伊莉莎白巴斯朵斯托達於南北戰爭末期出版的小說《兩個男人》（1865），至今僅吸引過少數學者的目光。在前人研究中，惟有Jennifer Putzi處理過「美國Sphinx」的現象，她具說服力地將其以國族認同定義置入有關美國歷史關鍵時刻的思維脈絡之中。取法Aby Warburg關注「古風復興」及其「象徵對立的理論」的文化作品，本文更進一步探討有關神話與神畫重新出現在斯托達小說中的斷裂與差異。Sphinx之外，尚有神話角色如Hermes／Mercury及Priapus的再次露面。斯托達部分仿效Ovid的經典作品《歲時紀》，將男性崇拜式帕克的故事講述成水星式傑森的對立，後者的古老魔術師神祇特質瓦解了舊秩序。藉著探討維多利亞花語與意象以復興古典之「怪誕」，斯托達將Priapus對Lotis與Vesta的追求轉化成為引導出女性主人公做為（性別的）平等對手的一種兩性對抗關係。同時，斯托達對古典神話的改編亦帶出了舊秩序改變前的不確定性，其並以Hermes與Sphinx二者或被神化、或被埋入新英格蘭祖籍的曖昧形象，為小說之結論。

Elizabeth Barstow Stoddard’s novel Two Men (1865), published at the close of the Civil War, has gained only moderate attention by scholars so far. Among those who have examined the novel, only Jennifer Putzi deals with the phenomenon of the “American Sphinx,” which she convincingly puts into context of the pressing questions as to the definition of national identity at this crucial time in U.S. history. Taking its cue from Aby Warburg’s cultural work concerning the “revival of antiquity” and his “theory of the polarity of the symbol,” this article further explores the mythology and mythography that resurfaces in the discontinuities and discrepancies of Stoddard’s novel. Next to the Sphinx there resurface the mythological figures of Hermes/Mercury and Priapus. Partly modelled after Ovid’s classical text Fasti, Stoddard relates the story of the Priapic Parke as opposed to the Mercurian Jason whose qualities as the ancient trickster god subtly undermine the old order. Reviving the classical “grottesche” by exploiting the contemporary Victorian flower language and imagery, Stoddard transforms Priapus’s classical chase of Lotis and Vesta into a confrontation between the sexes that introduces the female protagonists as equal (sexual) players. At the same time, Stoddard’s adaptation of classical myth brings to the fore the uncertainties that these changes of the old order entail, concluding the novel with the ambiguous image of Mercury and the Sphinx either enshrined, or entombed, in the New England ancestral home.