ABSTRACT
The distinctions established from time to time between the terms 'androgyne' and 'hermaphrodite' have always been purely arbitrary and consequently often contradictory. The notion of human androgyny has sometimes been presented as an objective induction from purely biological and scientific observations; but usually in such cases both the observations and the conclusions drawn from them are so absurd as to make it apparent that the notion itself preceded a desire to find a factual foundation. During the nineteenth century, the important religious source of the conception was undoubtedly the androgynous Adam of the occult and mystical philosophies associated with the Judaeo-Christian tradition, such as for example the Kabbala, gnosticism, freemasonry, rosicrucianism and the philosophy of Boehme. A. Viatte shows how widespread such philosophies were at the beginning of the nineteenth century and what a tremendous impact they had on Romanticism. Towards the end of the nineteenth century, the mentally lascivious woman frequently appeared as an allumeuse.
