Androgynus (Bechoros 41)

Androgynous is an Aramaic word which is based on Greek roots, andros and gynos, which means man and woman.

So an androgynous is someone who has both male and female characteristics.

The scientific term is actually hermaphrodite, which comes from Greek mythology, which is in itself probably the reason why the rabbis prefer the term androgynous.

And it is derived from the Greek god Hermaphroditus, who was the child of the male god Hermes and the female god Aphrodite.

Their offspring, Hermaphroditus, presented both male and female characteristics, hence the term hermaphrodite.

The term tumtum, which is often used in discussions wherever androgynous comes up, is probably derived from the Aramaic term atum.

This is the derivation defined by the Aruch, a very important Italian Jewish dictionary of the Talmud published in the 11th century.

And it comes from the word to mean sealed up or occluded.

And a person who is a tumtum is of indeterminate gender.

An androgynous is, or a hermaphrodite to use a scientific term, basically has both male and female organs present.

And there are two versions.

One is called true hermaphroditism, in which both organs are present.

It is possible in many cases that only one set of organs presents at first, and then later on in life, usually around puberty, the other set present themselves.

This is an extremely rare occurrence.

Only 400 such incidents have been recorded in the medical literature.

Most of them are infertile, but in some cases they actually have recordings of true hermaphrodites giving birth.

Far more common is what's called pseudo hermaphroditism, meaning false hermaphroditism, in which one set of primary characteristics appear, but the secondary characteristics, such as facial hair for a man, appear later on in life.

And so the child is first identified with the obvious external representations of hermaphroditism, and later on at puberty, the other ones appear.

Now, this is all well documented as a phenomenon throughout human history.

In the Jewish tradition, I only mentioned one fascinating reference.

The very first creation, the creation of Adam, is referred to in the Midrash, and you'll see it in the Gemara in Erevan, if I remember correctly, where Adam HaRishon, the very first man, was first created, in fact, as a hermaphrodite, as an androgynous, presenting as both male and female simultaneously.

And one of the acts of creation, or one of the elements in the acts of creation, was when God separated Adam and Chava, Adam and Eve, into both male and female.