Sexual Ambivalence: Androgyny and Hermaphroditism in Graeco-Roman Antiquity

by Luc Brisson, Lady Janet Lloyd (Translator)

This fascinating book collects and translates most of the extant written Graeco-Roman material on human beings, divinities, animals, and other creatures who were said to have been both female and male. Luc Brisson provides a commentary that situates this rich source material within its historical and intellectual contexts. These selections--from mythological, philosophical, historical, and anecdotal sources--describe cases of either simultaneous dual sexuality, as in androgyny and in hermaphroditism, or successive dual sexuality, as in the case of Tiresias (the blind Theban prophet), which are found through the whole span of Graeco-Roman antiquity. Sexual Ambivalence is an invaluable sourcebook that gathers this suggestive, yet hard to find, material in one convenient place.

This book presents some very obscure but wonderfully strange material. There is the ghost story about a father who returns from the dead to devour his dual-sexed son in the public square, leaving behind only the head, which proceeds to deliver a prophecy from its position on the ground. In addition to including such familiar sources as the myths of Salmacis and Hermaphroditus as told in Ovid's Metamorphoses and Aristophanes' myth of the origins of the sexes and sexuality in Plato's Symposium, Brisson also discusses cosmogonic mythology in Hesiodic poetry, the Orphic Rhapsodies, Gnosticism, the Hermetic Corpus, and the so-called Chaldean Oracles. He presents the manifold variants of the myth of Tiresias, as well as many other sources.

Brisson quotes this material at length and discusses its significance in Graeco-Roman myth and philosophy. These ancient stories open a window onto a world without the sexual oppositions of male and female, a paradise of unity and self-containment, as well as onto the peculiar world of go-betweens like the prophet Tiresias. They deepen our awareness of the extent to which the polarity of sexuality colors our entire perception of the world, as it did in antiquity, and as it does for us now. This provocative material is profoundly relevant to our thinking today.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Queer, Classics

200 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1997

Reviews

[Paul Groos · Rating 3 out of 5]

Brisson takes a distinctly structuralist look at queer characters of many types in ancient times, both in myth and in history. The structuralist is at his best when they can make clear pairs of opposites, dichotomies, which in this book are of course made along gender lines. This brings a lot of insights and other associations to double sexuality that are interesting and well reasoned, such as the link between a primordial state of indifferentation, the separation into two sexes and the ability to divine the will of the gods and the future.
Brisson takes a lot of liberty to freely associate and give his thoughts at length about tangents that hardly seem to be connected to the main theme of the book. I would have liked a more extensive review of the Kaineus/Kainis myth, the stories of Leucippus and the one about Iphis and some ideas about the Sithon/Spiroithes story, which is now only mentioned.
Brisson seems to assume things that can’t be proven from existing sources, such as the very shaky association between Kainis and the Phoenix. Besides he takes a sweeping look at every available source from the space of almost two millennia and from the entire Mediterranean and beyond. Of course, since the number of sources is very limited, he works with whatever’s available, but to draw very general conclusions about all of antiquity from so very diverse sources, seems a bit rash.
While a good collection of sources and ideas and while showing some great reasoning in very understandable language, Brisson goes off the rails a couple of time, speculating, cherry picking or simply giving unproveable opinions as facts. I did learn a lot from the book, so certainly not a waste of time.

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was, as another reviewer said, a structuralist approach to Greek and Roman myths and beliefs having to do with dual-sexed beings (whether primordial gods, mythological figures, or animals). Some of Brisson's claims could have used more in-text (rather than end-note [which I detest, compared to footnotes]) support, but overall it was easy to read and presented the evidence in a straightforward manner.

The author tries very hard to lay out evidence without coming down strong on any particular argument. The fact that he avoids much discussion of any real people (sticking with myth) was surprising to me, based on title alone, and his ambivalence on that issue left me ambivalent.

Sounds about right.

[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well laid out; a bit dated (structuralist) approach. A good introduction to classical sources for intersexed and transsexed narratives along with differing sorts of responses (some positive, some negative) depending on the context. Well researched and a relatively easy read. The translation is quite approachable and doesn't "feel" clunky or forced the way a translation sometimes can. Solid volume, well worth reading if you've an interest in ancient mythology, ancient approaches to sexual difference or gender, structuralist literary criticism, or the ways that Grecco-Roman society changed as it became more multicultural.

[Lindsey Mac · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this for my thesis on hermaphrodites in mythology. Parts of it were really interesting, but there were other sections included that didn't seem to belong at all. Maybe some information was lost during the translation of this book from French to English???

[Drianne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good gathering of sources. I wish it did not use the term "hermaphrodite" when meaning "intersex person." Also, I would wish for more copious references to modern scholarship. And less... French-ness, especially towards the end.