ABSTRACT
In the ancient world, transvestism was a phenomenon affecting different spheres of society. This contribution aims at analysing examples of transvestism as documented in myths and rites in ancient Greece, in order to investigate the functions and significance of this phenomenon. Transvestism is a core topic in certain myths where the main character is a youth named Leukippos or Leukippe, who goes through sexual disguise or a change of sex. Another Leukippos is, at Phaistos, the main character of a story – told by Antoninus Liberalis – which involves a change of sex and transvestism in a ritual context. So it is not causality if transvestism is well documented in contexts connected to marriage and/or civic graduation because these are contexts aimed at defining the roles that men and women play in society.
