Son of Hermes and Aphrodite. Aphrodite and Hermes

Hermaphrodite

Wikipedia
Hermaphrodite(ancient Greek Ἑρμαφρόδιτος) - character in ancient Greek mythology, son Hermes and Aphrodite, a young man of extraordinary beauty, whose name began to be used to call bisexual bodies. Hermaphrodites were considered either gods who appeared among people from time to time, or monsters.

Salmacis and Hermaphroditus, 1582
(Bartholomeus Spranger)

The son of the gods Hermes and Aphrodite, as evidenced by his name, he was suckled by naiads in the Idean caves. During the wanderings of Hermaphroditus in his native Caria at the age of 15, a nymph saw him Salmacis was inflamed with love for him. When Hermaphroditus bathed in the spring in which Salmacis lived, she clung to him and asked the gods to unite them forever. He fell in love with her. The gods fulfilled her wish, and they merged into one being. According to legend, everyone who drank from this source suffered the fate of Hermaphrodite - if not literally, then at least in the sense that he became painfully feminine.

Salmacis Salmatia - a nymph who lived near a source where Hermaphroditus once stopped to rest. Hermaphrodite's beloved, in a lake in Caria, merged with him into one being.

The myth about her was expounded by Ovid in Metamorphoses. The girl had a charming appearance, combined with ineradicable laziness. Other nymphs, armed with spears and bows, amused themselves with hunting; Salmacis valued “indestructible peace” above all else. Bathing in a spring, combing her luxurious hair, covering her head with flowers, admiring herself in the mirror of the waters - she did not want any other activities. “Why are you ruining your youth in idleness?” - her friends vying with each other reproached her. But they were not successful.
According to later tradition, the spring at Halicarnassus, where this occurred, contributed to the effeminacy of those who drink from it.
Hermaphrodite, mosaic
(North Africa, Roman period, II-III century BC)

At his birth Apollo calved so that he would be a boy and die on the water.
According to some reports, lovers Dionysus

In literature, there was a comedy by Posidippus “Hermaphroditus”.

Hermaphrodites
Hermaphrodites are individuals who have sexual characteristics, both male and female. In relation to such people, they also use the following definition: “androgynic,” which comes from the Greek words “aner” - man and “gyne” - woman.
Mythology Wikipedia)
Androgyne(ancient Greek ἀνδρόγυνος: from ἀνήρ “husband, man” and γυνή “woman”) - an “ideal” person, endowed with external characteristics of both sexes, combining both sexes or devoid of any sexual characteristics.
mythology Ndrogynes are mythical ancestor creatures, first humans, combining male and female sexual characteristics, less often - asexual. Because the androgynes tried to attack the gods (they became proud of their strength and beauty), the gods divided them in two and scattered them throughout the world. And since then, people are doomed to search for their other half.
In his dialogue “The Symposium,” Plato tells the myth of androgynes, the ancestors of people who combined male and female characteristics. Like the titans, androgynes were terrible in their strength and encroached on the power of the gods. Zeus decided to cut them in half, thereby reducing their strength and arrogance by half. The basis of this myth may have ancient origins, but in Plato’s presentation the myth resembles more of a parody of etiological myths, and in fact serves as an introduction to the doctrine of Eros (it is Eros that unites the separated halves of androgynes). Further description becomes more comical: androgynes had a rounded spherical body, their back did not differ from the chest, there were four arms and legs, on the head there were two completely identical faces, looking in opposite directions, and two pairs of ears.
Every human embryo transforms into a male or female fetus. During its development in the womb, the human embryo, which has a natural tendency to take on female flesh, is subject to changes based on the chromosomes that determine the sex of the future newborn. Various reasons, including hormonal and genetic disorders, can affect the process of fetal development. Let's consider only two main types of bisexual creatures: true hermaphrodites and pseudohermaphrodites.

Hermaphrodite and nymph Salmacis

True hermaphroditism

In the world of vegetation, an individual often possesses both female and male reproductive organs. The same can be said about some lower vertebrates, such as bivalves, gastropods, earthworms and leeches. But this does not occur either in higher animals or in humans.
Sometimes it can happen that a person is born with a penis and vagina, and even with ovaries and a testicle. But these individuals are not capable of reproduction and always one, or even both, genital organs are inactive.
So far, only one extreme case is known in which a human being is capable of normal sexual relations with both a man and a woman. This person had a penis 14 cm long and a vagina 8.5 cm long. The New York Journal of Medicine wrote that he/she had both ovaries and testicles, experienced menstruation and ejaculated sperm. This amazing phenomenon was discovered when the police arrested a twenty-eight year old woman for prostitution. Some time later, the same person was arrested again, this time for rape!

Pseudohermaphroditism

Often, hermaphrodites are people whose genitals are shaped so that they resemble the genitals of the opposite sex. In such cases, we are dealing with pseudohermaphroditism, which affects both men and women. The structure of their internal genital organs is normal, but the external ones give the impression of organs of the opposite sex. In women, the clitoris develops to such a huge size that it can be mistaken for a penis. In men, the testicles and scrotum change and retract inward in such a way that two folds of skin adjacent to each other remain, reminiscent of the labia.
Some male pseudohermaphrodites retain certain masculine characteristics, such as facial hair and a flat chest, while others have feminine ones! figure. Through a simple operation one can completely get rid of femininity, but such a person will never be able to have a child.
Female pseudohermaphrodites are born much less frequently. From a genetic point of view, their internal structure is the same as that of all women. The individual possesses, for example, ovaries, oviducts, and a uterus, but the external genitalia develop into a penis.
At the moment of birth, not all sexual characteristics that distinguish a man from a woman are formed. Newborns have neither breasts nor body hair, and the torso and pelvis of a male and female child are built identically. It is very easy to make a mistake, since the only key feature by which we distinguish a boy from a girl is the appearance of the external genitalia. And then children are raised as representatives of the opposite sex, which is the cause of many abnormal phenomena, both sexual and psychological.
There are cases where external female signs in a man were only the result of accidental atrophy of the testicles. Among the ancient Scythians there were many men with female figures. Herodotus and Hippocrates attributed this anomaly to excessive horse riding during puberty.
At the beginning of this century, the American professor Hammond, who studied Indians from the Pueblo tribe in New Mexico, described the men of this tribe who possessed all tertiary female sexual characteristics. Anthropologist Henry Meij, who also studied the Pueblo Indians, said that they had well-shaped breasts, small genitals, high-pitched voices and very modest body hair. In his opinion, such anomalies are artificial and arose during puberty “due to excessive masturbation and horse riding.”

