Abstract
Timothy Morton (2010), one of the most influential scholars of ecocriticism, has argued that queer theory and evolutionary ecology offer compatible perspectives on the 'network of life' as fluid and composed of mutually interdependent entities. Evolutionary biology undermines the essentialist discourse of speciesism by denying the existence of rigid boundaries between species: life forms are continuously evolving and finding new ways to survive through a variety of mutual interactions (even destructive ones).
The ecological interdependence of beings in an ecosystem affirms the productivity of variety and multiplicity and finds a cognate term in fluidity, which Judith Butler (2011) contrasts to monolithic heteronormativity and situates at the crux of queer theory. Ancient rivers provide ideal case studies for the aforesaid theories.
Roman historians (e.g. Brian Campbell 2012) often state that ancient rivers are regularly male and represented as bearded muscular men.
However, this narrow stereotype of Roman imperialism contrasts with a variety of conceptions of ancient rivers in the wider Mediterranean world. For example, the rivers of Sicily are represented as snakes, horned bulls or horses and human-animal 'hybrids'.
Egyptian Hapi, the god of the Nile flood, is an androgynous being, having both male and female traits. Similarly, Mesopotamian river divinities display an even greater variety of gender characteristics (Perdibon 2019).
Using Greek, Egyptian, and Mesopotamian comparanda this paper argues that the fluidity of rivers in ancient texts fits both Morton's theory of queer ecology and the fluidity that Butler and many others have found in ecological diversity.