Editing Hermaphroditus (section)

==Mythology==
{{Further|Salmacis|Salmacis (fountain)}}
Ovid's account relates that Hermaphroditus was nursed by naiads in the caves of [[Mount Ida (Turkey)|Mount Ida]],<ref>Ovid [http://etext.virginia.edu/latin/ovid/trans/Metamorph4.htm#478205196 Alcithoë tells the story of Salmacis] in ''Metamorphoses'' Book IV, lines 274–316</ref> a sacred mountain in [[Phrygia]] (present day [[Turkey]]). At the age of fifteen, he grew bored with his surroundings and traveled to the cities of [[Lycia]] and [[Caria]]. It was in the woods of Caria, near [[Halicarnassus]] (modern [[Bodrum]], Turkey) that he encountered the [[nymph]] [[Salmacis]], in her pool. She was overcome by lust for the boy, who was very beautiful but still young, and tried to flirt with him, but was rejected. When he thought she had left, Hermaphroditus undressed and entered the waters of the empty pool. [[Salmacis]] sprang out from behind a tree and jumped into the pool. She wrapped herself around the youth, forcibly kissing him and touching his breast, attempting to rape him. While he struggled, she called out to the gods that they should never part. Her wish was granted, and their bodies blended into one form, "a creature of both sexes".<ref name=ovid>Ovid [http://etext.virginia.edu/latin/ovid/trans/Metamorph4.htm#478205198 Salmacis and Hermaphroditus merge] in Metamorphoses Book IV, lines 346–388</ref> Hermaphroditus prayed to Hermes and Aphrodite that anyone else who bathed in the pool would be similarly transformed, and his wish was granted.

Hungarian [[Classics#Philology|classical philologist]] [[Károly Kerényi]] wrote: "In this form the story was certainly not ancient". He related it to the Greek myths involving male youths (''[[ephebos|ephebes]]''), noting the legends of [[Narcissus (mythology)|Narcissus]] and [[Hyacinth (mythology)|Hyacinth]], who had archaic hero-cults, and also those involving [[Hymen (god)|Hymen]] (Hymenaios).<ref>Kerenyi, p. 172-3.</ref>

[[Diodorus Siculus]], in his work ''Library of History'', mentions that some say that Hermaphroditus is a god and appears at certain times among men, but there are some who declare that such creatures of two sexes are monstrosities, and coming rarely into the world as they do have the quality of presaging the future, sometimes for evil and sometimes for good.<ref>Diodorus Siculus, Library of History 4. 6. 5</ref>

In a description found on the remains of a wall in [[Halicarnassus]] dated to around 2nd century BC, Hermaphroditus' mother, Aphrodite, names Salmacis as the nymph who nursed and took care of an infant Hermaphroditus after being placed in her care, a very different version than the one presented by [[Ovid]].<ref>Romano, Allen J. "The Invention of Marriage: Hermaphroditus and Salmacis at Halicarnassus and in Ovid." The Classical Quarterly, vol. 59, no. 2, [The Classical Association, Cambridge University Press], 2009, [http://www.jstor.org/stable/20616705 pp. 543–61].</ref>

The satirical author [[Lucian]] of [[Samosata]] also implies that Hermaphroditus was born like that, rather than becoming later in life against his will, and blames it on the identity of the child's father, Hermes.<ref>Lucian, ''[[Dialogues of the Gods]]'' [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/lucian-dialogues_gods/1961/pb_LCL431.253.xml Apollo and Dionysus]</ref>