Opus Generis: Five poems illustrating the gender-identity formation process

With the passing of CA SB-107, making CA a sanctuary state for kids seeking gender-surgery from all over the USA, the rites of Cybele and Attis are now the law of the land. Some public discussion seems warranted. Opus Generis uses classical poetry to sketch the gender-identity formation process from Cybele and Attis, the boy unable to escape the mother-goddess, through the ups and downs of good and bad male role-models, to the Valentine's Day moment when Apollo, shot by Cupid's Arrow, turns from loving boys (Cyparissus) to girls (Daphne.) The show is intended to catalyze productive discussions about gender in the 21st century. To what extent is the Cybele and Attis story a model for how to live, and to what extent is it a nightmare from which we must learn to awaken? What would "conversion therapy" look like in Classical terms? How do we guide young men between the excesses of too-little and too-much male role-modeling?

Greek & Latin will be performed by a professional reciter; scripts with illustrations and English translations will be provided; audience is invited to participate by reciting the English translations. OPUS GENERIS will be performed monthly in CA, to afford concerned citizens a chance to speak their minds. The highest standards of civilized and respectful discourse are expected. Time as been allotted for audience to tell their own stories of gender-success and gender-failure moments.

OPUS GENERIS is operating in the same space as DQSH, but presents a forward-moving dialectic, from Cybele and Attis to Daphne & Apollo.

Opus Generis consists of:
• Catullus 63, Cybele & Attis (No male role-modeling at all; Attis is unable to pull away from the mother-goddess.)
• Pindar Olympian #1, Poseidon & Pelops (Too much male role-modeling; Ganymede and Pelops aggressively pulled away by powerful male gods.)
• Homer, Odyssey II: 1-128. Telemachos without Odysseus (Too little male role-modeling; Odysseus is completely absent from Telemachos's life.)
• Ovid, Metamorphoses, Apollo and Cyparissus, and Daphne and Apollo. (Apollo now grown up enough to try to act independently. He turns away from boys and pursues a girl his own age. Unfortunately, both Apollo & Daphne are too father-bound to make a go of the relationship. But the moment of dawning heterosexuality is preserved in poetry.)

(I note in passing that tensions seem to be rising on this issue. Cybele and Attis (Trans) is not the whole story, nor are young people born ready to choose their mates and marry. OPUS GENERIS is a map for crossing the territory. It looks like many young people are getting lost on that journey.)