« Que fait l’empereur ? … Il accouche ». Notes sur Néron, Sporus et le trouble dans le genre

Abstract

This article analyses the famous cases of Nero and Sporus in an attempt to identify how these two men who experience the female body lived their gendered experiences in their bodies and in their imagination and how imperial and then alto-medieval societies represented them. This article highlights the epistemological difficulties that historians encounter when they try to approach ancient societies using terms and concepts unknown to these societies.