Other Greek

Tricksters

Iambe

Iambe is one of the few female tricksters found in any mythology, yet her status as a trickster is limited to only one popular story. Demeter, Goddess of Grain and Harvest, is mother to Persephone. Hades, King of the Underworld, wishing to marry Persephone, abducts her and takes her back to the underworld. After the abduction of her daughter Persephone, Demeter retreats from the world and the other gods into a cave due to her sorrow.

Demeter causes the earth to stop yielding grain and crops. All of the gods try to charm Demeter out of her sorrow and to rejoin the other gods. Demeter continues to refuse until she is coaxed out of the cave when “Iambe, knowing her duties, with her jokes and many jests” cheers Demeter (Homeric Hymn to Demeter 202). Lewis Hyde’s interpretations for Iambe’s “jokes and many jests,” is that Iambe revealed her genitals to the goddess and this is why Demeter laughed and decided to return to her duties (Hyde 336). This element of sexual jesting appeared in the rituals of the Eleusinian Mysteries, a set of rites sacred to the cult of Demeter. Iambe is associated with tricksters because of her crossing of the boundary between sacred and lewd.

Nymphs

There are several stories about Nymphs within Greek mythology. Although they are not all tricksters, many of them do exhibit trickster characteristics, such as transformation of appearance, usually to avoid the advances of a suitor, or the use of cunning to lure young men to their embrace.

Many nymphs are water creatures and thus constantly changing their shape and image. Herakles’ young companion, Hylas, becomes a victim to the seduction of a nymph when he goes to get water for Herakles. It is also a nymph that causes the transformation of Hermes’ son Hermaphroditus into a half man, half woman. The nymph falls madly in love with Hermaphroditus and when she embraces him, she calls on the gods to never separate them, and thus the two are fused into one being.