We all have our little brainless indulgences. Something we can kick back and enjoy at the end of a long day, without having to think too hard. Like many queer women in my age bracket, RuPaul’s Drag Race is my indulgence of choice.
Given who I am (an out-and-proud bisexual with a fondness for lavish costumes), it’s unsurprising that I’m among this drag reality show’s legions of fans. I cut my teeth on the mainline American version of Drag Race, then started an ongoing adventure though its international spin-offs. Also given who I am (a myth nerd with a fondness for overthinking media), it’s unsurprising that Drag Race scratches an itch in the analytical corner of my brain. It is my go-to mindless indulgence, but I also enjoy breaking it apart the same way I work through sources for my academic studies. I’m especially fond of figuring out references and engagement with past culture, and Drag Race is a goldmine for this sort of thing. The show constantly refers back to its earlier seasons, generating a seemingly infinite amount of memes and in-jokes. It also celebrates and remixes existing pop culture, fashion, and world history.
I would love to write a broad-strokes exploration of how Drag Race engages with the ancient Mediterranean one day, but that would involve a fairly heavy amount of research into historical reception within drag, and within queer culture as a whole. Unfortunately, with a thesis on the way, I’m not quite cut out to do that research right now. In the meantime, here is something a bit lighter, and a lot more subjective. Here are my top 10 Greek- and Roman-influenced looks worn on RuPaul’s Drag Race and its various offshoots (Drag Race All-Stars, Versus the World, and all the international spin-offs).
Apologies in advance for a couple of low-res images here. I’ve done my best to find good-quality pictures, but high-res images of older Drag Race seasons are hard to come by. With that out of the way, let’s enjoy some looks!
10. Pythia’s hot pink hoplite, Canada’s Drag Race season 2
“Let’s have tzatziki, motherfucker!”
Pythia is the first contestant of Greek heritage in the Drag Race franchise. The first look she wore on Canada’s Drag Race is a delightful, light-hearted tribute to her ancestry. I’m obsessed with her hot pink Corinthian helmet, especially how she decorated it with studs and with piercings through the nose guard. Ancient Greek soldiers topped their helmets with horsehair, but Pythia gave hers a crest of hyper-feminine ruffled fabric. This look is a perfect introduction to Pythia’s style of drag, and a teaser for what else she had to offer.
9. Kitty Scott-Claus’ Oh My Goddess look, Drag Race UK season 3
On season 3 of Drag Race UK, the queens had to do a runway presentation where the brief was “Oh my Goddess.” A theme after my own heart! Kitty Scott-Claus walked the runway in an Aphrodite-influenced dress that has nothing to do with recorded ancient history. The flowy sheer fabric and gold lamé bodice evoke cheesy sword-and-sandal movies more than the actual ancient Mediterranean. But I love a cheesy sword-and-sandal movie, and I love this look. Kitty’s drapery, posing, and intricate blonde updo perfectly convey Aphrodite, as filtered through the lens of modern pop culture. She also gets kudos from me for styling part of her wig to look like a crown. It’s interesting that artists like Kitty Scott-Claus tend to pull references not from actual antiquity, but from other antiquity-inspired media when they’re trying to emulate ancient Greece and Rome.
8. Shannel’s Medusa, RuPaul’s Drag Race season 1
Drag Race has been playing around with ideas and characters from mythology since its very inception. This look comes from way back in season 1, which aired in 2009. Vegas-based drag queen Shannel walked the runway in a Medusa-inspired outfit, with a headpiece made of rubber snakes that cascaded all the way down her body. I find it fascinating that her skin isn’t painted an unnatural colour and she didn’t do anything to make her face seem monstrous. I’ve seen other drag queens create Medusa looks where they paint themselves green, cover their faces in prosthetic scales, or add other monstrous touches to their bodies. Shannel, meanwhile, looks like a human woman engulfed in snakes, the creatures poised to swallow her whole. Could this be a reference to Ovid’s version of the Medusa myth, where her snake hair and stone-turning gaze are a curse from the gods?
7. Milk’s toga party getup, RuPaul’s Drag Race season 6
Here’s a slightly embarrassing confession: for much of my life, I thought toga parties involved dressing up as ancient Romans, eating Roman food, and doing Roman activities like reading Latin poetry and staging pretend gladiator fights. Imagine my disappointment when I learned what they actually are! Like real toga parties, Milk’s outfit is a very loose interpretation of ancient Roman clothing. She opted to wear flowing pants instead of a customary tunic: I wonder if she knew that the Greeks and Romans saw pants as a sign of barbarity. Given the long-standing association of toga parties with frat culture and toxic masculinity, I appreciate that Milk took this outfit in a very genderfluid direction. She sports both breasts and facial hair, and her pants include a very obvious phallic sheath. The Romans didn’t wear pants, but they were very awfully fond of penis imagery. I like to think they’d appreciate this detail.
6. Manila Luzon’s Baroque Aphrodite, Drag Race All Stars season 4
Here’s another Aphrodite look, and another example of the layers of ancient Mediterranean reception. Like Kitty Scott-Claus earlier on this list, Manila Luzon drew from a later time period to put together her Greek goddess ensemble. Instead of midcentury film, she took inspiration from 17th and 18th century visual art. The white and gold combination comes straight out of the Baroque and Rococco periods in western art history, as do the sculptural cherubs on her belt. It’s worth mentioning that the prompt for this runway was “Angelic White.” There’s a lot of conversations happening right now about all-white portrayals of the ancient world, in multiple senses of the term. Ancient art was full of colour, despite modern portrayals where everything is white marble and undyed fabric. The ancient Mediterranean was also an ethnically diverse place and a cultural crossroads: however, it’s been portrayed as full of white people for centuries, and used to uphold white supremacist ideas about civilization and European superiority. Manila Luzon is proudly Filipina and very vocal about being an Asian-American drag performer. Her choice to embody Aphrodite complicates and challenges some very old, pervasive ideas about white supremacist beauty ideals, and their long-standing association with art from antiquity.
