Mythology
Salmacis and Atlantis or the birth of Hermaphrodite.

Salmacie and Atlantis
or the birth of Hermaphrodite



BEGINNING OF THE TALE


Many called him Atlantis That he was a child, he hardly was fifteen years old He was born from Mercury and the goddess Cythera And was nourished to the breast of the generous Naïads Who lived in the caverns of Ida. "But myself, I know, because a dream tells me That his name is Hermaphrodite And that he has the appearance of his father Hermes And also that of his mother, the beautiful Aphrodite. " He quits, so fresh and so young, His native land where he was born and nourish And he went, wandering and unconscious of the danger Beyond the borders of Ida He visits new countries Cross over the cities of Lycia Mixes with the people of Carianie Curious he does not fear tiredness And the traps that these long journeys conceals It is over there, that he sees an isolated pond Water is such that one can see the bottom There, cannot grow, no sterile grasses neither reeds nor sharp-edged twigs The glance could perceive through the limpid wave He thus reflect in the water, his beautiful childish face Atlantis Atlantis who does not know anything of it Thus, violate the domain of Salmacis, whom it is the residence A beautiful solitary Naïad who never leaves these places And whose name is even unknown to Diana. Her sisters, frivolous and more intrepid than her, often says to her: " Leave these places, make up yourself, wear coloured jewels, Dresses yourself with transparent veils, those that excites the senses Hunt and trap the faunas, males or females that haunt the woods Until you lose there, your flower and all your breath And get rid thus, of the idleness you entertains and who brings you evil." But Salmacis prefers, to the exaltation of hunting, The soft voluptuousness of the solitary pleasure She lengthily bathes her members in the lukewarm water She undresses while reflecting herself in the wave Looks at herself, combs and made herself up, then gently Gives pleasure to herself, closing slowly her eyes She gently releases her vulva She inserts there her fingers or some object that strews the bank Or one of these tools that she finely engraved In hard wood from Paphlagonia She thus awakes faunas dwelling in her mind And which make her copulate and gratifies her of this pleasure that only mind can give She thus do without hunting That attracts only, lout beings and her sisters Then satisfied Salmacis goes picking up flowers To garnish her hair with That day she then, was gathering flowers When she saw the child who was reflecting in the water And she wished to possess this fauna One of those, she believed, who haunt her mind And who had dared to materialize like that, in front of her. Hippomène In spite of her anxiety and the emotion that agitates her senses She did not approach him at once Before having checked her ornament, the folds of her vails Insure the expression of her face and make herself all beautiful To seduce this so gracious child And, she believed, so easy to conquer; Then she says: "Child, worthy between all, to be or to believe being a god, If you are a god, you are undoubtedly Cupid; But if you are a mortal, happy those to whom you owe your life, Happy also your brother, quite happy certainly, if you have one, your sister, And the nurse who gave you her breast to suck. But well more than all, much happier she who is your bride If you have one, the woman, if there is one, That you will honour with the bridal torch. If you have one of them, I agree to take from you, only a furtive pleasure; If it is no other one, let it be me; Come, let us share the same couch. " Then the Naïad stays silent. But the child who did not know what was love Let the redness invade his face And he was like that, no less beautiful to the eyes of the anxious Nymphomania He has the color of the fruits that hang from the trees Or that of the purpled ivory Or that of the moon when it dyes itself with red color Salmacis feels the concupiscence gaining herself She asks him, at least only kisses of sister And she already carries her hands to his neck that has the consistency of the fragile ivory "Have you finish? If not, I go away and I leave you, you and your pond! " But Salmacis fears; Having to lose such a real prey And to have to count on, for any erotic games Only on her spiritual foods; She pretends to leave. " I abandon you to my pond, oh beautiful foreigner " She moves away thus, but reconsider her steps, She throws a glance behind her and she hides in shelter, Protected by a thick bush, she kneels down And contemplates the child who believes he is alone And who is unaware of being observed, She does nothing less than being one with the child: hermaphrodite He goes here and there With bad assured steps, He reflected himself in the water Where the reflection of his body fractures He plunges the tip of his delicate feet Then seduced by the caress of the water He throws away his clothing And he plunges, all naked in the wave Salmacis who sees everything Ignites with carnal desire At the sight of this gracile body Her eyes shines Like the glare of the disc of Phoebus When its image is reflected in the calm water of the pond. She cannot control her impatience, And she burns to embrace this carefree child Who whips thus, with splashed water, his body of beautiful young man, She hardly contains her insane heat. The child plays about in the water He swims by alternate movement with his arms In the limpid wave that returns the image of his gracious body Like the little ivory statues with their sensual curves That decorate the temples of the goddesses " Victory! He is mine! " Shout Salmacis. Then Salmacis who cannot wait any longer Throws away her clothing, and plunges into the water She seizes the child who struggles She tears off from him, with the favour of the fight Kisses and caresses And she slips under him her hands She caress, in spite of him, his chest and his buttocks And furtively seizes his tiny and flexible penis She activates nervously Without letting the child the time to understand She wraps him from one side then from the other She intertwines him although he resists and excites himself And that, from useless atempts, he tries to escape from her Like does a royal bird that retain in its claws a fluid snake Or the ivy that wraps and chokes the trunks of large trees Or the octopus in the depths of the seas That immobilizes its prey with its tentacles coming from everywhere The descendant of Atlas resists And he refuses to the nymph, the voluptuousnesses she imagines She tightens her pressure, And from all her body engaged in the fight, She becomes nothing but one with the child: des fhommes " You can struggle, malicious, but you will not escape from me! I want you all for myself, and I will have you, and I will rape you, beautiful like Adonis! Oh gods! Ordain that this child never Detached from me, neither me from him. " The gods, mistaken themselves, on the meaning of the wishes of the Nymph. And their two bodies intermingle In an intimate union so that, they do have anymore but a single aspect One sees them joining and growing together Like a same branch And they are not, any more, two beings, Since their members intermingled In a thight embrace And yet, they take part in a double nature And without anyone can tell That she is a woman Or he is a child, Their aspect is that of neither one of them At the same time that it is that of both at the same time. When the child sees that this limpid water, Where he entered as a male, Had transformed him into half of a male And for having bathed there, The strength of his members softened, Tightening his hands, But with a voice that is not any more that of a man, Hermaphrodite, because it is his name, shouts: " Grant me, your grace, oh my father! To your son who bears your two names, That, any man who will have bathed in this fountain Did get out of it, any more but half of a man, And, as soon as he touches this water, loses at once, his virility. " Moved, his two parents heard favorably the wishes of their son From now on, with double form, And they dilute in the water of the fountain A philter with malefic effects made of the sperm spread there by their son Still under the influence of the nymphomaniac Salmacis Whom they decry since then, the charming spells. des fhommes " If you pass one day by there, male or female Be conscious, flee now Or plunge your whole bodies in full knowledge But know that today the malefic action of these waters Soften the members they touch Of those who bathes there by hasard of by consent And turn them into beings, neither man nor woman, Faunas anyone could name fHommes (SheMales) or otherwhise. "



Marco Polo or the imaginary journey (Mythologies, translated august 2000) © 1999 Jean-Pierre Lapointe
Ovide, the metamorphosis, and the paintings of the great-masters, music by Yokubota.


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