STEPHEN FRY - HERMAPHRODITUS AND SALMACIS

(Retold by Stephen Fry)

Hermaphroditus and Salmacis

As the men and women of the Silver Age became accustomed to the striving and toiling and suffering that seemed now to be their common lot, so the gods continued to breed.

Hermes, who had grown swiftly into handsome but eternally youthful manhood, fathered the goat-footed nature god PAN, or FAUNUS, by the nymph Dryope (Although some say this, I tend to believe that Pan/Faunus was older than the Olympians. Perhaps as old as nature itself. We will encounter him from time to time as we move forward.). Behind the back of Hephaestus and Ares he also coupled with Aphrodite, a union blessed by the birth of a son of quite trandescent loveliness named --in honour of each parent-- HERMAPHRODITUS.

This beautiful boy grew up in the shadow of Mount Ida, cared for by naiads (There were two Mount Idas -- the Cretan one, Zeus's birthplace, and another in Phrygia -- today's Turkish Anatolia. This was the one from which Hermaphroditus hailed.). When he reached the age of fifteen he left them to wander the world. Travelling in Asia Minor he met one bright afternoon a naiad called SALMACIS who was splashing in the clear waters of a spring near Halicarnassus. Hermaphroditus, who was as shy as he was lovely, became greatly confused and unhappy when this forward creature, stunned by his beauty, tried to seduce him.

Unlike most of her kind -- modest, hard-working nymphs who attended with diligence to the maintenance of the streams, pools, and water-courses over which they had charge -- Salmacis had a reputation for vanity and indolence. She would rather swim lazily around admiring her own limbs in the water than hunt or exarcise with the other naiads. But her peace and self-esteem were shattered by the beauty of this Hermaphroditus, and she exerted herself mightily to win him. The more she tried -- revolving naked in the water, winningly rubbing her breasts, blowing coy bubbles under the surface -- the less comfortable the boy became, until he shouted at her to leave him alone. She departed in a sulky surge, shocked and humiliated by the new and unwelcome experience of rejection.

It was a fine day, though, and Hermaphroditus, hot and sweaty from the excitement of fighting off this tiresome sprite and thinking she was safely out of the way, stripped off his clothing and plunged into the cool waters of the spring to refresh himself.

Almost immediately Salmacis, who had swum back under the cover of the reeds, leapt on him like a salmon and clung fast to his naked body. Revolted he wiggled and wriggled and jiggled to be set free, while she cried up to the heavens, "Oh gods above, never let this youth and me part! Let us always be one!"

The gods heard her prayer and answered with the callous literalness that seemed ever to delight them. In an instant Salmacis and Hermaphroditus did indeed become one. The pair fused into a single body. One body, two sexes. No longer the naiad Salmacis and the youth Hermaphroditus, but now intersex, male and female coexisting in one form.

In this new state Hermaphroditus joined the retinue of EROTES whose nature and purpose we will describe very soon.

As the gods bred, so men and women bred. But the divine fire that was now as much a part of our nature as the gods meant that we shared with them the capacity not just for lust, copulation, and reproduction, but the capacity for love.

Love, as the Greeks understood, is complicated.

Erotes

The Greeks untangled love's complexity by naming each separate strand and providing divinities to represent them. Aphrodite, the supreme goddess of love and of beauty, was attended by a retinue of winged and naked godlings called Erotes. Like many deities (Hades and his underworld cohorts, for example) the Erotes suddenly found themselves with much to do once humanity established itself and began to flourish. Each of the Erotes had a special kind of amatory passion to promulgate and promote.

ANTEROS -- the youthful patron of selfless unconditional love (The well-known aluminium statue by Alfred Gilbert that forms the focus of the Shaftesbury Memorial in Piccadilly Circus, London, is actually not of Eros but of Anteros, deliberately chosen to celebrate the selfless love that demands no return. This was considered an appropriate commemoration of the seventh Earl of Shaftesbury's great philanthropic achievements in hastening the abolition of child labour, reforming lunacy laws, and so on.).

EROS -- the leader of the Erotes, god of physical love and sexual desire.

HEDYLOGOS -- the spirit of the language of love and terms of endearment, who now, one assumes, looks over Valentine cards, love-letters, and romantic fiction.

HERMAPHRODITUS -- the protector of effeminate males, mannish females, and those of what we would now call a more fluid gender.

HIMEROS -- the embodiment of desperate, impetuous love, love that is impatient to be fulfilled and ready to burst.

HYMENAIOS -- the guardian of the bridal chamber and wedding music.

POTHOS -- the personification of languourous longing, of love for the absent and the departed.

Of these the most influential and devastating was Eros, in his power and his capacity to sow mischief and discord. There are two stories concerning his origin and identity. In one telling of the birth of the cosmos he was hatched from a great egg laid by Nyx and sprang from it to seed all life in the universe. He could therefore be counted among the very first of the primordial beings that kickstarted the cascade of creation. In a view perhaps more commonly held across the classical world, he was the son of Ares and Aphrodite. Under his name CUPID he is usually represented as a laughing winged child about to shoot an arrow from his silver bow, a very recognizable image to this day, making Eros perhaps the most instantly identifiable of all the gods of classical antiquity.

Cupidity and erotic desire are associated with him, as is the instant and uncontrollable falling in love that results from being pierced by his dart, the arrow that compels its victims to fall for the first person (or even animal) they see after being struck (Cupid draw back your bow / and let your arrow go / straight to my lover's heart for me, for me...). Eros can be as capricious, mischievous, random, and cruel as love itself.