5. Scarlet Envy’s Birth of Venus, Drag Race All Stars season 6
Ah, the Birth of Venus. She’s a mainstay all across pop culture, including in the world of drag. Plenty of drag queens have paid homage to Venus emerging from the sea: Brigiding from Drag Race Philippines and Pixie Polite and Gothy Kendoll from Drag Race UK have all walked variations of this idea down the runway. Brigiding’s version, with a gigantic clamshell strapped to her back, is an honourable mention for this list! My personal favourite drag Birth of Venus comes from Scarlet Envy: she transformed into a living version of the famous Bouguereau Birth of Venus painting. Bouguereau’s Venus is naked with her hair loose, while Scarlet Envy opted for body jewelry, an updo straight out imperial Rome, and an elegant flowing dress. It’s an enjoyable variation on a very old theme: Aphrodite/Venus is often described as wearing beautiful clothes in ancient literature, but centuries of visual art depict her naked. It makes sense that the goddess of sex and passion would be happy without clothes, but I find it refreshing to see her fully dressed once in a while.
4. Plasma’s Hermes, RuPaul’s Drag Race season 16
Male mythological figures don’t often get their due on Drag Race. The franchise has become a lot more open to genderfluidity in the last few years, and I think ancient gods and heroes offer up plenty of opportunities for drag queen costuming. Plasma’s version of Hermes is a fantastic example, full of little creative details. The runway brief for this episode was very simple- short hair- and Plasma took the theme in a lavish and unique direction. Note how the god’s iconic winged sandals are now rhinestoned platform boots with strap detailing that imitates gladiator footwear. His traveller’s cap has been updated into a pair of equally rhinestoned winged headphones. I, for one, can’t leave home without headphones, so I think it’s very fitting to have the god of travellers wear a pair. The print on Plasma’s tunic/minidress is another highlight of this look, with a Caduceus symbol on her chest and a skirt border of little Hermeses, pulled from a classical Greek vase painting.
3. Lina Galore’s nonbinary gladiator, Drag Race Italia season 3
Trust an Italian queen to bring Rome to the runway! Lina Galore wore this deeply cool gender-blending look when she won her season of Italy’s Drag Race. I have a serious weakness for when drag queens deliberately put their masculine traits on display. There’s something very powerful to me about bearded queens, muscle queens, and, like Lina, queens with visible body hair. The way she’s paired her male body with stamped makeup and big 1960s hair (again with the sword-and-sandal references!) is perfection to me. The gold leaf on her body, the flowing red skirt, and the striking accessories all make Lina look like a Roman triumphal parade come to life. I especially love her gladiator-meets-spaceman helmet and her metal arm cuffs. You can’t make a Roman period drama without those arm cuffs: every onscreen emperor and centurion wears them, regardless of how common they actually were in ancient Rome.
2. Symone’s Black Medusa, RuPaul’s Drag Race season 13
Here’s another Medusa look: this time it’s also a beautiful celebration of Blackness. All through her Drag Race run, which culminated with winning her season, Symone paid homage to her ancestry and culture with references to Black power, beauty, and resilience. When she wore this Medusa ensemble at the season finale, it read like a culmination of everything she’d done on the show. Like Manila Luzon’s Aphrodite look, it challenges white supremacy within ancient Mediterranean reception. Symone wore the flowing white drapes, strappy sandals, and lsvish gold jewelry that are ubiquitous in pop-culture depictions of antiquity. However, she also incorporated some more modern design elements that added lots of originality to her look. The golden armour pieces and thick chains have almost nothing to do with antiquity, but they complemented her dress and gave her look a sense of invincibility. Symone crowned this ensemble with a twisting, dreadlock-inspired hairstyle, which is one of the most creative versions of Medusa’s snakes I’ve ever seen.
1. Pythia’s marble column, Canada’s Drag Race season 2
And now, the grand finale! This is, in my opinion, the best look anyone’s ever worn on Drag Race. My ancient history nerd bias might be showing, but I’m unapologetic. Pythia started her run on Canada’s Drag Race with the hoplite look I showcased above, and ended on a triumphal note, wearing this column dress to the season finale. Everything about it is breathtaking. The exaggerated Ionic whorls on her hips and chest, the grey marble makeup, the stripes on the skirt that imitate column flutes: it’s all perfection to me. Like so much good drag, this look also has a political element. It celebrates Pythia’s Greek heritage, which she spoke about very movingly on the show. She brought up how homophobia is still a pervasive problem in Greece, and how she wasn’t exposed to any queer representation growing up there. Ever since her run on Canada’s Drag Race, Pythia has been outspoken about lgbt+ rights in Greece, using her platform from the show for good. On a different political note, her column dress emulates the Parthenon Marbles and other looted ancient artifacts. I’ve always thought it could pass for the Caryatids’ campy cousin. There are so many layers to this dress, and it can start so many conversations about antiquity in modern culture. This is a look for the history books, in every sense!
If you have a favourite Greco-Roman Drag Race look that didn’t make my list, please share it with me. I’m still working my way through all the international seasons, so I know I didn’t cover everything here. If I missed enough exciting looks, I might come back and make a second list…