Tracing the Myth of the Hermaphrodite

1
Tracing the Myth of the Hermaphrodite
2
The Symposium
Once they were split in half, they clung
desperately to their other half until they
withered and died from weariness and hunger.
Zeus had compassion on these wretched creatures,
and made sure their genitals were functioning
properly so that they could fit together. This
is why we feel love for others we are literally
searching for our other halves. (Translated by
Tom Griffith, 1998)
3
Adam and Eve
And Adam said, this is now bone of my bones, and
flesh of my flesh she shall be called woman,
because she was taken out of man. Therefore
shall a man leave his father and mother, and
shall cleave unto his wife and they shall be one
flesh. (Genesis II, 23-25)
4
Salmacis and Hermaphroditus

• The restless boy still obstinately strove
• To free himself, and still refus'd her love.
• Amidst his limbs she kept her limbs intwin'd,
• "And why, coy youth," she cries, "why thus
  unkind!
• Oh may the Gods thus keep us ever join'd!
• Oh may we never, never part again!"
• So pray'd the nymph, nor did she pray in vain
• For now she finds him, as his limbs she prest,
• Grow nearer still, and nearer to her breast
• Till, piercing each the other's flesh, they run
• Together, and incorporate in one
• Last in one face are both their faces join'd,
• As when the stock and grafted twig combin'd
• Shoot up the same, and wear a common rind
• Both bodies in a single body mix,
• A single body with a double sex.

The boy, thus lost in woman, now survey'd The
river's guilty stream, and thus he pray'd. (He
pray'd, but wonder'd at his softer tone,
Surpriz'd to hear a voice but half his own.)
You parent-Gods, whose heav'nly names I bear,
Hear your Hermaphrodite, and grant my pray'r
Oh grant, that whomsoe'er these streams
contain, If man he enter'd, he may rise again
Supple, unsinew'd, and but half a man!
(Translated by Joseph Addison, 1921)
5
The Fairie Queene

• Had ye seen, ye would have surely thought,
• That they had beene that faire Hermaphrodite
• Which that rich Romane of white marble wrought,
• And in his costly Bath cause to bee site
• So seemed those two, as growne together quite

6
John Donnes The Extasie

• Our souls - which to advance their state,
• Were gone out - hung 'twixt her and me.
• And whilst our souls negotiate there,    
• We like sepulchral statues lay
• All day, the same our postures were,    
• And we said nothing, all the day.
• (Lines 15-20)

But as all several souls contain a     Mixture
of things they know not what, Love these mix'd
souls doth mix again,     And makes both one,
each this, and that. (Lines 33-36)
Love's mysteries in souls do grow,     But yet
the body is his book. (Lines 71-72)
7
Alchemy

• Dual process - fusion of material and spiritual.
• Conjunction of male and female.
• Perfection of matter.
• Philosophers stone - ideal substance.
• The hermaphrodite became the ultimate symbol for
  alchemists.

8
Paradise Lost

• Adam to Eve
• Part of my soul, I seek thee, and thee claim
• My other half
• (Book IV, 487-488)

According to Milton, angels could be both sexes,
or neither. They enjoyed the act of love as a
complete becoming of the beloved.