Hermaphroditus.

     A handsome youth born from the union of Hermes and Aphrodite, Hermaphroditus attracted the attention of the beautiful spring-nymph Salmacis. The youth rejected her advances, but one day as Hermaphroditus bathed in her pool the nymph threw herself at him, clinging to him passionately. As Hermaphroditus struggled against her embraces, Salmacis begged the gods to keep them joined for all time. The gods acceded, and as the two bodies twisted in the water they became one, both male and female.
     The hermaphrodite, or androgyne —— a generic theme deriving indirectly from the myth of Hermaphroditus and Salmacis — was a popular theme in ancient art, especially in the Hellenistic period, and in the postclassical era particularly so among nineteenth-century fin de siècle poets and artists.