Symposium
The Symposium is a philosophical text written by Plato, dating back to Ancient
Greece and it presents unique viewpoints on the power of Love. The two main speeches
are from Aristophanes, who tells a mythological and humorous story about the origin of
love, and from Socrates, who shares his conversation with Diotima as they try to figure
out the nature of love.
Aristophanes shares his belief that people have completely failed to understand
the power of Love, and if they did they would have praised it more than anything else,
built temples for it, and made sacrifices if necessary. According to his myth, in the
beginning, there were three genders: male, female, and androgynous. This third gender
had physical features from both male and female sex. It is also important to understand
that all genders were round, with four legs and arms, and 2 faces looking in opposite
directions. The androgynous gender was very strong and they had great ambition, which
led to them trying to ascend to heaven and attack the gods. Because of that Zeus decided
to split everyone in half, creating humans as they are now, and told them if they did not
behave they would be punished and get split in half again leaving them with only one arm
and one leg. After this paranormal event, the nature of human existence kicked in and
everyone tried to get back together, throwing their hands around each other trying to
become one again, which led to them dying from hunger because they refused to do
anything as individuals. This gave Zeus the idea to move their genitals to the front, so if
a man encountered a woman he may impregnate her and the race shall continue, or if a
man encountered a man they would do their deed and get on with their life. The males or
females who originally came from the androgynous gender sought out the sex of the
opposite gender, while the men or females who were split from wholly male or female
bodies, searched for only the same gender, and that is how homosexuality was created.
When someone finally meets their other half, either male or female, they are overwhelmed
with the feeling of affection, intimacy, and love, causing them to refuse to be apart from
each other for even a short period of time. They would spend their whole life together, but
could not give a proper reason why. At first glance, you would suppose because of their
sexual desire, but as we can now see it is much deeper than that. Their souls want to
become one again and to live as one until they die. This pursuit and the desire to become
something we once were, to become one again, is called love.
Aristophanes shares that no one should oppose Love, rather we should befriend it
and then we shall find our beloved partner. He hoped that his speech would not be treated
as humorous, but rather as inspiration to seek out our beloved half.