The Androgyne
Rebis, the hermaphrodite
Male and female in one body: the opposites united.
The Androgyne: what does it mean in analytical psychology?
At the end of the alchemical work there often stands the Rebis, the “double thing,” a crowned hermaphrodite with two heads on one body, born of the union of king and queen. Jung read it as the union of opposites achieved, a symbol of the Self; he also noted the hermaphroditism of the divine child, whole before any division.
The Androgyne: where does it appear in myth and tradition?
Hermaphroditus, fused with the nymph Salmacis in Ovid’s Metamorphoses; Ardhanarishvara, Shiva half man and half Parvati; the round first beings of Aristophanes’ speech in the Symposium; the androgynous Adam of some Jewish and Christian mystics.
From the Sources
In the Symposium, Aristophanes says the sexes were originally three: man, woman, and the union of the two, a double nature once real but now lost, whose name 'Androgynous' survives only as a reproach.
“The sexes were not two as they are now, but originally three in number; there was man, woman, and the union of the two, having a name corresponding to this double nature, which had once a real existence, but is now lost, and the word 'Androgynous' is only preserved as a term of reproach.”
Plato, Symposium, Speech of Aristophanes. Translated by Benjamin Jowett (Project Gutenberg eBook #1600). The text, read in part
Silberer writes that the alchemists conceived the first matter as twofold and bisexual, called it 'hermaphrodite', and pictured it as the rebis, a human figure with a male and a female head standing on a dragon.
“Actually the subject (i.e., the first material) is conceived as twofold, bisexual. It is called by names that mean the two sexes, it is also called “hermaphrodite.” It is represented as rebis (res bina = double thing), as a human with a male and a female head standing on a dragon.”
Dr. Herbert Silberer, Hidden Symbolism of Alchemy and the Occult Arts (originally published as Problems of Mysticism and its Symbolism), Part II, Section II, 'Alchemy'. Translated by Smith Ely Jelliffe, M.D., Ph.D.; Dover Publications, Inc., New York, 1971, an unabridged republication of the work published by Moffat, Yard and Company, New York, in 1917 (Project Gutenberg eBook #27755). The text, read in part
Each passage is quoted from the text named, which the press fetched and read, and was checked word for word against a fresh copy of it; the link opens that copy. Passages are given as printed, without the editors’ footnote numbers, and with words broken across lines joined.
Where to Read
- “The Psychology of the Transference,” CW 16
- Mysterium Coniunctionis, CW 14
- “The Psychology of the Child Archetype,” CW 9i
Jung’s writings are cited by the volume of the Collected Works (CW), Bollingen Series / Princeton, 1953–79.
Related Symbols
In the Glossary: Coniunctio.
Also among Wholes and Extremes
“Learn as much as you can about symbolism; then forget it all when you are analysing a dream.”
Cite This Entry
“The Androgyne.” In Symbols of the Psyche, the Symbolarium. The Thinking Press, 2026. https://thethinkingpress.org/symbolarium/psyche/androgyne.
Symbols That Share Its Terms
Nearby in the alphabet: The Abyss: The depth without a bottom. The Altar: The place of offering, where the human meets the divine. The Angel: The messenger between the worlds. The Anima: The feminine image in the psyche of a man.