But the feminesque Apollo was the god not only of beauty, but of adolescence—the period of life during which human beauty is at its culmination. He possessed eternal youth. He is even referred to as "the boy god." Adoration of him sprang out of man's delight in the semi-womansouled and quasi-womanbodied stripling just before arrival at puberty.
And ultra-androgynes remain—to a large extent—in that pre-puberty period down to thirty-five. Their development has been arrested. Full-fledged male associates absolutely ignorant of the existence of androgynism have described—in the author's hearing—androgynes even close to fifty years old as "still mere boys."
But an adolescent androgyne or boy god was also worshipped by the Semite nations (other than the Jews) under the name Ablu, and by the Celts under the name Maponus.
Philologists will recognize that "Apollo," "Ablu,"
"Maponus," and "boy" are descended from the same vocable in the language used by the Asiatic tribe from which most of the civilized nations of the ancient and modern world derive. B is only a strengthened p; the liquid l has often been transmuted into the kindred n; and the diphthong oy indicates the elision of a liquid. We have here etymological evidence that an adolescent-androgyne deity was worshipped before the dawn of history.
To-day, among some primitive races, as the aborigines of America, androgynes are the central feature of the most sacred rites.
