[lit-ideas] Sexual Dimorphism -- and Greek Myth
- From: Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 25 Oct 2007 10:28:00 EDT
Geary is referring to the Bible (Book of Genesis)
"Maybe those chroniclers got it all wrong. Maybe the first man was a WOMAN.
And God quickly saw she didn't know which end of the hammer to hold so he
ripped a rib and created MAN, the drywall hanger. This narrative makes a hell
of
a lot more sense to me. I don't know ancient Hebrew, but I'll bet if the
scholars dare go back far enough they see that what we now call "woman" was
created first."
Well, I just got my Loeb for OVID and should be consulting his wonderful
METAMORPHOSES. The myths of creation for the Greeks, did not, I believe,
involve
a sexual dimorphism that we find with the Hebrews, between "Man" and
"Woman".
Thus, Prometheus is held responsible for creating 'men' and 'women' _at one
fell stroke_ as it were.
This is not to say that the Greeks were blind to sexual dimorphism. For
example, Plato's theory of love -- and the soulmate -- is based on that. The
Uranians, as he calls them, are individuals who look for people of their same
sex
('lesbians' when women) to mate. Very complicated.
On the other hand, Pallas Athena was supposed to have been born straight
from the _brain_ of Jupiter -- rather than from the womb of Hera. So not only
did she not have a navel, but she displayed all 'manly' characteristics that
apparently the Greeks wanted in a goddess to which they dedicated their most
famous city, "Athens".
And then the Greeks loved a Hermaphrodite (Strangely, this is a combo of
Hermes + Aphrodite, rather than Ares, and Aphrodite, as one would expect,
noting
that the symbols we use for male and female are from the symbols of Mars --
the shield and the spear -- and Venus -- the hand mirror).
More quotes below. It was, again, a Victorian thing.
When Borges read the Arabian Nights by Burton -- and he has an essay on this
-- he was irritated that what in Persian is 'hermaphrodite', and Burton
keeps it like that (referring to some boy in a harem), the French translated
it
as 'hybrid'.
Cheers,
JL
sexual dimorphism, the condition in which there exist marked differences in
form or appearance between the sexes of a species in addition to differences
in the sexual organs themselves
1888 ROLLESTON & JACKSON Anim. Life 238 The phrase sexual dimorphism is
used to denote the differences other than the usual anatomical characters
which
separate the two sexes..In [Lepidoptera] the individuals of broods appearing
at different times of the year often differ from one another..In this case
the phrase seasonal dimorphism is employed.
1902 Encycl. Brit. XXVII. 625/2 Bonellia and Hamingia are very interesting
examples of sexual dimorphism... The male is reduced to a minute..organism,
which passes its life..in a special recess of the nephridia of the female.
1932 _S. ZUCKERMAN_
(http://0-dictionary.oed.com.csulib.ctstateu.edu/help/bib/oed2-z.html#s-zuckerman)
Soc. Life Monkeys & Apes xiii. 212 It is
possible that sexual dimorphism plays some part in determining the monogamy or
polygyny of a species.
1970 Cambr. Anc. Hist. (ed. 3) I. I. v. 156 Even allowing for marked sexual
dimorphism it is still obvious that more than one species [of
Australopithecine] demands recognition.
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