According to Ovid, he was born a remarkably beautiful boy whom the naiad Salmacis attempted to rape and prayed to be united with forever.

[2] Hermaphroditus, the two-sexed child of Aphrodite and Hermes (Venus and Mercury), had long been a symbol of androgyny or effeminacy, and was portrayed in Greco-Roman art as a female figure with male genitals.

Herm­aphro­ditus's association with marriage seems to have been that, by embodying both masculine and feminine qualities, he symbolized the coming together of men and women in sacred union.

[citation needed] Ovid's account relates that Hermaphroditus was nursed by naiads in the caves of Mount Ida,[6] a sacred mountain in Phrygia (present day Turkey).

[8] Diodorus Siculus, in his work Library of History, mentions that some say that Hermaphroditus is a god and appears at certain times among men, but there are some who declare that such creatures of two sexes are monstrosities, and coming rarely into the world as they do have the quality of presaging the future, sometimes for evil and sometimes for good.

[10] The satirical author Lucian of Samosata also implies that Hermaphroditus was born like that, rather than becoming later in life against his will, and blames it on the identity of the child's father, Hermes.

This double sex also attributed to Dionysus and Priapus – the union in one being of the two principles of generation and conception – denotes extensive fertilizing and productive powers.

It appears no longer as the object of a special cult, but limited to the homage of certain sects, expressed by superstitious rites of obscure significance.

[18] The earliest mention of Hermaphroditus in Greek literature is by the philosopher Theophrastus (3rd century BC), in his book The Characters, XVI The Superstitious Man,[19] in which he portrays various types of eccentric people.

Also on the fourth and seventh days of each month he will order his servants to mull wine, and go out and buy myrtle-wreaths, frankincense, and smilax; and, on coming in, will spend the day in crowning the Hermaphrodites.The first mention of Hermes and Aphrodite as Hermaphroditus's parents was by the Greek historian Diodorus Siculus (1st century BC) in his book Bibliotheca historica, book IV, 4.6.5.

[20]The only full narration of his myth is that of Ovid's Metamorphoses, IV.274–388 (8 AD), where the emphasis is on the feminine snares of the lascivious water-nymph Salmacis and her compromising of Hermaphroditus' erstwhile budding manly strength, detailing his bashfulness and the engrafting of their bodies.

[22] Ausonius, in his Epigramata de diversis rebus / Epigrams on various matters (4th century), also tells of Hermaphroditus' parentage and union with the nymph Salmacis.