“I’m a Kinaidos and Don’t Deny It”

Abstract

This chapter explores the materiality of the kinaidos, i.e., whether any real-life individuals existed who were identified using, or themselves identified with, this term as a category marker. It centers this debate around evidence from Ptolemaic and Roman Egypt, where the word kinaidos appears on several papyri, two temple inscriptions, and one ostracon. By comparing these sources with literary evidence (Herodas’ second mimiamb), other papyri, inscriptions, as well as graffiti from around the Roman world, it demonstrates that actual people were given and took on this identity. Moreover, in several cases kinaidos designates an occupational category whose bearers undertook some form of performance accompanied by flute playing. However, it also points out some of the limits in analyzing this evidence—in particular, the problems which arise in interpreting the scant and often damaged papyri and the difficulties in determining precisely how these individuals might have performed.