The History of Monsters

on the other hand, we must carefully consider whether boys or men have ever undergone a metamorphosis into women, such that the male sex vanishes over time and reveals a female one. This is especially relevant since Ausonius mentioned a boy from Benevento who was transformed into a maiden in the following verses. In these lines, he records instances of females changing into males, not only among humans but also among animals, and finally mentions a certain youth who was transfigured into a girl. The verses run as follows:

A matter known in Vallebona, and hardly believable to poets, yet drawn from a true history: a male bird turned into a female form, and a peahen stood where a peacock had been before one's eyes. All marveled at the monster; but an animal from the flock, softer than a lamb, stood transformed from a male. Why, you fools, do you gape at this new novelty? Have you not read the songs of Ovid? You, Saturnian Consus, transformed the progeny of Caeneus, and Tiresias was of ambiguous body. The fountain Salmacis saw the feminine Hermaphrodite; Pliny saw an Androgynous person at a wedding. It is not such ancient news that in Campanian Benevento, one of the youths suddenly became a maiden. Yet I do not wish to summon proofs of ancient fame; behold, I myself have been made a woman from a boy.

Furthermore, one should read Galeotto on miscellaneous teachings, Cardano on the variety of things, Weyer on the deceptions of demons, Gemma in his *Cosmocritica*, Marcello Donati in his history of marvels, and many others. Whatever they may have said on this subject, we consider it to be nothing more than a deceptive chattering of words. It is in no way possible for male organs to vanish unless they are amputated, nor can they be so contracted by the force of any disease that they resemble the female sex.

We might, however, bring into the discussion the histories of those who simulated the male or female sex, from which perhaps the common opinion grew strong among the populace that women sometimes turn into men and then return to their original nature. We read in Lipomanus of Pelagia, who left all her immense wealth—acquired through the trade of a prostitute—to be distributed to the poor by a Bishop, and then lived in male attire among monks until her true sex was revealed at her death. Similarly, Eugenia, the daughter of the Consul Philip, lived as a man named Eugenius so that she might more strictly obey the commands of Christ, and even held the office of Abbot. Likewise, according to Metaphrastes, Euphrosyne of Alexandria despised marriage and lived a most religious life for thirty-eight years hidden among monks under the name Smaragdus. If these women had put aside their male dress and returned to their former lives, the common folk would surely have asserted that they had degenerated from males into females. As for the story circulated about Pope Joan (John VIII), an Englishwoman believed to have been a female Roman Pontiff, we consider it an unrefined delusion, for none of the authors who committed the records of that time to the annals ever wrote of such a thing.

It is true, however, that sometimes through demonic mockery, men appear to be transfigured into beasts. We find in the *Lives of the Fathers* the story of a girl who appeared to everyone in the form of a mare, yet to the Blessed Macarius she appeared in no other than her human form, because the diabolical illusion ceased in the presence of a holy and just man. Likewise, a certain man took on the form of a donkey for a period of three years while serving a wicked woman, until the sorcery was detected; the man was restored to his original form, and the woman was executed. St. Augustine writes that by the pernicious art of women and the power of demons, men can be turned into wolves and beasts of burden and then return to their original shape. However, we must not think that a beast-like mind is created in them, but rather that the rational mind is preserved; for demons do not create natures, but are only able to provide a semblance so that what is not appears to be. For this reason, Copas, as cited in Pliny, reported that a certain Demarchus was turned into a wolf during an Arcadian sacrifice after tasting the entrails, and after ten years had passed, he was restored to his original form. This is more to be believed as a feat of demons, since things similar to natural occurrences are produced; for instance, by a certain herb