My mother while expecting me
it seems inquired what I would be.
Phoebus said ‘boy’, Mars ‘girl’; their fight
Juno topped off, ‘hermaphrodite’.
How would I die? She said, ‘run through’,
Mars ‘hanged’, ‘drowned’ Phoebus; all came true.
I climbed a streamside tree; my sword
and I let slip, myself I gored,
limb-caught, stream-foundered, met my loss,
girl-boy, by Water, Sword, and Cross.
— Matthew of Vendome, 12th century