About the book
Another internationally acclaimed writer contributes a fascinating, compelling reinterpretation of a myth that resonates deeply today.
Ligdus and Telethusa are having a child, but they cannot afford to have a girl. Ligdus informs Telethusa that she had better hope for a boy. While this decision makes them both sad, Telethusa "must/obey." She prays to Isis, but births a girl and names her Iphis, a name that "suited male or female-/a neutral name." She convinces everyone, including Ligdus, that Iphis is a boy.
Iphis matures and falls in love with another girl, Ianthe, and is engaged for marriage, yet s/he is ruled by the sexual norms of the time: "[P]ossessed by love so strange . . . no female wants/a female!" but "no learned art-can ever make of me/a boy." She attempts to reconcile her love for Ianthe against the pressures of "nature." The wedding day is near, Telethusa is desperate, and prays again to Isis. Iphis is transformed, looking like a boy.
Is Ovid suggesting that what we think is nature is attitude? Does Iphis grow a penis? Or does Iphis, adopting the characteristics of a boy, remain a girl married to a girl, undermining traditional values?
About the authorALI SMITH was born in Inverness, Scotland,
and lives in Cambridge.
She is the author of award-winning Free
Love and Hotel World (also shortlisted for the Orange and Man Booker
Prize); and of Other Stories and Other Stories; The
Whole Stories and Other Stories and The
Accidental. Smith writes for The Guardian,
The Scotsman and the TLS.
