The Greek word hermaphróditos , whose ending is influenced by Aphrodite (name of the Greek goddess of love), came to Latin as hermaphrodītus . The concept arrived in our language as a hermaphrodite, an adjective that refers to who has both sexes (female and male).
In zoology and biology, a hermaphroditic organism is one whose reproductive system is mixed and, therefore, can generate female and male gametes. Self-fertilization, however, is very unusual.
The earthworms are examples of hermaphrodites. They have female and male reproductive organs and reproduce through mating. The same occurs with snails, which produce eggs and sperm and mate to achieve fertilization.
The Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) recognizes the notion of hermaphrodite to refer to the person who has ovaries and testicles, giving the appearance of the existence of both sexes in the same body. However, it is usually considered that in humans there is pseudohermaphroditism, since the reproductive possibility of the two forms is not presented.
In general, it is preferred to speak of intersex subjects and not hermaphrodites when female and male sexual characteristics are evidenced in different degrees. It is not possible that a human being can produce semen with sperm and, in turn, have a reproductive system capable of carrying a fetus.
In this context , Klinefelter syndrome is situated, which only attacks men and can manifest itself through characteristics such as the presence of large mammary glands (which is known as gynecomastia ), the production of sperm in deficient volumes ( azoospermia ), incomplete descent of one or both testes ( cryptorchidism ), and micropenis. While all of these traits remove the subject from the general description of "man", most scientists do not consider it a form of intersex or hermaphroditism.
The hermaphrodite flowers, on the other hand, both sexes together. In this case, as the gametes reach maturity at different times, fertilization is only possible through cross-pollination.
Returning to Greek mythology, in it we find an ancient character whose name in our language is Hermaphrodite or Hermaphrodite . He is one of the children of Aphrodite and Hermes, from the combination of whose names he received his. Aphrodite was married to Hephaestus, for which Hermaphroditus's birth was the result of an act of infidelity; this led her to leave her son on Mount Ida, where the nymphs raised him.
Over the years, Hermaphroditus acquired a beauty without equal, and one day he embarked on a journey through the lands of Ancient Greece. When he was passing through Halicarnassus he decided to bathe naked in a lake, and it was then that the Salmacride spirit approached him with the intention of conquering him. After Hermaphroditus rejected her, she hugged him tightly and pleaded with the gods that nothing would separate them; they granted his wish, and thus fused their bodies, to give rise to a hermaphrodite entity.