Hermaphroditus: Greek God of Union

The Story of Hermaphroditus

Hermaphroditus was the son of Hermes and Aphrodite, and his name joins both of theirs. According to the Roman poet Ovid, he was raised by nymphs in the caves of Mount Ida. He grew into a youth of great beauty, with the looks of both his famous parents.

At about fifteen he set out to see the world and came to a clear pool in Caria, home of the water nymph Salmacis. She fell madly in love with him, but he rejected her. When he dived into her pool to bathe, she wrapped herself around him and prayed never to be parted from him, and the gods joined their two bodies into one being, both male and female. Ovid says that Hermaphroditus then prayed that any man who bathed in that pool would come out weakened in the same way.

The spring of Salmacis near Halicarnassus kept its strange reputation in ancient times. Hermaphroditus became a favorite subject of Hellenistic and Roman sculptors, who often showed the figure sleeping. To the Greeks he stood for the union of the sexes, a reminder that the gods could blend what nature usually kept apart.