KARL

FRIEDRICH

See also:

• HERMANN, JOHANN GOTTFRIED JAKOB (1772–1848)
• KARL FRIEDRICH HERMANN (1804–1855)

HERMANN (1804–1855)  , German classical scholar and antiquary, was born on the 4th of August '804, at Frankfort-on-Main . Having studied at the universities of Heidelberg and Leipzig, he went for a tour in Italy, on his return from which he lectured as Privatdozeni in Heidelberg . In 1832 he was called to Marburg as professor ordinarius of classicaledited the text of Juvenal and Persius (1854) and Lucian's De conscribenda historia (1828) . A collection of Abhandlungen and Beitrage appeared in '849 . See M . Lechner, Zur Erinnerung an K . F . Hermann (1864), and article by C . Halm in Allgenzeine deutsche Biographic, xii . (188o) . HERMAPHRODITUS, in Greek mythology, a being, partly male, partly female, originally worshipped as a divinity . The conception undoubtedly had its origin in the East, where deities of a similar dual nature frequently occur .

The

oldest traces of the cult in Greek countries are found in Cyprus . Here, according to Macrobius (Saturnalia, iii . 8) there was a bearded statue of a male aphrodite, called Aphroditos by Aristophanes (probably in his Nic/3os, a similar variant) . Philgchorus in his Atthis (ap . Macrobius loc. cit.) further identified this divinity, at whose sacrifices men and women exchanged garments, with the moon . This double sex also attributed to Dionysus and Priapus—the union in one being of the two principles of generation and conception—denotes extensive fertilizing and productive powers . This Cyprian Aphrodite is the same as the later Hermaphroditos, which simply means Aphroditos in the form of a herm (see HERMAE), and first occurs in the Characteres (16) of Theophrastus . After its introduction at Athens (probably in the 5th century B.c.), the importance of this being seems to have declined . It appears no longer as the object of a special cult, but limited to the homage of certain sects, expressed by superstitious rites of obscure significance . The still later form of the legend, a product of the Hellenistic period, is due to a mistaken etymology of the name . In accordance with this, Hermaphroditus is the son of Hermes and Aphrodite, of whom the nymph of the fountain of Salmacis in Caria became enamoured while he was bathing . When her overtures were rejected, she embraced him and entreated the gods that she might be for ever united with him .

The result was the formation of a being,

half man, half woman . This story is told by Ovid (Metam. iv . 285) to explain the peculiarly enervating qualities of the water of the fountain . Strabo (xiv. p . 656) attributes its bad reputation to the attempt of the inhabitants of the country to find some excuse for the demoralization caused by their own luxurious and effeminate habits of life . There was a famous statue of Hermaphroditus by Polycles of Athens, probably the younger of the two statuaries of that name . In later Greek art he was a favourite subject . See articles in Daremberg and Saglio, Dictionnaire des antiquites, and Roscher's Lexikon der Mythologie; and for art, A . Baumeister, Denkmdler des klassischen Altertums (1884-'888) .