Pool in the woods of Caria

Hermes (pronounced /ˈhɜrmiːz/; Greek Ἑρμῆς) is the Messenger of the gods in Greek mythology. An Olympian god, he is also the patron of boundaries and of the travelers who cross them, of shepherds and cowherds, of thieves and road travelers, of orators and wit, of literature and poets, of athletics, of weights and measures, of invention, of general commerce, and of the cunning of thieves and liars.[1] His symbols include the tortoise, the cock, the winged sandals, and the caduceus. The analogous Roman deity is Mercury.

ESFJ

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermes

Aphrodite (Greek: Ἀφροδίτη; Latin: Venus) (pronounced /ˌæfrɵˈdaɪtiː/; Ancient Greek: IPA: [apʰɾoˈdiːtɛː], Modern Greek: [afɾoˈðiti]) is the Greek goddess of love and beauty.[2] According to Greek poet Hesiod, she was born when Ouranos was castrated by his son Cronus. Cronus threw his severed genitals into the sea, and from the aphros (sea foam) arose Aphrodite.

Because of her beauty other gods feared that jealousy would interrupt the peace among them and lead to war, and so Zeus married her to Hephaestus, who was not viewed as a threat. However, Aphrodite became instrumental in the Eros and Psyche legend, and later was both Adonis' lover and his surrogate mother.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aphrodite

Hermaphroditus
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Salmacis and Hermaphroditus by Bartholomeus Spranger (c. 1598).

In Greek mythology, Hermaphroditus or Hermaphroditos (Ancient Greek: ʽἙρμάφρόδιτός) was the child of Aphrodite and Hermes. Born a remarkably handsome boy, he was transformed into an androgynous being by union with the nymph Salmacis.[1] His name is the basis for the word hermaphrodite.

At the age of fifteen, he grew bored of his surroundings and traveled the cities of Lycia and Caria. It was in the woods of Caria, near Halicarnassus (modern Bodrum, Turkey) that he encountered Salmacis the Naiad in her pool. She was overcome by lust for the boy, and tried to seduce him, but was rejected. When he thought her to be gone, 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 boy, forcibly kissing him and touching his breast. While he struggled, she called out to the gods that they should never part. Her wish was granted, and their bodies blended into one intersex form. Hermaphroditus, in his shame and grief, made his own vow, cursing the pool so that any other who bathes within it shall be transformed as well. "In this form the story was certainly not ancient" Karl Kerenyi noted, as compared the myth of the beautiful ephebe with Narcissus and Hyacinthus, who had an archaic hero-cult, and Hymenaios.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermaphroditus

Salmacis

In Greek mythology, Salmacis was an atypical naiad who rejected the ways of the virginal Greek goddess Artemis in favor of vanity and idleness. Her attempted rape of Hermaphroditus places her as the only nymph rapist in the Greek mythological canon.

"There dwelt a Nymph, not up for hunting or archery:
unfit for footraces. She the only Naiad not in Diana’s band.
Often her sisters would say: “Pick up a javelin, or
bristling quiver, and interrupt your leisure for the chase!”
But she would not pick up a javelin or arrows,
nor trade leisure for the chase.
Instead she would bathe her beautiful limbs and tend to her hair, with her
waters as a mirror."

Ovid, Metamorphoses. Book IV, 306-312.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salmacis


androgynous | andrdns | a. E17. [f. L androgynus (see prec.) + -OUS.] 1 Uniting the (physical) characters of both sexes; hermaphrodite. Also, of ambiguous sex; partly male and partly female in appearance. E17. 2 Astrol. Of a planet: sometimes hot, sometimes cold. M17. 3 Bot. Bearing stamens and pistils on the same inflorescence, or on the same plant. M18.


hermaphrodite | hmafrdLt | n. & a. LME. [L hermaphroditus f. Gk hermaphroditos, orig. in Greek mythol. the name of the son of Hermes and Aphrodite, who became joined in one body with the nymph Salmacis.] A n. 1 A human being or animal combining characteristics of both sexes. LME. b fig. A person or thing combining two opposite qualities or functions; Naut. a ship having the characters of two kinds of vessel, esp. a hermaphrodite brig. LME. c A homosexual; an effeminate man. Long rare. L16. 2 An animal having normally both male and female sexual organs, as many snails and earthworms. E18. 3 A flower in which both stamens and pistils are present; a plant having such flowers. E18.

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