HERMAPHRODITE. This word comes from the Greek, Hermes, which signifies Mercury, and Aphrodite, which signifies Venus. By it is meant a person, who partakes of both sexes, male and female. The Rabbins say, that God at the beginning created Adam an Hermaphrodite; meaning probably, that he had two bodies, male and female, fastened back to back1, or by the sides only; and that God, when he created woman, did no more than barely separate these two bodies. This ridiculous opinion is founded on these words of Moses, Male and Gen. i. 27. Rom. xvi. 14.Female created he them.
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Footnotes
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Vide Thalmud & Rabb. & Platon. ↩