From the Apamea mosaic lost to terrorism
Painting of the androgynous creature Hermaphroditus and Platonic philosophy
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This panel is from the lost Apamea mosaic, and Apamea, as it is known, was the capital of Neoplatonism in the third and fourth centuries AD.
It is a painting that represents the myth of the birth of the goddess of beauty Aphrodite, who appears on the left of the painting as a crowned queen by her husband Hermes. This hermaphroditic being who stands naked on the right of the painting is the son of the two gods called Hermaphroditus. According to Greek mythology, according to Ovid, the son of Aphrodite and Hermes was a very handsome boy. One of the nymphs loved him and begged the gods to unite with her forever, so the god Zeus responded to her pleas and merged them. He was this being who combined feminine and masculine qualities in his body at the same time, and he took his name from both his parents, Aphrodite and Hermes.
This topic is a living embodiment that illustrates Plato's understanding of love, masculinity, and femininity, which he presented in his book The Feast.
Plato used to say that human nature in ancient times was not what it is today. In the beginning, there were three races, not two genders: male, female, and a third gender composed of both. This third gender has no trace now other than its name: (Hermaphroditus), meaning hermaphrodite
These beings were powerful, so they became arrogant and tried to compete with the gods. Zeus became angry and thought for a long time and decided to save the human race from annihilation, and at the same time, put an end to these creatures. Zeus split every creature into two equal parts, and ordered Apollo to turn the face and half of the neck to the side of the other split side so that the victim would see the signs of the split before her and submit to the gods. She does not return to her old ways. Apollo also ordered the wounds to be treated, all traces of separation to be removed, and some wrinkles to be left on the abdomen so that a person might remember what he was and what happened to him and learn from it. After that was done, each half began to search for its other half, and when they met, they embraced as if they wanted to become one being again, and to remain embraced until death.
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