Once upon a time, Aphrodite, the Greek Goddess of Love, was bathing in the Sacred River Achelous, the largest river in Greece. Now, Achelous was a Titan, being a son of Oceanus and Tethys (according to Hesiod), and has many myths of his own, including fathering the Sirens (Ovid) and siring several water nymphs. He even once transformed himself into a bull and wrestled Heracles over the right to marry Deianeira; if you know that tale, he lost, but might have dodged a bullet in the process, since Deianeira’s actions resulted in Heracles’ eventual demise. However, here the point is Aphrodite was bathing in a river that is important in Greek mythology.

After her bath, Aphrodite realized she had lost a sandal. Those of you familiar with the many variants of Cinderella might remember this antecedent tale. Right at this point, Hermes showed up with missing the footwear.

It turns out that she had previously spurned his advances; and being thus dejected, Hermes had wandered all the way to Egypt. Seeing how downtrodden Hermes was, Zeus sent an eagle to steal one of Aphrodite’s sandals and deliver it to him. And so, Hermes, bearing her missing footwear, showed up on the banks of the river Achelous, and returned it to her.

Aphrodite was so grateful for the returned object that she finally gave into his advances, and from this union, a child was born: Hermaphroditus; half Hermes, half Aphrodite.

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Many of you will recognize the word Hermaphrodite, and assume that he was born third gender, but that was not the case. He was a beautiful boy. The Roman version of this event is written as follows:

“To Mercurius [Hermes], runs the tale, and Cythereia [Aphrodite] a boy was born whom in Mount Ida’s caves the Naides nurtured; in his face he showed father and mother and took his name from both. When thrice five years had passed, the youth forsook Ida, his fostering home, his mountain haunts, eager to roam strange lands afar.”

Ovid, Metamorphoses 4. 288 ff (trans. Melville) (Roman epic C1st B.C. to C1st A.D.)

And so, at the age of 15, young Hermaphroditus left Mount Ida to go explore the world.

One day during his wanderings, he came upon a crystal clear pool. Unbeknownst to the boy, the waters were home to a nymph named Salmacis.

Unlike Salmacis’ sisters, who went out hunting, she was content to bath in the water, to comb her lovely hair, and to lay down in the leaves and the grass. This behavior brought disdain from her siblings, who chided her for being idle. But Salmacis didn’t care – she was quite content picking flowers. It was while doing so that she spotted young Hermaphroditus.

Overcome with longing, she paused a moment to check her appearance and compose herself. Then, feeling suitably attractive, she spoke:

 “Youth, O most worthy to be thought a god, if you are a god, you must be Cupid, or, if you are mortal, whoever engendered you is blessed, and any brother of yours is happy, any sister fortunate, if you have sisters, and even the nurse who suckled you at her breast. But far beyond them, and far more blessed is she, if there is a she, promised to you, whom you think worthy of marriage.  If there is someone, let mine be a stolen pleasure, if not, I will be the one, and let us enter into marriage together.”

Bk IV:317-345 Salmacis falls for Hermaphroditus, IBID

Hermaphroditus blushed; he had never known sexual love. But his checks, flushed like apples, only inflamed Salmacis’ desire. She begged for a kiss – even if it be a sisterly kiss – at which point the youth threatened to leave. She raised her arms to embrace, but sensing his rebuke, pretended to turn away, saying that she would yield the waters to him. With that, she left, and Hermaphroditus, still unskilled in the wiles of love, believed her. She, on the other hand, had merely hidden in the woods, watching him with her hungry eyes as he stripped his clothes and entered the waters.    

As he swam naked in her pool, the nymph could no longer resist. She dropped her garments, jumped in the waters, and, despite his resistance, planted him with kisses and caresses. He fought, but she entwined him in a serpentine manner. Even though he was a son of Hermes, and had wings, she would not let him fly, coiling around him until they were face to face.

“It is right to struggle, perverse one,” she says, “but you will still not escape. Grant this, you gods, that no day comes to part me from him, or him from me.” Her prayer reached the gods. Now the entwined bodies of the two were joined together, and one form covered both. Just as when someone grafts a twig into the bark, they see both grow joined together, and develop as one, so when they were mated together in a close embrace, they were not two, but a two-fold form, so that they could not be called male or female, and seemed neither or either.

Bk IV:346-388  Salmacis and Hermaphroditus merge, IBID

When Hermaphroditus looked into the waters and realized he was no longer a man, but a creature of both sexes, he begged of his parents that from then on, any man who came to these fountains would leave like him, half male, half female. And as the story goes, at least in Ovid’s telling, Hermes and Aphrodite granted their sons’ wish, using a drug to transform the waters – and that is the mythic story of the fountain of Salmacis. 

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There are many issues at stake here – from power dynamics- Salmacis is clearly being a rapist – to the question of why being feminine is seen as being weak. That’s not the take-away I want to explore.

Right now, certain governments are trying to redefine sexuality in binary terms – male or female – as a response to ‘woke’ transgender movements. Let’s put that asides – what about those who are born biologically transgender?

There are -and always have been – boys born with ovaries, and girls born with testes. If you believe in evolution, this makes sense. But if you believe God created all living things, then you have to understand that the same God also created transgendered beings across the animal kingdom – from Mice to Men. Transgenderism can be found at a genetic level, for instance those with XXY chromosomal features.

According to a United Nations report, anywhere from .05 to 1.7 per cent of newborns are born intersex. Link Here. What box are they supposed to tick? People that insist there are only 2 choices obviously have not, or maybe cannot, read a basic biology textbook. This is not about being ‘woke’; this is about being human.

Let me take that back – I’m afraid I hear the Eugenicists marching.

Let me add a final thought about the historic fountain, which is in Turkey, that might clarify things. This is from the ancient Greek historian Strabo when discussing the fountain:

the slanderous repute, for what reason I do not know, of making effeminate all who drink from it. It seems that the effeminacy of man is laid to the charge of the air or of the water; yet it is not these, but rather riches and wanton living, that are the cause of effeminacy.

Strabo Geography XIV.2.16