The anatomo-physiological hermaphrodite or the medieval and aureate fracture of the androgyne myth. Iconographic contexts

Abstract

During the anthropological symbolization path of Homo Sapiens, the human body has been subordinated to the symbolic archetypes prevailing in each society, reflecting all its discourses to understand the world. We may not find in our cultural heritage a better substrate for this paradigm than that of the androgynous, secularly regarded as normal, divine or monstrous, depending on the interviewing between cultural/religious conventions, and the limits of the empirical knowledge of each civilization. In his sacred prism, the androgynous brought together mythology, alchemy, perfection, and eternal return, embodying the primordial divine image of many religions. In the profane, when medieval patristics transformed sin into carnal, biological hermaphrodite was endowed with a powerfully negative burden. The so-called "disappointment of the androgynous myth" led to a great conceptual and figurative discrepancy between mythical androgynous and anatomo-physiological hermaphrodite. Based on the dynamic reading of his iconography, this article explores the impact of the Scholastic on the medieval and modern journey of this entity, from the alchemical androgynous to the profane hermaphrodite and, subsequently, to Eve, both “embodiments” of theological sin. From the perspective of anthropological medicine, a diachronic look at its representative and conceptual itinerary over the centuries, allows us to trace the dialectical tension between body, spirit, idearium and doctrine, underlying its specific symbolic construction.