Uses of the androgyne in the history of religions

Abstract

The image of the androgyne was used by historians of religions Mircea Eliade, Henry Corbin and Gershom Scholem to refer symbolically to a totality beyond gender differences. The androgyne was identified as perfect man by Eliade, as angel by Corbin, as demon by Scholem (in his interpretation of Walter Benjamin) and as the godhead by their common ancestor Goethe. This article reflects on these uses of the androgyne as they underwrote normative assumptions about the history of religions. Attention is also paid to the uses of the androgyne in related fields, especially fiction and philosophy, in order to understand these expresssions of the androgyne in relation to the history of religions under discussion here.