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Ambisexual creatures appear in a variety of oriental and Greco-Roman myths. Rarely are they considered monstrosities; usually they are idealized and deified. Plato describes the original combination of the two sexes in one being: after they are split apart, they seek one another, each hoping to be reunited with his original other half. The book of Genesis also implies an original ambisexual human being, for Adam and Eve were created male and female from the same body.
According to Ovid, the Nymph Salmacis fell in love with Hermaphroditos, the beautiful young son of Hermes, the Greek Messenger God, and Aphrodite, the Goddess of Love. In vain, the Nymph tried to seduce the innocent youth. Finally, seeing him bathe in a pool, she could restrain herself no longer and tried to overpower him. Clinging to him, she invoked the gods to never let her be separated from him. The wish was granted and thus they “were united and from being two persons, they became one … possessed of a dual nature which could not be called male or female, but seemed to be at once both and neither” (Jones and Scott, 1958).