, 91 BC

One morning in 91 BC, Romans up early would have seen “about sunrise a ball of fire [shining] forth from the northern region”. Accompanied by a “loud noise” (perhaps a sonic boom), this event is thought by modern astronomers to have been a bolide—an unusually bright meteor that explodes in the atmosphere.

But it might have been something else entirely. The same year, near Spoletium (modern-day Spoleto, 126 kilometers north of Rome), traveling Romans saw a golden ball roll down from the sky to the ground, where it increased in size. It then ascended toward the rising sun, which it was large enough now to block out. Although ball lightning has been suggested to explain this encounter, the object was clearly much larger than ball lightning’s average diameter of 23 centimeters

In any case, there are striking similarities between this golden ball and those associated with crop circle formation. Not only have they been seen descending on fields and leaving crop circles behind, but in Wiltshire—the crop circle capital of the world—several places mysteriously have “golden ball” in the name.

9. Shining white men – Northern Italy, 214 BC

In 214 BC, over the Estruscan city of Hadria (modern-day Adria), an ara (altar) was seen overhead with “men dressed in shining white.” Similar forms had been seen at Amiternum four years earlier. In neither case, apparently, did they approach anyone.

What’s interesting about these encounters is their similarity to a 1959 report from Papua New Guinea. Missionary Father Gill, along with 25 others, watched four “human” figures on top of a UFO with two more craft nearby. According to Gill, two of them seemed to be making adjustments to something out of view, while another stood with hands on the rail. The figures knew they were being observed; when the people on the ground started waving, the figures in the air waved back.

8. UFO battle – Bavaria, 1561 AD

One morning at the height of the German Renaissance, the skies above Nurnberg (Nuremberg)—one of the most important cities of the Holy Roman Empire—were ablaze with a spectacular display. UFOs of various shapes, sizes, and colors were engaged in a ferocious battle. Spherical objects, rods, arcs, and crosses whizzed about fighting each other, some in formation, others alone. 

It started at 4:00 a.m. with the appearance of two blood red arcs in the middle of the Sun and continued for over an hour. Eventually the objects, apparently “fatigued” (according to the broadsheet report), crashed outside the city with “immense” billowing smoke. But the spectacle wasn’t over. There followed the arrival of a huge black spear-like craft pointing east to west. And five years later over Basel, Switzerland, a similar scene played out on three separate days.

Inexplicable as these encounters seem at first, they have been “debunked” as just weather. Setting aside the sensational religious interpretations of the time, the scene may be consistent with sun dogs (prisms of ice in the atmosphere), halos, and fall streaks (smoke-like ice crystals accompanying cirrus clouds). Even the huge black spear at the end could be explained as either a crepuscular ray or the shadow of a fall streak—all of which phenomena tend to occur together. Still, this explanation is only a theory.

7. Peacekeeping pithoi – Phrygia, 74 BC

The Roman historian Plutarch recorded one of the most convincing classical encounters. In Phrygia (an important region in modern-day Turkey, thought by the ancients to have been the cradle of civilization), a battle was about to commence between Roman and Pontic forces. Suddenly “the sky burst asunder” and a huge object touched down between the two armies. Resembling a pithoi (storage jar) but of a color “like molten silver,” it so astonished the soldiers on both sides that they separated.

Given the credibility and sheer number (thousands) of witnesses, including the Roman general Lucullus and King Mithridates VI, there’s no doubt about the encounter’s occurrence. But there’s no mention of any noise suggesting the impact of a meteorite—which, in any case, would be black not silver. Even if there had been a noise, and the object was indeed some kind of space rock, its impact would have been catastrophic. It was after all large enough to be seen from a distance.

Also, meteorites were revered in the ancient world—and in Phrygia especially. The magna mater, for example, a specimen the size of a fist, was worshiped as the mother of the gods and transported to Rome with great pomp and ceremony. Yet this much larger, silver object is not among the meteorite records. So what was it?

6. Multicolored beast – Central Italy, 150 AD

Between Rome and Capua in AD 150, Pope Pius I’s brother Hermas saw what may have been a large UFO—or even a huge ET. Arriving in a “cloud of dust,” it resembled a beast “like some sea-monster” 100 feet in length—but with a “head” as if of ceramos (pottery) and multicolored. “From its mouth fiery locusts issued forth” noted Hermas, leading modern ufologists to think he saw “fiery rays.”

Although the beast was fearsome, when Hermas got close, it merely stretched on the ground and stuck out its tongue.

This encounter, described in detail in Hermas’s Shepherd, is thought to have been just another of his mystical visions. The text is replete with encounters and conversations with angels and emissaries of God. However, there’s an eerily convincing quality to some of these “visions” that sets them apart as something else—something more like true close encounters. Once he’s away from the beast, for example, he continues to fret about whether it might be behind him. And his response to another encounter bears similarities to abduction reports: “a fit of trembling seized me, and my hair stood on end; and a fit of shuddering came upon me.”

