Introduction

‘The only preserved myths about this figure concern the origins of the dual sexes: Ovid explains them as the result of the boy Hermaphroditus merging against his will with the love-sick nymph Salmakis in her spring, but all other versions give Hermaphroditus’ atypical body as a combination of traits inherited from the parents. The tale of transformation appears to be exclusive to Ovid and is not reflected in any preserved artworks.’

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Linnea Åshede in her Gothenburg 2015 doctoral thesis points out that Martial briefly describes a marble statuette of Hermaphroditus with the words “he entered the spring a male: he emerged double-sexed”, 14.174, masculus intravit fontis: emersit utrumque [transl. Shackleton Bailey (1993), modified].  This suggests familiarity with Ovid’s tale.

 

On the absence of Ovid’s Hermaphroditus from the visual arts, see further: Berg 2007, 67; Cadario 2012, 241–244.

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A Greek inscription at Halicarnassus, referred to as the “Salmakis inscription,” celebrates Hermaphroditus as the inventor of marriage, though there is no explicit mention of his intersex nature. He is called a boy, κου̑ρος, and Salmacis is referred to as his nursing mother, κουροτρόφος. Robert Groves observes that “the logic that makes [Hermaphroditus] a god of marriage is predicated on a special ability to unite male and female” (2016, 323).  

(Hilary Ilkay)