Hermaphrodites in mythology and history

Hermaphrodite and nymph Salmacis - (Francesco Albani)

In Greek mythology, Hermaphroditus was the son of Hermes and Aphrodite. Legend tells that at the age of fifteen he was traveling through Halicarnassus and at the end of his journey he stopped at a lake, wanting to swim. The nymph Salmakis, seeing him naked, fell madly in love with him. However, unable to charm him, she turned to the gods to unite their bodies forever. The prayer was answered, and a bisexual creature appeared in the world. Since then, the lake has gained fame: every couple who swam in it experienced a similar transformation.

Hermaphroditus and Salmacis at the moment of reincarnation, ca. 1516 (Mabuse (1478-1532)

There were many bisexual creatures in Greek mythology. Aesop explained the appearance of such creatures this way: “One night, after staying with Bacchus, drunken Prometheus began modeling human bodies from clay, but made several mistakes...” Thus, androgynists appeared in the world. Plato suspected that for the foreseeable past the human race was composed exclusively of hermaphrodites, each with two bodies, one male, the other female, and two faces on one head. These self-righteous creatures quarreled with the gods, and Zeus, as punishment, divided them into two sexes. Plato explained that the sexual attraction of opposite sexes is based on the desire to reunite the separated halves.
Hermaphrodite, c. 1800 (fresco)

Some medieval Christian theologians believed that Adam was bisexual. Saint Martin of Amboise wrote: "Before the Fall, when man was in a state of innocence, he was self-satisfied like his Creator. He could reproduce and procreate while contemplating his divine body, since he was a spiritual hermaphrodite." However, original sin was the reason that man found himself divided into two halves, which differ not only in appearance, but also in spiritual preferences. Moreover, intelligence and devotion to God are mainly masculine characteristics, while love, admiration, and deification are feminine. The weaknesses and imperfections of each sex can only be corrected through marriage, the sole and fundamental purpose of which is the re-deification of human nature through reunification into one.

Statue of Hermaphroditus. (Pergamon Museum. Berlin)

Many of those who adhered to the theory according to which, together with the end of the world, both halves, both flesh, both sexes would unite in one body, were burned at the stake in the Middle Ages, since a different point of view then prevailed. Even today, Catholic law commands that "the hermaphrodite must decide which flesh predominates in his body to preserve himself according to such declaration."

Fragment of the statue of Hermaphroditus

Fate is cruel for hermaphrodites. Despite their supposedly divine origin, their life was much worse than that of other representatives of the human race. Among many ancient peoples there was a custom of killing children of unspecified flesh immediately after birth. In this way the Greeks sought to preserve the perfection of their own race. For the Romans, such unfortunate people were an evil sign, an unkind omen, and the Egyptians, although they honored such gods as Bes or Ptah, recognized bisexuals as an insult to Nature. At the beginning of our era, the Romans stopped persecuting hermaphrodites, although Titus Livius said that throughout his life he saw many such creatures, but they were all thrown into the river. Some ancients recognized hermaphrodites as the quintessence of perfection and many of the nudes are immortalized in classical works of art.

Fragment of the statue of Hermaphroditus

In the Middle Ages, human characteristics and deviations were subjected to extermination, and bisexual people were persecuted with particular cruelty. According to church teaching, they were in league with the devil, and many died during the Inquisition. The fate of Antide Collas, for example, was typical of that time. Declared a hermaphrodite in 1559 and deprived of her liberty by law, she was examined by several doctors who recognized that her abnormal condition was the result of a relationship with Satan. For her connection with the devil, the unfortunate woman was burned at the stake in the main market of the city.
However, not all hermaphrodites were killed. One could once use a special right and declare one’s choice in favor of one flesh or another, but without the possibility of changing the decision in the future. How difficult it was to apply such a right in practice is well illustrated by the example of Margaret Malor. An orphan, until the age of twenty-one Margaret was convinced that all women were like her, and it was only when she fell ill in 1686 that a doctor from Toulouse made the following diagnosis: “An extremely unusual hermaphrodite, more reminiscent of a man than a woman.”

Hellenistic statue of Hermaphroditus
(Lady Lever Art Gallery)

The office of the bishop in Toulouse, on pain of death, ordered Margaret to wear men's clothing. The girl, amazed by this discovery, fled from Toulouse to Bordeaux, where she went to work as a maid for a rich family. But in 1691, a Toulouse who came to Bordeaux recognized her and she became a prisoner. On June 21 of the same year, the municipal court of Bordeaux decided that she should change her name to a man's name - Arno and forbade her to wear women's clothing under pain of flogging.
Having a feminine figure, face, habits and inclinations, Margaret was forced to look for a man's job. “Arno” did not have the physical strength inherent in men, and therefore had to feed himself from alms, by begging. Having somehow managed to get to Paris, “Arno” found the famous doctor, surgeon Savyard, who ultimately made the only correct diagnosis and issued a certificate indicating that the bearer of this, in his physical and mental condition, is much closer to a woman than to to a man. But the doctors and judges did not want to admit their mistakes, and their verdict remained in force until the lawyer, sympathizing with Margaret's torment, convinced the king to intervene in her fate.
The extent to which pseudohermaphrodites were persecuted often depended on the general status of the family to which he/she belonged. An example of this was Charles de Beaumont, Chevalier d'Eon, better known as Genevieve de Beaumont, Mademoiselle d'Eon.
Charles Genevieve Louis Auguste Andre Timothy d'Eon de Beaumont was a pseudohermaphrodite who had a huge influence on the politics of France in the 18th century. It should be emphasized that he was more a man than a woman, lived 82 years and all his life his flesh, his gender remained a mystery. He played the role of a man and a woman with equal success.Husbands sent their wives to him, and fathers sent their daughters, but all their efforts were in vain, because no one could observe even a slight interest in either women or men.
As captain of the dragoons, he showed extraordinary courage at times and, although his friends in arms recognized him as a man, he often discouraged them with his extreme impressionability. Among those who considered Charles a woman was a grenadier captain named Pommereau, who wanted to marry him, as well as the great Beaumarchais himself.
The whole life of the Cavalier d'Eon was extraordinary. Until the age of three he was raised as a girl, but when it was time to study, he entered a military school. As an adult he had a girlish figure, pleasant features and a feminine voice, which did not prevent him from gaining fame as the best swordsman and archer in Europe. Soon the king called Charles to court, because he believed that d'Eon could be used as a secret agent.
Charles was sent to Russia to spy on Queen Elizabeth II. At that time he was introduced as one of her ladies-in-waiting named Lia de Beaumont. One of his most successful undertakings was the organization of the Treaty of Paris. He managed to reach an understanding so useful for France that the English statesman John Wilkes remarked: “This agreement should be called God's Peace, since it does not fit within the boundaries of understanding.”
In 1745, d'Eon got involved in intrigues with the Scots, who were at war with England, and persuaded them to pursue policies useful for France. His role was so great that Beaumarchais once exclaimed: "d"Eon is the new Jeanne d “Arc!”, to which Voltaire replied: “Neither a man nor a woman - and this is precisely the kind of creature de Beaumont is recognized for - should be tested so hard by fate." Later, for unknown reasons, Charles was expelled to London, where he lived as a woman. He was then allowed to return on the condition that he go to a monastery.
d'Eon returned to Paris, where, after an examination, the royal doctor declared him a woman. De Beaumont took the vow of a nun. During the French Revolution, Charles offered his services to the new French government, but they were not used. They say that he ended his life in England as a woman, but she made her living by teaching fencing.
The 19th century saw a breakthrough in an attempt to use scientific principles to understand the amazing phenomenon of hermaphroditism. Diagnosing hermaphroditism is not easy. The difficulty in this can be illustrated by the example of an American woman named Marie Dorothy, who belonged to a very wealthy family, who was dressed and raised like a woman, but was a hermaphrodite. In 1823 it turned out that he was the only heir to a huge fortune. However, the will for inheritance stated that only a man could be the heir.
Marie was examined by several of the most famous doctors of the time. Two of them recognized her as a woman, three others as a man, and the sixth admitted under oath that this creature was both a man and a woman. The case went to court, and the judge announced a truly Solomonic decision: the male half of Marie Dorothy receives half of the fortune.
Another famous figure was Joseph Maso, born in 1830. The parents named the newborn Marie, raised him as a girl until he was twelve years old, then doctors stated that he was a boy. Then the name was changed to Joseph. According to doctors, Joseph's testicles remained in the abdominal cavity. An extremely enlarged clitoris was mistakenly mistaken for a penis. After Mazo's death in 1864, pathologists stated that, despite the male appearance of the head and body, he was, in essence, a woman who had a vagina, uterus and ovaries. Marie/Joseph had countless relationships with women, smoked, drank, and was interested in politics.
During the 19th century, hermaphrodites became extremely popular as monstrosity attractions. Circus directors argued that with a good “fifty-fifty”—another name for androgyny—the success of the show was guaranteed. However, public display of intimate parts of the body, even as a subject of scientific interest, was unconditionally prohibited. In order to somehow satisfy the interests of the public, they came up with a variety of tricks. According to a belief as old as time, the right side of the body is masculine and strong in nature, while the left side is delicate and more feminine. And hermaphrodites allowed hair to grow on the right side of the body, while the left side was carefully shaved. Short, straight hair on the right side of the head contrasted with free-growing long or carefully combed locks on the left side. With the help of special exercises, the right biceps was enlarged. The left side of the face was decorated with makeup, and the left palm and wrist were decorated with a huge amount of jewelry. To achieve full effect, silicone was often injected into the left breast. Some of the hermaphrodites were hugely successful, such as Diana/Edgar, Bobby Cork and Donald/Diana, who performed publicly as early as 1950.