5. Circle of fire – Egypt, 1440 BC

The most ancient encounter on this list is also, understandably, the least reliable. Only scant, unverifiable details remain of the so-called ‘Tulli papyrus’, named for the Vatican scholar who owned it before he died, at which point the papyrus was lost. But the only known translation, by one Prince Boris de Rachewiltz, is compelling and warrants a mention.

“In the year 22, in the third month of winter, in the sixth hour of the day, the scribes of the House of Life noticed a circle of fire that was coming from the sky.” The object was apparently silent (“it had no voice”) but “from the mouth it emitted a foul breath.” The scribes, confused, threw themselves to the ground then, coming to their senses, informed the pharaoh Thutmose III. After a few days, more and more of these objects were seen, coming and going in such numbers that they “extended to the limits of the four angles of the sky.” Eventually, with the pharaoh and his army watching, they ascended higher and flew off to the south. In their wake came a shower of fishes and birds.

4. Silver rain – Rome, 196 AD

Some close encounters are more subtle. In AD 196, for example, the ancient Roman historian Cassius Dio found a strange silvery substance that had fallen from a clear sky on the Forum of Augustus. After plating some bronze coins with it, he said it disappeared after three days.

What links this report to UFOs is that it could be referring to ‘angel hair’. Variously described as cobweb-, gossamer-, or jelly-like in texture, it is sometimes said to fall to the ground after UFO sightings. Although it’s said to be slightly radioactive, it disappears without a trace shortly after.

Earlier mentions of “rains of chalk” (one at Cales in 214 BC and one at Rome in 98 BC) may also have been describing this phenomenon.

3. Sky army – Judea, 65 AD

In 65 AD over Judea, “there appeared a miraculous phenomenon.” Before sunset, “chariots” and “armed battalions” swarmed across the sky, “hurtling through the clouds and encompassing the cities.“

Calling to mind the battle over Nuremberg 15 centuries later, this encounter happened just before sunset and was seen “throughout all parts of the country.” The event has been unconvincingly “debunked” as a case of fata morgana—the mirage effect where ships in the distance look like they’re floating just above the horizon. While it could have been, as Nuremberg could have been, a case of sun dogs et cetera, in this case the record seems credible. The Nuremberg battle was recorded in print in the era’s equivalent of a tabloid; but in Josephus’s account, there’s a reluctance to share the experience. Describing it as fable-like and “passing belief,” he feels it necessary to add there were many other eyewitnesses.

Then again, this was a time and place—just before the Siege of Jerusalem in 70 AD—when eyewitnesses were primed to see portents. A cow giving birth to a lamb was another from around the same time (though ETs do allegedly tamper with cattle…).

2. Flying shields – various

Classical sources often likened UFOs to familiar objects. Hence we find numerous references to flying shields—especially round metal ones like parmas and clipei—the ancient flying saucers. In one report from Rome in 100 BC, a clipeus emitted sparks as it zipped across the sky from west to east around sunset. In another, from Lanuvium in 173 BC, a whole fleet was seen in the sky. It ought to be noted that the ancients were capable astronomers. The Greek philosopher Posidonius, writing in the first century BC, observed of the clipei flagrantes (burning shields) that they persisted longer than shooting stars.

Another thing to note about these and the many similar reports is the rigorous way they were gathered. At great expense, Roman authorities took the time to investigate each report. Sort of like the ancient ‘men in black’, this meant interviewing witnesses and examining any physical evidence. This may be why the overwhelming majority of reports are from in and around the capital Rome. It also suggests there may be something in them. After all, there were no “weather balloons” back then.

1. Sky sailors – Ireland, 748 AD

According to the Annals of Ulster for 748 AD, the monks of Clonmacnoise had their prayers interrupted when a flying ship appeared in the air above them. This was no flying saucer but an otherwise typical sailing ship, complete with a human crew. It even had an anchor—which, dragging along the ground, hooked into the altar rail of the oratory and rocked the hull to a standstill. This was apparently not part of the plan; a crewman “shinned and grappled” down the rope to try and release the anchor, but to no avail. The abbot on the ground, realising the sailor wasn’t just struggling with the anchor but drowning in the air as though underwater, rallied his monks to help. Wasting no time, they dislodged the anchor and watched the ship sail off into the sky.

This strange encounter, believe it or not, was not so unique back in those days—or in the following millennium. In the late 1800s, they were said to be especially frequent around Land’s End at the south-western tip of England, with ships frequently flying inland through the valleys of Cornwall.

These “folk tales” as skeptics see them have been linked to the old idea that the ocean curves like a Moebius strip, so that ships sailing one way would eventually “shoot the gulf” as it was known and come back around in the sky. It’s a concept that dates back to Babylon.

But, assuming the physics of nautical navigation were the same then as they are now, it may be that what people were seeing were extraterrestrial craft. Perhaps, like the Romans and their chariots, shields, and indeed ships (navium) of their own day, contemporary sailing ships were just the closest semi-rational likeness.