Refers to an organism that has both male and female characteristics. (from the Greek ἀνήρ “man” and γυνή “woman”)
According to the Spanish Royal Academy , “androgynous” and ” hermaphrodite ” can be used as synonyms, although it provides for “androgynous” an alternative definition that specifies “Said of a person: Whose external features do not correspond definitively with those of their sex “. [1] The androgyne would be either a physically intermediate being, with sexual characteristics of men and women, or a man or a woman who does not clearly show the sex to which he belongs.
Origin of the term
Plato , in his work The Banquet mentions a special being that reunited in his body the masculine and feminine sexes, or two masculine or two feminine sexes.
The myth tells that these beings tried to invade Mount Olympus , the place where the gods live, and Zeus , upon realizing it, threw a lightning bolt at them that divided them into men and women. Since then, it is said that the man and the woman go through life looking for their other half.
This myth would explain homosexuality and heterosexuality in antiquity since, according to the myth, there would also be androgynes made up of what would be two men and androgyns made up of two women.
In support of such a theory, the myth of the androgyne is often alluded to, which the Athenian philosopher Plato explains in his work The Banquet. Plato tells us how in the past there was a particular class of human being called androgynous, this being brought together the two sexes: the female sex and the male sex. Humans had rounded shapes: the back and sides placed in a circle. They had four arms, four legs, two faces, and a single head. Such bodies were very vigorous and conceived the idea of fighting the gods. Zeus then planned a means to weaken human beings: divide them in two. Since then humans have had to walk with only two legs. With this division, each half makes efforts to find its other half. Each of us, Plato would say, ”
In the development of Western culture after Greek culture, the androgynous myth described by Plato has been used to justify the need for psychological complementation that men and women have among themselves.
In order to establish a relationship, it was once stated that a man needs a woman and a woman needs a man. Implicitly, or explicitly, other couple relationships are eliminated: if a man, for example, does not seek a complement in a relationship with a woman, it was stated in the past, something would be missing. And here the appeal is again made to the mutual need that men and women have for each other, indicated by the myth of the Athenian philosopher.
To complement, in miscellaneous terms, many times today you will have heard a theory that interprets love as a force that pushes a person to seek their psychological complement in the relationship with another person (their “better half” or soul mates). ).
The complete androgynous myth
Androgyny is found in myths about origins as a symbol of supreme religious identity, of absolute power and total significance. It represents the union of opposites, the mythical conjunction of the sexes. [2]
The paradox is that in the androgynous myth described by Plato, the androgynous class consisting of a male body and a female body is only one of the three classes that Plato lists.
The philosopher of Athens also speaks of an androgyne made up – before separation – of two male bodies. It also tells us of an androgynous composed – before separation – of two bodies of women.
Thus, following the complete myth, after the separation that Zeus applied as punishment, some men look for their half, who are women. Some women look for their half, which are men. Some men look for their half, who are also men. And other women look for their half, who are also women. Plato says:
«To the women, who come from the separation of the primitive women, the men do not attract attention and are more inclined to the women; Tribades belong to this species. In the same way, the men who come from the separation of the primitive men, look for the male sex … If they marry and have a family, it is not because nature inclines them to it, but because the law forces them. ” [3]
In conclusion: the myth of the androgyne that Plato develops supposes a vital and emotional explanation of both heterosexual and homosexual relationships.
In Greek mythology Tiresias, who had been alternately male and female, had thus known the secrets of jouissance, being able to affirm that women enjoyed nine times more than men. [4]
Hermaphrodite is another example in Greek mythology: as punishment from the gods he becomes both male and female.
In India , the androgyne was represented by Shivá and his consort Párvati , fused into one being [5]
A Jewish myth from the Talmud , the Midrash and the Zohar Jadash , states that the first human being was a hermaphrodite. Adan was male and female at the same time. God took one of its sides to create love, vertically cleaved the bisexual being making one a man and the other a woman. Love is, then, the search for the other because without the other one remains as a means of being:
“Therefore the man will abandon his father and mother and unite with his wife and they will be one flesh.” (Genesis 2:24)
