Ligdus of Crete vowed to expose any child that was not a boy; when his wife Telethusa bore a daughter she raised the infant Iphis as a son — until the girl fell in love with Ianthe and prayed to Isis on the eve of the wedding, and the goddess changed Iphis into a man.1
The hidden girl
Near Phaestus and Gnossus lived Ligdus, poor but honest, and his wife Telethusa. When she was with child he swore to kill the infant if it were a girl, for they could not afford a dowry. Isis appeared to Telethusa in a dream and forbade the exposure; when a daughter was born the mother lied and named her Iphis after the grandfather.2
The betrothal
Iphis grew up with a girl's face but a boy's dress, and no one suspected the fraud except the nurse. When the time came to marry, Ligdus betrothed Iphis to Ianthe, fairest of the Cretan girls — and Iphis loved her with a love that seemed impossible, for both seemed maidens to the world.3
Isis answers
On the eve of the wedding Telethusa and Iphis prayed in Isis' temple. The goddess nodded; the horns of the crescent moon shone, and sistrums rattled. When mother and daughter left, Iphis walked with a lengthened stride, darker face, and short hair — a man in form. Venus and Hymenaeus came to the marriage fire, and Iphis took Ianthe as his bride.4
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How the centuries saw it
Iphis and Ianthe
Illustrator of Ovid’s Metamorphoses, 17th–18th century
Metamorphoses plate — Iphis and Ianthe at the Cretan wedding Isis will make possible.
Iphis Transformed into a Young Man
Netherlandish printmaker (Metamorphoses series), c. 17th century
Dutch engraving of Ovid IX — the body remade on the eve of the rites so Iphis may marry Ianthe.
Telethusa and Iphis Pray to Isis
Netherlandish printmaker (Metamorphoses series), c. 17th century
Mother and child before Isis — Ligdus' vow answered by the Egyptian goddess who walks Ovid's Crete.
Isis and Iphis
Johann Wilhelm Baur, c. 1639–1641
Baur's Ovid plate — Isis granting the transformation that lets the Cretan wedding proceed.
In play
Iphis
Ovid's Cretan wedding tale — a girl raised as a boy, love for Ianthe, and Isis' gift of a male body on the eve of the rites.
Metamorphoses
Ovid
Book IX holds Ligdus' vow, Telethusa's deception, and the goddess who answers a mother's prayer — still the West's classic sex-change myth.
Isis
The Egyptian goddess who walks Ovid's Crete — the deity Telethusa trusts when no Greek god will remake her child.