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.