Hermaphroditus

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In Greek mythology, Hermaphroditus or Hermaphroditos was the child of Aphrodite and Hermes, born a remarkably handsome boy but was transformed into a hermaphrodite by union with the nymph Salmacis.^[1]

Contents 1 Mythology 2 In literature 3 In art 4 Notes 5 External links

[edit] Mythology

Hermaphroditus' name is derived from those of his parents Hermes and Aphrodite.^[2] He was raised by nymphs on Mount Ida, a sacred mountain in Phrygia. At the age of fifteen, he grew bored of his surroundings and traveled the cities of Lycia and Caria. It was in the woods of Caria that he encountered Salmacis the Naiad in her pool. She was overcome by lust for the boy, and tried to seduce him, but was rejected. When he thought her to be gone, Hermaphroditus undressed and entered the waters of the empty pool. Salmacis sprang out from behind a tree and jumped into the pool. She wrapped herself around the boy, forcibly kissing him and touching his breast. While he struggled, she called out to the gods that they should never part. Her wish was granted, and their bodies blended into one intersexual form. Hermaphroditus, in his shame and grief, made his own vow, cursing the pool so that any other who bathes within it shall be transformed as well. "In this form the story was certainly not ancient" Karl Kerenyi noted, as compared the myth of the beautiful ephebe with Narcissus and Hyacinthus, who had an archaic hero-cult, and Hymenaios.^[3]

[edit] In literature

His only literary attestation is in Book IV of Ovid's Metamorphoses^[4].

Algernon Swinburne's poem "Hermaphroditus" is subscribed Au Musée du Louvre, Mars 1863, leaving no doubt that it was the Borghese Hermaphroditus that had inspired his ode, a poem to which Victorian reviewers took offence:

To what strange end hath some strange god made fair The double blossom of two fruitless flowers?

He also appears as a minor character in N.F. Houck's mythology-based novel, Herald.

[edit] In art

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Hermaphroditus

• The most famous sculpture of this figure is the Borghese Hermaphroditus.

• Hermaphroditus (1425) was the name of a collection of eighty-one epigrams written by the Italian poet Antonio Beccadelli.

• The myth of Hermaphroditus and Salmacis was the basis for the early Genesis song, "The Fountain of Salmacis," the final track from the Nursery Cryme album (1971), which recounts the myth in some detail.

[edit] Notes

1. ^ The seer Tiresias had experienced life as a man and as a woman, but not the two at the same time: Hermaphroditus is unique in Greek myth.
2. ^ All three of these gods figure largely among erotic and fertility figures, and all possess distinctly sexual overtones. Sometimes, Hermaphroditus is referred to as Aphroditus. The phallic god Priapus was the son of Hermes in some accounts, and the youthful god of desire Eros of Hermes and Aphrodite.
3. ^ "The Gods of the Greeks 1951, p. 172.
4. ^ Wikisource:Metamorphoses/Book IV

[edit] External links

• Algernon Swinburne, "Hermaphroditus" (e-text)