Aphroditus

I've always been intrigued by the Greek deity Aphroditus/Hermaphroditus, who represents in antiquity both 'male' and 'female' qualities. Looking at the artistic representations often spurs ambivalent feelings for me personally, as I have both positive and negative feelings about these portrayals. My favorites are the representations that blur the line between the states of being masculine and feminine, such as the one pictured below:

Here Aphroditus strikes a pose that seems between the traditional 'masculine' and 'feminine,' standing tall yet also relaxed and welcoming. Biological aspects of both 'male' and 'female' are represented as well, with a phallus as well as breasts and large hips, all indicating fertility.

My positive feelings about artistic representations and history of Aphroditus come from the clear and blatant gender-nonconformity and blurring of the male/female dichotomy. Literature from Greece indicates that men and women would swap clothes in worship of Aphroditus, purposefully switching their traditional roles to worship a deity both male and female.

I worry, however, about the interpretations of certain historians concerning portrayals of this deity. One (Sicilus's Bibliotheca historia) posits that Aphroditus is "beautiful and delicate" like a woman, but with the "masculine quality and vigor" of a man, ignoring that Aphroditus seems to purposefully mix together these types of qualities and redefine their categorization. Additionally, many scholars focus on a phallic masculinity, implying that Aphroditus's power and worship originates from the presence of a phallus, failing to consider the power that results from Aphroditus's purposeful redefinition of sex and gender as indicated by the rituals used to worship them.

What are your thoughts on Aphroditus? Do you think these portrayals are rooted in phallic masculinity and bioessentialism due to the presence of a penis, or is this deity a true mix of qualities that manages to obscure our bifurcation of masculinity and femininity?