Ancient Light #10 Why We Seek Someone Else To Feel Complete [Plato's Gender Creation Myth]
Ancient history & classics themed series presented by history professor, Steve Dotson.
Ever wonder why you feel incomplete? Do you know we are actually only a half of one person, craving to find the other half? You were once one. Search your heart and you will know this is true. As a whole person, humans were once wise and powerful. You once had four arms and four legs, you had two heads. You could use your multitude of limbs to move quickly in any direction by a rolling movement which also produced amazing power. We thought we could rival the gods and Zeus took out his wrath on us, cutting us in two. You have male and female traits, and there is someone else walking around who has an exact combination of male and female traits to balance out your own. This is why we always search for someone else to make us complete. This also explains the great variety of desires among human kind, as one searches for their own unique opposite. Perhaps this could serve as an explanation for transgender issues. But, even more important to understand is the threat that was made if we should continue to defy the gods. In our modern age, some even deny that the gods exist or confidently claim that there is only one god. Humans, in the past two hundred years having been growing too strong, and even taking on the abilities of the gods for themselves: long distance communication, flight, hurling weapons from the heavens, and other scientific advancements. Zeus has already given us a warning if we are to rival the gods again.
Ever see the musical or movie-musical ‘Hedwig and the Angry Inch’? If you haven’t I wont spoil it for you. It is the story of a rock star “Hedwig” who was the victim of a sex-change operation gone bad. Just watch the movie, you will never forget it, and many of you will discover a new favorite film. One of the musical numbers is an animation of an ancient myth from Plato’s book Symposium. The myth tells of how humans were once complete. Plato has the dead playwright Aristophanes tell his own creation myth, as a way to explain the nature of love. The creation myth is quite fantastic, but when the individual components of the story are broken down, we have a complex theory which addresses the complexity and longings of human existence. By the end you probably be able to determine from which proto-human species you came, and there are three: sun, earth, and moon.
What is symposium? Sum pinein - “to drink together”
The story: we were originally three genders. Male, female, and androgynous. The word androgynous is made of the Greek words for man and woman, the androgynous one contains both of the sexes. The three genders were more complex than today. Of the three entities they were known as children of the sun, earth and moon. The sun children were made of two men, the earth children were made of two women, and the moon children contained male and female parts. Everyone had two heads, which could do two things at once. How many times have you felt like you should be doing more than one thing at a time, we were better multi-taskers. We had four arms and four legs, we must have looked like some depictions of a Hindu god. As of now, you should be able to ascertain that we had double of everything. With our ability to multitask, enhanced brain power, super speed and momentum, we became too proud and began to rival the gods. The gods thought about killing them with thunderbolts, like they did to many of the giant-race of Titans, really their fathers and mothers. Instead, Zeus made use of them as tools of worship, but first he had to weaken them as well as punish. He decided to cut humans in two, so they loose their great advantages. Humans from then on, walked and moved about, with only two legs, two arms, and one head. It is at that point we began to seek others to embrace, kiss, copulate, and a desire to not be alone. But, wait, we were still not the exact physical form we are today. After a while, the text does not say how long, Zeus took pity on mortals, as he watched them attempt to join with each other physically, he came up with a helpful aid for these awkward humans. He made one more anatomical adjustment. Instead of the genitals hanging off the side of the body, like it once did, god moved the genitals of the man and the woman to their front and middle. This way, humans could now join together in copulation while they embraced, kissed and sank into each other’s eyes. Perhaps this is about the time the Kama Sutra needed to be invented. Humans would have to invent new bedroom habits. The physical repositioning must have been very helpful. Acts of love making, with one’s genitals hanging off the side of the body, probably killed most of the intimacy.
