Hermaphroditus

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Hermaphroditos and a satyr . Statue from the Villa of Oplontis
Transformation of Hermaphroditos and Salmacis. Jan Gossaert approx. 1514–1520

Hermaphroditos ( Greek  Ἑρμαφρόδιτος ) is a figure in Greek mythology who has both male and female physical characteristics. Originally it was a particularly in Cyprus revered as a deity male form of Aphrodite , the Aphroditos was called. The name form Hermaphroditos goes back to the representation of Aphrodite as Herme and initially only means "Herme of Aphroditos", in the literature this name form is first documented with Theophrastus .

Hermaphroditos is developed into an independent figure in the further mythological interpretation. In later authors he is a youth whom Aphrodite had borne to Hermes . Through the work of the gods, his body is fused with that of the nymph Salmakis , making him a hermaphrodite . The only completely preserved mythological tradition of the hermaphroditus can be found in Ovid .

myth

In Ovid's case, Hermaphroditus not only combined the names of his two parents in his own, but also both facial features were reflected in his face. He was raised by naiads in the caves on Mount Ida. When he was fifteen years old, he decided to leave the Ida in order to know the world.

When he wandered through Caria, coming from Lycia, he saw a beautiful pond with extremely clear water and lush green on the banks. As he approached it, the nymph Salmakis , who lived on its banks, noticed him and wished to own him. She made him the most ardent advances and promised him her love. However, he, inexperienced in love and having little knowledge of the term, blushed ashamed and pushed her away. Further, even more intense attempts on her part led to the fact that he finally pushed her away and threatened to flee and leave her and the place.

When Salmakis then gave him the space and gave the appearance of withdrawing, the youth took off his clothes and stepped into the water of the pond. He became even more addicted to him by his nakedness, and the nymph, who had watched him undress hidden in the bushes, tore her clothes off and jumped into the water with him. He was hugged by her against his will, constantly kissed from one side, sometimes from the other, and finally embraced like a snake. When he continued to resist her, she asked the gods Hermes and Aphrodite not to separate them from him and him from her. The request was granted, and both intertwined bodies merged into one, a hybrid figure, both male and female and yet actually neither.

When Hermaphroditus noticed that the water of the pond into which he had descended had made him a hermaphrodite and feminized, he uttered the wish in his no longer masculine voice in the direction of his parents, every man who stepped into this pond, may the same fate befall himself, may he become a hybrid and effeminate. The parents let themselves be moved and cast a spell that did this over the water of the pond.

Hermaphroditos is not the only hybrid creature of antiquity; there is also Agdistis, for example .

reception

The sleeping hermaphrodite in the Louvre. The mattress is a work by Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598–1680)

In art and culture

In the arts, the myth has been depicted frequently. Famous is the sleeping hermaphrodite , who is based on a bronze sculpture by the Greek sculptor Polykles from the 2nd century BC. Goes back. Ancient marble copies can be found in Paris in the Louvre ( Borghese Hermaphroditus ) and in two copies in Rome , namely in the Palazzo Massimo alle Terme and in the Galleria Borghese . These genre statues are also known as the fallen hermaphrodite . In the National Archaeological Museum in Athens is a variation of the type as a maenad . The authorship of the work is, however, controversial: it is known from the Naturalis Historia of the elder Pliny that Polykles created an important statue of a hermaphrodite. Alternatively, it is suggested that it is the so-called Berlin Hermaphrodite in the Berlin Collection of Antiquities .

In 1425, Antonio Beccadelli published a Latin collection of obscene and satirical epigrams in Bologna under the title Hermaphroditus .

The British poet Algernon Charles Swinburne wrote the poem Hermaphroditus in 1863 , which refers to the statue in the Louvre.

The progressive rock band Genesis processed this myth on their 1971 album Nursery Cryme in the song The fountain of Salmacis , in which singer Peter Gabriel alternates between Hermaphroditos, Salmakis and a narrator. To Frank Black's album Dog In The Sand is also called a title Hermaphroditos included.

A literary adaptation of the subject can be found in the novel Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides , which was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 2003.

In biology and medicine

Hermaphroditism or hermaphroditism or hermaphroditism describes in biology the occurrence of double-sex individuals, i.e. individuals with male and female gender expression who develop both male and female germ cells in one species. Today's description of intersexual people as hermaphrodites or the phenomenon of Hermaphroditism and pseudo- hermaphroditism are also based on this myth.

Colloquially, the term morphodite is also used for special forms.

literature

Web links

Commons : Hermaphroditos  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Macrobius : Saturnalia 3, 8.
  2. ^ Servius : Commentary on Virgil's Aeneid 2, 632.
  3. ↑ Theophrastus : Characteres 16.
  4. ^ Ovid : Metamorphoses 4, 274-388.
  5. ↑ "Polycles Hermaphroditum nobilem fecit". Plin., Hist. Nat. XXXIV, 19 ( online on LacusCurtius).
  6. ↑ Inventory number Sk 193
  7. ^ Christoph Müller: Polykles III. In: Rainer Vollkommer (Hrsg.): Künstlerlexikon der Antike . Saur, Munich, Leipzig 2004, ISBN 3-598-11412-5 , pp. 729-731.
  8. ↑ Algernon Charles Swinburne: Hermaphroditus on poemhunter.com.