photo: graham tidyfire is a powerful symbol of
In the seventeenth century, the popularity of science as a gentlemanly pastime fueled the craze for collections of natural wonders, and, as a consequence, hermaphrodites came to be seen as wondrous or marvelous examples of nature's astounding works. Cultivated men were now looking at the hermaphrodite's body with the same pleasant curiosity as they might, say, view a new variety of tulip or an ancient fossil. Calculated to satiate their interest was a 590 page book by Swiss botanist Gaspard Bauhin, On the Nature of the Births of Hermaphrodites and Monsters (1612), complete with engraved illustrations. Compared to its illustrations of so called monsters, such as a woman suffering from elephantitis and a severely deformed fetus, the two hermaphrodites depicted here are remarkable lovely, with delicate features and the healthy, well formed bodies of prepubescent youths. They are shown completely nude and in graceful stances, as if modeled upon the epheban beauty seen in certain a