THE ANDROGYNY IN EARLY GERMAN ROMANTICISM. ТHE REFLЕCTION OF OVID’S MYTH OF HERMAPHRODITUS IN NOVALIS’S NOVEL HEINRICH VON OFTERDINGEN

Abstract

The longing for totality and harmony has been experienced in many ages. Variously articulated as a desire for oneness with God, as a compulsion for unity with nature or union of sexual opposites and which has been alternately termed the hermaphroditic or the androgynous ideal. The androgyny is a combination of masculine and feminine. In primitive times it was expression of the divine and it has served as a model for human perfection. Most creation myths tell of a world which came into existence following the break-up of a primordial unity into two opposing principles. They are few popular myths telling the story of the androgyny. First important documentation in Western philosophy is found in Plato’s Symposium. Plato`s myth identifies the androgyny with an ideal state of being or state of wholeness. Few centuries later Ovid's myth telling the story of Hermaphroditus and Salmacis. Unlike Plato` he is not telling the story of ideal love but of a power struggle between sexes. The main purpose of the text is to show how the early germen poet Novalis uses Ovid`s myth in his novel Heinrich von Ofterdingen. Novalis, In many cases following Ovid’s story, but only until the moment of transformation. After that Heinrich`s story is more close to Plato`s myths of origin of love, where union of opposites is an expression of wholeness and perfection.