Re: Dicussion on 'hermaphrodite' (was Of accents & dialects

Andreas Johansson wrote:
 > Quoting R A Brown <ray@...>:
 >
 > [snip]
 >> In ancient mythology, Hermaphroditos, the offspring Hermes & Aphrodite,
 >> had the fully working equipment of both sexes. Is this condition found
 >> among higher orders of animals? Is hermaphoditism (as opposed to
 >> intersexualism) attested among humans, or are such people the stuff of
 >> legend & myth?
 >
 >
 > Well, there is a very rare medical condition known as "true
hermaphroditism"
 > where an individual has both testicular and ovarian tissue (either
one gonad of
 > each sort, or one or two "ovotestes" combining both tissue types).
Sometimes
 > they can produce functional gametes of both types. They still won't
have two
 > sets of external genitalia, however, and AFAIK there are no known
cases of that.

Not like snails then, where any pair can - and do - fertilizes each
other's eggs. I'm not sure that even Hermaphroditos was hermphroditic in
that sense - but one can never tell with the gods. If Zeus could gestate
Athene in his head and Dionysos in his thigh (tho not both at the same
time) then, I guess, a god with both a penis & vagina is no big deal.

But the common noun _hermaphroditos_ appears to have been used
indifferently of both intersex and androgynous persons. Indeed, I don't
the suppose the ancients distinguished the two different conditions.

But on checking I see that in Ovid's account Hermaphroditus (the Latin
form of his name) was the _son_ of Hermes and Aphrodite and was equipped
in just the sort of way one would expect a son to be. The problem arose
when a certain nymph, Salmacis, fell in love with him and prayed that
she might be so closely united with him that the two become one flesh.
Her wish was granted and the nymph & the young god became one single body.
=======================================================

ROGER MILLS wrote:
> Scotto Hlad wrote:
>>
>> I'd like to add to the etymology for androgyne. Andro is the genitive
>> form of aner the Greek word for man and gyne is the Greek word for woman.
>>
> Possibly a nonce-form,
Not according to my dictionary. The original Greek _androgynos_ was
certainly not a nonce work (see my earlier email).

> but in the past I've heard "gynandron"
> [dZIn'&ndr\on] as a term for a person who has both sexual characteristics.
Not listed in my dictionary (Chambers English Dictionary, 7th ed.,
1988). But it does give:
gynandrism, gynandry = hermaphraditism.
gynandrous = "hermaphroditic: with stamen concrescent with the carpel,
as in orchids.'

_gynandros_ is attested in ancient Greek - it's the opposite of
_androgynos_, i.e. while the latter denotes an effeminate male, the
former (gynandros) is a masculine female. The word is somewhat rarer
than _gynandros_

--
Ray
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