Hermaphrodites and love

Some "fifty-fifty" aroused real passion. Joseph Nilton was such an attractive hermaphrodite that one American soldier left his wife and children for him. Another, François/Françoise Murphy, was raped by a sailor on the New York subway. Evelyn S. changed her gender at the age of 40 and married her own children's governess.
George W. Jorgensen changed his gender in 1952 at the age of 26. The doctor who performed the operation was forced to repeat it six more times, then he prescribed the patient two thousand hormonal injections. After this, George changed his name to Christina and became a cabaret dancer. One pilot sergeant who had an affair with her claimed that Christina had the most beautiful female body he had ever seen.

Hermaphrodites and sports

In 1966, during European athletics competitions, the topic of the real gender of some female competitors was discussed, which forced the European Sports Federation to subject the athletes there to the test. Many wished to stop participating in the tournament so as not to undergo a humiliating procedure. The rest readily agreed, believing that hermaphroditism would only give them popularity.
This happened, for example, with Bill Raskam, a famous ophthalmologist recognized as one of the promising American tennis players. In 1975, at the age of forty-two, Bill Ruskam came out as a woman and took the name Renee Richards. That same year, he decided to compete in the United States Women's Championship. Refusing to submit to tests to determine the real gender of the participants, Renee brought the case to court. It should be recalled that the examination is not limited only to a physical examination, but is based solely on the analysis of chromosomal cells of the oral mucosa.
Rene's dimensions were quite impressive: 185 centimeters in height and 80 kilograms in weight. An excellent opponent for both male and female players, she literally amazed athletes with the power of her backhand. The American Tennis Federation considered this technique to be the most convincing argument in favor of Renee’s male gender and banned her from competing in international competitions. However, Renee played as a woman in the Australian Open.
Now there are several more individuals whose sex is difficult to determine. However, advances in surgery and psychiatry make it possible for such men or women to make an unambiguous decision to change sex. Men become good housewives, and women become priests, soldiers or athletes.
The mother gave birth to either a boyfriend or a daughter that night!

