"Hermaphroditus und die Nymphe Salmacis", c. 1580 by Bartholomaus
Spranger (1546-1611) - Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, Austria.
Note: an example of a voyeuristic sensual rendition using an episode from mythology as a pretext (see another depiction).
Poets say that Hermaphroditus was the son of Venus or Aphrodite
and Hermes or Mercury. Ovid in his "Metamorphoses" wrote:
" ... the waters of the fountain Salmacis
have earned an evil name
the men who take them
become effeminate or merely zero ... "