ABSTRACT
Son of Hermes and Aphrodite, brought up on Mount Ida in Phrygia. He was very handsome, and when, as a young man, he left home for Halicarnassus in Caria, the Naiad Salmacis fell passionately in love with him. He repulsed her, but when, later on, he inadvertently bathed in her spring, she embraced him and pulled him down into the pool, praying to the gods that she and he might for ever be united. Their bodies were joined into one, becoming a hermaphrodite, which has female breasts and proportions but male genitals. As a result of Hermaphroditus’ prayers to his parents, the spring exercised a like effect on all men who bathed in it thereafter.
