The god with a thousand vulvas: heroic feminisation in ancient India and Greece

Abstract The Brahman sage Gautama cursed Indra with emasculation, in some versions through the appearance of vulvas on his body, as a punishment for intercourse with Gautama's wife, Ahalyā; Ahalyā's punishment involved detraction from her visible or physical presence. I present an analysis of the version as told in Padmapurāṇa 1.54. The story, in addition to reflecting male suspicion of women and dread of feminisation, simultaneously functions as a cautionary tale about the dangers of succumbing to lust and reflects inter- varṇa tension: the weak-willed Indra, a divine kṣatriya , is humiliated by the continent Gautama, whose asceticism is the source of the devastating power that he unleashes against both Indra and Ahalyā. I also compare this myth to the Greek tales of Achilles, Herakles, and Teiresias's feminisations, and suggest that the association of heroic feminisation with sexuality (as seen in the stories in which Indra, Achilles, and Herakles are feminised) may be a shared inheritance from Proto-Indo-European times. However, the myths of Achilles and Herakles's feminisations, like that of Indra's, are shaped by their specific cultural context: the feminised Greek heroes’ penetration of women is confirmation of their continued masculinity, rather than the result of a reprehensible lack of self-control.