This man has two names, two destinies, two genders: nature created him as a man,
and a woman at the same time. He lived for 30 years as the pretty Khadycha, and then became the courageous Kharis
...Mother Nature also makes mistakes, endowing her child with a male body and a female soul. People have learned to cope with this tragic absurdity with the help of a scalpel - gender reassignment has turned into a surgical operation. But what to do in the case when at birth it is not precisely determined who this time turned out to be: a man or a woman? The choice remains with the person, and often his whole life is not enough for him to understand himself.
The doctors did not know what to tell the woman in labor.
We arrived to visit Kharis Kamalov, who lives in the village of Malaevka, Cherdaklinsky district, Ulyanovsk region, immediately after the New Year holidays.
We knocked on the door of the desired house. “Ah-ah! Come visit us!” - the man looked at us over his shoulder and continued to carefully sweep the floor. He finished cleaning and straightened up. Gray hair, a womanly smooth face - not a stubble, not a pimple, well-groomed hands and strange eyes - black with glitter. “He really looks like a woman!” - this thought made me feel creepy.
But then an elderly woman came out of the room and introduced herself: “Kharis’s wife, call me Nurgalyam.”
Without asking why they came, she sat us down at the table and sent her husband to put the kettle on. “Let's eat Tatar pancakes!” - she explained affably.
It was a real pleasure to communicate with Nurgalyam - cheerful, open. It’s more difficult with Kharis. And even then, he felt that I was stealthily looking at him. Who will like it? But then, when we sat and got used to it, the owner of the house told his amazing story.
Kamalov’s parents also lived in Malaevka. Haris's mother really wanted to have a daughter. The birth went well. “Who do I have?” - asked the woman in labor. The doctors hesitated in confusion: the newborn had both male and female genital organs. Until this day, doctors only read about this in textbooks and told parents: decide for yourself what the baby should be. They agreed to consider the baby a girl and registered her under the name Khadycha.
Khadycha realized early that there was something wrong with her. The mother took her daughter to wash in the women's bathhouse, so the women shied away from the naked child like the plague.
The girl grew up, grew long, fluffy braids, began to wear beautiful dresses, and drew in her eyebrows. But in a small village you can’t even hide a sew in a bag.
Yes, Khadycha is pretty and sweet, but she’s just not like everyone else. Guys from neighboring villages came to woo Khadycha. But as soon as they found out about her secret, they turned the shafts. And Khadycha is happy to death! She didn't like guys, but she was interested in girls.
Surprisingly, Khadycha herself was very popular with both men and women. Those round dances revolved around a pretty girl.
At home - lovers, on the street - girlfriends
One day the beautiful Halime came to the village. The guys started spinning around her. Suitors are a dime a dozen! And she liked Khadycha. Soon a rumor spread throughout Malaevka: “There is something between Halime and Khadycha!”
And when Halime settled in Khadycha’s house, fellow villagers literally tormented the guest with questions: “How are you and Khadycha living?” She answered: “We are just friends!”
But Halime was cunning: she fell head over heels in love with Khadycha - as with a man. But Halime did not have the courage to recognize this man as her husband. And the lovers continued to lead a double life: at home - lovers, on the street - girlfriends. Soon such lies became a burden to both of them. Halime ran away.
...I met Nurgalyam Khadycha in the village of Yanganaevo, where she came on business. “I talked to her, and there was some kind of excitement in my soul: I liked her, and that’s all! - recalls Nurgalyam. - And these amazing eyes! I was about 30 then, because I was five years older than Khadycha. She buried her husband and her daughter is an adult. I started going to Malaevka to visit. I had relatives there. Here in the evenings there are festivities, Khadycha always plays the harmonica. It's so great! The best! Then the locals told me that it was “double”. At first I was scared, I didn’t even want to see Khadycha anymore. But I soon realized that I loved her.”
The wedding was held at home
Nurgalyam’s romance with Khadycha was short-lived. After a modest home wedding, the wife hinted to her “other half”: “What is the reason for you to remain a woman?” Relatives also advised Khadycha to call herself by a man's name and put on trousers - they say that those around her will not immediately, of course, but in the end they will get used to it.
And Khadycha-Kharis finally made up his mind: he cut his hair short, put on an ironed suit and went out into the street arm in arm with his wife - like an actor on stage! The whole village poured out to see the newlyweds! Kharis blushed and was embarrassed, but he managed.
Kharis turned out to be an amazing husband: affectionate, flexible, understanding. He did all the hard work himself, and also helped his wife in the kitchen. Nurgalyam blossomed before our eyes, literally glowing with happiness. Out of nowhere, envious people appeared among the married couple: either they were irritated by the whole unreality of what happened, or they were biting their elbows for missing out on the groom. And Nurgalyam and Kharis fell more and more in love with each other.
Nurgalyam did not pay attention to the gossip. I was only worried about my daughter, who flatly refused to even meet her mother’s new husband. “Nothing, everything will work out,” she reassured herself.
...Years passed before Nurgalyam’s daughter finally agreed to accept her new dad (soon he also became a happy grandfather), and the villagers came to terms with this unusual marriage. Now only evil and heartless people offend the Kamalovs.
Perhaps Kharis was luckier than others: his life turned out to be psychologically and emotionally richer and more intense than that of same-sex intelligent beings. Kharis lives with dignity both as a woman and as a man. Although, in my opinion, Kharis still hasn’t fully figured out who there is more in him.

Man has always been attracted by the amazing and unknown world. Cosmic phenomena, natural disasters and even deviations in the structure of the human body - everything incomprehensible is reflected in myths. One of the ancient Greek legends is dedicated to the unnatural combination of male and female external characteristics in the body of one person - hermaphroditism.

Hermaphrodite - who is it?

Modern science interprets hermaphroditism as bisexuality or androgyny. In the plant and animal world, this phenomenon is considered a natural necessity that arose in the process of evolution. In the human community, it is a pathology caused by painful disorders of the genetic background. There are true and false hermaphroditism in humans.

True hermaphroditism presupposes the presence in the human body of both male and female glands at the same time. Their function is to produce germ cells (sperm and eggs) and sex hormones. The result of a hormonal disorder is the presence in a person of secondary signs of the opposite sex (development of the mammary glands, facial and body hair, timbre of voice).

False hermaphroditism manifests itself only in appearance. The structure of the human body contains characteristics of both sexes, while its internal system is represented by either male or female glands. Thus, medicine gives a clear and unambiguous answer to the question of who a hermaphrodite is - a person who has characteristics of both sexes.

Hermaphrodite - Greek mythology

One of the myths of Ancient Greece was set forth by the philosopher Plato in his Dialogues “The Symposium”. It tells about the existence of a kind of androgynes - bisexual people with four legs and four arms. These people were self-sufficient and perfect. But they imagined themselves above the gods and decided to overthrow Olympus. Then the angry Zeus ordered to cut each androgyne in half, and he scattered the resulting halves, male and female, throughout the world.

Since then, all people are born unhappy. They spend their lives searching for their other half in order to find happiness and love. Having met a seemingly suitable person, they are doomed to doubt his ideality. Only Hermaphrodite-mythology is an ideal creature that combines the masculine and feminine, has known true happiness and does not need anyone’s love.

Hermaphrodite - legend

The ancient Greeks created an artistic picture of the surrounding reality in myths. Even such an anomaly as hermaphroditism is the result of the love of two higher beings - the Goddess of love and beauty and the God of cunning and deception. According to one legend, Hermaphroditus, the son of Hermes and Aphrodite (his name testifies to this), was a beautiful and athletic young man.

The constant attention and admiration of others made the young Hermaphroditus arrogant and narcissistic. One day on a hot day he came to a cool spring to bathe. There, on the shore of the lake, a nymph girl saw him and fell madly in love. She was inflamed with extraordinary passion for the stranger. This fateful meeting completely changed not only the life of the young man, but also himself.

Hermaphroditus and Salmacis

The nymph lived near a source and differed from her friends in her beauty and idleness. Her name was Salmacis. She prayed to Hermaphrodite for love. But the arrogant young man refused her reciprocation. Then the beautiful nymph turned to the gods with a request to help her merge with her lover in ecstasy. The gods fulfilled her request, literally. Two people entered the lake, a boy and a girl, and one person came out, the first hermaphrodite, a myth, half man, half woman.

Hermaphrodites in mythology

Who are hermaphrodites? Some peoples considered them demigods, others considered them the spawn of the devil. There are many androgynous characters across different religions and beliefs. God is perfection, the unity of all principles, a creative force, implying bisexuality. Hermaphrodite is a mythology, so androgynous characters are found not only in the ancient Greek epic. However, thanks to the poetry of Greek myths, the phenomenon of androgyny was called “hermaphroditism.” After many centuries, the name of the mythical character became a household name.

