Via Clive Thompson’s latest Linkfest, we are afforded the chance to revisit the myth of Hermaphroditus through modern scientific conjecture that eponymous spring lake, after the predatory nymph—Salmacis, actually existed at Halicarnassus (modern Bodrum Tรผrkiye of the Hanging Gardens fame) by the accounts of ancient writers like Ovid whose waters might have had natural “emasculating” endocrine disrupters, suggesting the archetypal tale was not just the product of a productive imagination but the actual concentration of emasculating chemicals. A popular cult developed for Hermaphrodius as the ideal of beauty as well as a symbol for holy matrimony, perhaps reflected in Paul’s Epistle to the Ephesians—the community located between Pergamon and Halicarnassus—that included the instruction, “Therefore, shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh,” a benediction of the Greek orthodox marriage ceremony that repeats the words of the apostle.
synchronoptica
one year ago: a remote Icelandic movie theatre (with synchronopticรฆ) plus the overthrow of the democratically elected government of Iran
twelve years ago: the EU and Gibraltar
thirteen years ago: a logographic alphabet of untranslatable words
fourteen years ago: US regulations for foreign banks plus a visit to cloister Ebrach
fifteen years ago: the US army leaves Iraq