Ancient Greek and Roman period uncertain gender (hermaphrodites and intersex people)

Author: (French) Brissot, translated by Hou Xuemei
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2005-12-01
Features: Having both male and female sexes is a typical feature of some primitive organisms. The memory of a primitive state often evokes human nostalgia. In Plato's Symposium, Aristophanes' mythological story provides a profound expression of this. Every couple, when their spiritual and physical union reaches its peak repeatedly, yearns for an unattainable eternal fusion that will lead them back to the primitive state of humans who still possessed both sexes. In ancient Greece and Rome, animals and humans with two sexes were destined to face a cruel fate of being expelled. In the eyes of the public, these monsters were considered ominous signs sent by the gods to destroy humanity. In real life, phenomena of having both sexes are either completely rejected or exist on the fringes of society; however, in myths and legends, they play an extremely important role. Compared to having both sexes simultaneously, the sequential possession of two genders by some individuals carries a very different meaning. They sequentially possess the mediator between gods and humans, and more importantly, the dual gender of diviners. Tiresias is a problematic example: he is a seer who can communicate between the human world and the divine world. The fact that he transforms from male to female and then back to male allows him to move between the male and female worlds. Tiresias freely navigates between opposing contradictions while the world remains unchanged, symbolizing the transcendence of humanity's fundamental contradiction—the gender divide.