Héraïs, Kallô et les autres. Paléopathologie des textes et anthropologie du sexe autour des récits de transformation du genre dans l’Antiquité gréco-romaine

Is there a patrimonialization of sex? We are the custodians of our genetic heritage, which codes for our phenotype, our internal and external envelope, and therefore inevitably influences the way we are viewed. What happens when this sex evolves naturally over time? This question does not concern deliberate sexual transformations (cross-dressing) but rather the modification of the body due to hormonal effects. What are the consequences (and the explanations given) of this patrimonial reversal, this catastrophe (in the original Greek sense of the term: the rupture of sexual continuity)? In this article, we will look at this phenomenon in Antiquity. Palaeopathology being the medical study of populations of the past, we will here investigate through texts what skeletons or mummies do not tell us about: intimacy.