Sexual ambivalence : androgyny and hermaphroditism in Graeco-Roman antiquity, Luc Brisson, Janet Lloyd (Tr.) : book review

This book is an exploration of Greek and Roman perceptions of dual-sex (hermaphroditism) and dual-gender (androgyny), mostly within the realm of myth, and takes the form of a collection of four loosely related essays, much of it a reworking of the author's earlier publications dating back to the mid-1970s. The author tells us in the preface that the book is' intended as a working aid for all those interested in the question of dual sexuality, whether in the domains of psychoanalysis, gay or gender studies, the history of medicine or zoology, the history of ideas, or even the history of art' (p. xiii). It is indeed written so as to be accessible to the general educated reader, though there are helpful notes for the professional classicist. The main achievement of this book is that it collects in one place a number of obscure and difficult texts that bear on the theme of dual-sex and dual-gender, particularly in the area of cosmogenic myth.