1) in ancient Greek mythology, the son of Hermes and Aphrodite (See Aphrodite), a young man of extraordinary beauty, raised by naiads (See Naiads). At the request of the nymph Salmacis, who was passionately and unrequitedly in love with G., the gods merged her with G. into one creature, which turned out to be the so-called. Great Soviet Encyclopedia

hermaphrodite - spell. hermaphrodite, -a Lopatin's spelling dictionary

hermaphrodite - Hermaphrodite, hermaphrodite, hermaphrodite, hermaphrodite, hermaphrodite, hermaphrodite, hermaphrodite, hermaphrodite, hermaphrodite, hermaphrodite, hermaphrodite, hermaphrodite Zaliznyak's Grammar Dictionary

hermaphrodite - HERMAPHRODITE, a, m. A creature with signs of hermaphroditism. | adj. hermaphrodite, oh, oh. Ozhegov's Explanatory Dictionary

hermaphrodite - 1. hermaphrodite m. A person or animal with characteristics of male and female. 2. Hermaphrodite m. The son of the gods Hermes and Aphrodite, united by the gods with the nymph Salmacis into one bisexual creature... Explanatory Dictionary by Efremova

hermaphrodite - noun, number of synonyms... Dictionary of Russian synonyms

hermaphrodite - HERMAPHRODITE -a; m. [from Greek. Hermaphroditus] An animal or person that combines the characteristics of male and female. ● After the name of the ancient Greek mythical creature - the son of Hermes and Aphrodite, united by the will of the gods with the nymph Salmacis, who was in love with him, into a single bisexual creature. Kuznetsov's Explanatory Dictionary

hermaphrodite - [gr.] – an organism that has genital organs of both sexes; in Greek mythology, a hermaphrodite was the name of the son of Hermes and Aphrodite, united by the gods with the nymph Salmanida so that their bodies formed one whole Large dictionary of foreign words

Hermaphrodite - [named after the ancient Greek mythical creature, the son of Hermes and Aphrodite (Hermaphrodites), who had male and female characteristics] - an individual who has secondary sexual characteristics of both sexes. True hermaphrodite -... Medical encyclopedia

HERMAPHRODITE - HERMAPHRODITE - in Greek mythology, the son of Hermes and Aphrodite, a young man of extraordinary beauty. At the request of the nymph Salmacis, who was passionately and unrequitedly in love with Hermaphroditus, the gods merged her with him into one bisexual creature. Large encyclopedic dictionary

hermaphrodite - HERMAPHRODITE, hermaphrodite, male. A person with an abnormal combination of characteristics of both sexes. (After the name of the ancient Greek mythological creature, the son of Hermes and Aphrodite, who had male and female characteristics.) Ushakov's Explanatory Dictionary

Hermaphroditus - (Hermaphroditos), according to Ovid, is the son of Hermes and Aphrodite, raised by nymphs on Ida. The Carian nymph Salmacis was captivated by his beauty and, not being able to achieve his love, begged the gods to unite her with him forever. Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron

hermaphrodite - -a, m. An animal or person that combines the characteristics of male and female. [After the name of the ancient Greek mythical creature - the son of Hermes and Aphrodite, spliced by the will of the gods with the nymph Salmacis] Small academic dictionary

HERMAPHRODITE - A HERMAPHRODITE, an organism that has both male and female genital organs. Most hermaphrodite animals are INVERTEBRATES, such as the earthworm and snail. Reproduction occurs through the exchange of SPERM between two individuals. Scientific and technical dictionary

hermaphrodite - (Greek) Bisexual; male and female Creature - human or animal. Theosophical Dictionary

hermaphrodite - HERMAPHRODITE m. a person or animal of a deformed formation that combines, more or less, the characteristics of both sexes; double-rigged, double-brimmed, bisexual, bisexual, mezheumok, rooster, smoker about. Dahl's Explanatory Dictionary

I have existed for centuries, stirring everyone’s blood,
I make you suffer and enjoy.
They call me one word - “love”
Nothing can be born without me!

They curse me, they worship me,
I used to be the main goddess...
I was in reality, I came in a dream,
She bestowed her gifts!

Everything is subject to love and its laws
My greatest gift is pleasure
And in his name all living things live.
I stand at the origins of creation
So much has been written and said about love that it is impossible to imagine. And yet the flow of words dedicated to her does not dry out. This word is used not only to describe the sensuality of copulation, but also our relationship to God, objects and natural phenomena. So, in my immodesty, I allow you to once again touch on this plowed and plowed topic and that part of it that our Slavs began to use the stingy foreign word “SEX” without clear definition.
In the natural concept, “love” is an indescribable range of voluptuous feelings. Because of our pride in our special position in the living world, we consider this feeling to be characteristic only of human individuals, although we see that four-legged animals are ready to give their lives in order to take possession of a partner. But is it only four-legged ones?.. Look how lovingly the males of many species of birds decorate the nests in order to attract a female? And the beauty of the males’ plumage doesn’t speak volumes about this. I have artificially narrowed the problem of love, and only because I see at the present time what our ancestors saw during periods of social collapse, when normal natural sexual attraction in huge quantities was replaced by an unnatural one, covered by more euphonious words - “unconventional love.” By inserting the word “love” into this concept, the natural sexual “tradition” is vulgarized - the attraction of representatives of the opposite sex to each other, gifted by the Creator, for procreation and its evolutionary improvement. It is not for nothing that “unconventional love” contains so many elements of Satanism, and representatives of its various movements become ardent opponents of the church, destroying the very main basis of national identity, which unites people of different economic status and varying degrees of mental and spiritual development - into a single, albeit non-monolithic !
I, dealing with issues of sexual relations, which often go beyond the limits permitted by human laws (far from perfect), do not intend to bring anything new into the argument, but use what has come to us from time immemorial. It turned out to be impossible to change the existing order of things either by the time lived by humanity, or by moralists of many centuries, or by priests of all religious movements.

