The Jesus Hermaphrodite: Science and Sex Difference in Premodern Europe

@article{Devun2008TheJH,
  title={The Jesus Hermaphrodite: Science and Sex Difference in Premodern Europe},
  author={Leah Devun},
  journal={Journal of the History of Ideas},
  year={2008},
  volume={69},
  pages={193 - 218}
}
  • Leah Devun
  • Published 4 April 2008
  • Art
  • Journal of the History of Ideas
This article traces the development of the hermaphrodite symbol in alchemical literature from the high Middle Ages to the early modern period. It argues that alchemical writers used themetaphor of hermaphroditism to describe the "philosophers' stone," a chemical agent believed to be a combination of contradictory elemental qualities. Such writers extended the hermaphrodite metaphor to Jesus, whome they conflated with the philosophers' stone, and whom they viewed as a combination of masculine… 
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30 Citations
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30 Citations

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