by various authors, A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities… (1890)
“ Hermaphroditus was regarded as an emblem of indissoluble marriage, in opposition to the ready divorces of ancient manners: and chaplets were hung up in his shrine at Athens by widows who desired to testify their fidelity to the deceased (Alciphr. Ep. 4.37) . This, according to Baumeister, is also the explanation of the fable of Hermaphroditus and the nymph Salmacis in Ov. Met. ”