Gods and men, goddesses and gods -
What are your differences and similarities?
Also grumpy, and also miserable.
What then is the superiority?
Early summer morning. Even on the grass, droplets of dew sparkle like diamonds. The greenery of the leaves did not have time to fade under the rays of the scorching southern sun. The voices of birds singing greet the sunrise. Eos from the golden veil showed her foot to the world. The world rejoices at the arrival of a new day. Only Aphrodite, the goddess of love, is not happy about his beginning today. Everything irritates her: the singing of birds, the rustling of tree leaves, and the overly active movements of animals scurrying around in search of food. For now, Aphrodite is just annoyed. Anger doesn't come out. In her anger, Aphrodite is not inferior to the goddess of discord Iris. Only her anger manifests itself in a completely different way - by interfering in the relationships of mortal women and men, causing tenderness and compassion of some, anger and betrayal of others.
She remembers the beginning of the evening on Olympus, when Zeus made fun of her, comparing the beauty of her, the goddess of love and beauty, with the members of the effeminate Ganymede, the personal cupbearer of the supreme god. The goddess pretended that the jokes did not affect her feelings, seething with indignation. And, surrendering to her lame husband Hephaestus, the god of the blacksmith’s craft, on the bed of love, Aphrodite did not feel the usual satisfaction. And the caresses of the hands, rough from constant contact with the iron, were this time too fast to evoke the sensation of a pleasant tingling of the skin from their warmth; and the caresses of the tongue were irritable, far from carrying, as usually happened, a feeling of voluptuousness; and from the husband’s armpits came the too pungent smell of male sweat, which the ambrosia drunk by God in the evening was not able to overcome... The goddess drove away the unpleasant memories, but for some reason they constantly crawled into her dazzlingly beautiful head.. The goddess came out of the shadow of the trees of the olive grove into a clearing covered with tender grass, without a single weed. She wanted to walk barefoot on the grass, as earthly girls do. The goddess took off her sandals and stepped bare foot onto the green grass. Mortals should have seen how amazingly beautiful Aphrodite’s feet were, how impeccably shaped her toes were. The ancients did not know how tight shoes, especially with raised heels, disfigure the toes of girls of the twenty-first century AD. The sandals used by the ancients only protected the soles of the feet, leaving the rest of the feet almost free. The freshness and coolness of the grass made the beautiful goddess cry out easily and curl her toes... The goddess walked for a long time through the clearing with pleasure, picking flowers and weaving a wreath from them. A mere mortal, having met her, would never have thought that she was a goddess and not a mortal, she rejoiced so carefree in her loneliness... Staying in the clearing distracted Aphrodite from unpleasant memories and she wanted to do her usual work - love... No, not force someone to obey her will, and to experience tender feelings in the arms of a man. Unfortunately for her, not a single man was nearby. The desire was so great that the goddess decided to turn to the Olympians. Quickly going through the faces she knew, she settled on Hermes. He was young, and handsome, and unusually active, since his shoes were winged. The call she sent did not go unanswered. A slight sound of cutting air - and a softly smiling Hermes, the god of trade and deception, and also the personal messenger of Zeus, appeared in the clearing. He has just completed the most difficult of all the assignments entrusted to him - he deceived the greatest of the titans, Atlas. Hermes did not tell Aphrodite about what happened to him when he met the ancient titan, who was his grandfather... The Goddess would have been incredibly surprised by what she heard. This has never happened in the history of the gods. Having persuaded Atlas's grandfather to tear the sky from the earth, which threatened Atlas with petrification, Hermes did not have time to avoid the deep exhalation of the titan. The Olympian god whirled in a stream of air streams with a leaf torn from a tree. The titan blew the spirit out of him. Hermes turned out to be “empty,” like a bottle from which the contents have been poured out.
Since then, an airless space bounded by walls has been called hermetically sealed. Hermes gave this space his name...
The young god seemed too light and pliable to Aphrodite. She had to take the initiative in love. The doubly devastated Hermes groaned.
The goddess arched in voluptuous languor
...The time from their intercourse, allotted for gestation, passed, and the fruit of love was born, which caused such laughter on Olympus that the Earth shook hundreds and thousands of stadia around it. And there was something to be surprised at, and there was something to laugh at: the creature born of Aphrodite carried within itself both feminine and masculine principles. And its name was formed by the gods from the names of the father and mother - hermaphrodite. What happened to the Olympian gods sooner or later came to people. Not only by hearing, but also by action. Hermaphrodites began to be born among people, evoking the same feelings with their birth as those of the Olympian gods, when Aphrodite brought the creature she gave birth to to them on Olympus! But, if for the Olympians everything was clear with the appearance of the hermaphrodite, then for the people the reason for this remained a great mystery. But it is what it is: you can’t argue with the facts! Hermaphrodites have not become a great rarity among people, appearing from parents who do not stand out in any way from their peers.
There are still a lot of subtleties in this matter, but the time will come and everything secret will come true

FIRST LOVE
What is love?
Its purpose is known to everyone!
How was she born and where did she come from?
From the moment she appeared, she was bright, not bland,
But did she find everything perfect?..
In chaos, reason was born. Everything was burning around, everything was exploding, rushing. And it is clear that intelligent life was born in heavy torment, and not on the marriage bed, and it is natural that the requirement for survival in conditions of monstrous cataclysms lay in the strength and capabilities of the one being born, and not in the beauty of his body.
So they were born (as evidenced by the myths of the ancient Greeks): multi-armed, multi-headed giants, with a strength so enormous that they became dangerous to the lives of their parents. - Gaia (Earth) and Uranus (Sky) It was necessary to overthrow the giants into Tartarus, into the bowels of the earth. The earth was no longer writhing from the pangs of childbirth, but from processes directly opposite to it, for the giants, forcibly held in tartarus, were rushing out. But time passed and the Earth acquired beauty, its children became beautiful, and not only in body. They were called "titans". The Titans were powerful, like their giant predecessors, but unlike those they became intelligent. Reason gives rise to desires, desires give rise to envy, and envy gives rise to struggle. Fight brings death! A paradox arises: how is it possible - immortal creations of the earth (titans) and death? They are not compatible! For death to receive its food, mortal beings are needed. The moment of the appearance of mortals has come... And they appeared! It’s just that the titan Prometheus had to deal with the issue of creating them, if, of course, you believe the early myths of Ancient Greece. Prometheus molded them from the earth and breathed into them his immortal soul. Mortal people were of different sexes. In order to attract the attention of an individual of the opposite sex, completely different feelings were required than before. Energy passion was replaced by voluptuousness. And it had to differ in some way from each other: depth, brightness, duration. And this required the classification of sexual feelings. A deity was required who would deal with all this... A deity independent of all other gods. It should not have been born from gods in power, because then the attraction would not be free! Let us present the very possibility of the appearance of such a deity:
...Mediterranean Sea, the cradle of civilization. The titan Ocean does not rule in this sea, giving birth to monstrously huge waves, washing away huge tracts of land on its way. This sea, like many other small seas that were part of the Mediterranean, is owned by the god of the seas, Poseidon. Almost in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea is the island of Cyprus, the largest of the islands. Among the islets of the Mediterranean Sea there is also an island called “Kythera”
Let’s imagine the gentle shore of the island of Kiethera, a shallow bay, fenced and protected from the rampant waves by two capes protruding far into the depths of the sea. Small waves roll onto the shore with a slight noise, pouring over the yellow sand of the seabed. Silence around, undisturbed by anyone. There are no birds visible in the blue skies.
And suddenly a stream of blood and sperm falls from heaven into the sea water. It turned out that the god Cronus, with an adamantine (diamond) sickle, cut off the child-bearing organ of the father of his god Uranus. The blood of Uranus mixed with his sperm. A snow-white foam formed, breathing life. The Oras, goddesses of the order of things who regulate the seasons, noticed this beginning of life and placed the mixture inside a large airy sea shell. Ora called the beauty who was later born from foam “foam-born.” Either Aphrodite didn’t like the island of Cythera for some reason, or a playful breeze carried the shell to the shores of Cyprus, who knows now? Only the shell turned out to be off the coast of Cyprus and out of it emerged the most beautiful and gentle of the goddesses of the ancient Greek pantheon of gods, “Aphrodite,” also called “Cyprida” after the place of her appearance. Having learned about the birth of the beauty, the Olympian gods also arrived in Cyprus. By this time, the orcs had crowned the beauty with a golden necklace, put on her the thinnest snow-white tunic, over which was thrown a crimson-red peplos (cloak)
The arriving gods marveled at the charms of Aphrodite and were eager to take her as their wife. The husband of the newborn goddess was the ugliest Olympian god Hephaestus, from whose hands came the most beautiful things he made. A combination of beauty and ugliness emerged, but with a unity of sensuality. What we used to call love began to work...
From the point of view of Puritanism, the goddess of love was not distinguished by high morality. She easily entered into love affairs with males, and this already meant that Aphrodite did not value marital fidelity at all. And this, it turns out, is not enough, the goddess entered into love affairs with both men and women, in other words, she was a bisexual person. The ancients also knew about this sexual orientation. And yet it is known that the goddess preferred to deal with the male sex. Did this mean that it was impossible to equate a bisexual’s attraction to a partner’s different sexes? We will have to return to this issue a little lower...

