Intersexed and Androgynous Deities in Religion or Mythology

[Kiki]

I am Christian, and I think that God is actually both male and female. They say God the Father and use the pronouns He but I just think thats because people made it that way over time, or they got lazy and just decided to say he is male. I was even taught in church, God created man in his image and basically man and woman are two halves that make a whole... and God is whole already, so he is like man and woman, unseperated. Idk if that makes sense but maybe it does

[Yo'mumma]

Fairly sure that if you delve deep enough you would find that that was the original meaning in the Bible anyway. Although I don't remember if it was changed over time or when it was translated...

I am not sure though. I am not Christian and so do not have much of a reason to find out.

[Gwydion]

Well, I am told the Hebrew word used in the beginning of Genesis is plural and I'm now forgetting if the gender was feminine or includes the feminine as I don't actually read Hebrew myself. Someone should look into it as I'm not up to learning a fifth language.

[Zainin]

I'm a heathen and I can totally verify the Loki thing. Loki is in fact my main god, though for reasons completely unrelated to transgenderism. Loki also in one myth becomes a woman to talk to Frig to learn about mistletoe.

Also, in Shintoism the kami Ishi Kore (Ishi Kore Dome no Kami) is transgendered and represented by the mirror. Inari are the kami of fertility, amoung other things, and are represented as male, female, hermaphrodite, or androgynous.

[Kendall]

repaired some of the broken pics linked....

[ninurta]

I extracted the details for the androgynous deities in a blog-page at:
http://androgynousreligions.blogspot.co ... ities.html

I don't think that site is very credible. the reasons are much of the dieties they see as androgynous, just aren't:
* Anu
* Baal (Assuming it's referring to Hadad, though baal could also refer to any god you hold as the top god)
* Horus and Mithras, Messiah (don't know of a deity named Messiah, but Horus and Mithras were masculine and not to my knowledge androgynous, but I could be wrong)
* Osiris, Isis, Horus (don't know about these either)
* Har-Iu, Iao, Iu-su, Iasus, Iesus, Jesus Christ, (not so certain about the others, but Jesus to my knowledge was always masculine, I could be wrong, I don't know everything about gnosticism)
* Merodach (Marduk is never described as anything but masculine)
* Zeus, Jove, Jupiter and Juno, Ericapaeus (Zeus and Jupiter feminine? They seem to always be a stereotypical male, but androgynous?)


I don't know, the site just doesn't seem to actually know. It seems to be based on ideas that float around. For example, the idea that Horus was a messianic figure originated in Zeitgeist, a movie I'd take with a grain of salt.

Astarte/Athtart we know too little on to know her gender. As for Athtar and Ishtar, well it's hard to say. I know that in Phoenicia and in the semitic tribes to the west of the Jordan valley and in Arabia, Athtar was male, and to its east, in places like Aram and amoritic lands, it was a goddess. Ishtar is always female, as is her sumerian counterpart Inanna.

Though the thing with Ishtar and Inanna and androgyny, is that it was more behavioural androgyny, its unclear whether or not she was actually supposed to be 2 genders within. It's just so hard to tell from the texts. She does take on alot of masculine and feminine roles, and says in alot of hymns that she's a young lady and a young man, but its not to be taken literally.