ABSTRACT
One area where we might not expect the theme of androgyny is in the Bible. Yet it is here that are to be seen the antecedents of those much-discussed themes of Philo of Alexandria, some early Christian thought, and gnosticism. The primacy of the androgyne may be explained in terms of the importance of anthropomorphism in human consciousness from hominid times. The man is mother to the woman. Perhaps this makes more sense once we recognize the often overlooked ideological element in the Eden narrative, for the Man is not simply Everyman; rather is he prototypical Man, as embodied in the king. The androgynous dimension is thus an ideological feature. One of the striking features of Egyptian cosmology, in its various and varied manifestations, is a fundamental dualism. Everything splits into two, and sets of two principles in opposition represent, in merismic fashion, every aspect of reality.