ASEXUAL INDIVIDUALS

She expected - love did not come.
The reason for this is unknown
And she did not find joy with a woman,
And every man is disgusting...
They tried to wake up the sleeping feelings,
But they sleep deeply, as if in a coma...
I got my lot - to live alone.
Love remained unknown.
There are no feelings for people in my own circle, and there is no attraction to others. They tried to rape me - I fought back! She preferred loneliness - and remained lonely, although she understood the consequences of this in old age. Either she failed to attract Aphrodite’s attention, or something else, unknown, intervened in her fate! I put all my energy into my work. I didn’t know that the ancients also knew about asexual orientation. And there was such a goddess who preferred hunting to the passion of love. Her name was Artemis or Diana. Artemis rushed alone with a pack of dogs, announcing the surroundings with a trumpet call and an animal roar. Neither gods nor mortals managed to awaken the love of the beautiful goddess. One, who accidentally managed to see the delights of a goddess bathing at a water source, did not manage to tell about his meeting with Artemis... Somehow people still managed to find out about it... Even the name of the mortal became known - his name was Actaeon. And he, like Artemis herself, was a hunter. The goddess did not spare her fellow hunter and turned the daring one who saw her naked into a deer. And the deer was torn to pieces by its own dogs, who did not recognize its owner in the deer.
But let’s continue to touch on the topic of our excursion, especially love...
There are people of strange orientation, they love only people of the same gender, remaining indifferent to the opposite

ANTHEM TO WOMEN'S SENSITIVITY AND BEAUTY
The feeling of love and the feeling of suffering,
The truth of sensual passion
We languished in blind anticipation for a long time -
Chained by power!

And even now these chains have not been broken
They just weakened a lot,
Those relationships are recognized as norms.
Those are alien and cursed by God
In written sources of ancient times, little attention is paid to women. There is nothing about her feelings - she is just an instrument of love. Therefore, the world of ancient Greek literature greeted the appearance of the poetess Sappho on Parnassus quite kindly, at least without envy. The creations of the ancient Greek poetess Sappho became a hymn to female sensuality and beauty.
“I loved, I, in despair, in a whisper, invited many to my lonely bed of love. I spoke in the language of truth, passion.” – she writes
“Passionate Sappho” was called by her contemporaries. None of the women before her had spoken about her feelings so openly and with such unheard of force.
She was born in the city of Eros on the island of Lesbos. This happened 600 years before the birth of Christ. Children on the island, unlike other ancient Greek territories, were raised equally regardless of gender.
Sappho was an excellent swimmer, did gymnastics, studied music and poetry: Already in her youth she wrote odes, elegies, holiday and drinking songs.
Sappho could not be called a beauty. Small in stature, strong, too dark, dark-haired, with irregular facial features... And this was when everyone was fond of white-skinned, pampered Athenian women...
A short-lived platonic love for the young man Olcay. The same short marriage with a rich merchant. The birth of a daughter and... The husband and daughter soon die, first the husband then the daughter. Family happiness did not work out. Sappho plunges headlong into poetry
What to do if in the culture of ancient Greece, same-sex love was a fairly common occurrence. This love became the object of Sappho's passion. Although you can’t call her lucky in this matter either! Love passion and admiration, the joy of tender communication and jealousy - Sappho loved as not every mortal can love. She completely devoted herself to the terrifying elemental force, which was impossible to fight.
In the South, aging begins earlier... So the first gray streaks appeared in dark hair, and the skin on the face began to lose its smoothness
Youth and freshness inexorably left her. Love failures killed the heart. Once the brother of the poetess bought the beautiful hetaera Rhodopa from slavery for a huge amount of money. The girl was so beautiful that Sappho also fell in love with her and became a rival of her own brother. But the young beauty remained indifferent to Sappho’s feelings. And my brother, so as not to tempt fate, took Rhodope away from Lesbos
Sappho was in despair. Women rejected the poetess's advances. Leaving the young girls, Sappho turned her attention to the young handsome young man Phaon. It is unknown what the already middle-aged and ugly Sappho was counting on? The handsome man did not even turn his head in her direction.
The world rejected a strong and talented woman and she abandoned the world of people, clearly showing the power of the passions raging in her. - having climbed a high rock, she threw herself head down onto the sharp stones sticking out at the foot of the cliff and washed by the waves of the raging sea.
Sappho's tragedy is not accidental. There was no free choice in love in Lesvos.. Choosing it in other city-policies of the Peloponnese was even more difficult. Lesbos was famous for its democratic views and behavior
No wonder one of the types of sexual orientation is called “Lesbian love”
Was Sappho a pure lesbian? Hardly? After all, in the work of the ancient poetess there are many works imbued with tender love for a man!
Hence, is lesbianism deservedly called sapphism, the basis of which is the name of the amazing talent and destiny of a woman?

A woman reaches out to a woman with her body,
She rejects the man with her soul.
And judging her is only half the battle,
What if the reason is unclear?

