Statuette of Hermaphrodite

In Classical mythology, the nymph Salmacis loved the handsome but unresponsive Hermaphroditos, son of Hermes and Aphrodite. When he bathed in her spring, Salmacis embraced him forcefully and prayed that they never be parted. The gods granted her wish, and the two became a single divine being with both male and female characteristics, most commonly referred to by the feminine name, Hermaphrodite. In the Museum's statuette, Hermaphrodite is represented leaning against a pillar. She apparently once held objects of some kind, perhaps a libation dish (phiale) in the left hand and a jug in the right. The figure is naked except for a mantle that is draped to reveal the male genitals. The latter are in notable counterpoint to the female breasts, the soft, feminine modeling of the body, and the sweet features of the face. Her long hair is caught up in a chignon at the nape. Faint traces of color remain. The body is worked in the round, but the back of the mantle is summarily modeled. There is a cutting in the side of the capital on the pillar; either the capital was completed by a separately made piece, or the statuette may have been articulated in some way with another object. Fewer than a hundred depictions of Hermaphrodite are known, most of Roman date. Sometimes she is shown nude, other times pulling up her cloak to expose the genitals, in the manner of Priapus. She may be accompanied by Aphrodite, Pan, Eros, or Silenus. In one type she struggles against the attentions of a lusty satyr, while another represents her sleeping. In contrast to these sculptural tours de force, meant to bemuse or titillate, this statuette is more iconic. It is not a playful genre figure but a static image of a particular deity. The only other example of this type is a much larger statue in the Istanbul Archaeological Museum that was found at Pergamon, a cosmopolitan center of the Hellenistic period whose Attalid rulers fostered major cults of a variety of gods. The Museum's statuette is said to have been found on Rhodes, the location of an important school of sculpture. The lithe form and sweet sensuality of this figure are characteristic of the "Rococo" phase of the late Hellenistic period. Produced in the final era of Greek independence from Rome, it represents a culmination of sorts, beyond naturalism and before the exigencies of the Roman market forever changed the nature of Greek sculptural production. Not a salacious curiosity, rather an object of sincere devotion, the statuette represents the dichotomy of human nature and the yearning for unity in the face of ambivalent desire.