Hermaphroditos

Might as well start this blog out with a bang! Here is one crazy myth -

The Greek dieties Hermes and Aphrodite got together and, well to put it delicately, held hands. Their child was a young boy who was beautiful, talented, and all around a nice guy. Many parents like to name their child after themselves (the whole junior phenom) and the gods and goddesses are no different. Both wanted to tag their name to this handsome youth so they merged their names together into Hermaphroditos (poor kid, alas his name is the least of his worries).

Well the boy grows up to be a great archer, hunter, charioteer, poet, runner, and pretty much anything that he wanted. He had women throwing themselves at him hoping to get his attention. One young nymph in particular was fascinated by him, but Hermaphroditos was not interested in love. He was having too much fun being single.

Well our little nymph-stalker was not one to give up easily, so she goes to a local river god and asks for help. She said, "I want to be with him forever. If I can't, I feel as if I may die!" The god granted her wish. He told her to wait by a certain pool of water that Hermaphroditos was known to frequent. As soon as he gets in to cool off from a long day's worth of hunting, jump in and grab him. Your wish will be granted.

Sure enough, she stakes out the pool and when he gets in, she leaps in after him and grabs him. As soon as she does, she is instantly merged into him. Now Hermaphroditos might not have noticed much since she completely merged into him. he kept his own thoughts. Her voice was not heard in his head. She was one. They literarly became one. One problem - he gained her womanhood parts and became the first female boy or male girl or, well hermaphrodite, which is, of course, where we get that word.