Maybe we see a return,
What did our ancestors do?
Or maybe it's debauchery
What also happens often?
The socialist society of the Stalinist period imposed a taboo on issues of sexology. We didn’t have such an object. Showing naked female bodies in films is prohibited. A kiss on the lips on the screen causes a deafening rumble and pounding of feet in the cinema hall. And it is not clear whether this is a sign of approval or condemnation? The first acquaintance with pornography was pornographic photographs. We look at them furtively in school toilets during breaks.
One glance is enough to understand that these are poorly made copies of the originals. Explicit sexual poses give rise to many questions and a certain feeling of disgust. The first textbooks on erotica were the novels of Emile Zola. What is missing is filled with the imagination of a teenager
I'm an adult. The topic continues to remain open. Books with elements of erotica are read,
Either by locking herself in the toilet, or by hiding her under the table and holding her on her lap. I already know a lot about lesbianism - at least the technique of it. But what pushes a woman to this is unclear to me. Is she born with a hidden desire for lesbianism and just waits for the conditions to open up, or is something else going on here? I have had to deal with cases of sodomy more than once, and only because it is punishable by law. Lesbians do not cause bodily harm to each other and lesbianism is not subject to criminal punishment. Lesbians skillfully hid their inclinations from the public. The revelation was the result of an accident. Somehow I had to find out that in the medical team in which I worked, a young woman of 27 years old, a mother of three children, left her husband and went to live with a single woman. You can’t hide it in a bag - we learned that a lesbian with a great worldly image persuaded the young woman to take such a step. You should have seen how the woman who left her husband blossomed. I realized that she got what she was missing. Or the sex was insufficient, or the husband’s behavior left something to be desired? Reading the literature of the times of Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome, in which there were no prohibitions on forms of sexual behavior of people, it became clear that they were largely determined by the living conditions themselves. Becoming a heterosexual, enjoying sexual freedom and respect in society, cost a lot of money. Poetry, music, dancing, familiarity with literature and theater cost money. The rich could afford it. Most women remained ignorant, and their position in the family was not much different from that of a slave. The woman spent most of her time in the hematia - the female half of the home. She was obliged to meet her husband at the threshold, take off his sandals and wash his feet with water. She provided the same service to a male guest. She served at the table, not taking part in conversations or entertainment. She had to, she had to! And there were a great many debts. The woman did not have time to pay off her debts, there was no time to pay attention to herself personally! How could she compete with a heterosexual who was beautifully dressed, whose body was anointed with incense, who knew how to hold a conversation, who knew literature, who played musical instruments, who was trained in the art of singing and rhetoric, who knew all the mysteries of love? Men did not respect their ignorant wives, valuing her body if it remained attractive. Corrupted by their position in society, having the means to satisfy their desires, they spent their leisure time in the company of a hetaera or an attractive young man, entering into sexual relations with them. This form of love was not condemned... On the contrary, it was considered worthy of imitation.
What could the woman do? Engage in self-satisfaction or seek sexual solace with another woman, someone who is just as unhappy as she is? It was strictly forbidden to seek love satisfaction with another man. This was not excluded even during the long absence of her husband... Remember the long waits of Penelope - the wife of the lascivious Odysseus! Reports of the death of her husband could free a woman, but... There were suitors right there, one of them became the new owner... A woman’s position often forced her to take the path of lesbianism. True, in Ancient Rome this form of love was also a consequence of debauchery that gripped the entire society.
In our modern conditions, lesbians are classified as sexual minorities, demanding the provision of all rights, including those of a marital nature. They are tired of feeling humiliated, judged, and powerless! But we should not forget that sexual behavior does not always correspond to sexual orientation. They enter into contact for money, making a living from it, or use elements of it simply for a variety of sex. Lesbians know well how to please their partner. If the partner does not have the expected response, the lesbian will definitely ask what services her “friend” would like from her: soft, sweet, gentle, rough, hard.?
Should lesbians be judged harshly if you can't change their orientation? Research has shown that lesbians have no choice. Her behavior is an innate phenomenon. Attempts to remake a lesbian into a “normal” one are useless1 Not only ordinary citizens should know about this, but also priests who condemn lesbians in the name of God.
The fact that lesbians form unions and hold demonstrations does not indicate that they are trying to promote their way of life, but that they want to legitimize their relationship with society. If they do not show violence, then there is nothing to blame them for? Only our Creator can condemn them,

.
Why are you rushing about, man?
From one gender to another?
Or there is nothing to define feelings?
Or do you belong to a different gender?
There is a part of human society that receive sexual pleasure from communicating with representatives of both sexes. They are called bisexuals. Speech
most likely it should be about those female representatives whose sexual orientation has stopped at some part of the path leading to lesbianism. Bisexuals know that they are not lesbians, but they don’t know why they feel so good with both women and men. Still, we shouldn't assume that bisexual women are promiscuous? Cheating does occur, but inclinations are determined by standards of thinking in combination with circumstances, but they are not short in time. A long-term attachment arises, disrupted by everyday difficulties. The idea that bisexuals are depraved and promiscuous is wrong. I don’t know the mechanism of a bisexual’s sexual orientation, but I believe that it is more complex than the formation of a lesbian or gay.
And again I refuse to condemn such a person. In any case, when I know that a bisexual acts with the consent of his partner. “God is their judge!” - should be said in this case.

A beautiful body - you can be proud of it, -
The soul in him knows no peace
She feels uncomfortable in it and is afraid to admit:
It is not hers, but someone else's.

The view in the mirror is the same. Birthmarks
Nose, mouth and fluff above the lip
But in general it’s unpleasant to look at him
If your body controls you...

How I put new shoes on my feet -
It rubs here, I got calluses there
She's so tired of her beautiful body
I haven't loved him since birth...
It seems that a beautiful woman, at whom men cast admiring and inviting glances, should be pleased with herself. And she adores the look of a man’s body, hating the one who is in it. She would give anything to replace hers with his. Realizing that this is impossible, she suffers deeply. In order to somehow smooth out the pain of her tormented soul, she begins to wear rough men's clothes, a man's haircut on her head and a man's headdress. Men's rough shoes and trousers, putting all this on herself, she boldly challenges society. And society greets her with contempt, slander, gossip and even hatred, although she has not done anything bad to a single representative of this society. Unable to bear all this, some of the transsexuals (as such people are called) seek a way out through suicide. Or, having financial resources, they contact a gender reassignment surgeon. They know that the operation is not a one-time operation, that they will have to constantly take hormones. Nothing stops... This means that this is not a whim, but a dictate of the soul associated with the characteristics of sexual desire
Exactly the same thing is observed in a transsexual man who wants to become a woman.
Society needs to move from condemnation to understanding. And know that those who show violence or involve children and adolescents in sexual activities must certainly be condemned and punished, since they may then develop mental disorders, including those of a sexual nature.

HERMAPHRODITE

The son of Hermes and Aphrodite, a young man of extraordinary beauty. Brother of Abdera, Autolycus, Eurytus, Pan? and Efalida At the request of the nymph Salmacida, who was passionately and unrequitedly in love with him, the gods merged them into one body.

Myths of Ancient Greece, dictionary-reference book. 2012