In “Speech of Aristophanes”, the story introduces three genders that inhabited the earth; male, female, and androgynous, and each gender existed with double-sided bodies. Before, the three genders had four arms, four legs, and two sets of genitals. Their bodies consisted of a round shape with their back and sides forming into a circle; this gave them the ability to move forward and backwards, they could run with all eight arms and legs rolling over and over. The males were children of the sun, females were children of the earth, and the androgynous, which consisted of a man and a woman, were children of the moon. All three genders were mighty and headstrong, but their willful attitude made them reckless enough to threaten the gods. However, the gods did not want to destroy them because then they would have to give up on the sacrifices and offerings that the humans paid to them. Zeus then came up with the idea to cut each person in two to reduce their strength, as well as to increase their numbers. Once the person was cut into two, one of the gods, Apollo, turned their heads around so they could face the cut that Zeus made to discipline them. Due to their original nature, people try to find their other half to be reunited again.
Once they found their other half, they would stay together, wanting only to be with their other half. In the end, the people died out due to hunger. Zeus sympathized with his people’s pain, and turned their privates around allowing them to become united and have relations. Even people of the same sex could do the same. This is the connection that is known today as the instinctive need to be with another person. The representation of the children as heavenly bodies was an interesting approach by Aristophanes’. Men were portrayed as children of the sun, as men are strong and superior just as the sun is represented. Women were depicted as children of the earth; the earth is known to support and sustain, but it is also inferior to the sun, as it has less strength. This comparison is most accurate, as reality has the same concept towards both genders. The most interesting was the gender presented as androgyne which was a man/woman that was children of the moon. In Aristophanes’ myth, he described the moon as both the sun and the earth.
The mythological relationship between the moon belonging to the sun and the earth relates to modern society, today it has come to mean that both male and female characteristics combine to form a different appearance. In modern culture, androgynous gender has been popularized. For instance, gender ambiguity involves fashion, gender identity, and sexual identity have become favored and desirable by much of society. Through the thousands and thousands of myths that have been told, it is common for most myths to present gods as the higher beings, while its mortal followers are lower in rank. However, when humans seek to become godly, the gods become displeased. This is very similar concept towards modern Christianity, that is to never compare yourself to god and to perform acts that he is only meant to do. The three genders attempted to rise to the heavens and attack the gods.
127 our experts are availableright now
One of the gods, Zeus, retaliated by severing the double-sided genders into halves, producing two parts of men; this weakened the humans and made them less impulsive. Zeus’s plan was successful in the beginning, but it soon backfired as the humans began to die off due to their privates being on the wrong side; this inhibited the humans from finding their better half. Zeus alters his previous arrangement, allowing males and females to be intimate and to reproduce. As a result of the alterations, the double-sided bodies that were split offered different partnerships that people could have with one another; man could be with man, woman could be with woman, and man could be with woman. This concept defines the various choices that modern society has today when dealing with their sexuality. Aristophanes’ myth defines each gender’s sexual preference based on which half they came from. Androgyne was made of man and woman which made them heterosexual. Children of the earth were both females, that made them lesbians, and the children of the sun were males, they were considered gay.
There is a desire for humans to find a partner to be with and share affection with one another. There is also a primitive urge for people to be together for biological purposes. It’s more eminent with youth’s to be procreative and to want to reproduce. Philosopher Schopenhauer described love as a myth meant to delude people into procreating. “Love is a pollution” stated by Schopenhauer, his claims are centered around the idea that love demands too many sacrifices. Part of Schopenhauer’s ideas may be true, but for love to be viewed as a “pollution” is wrong. Finding a partner is important to people, aside from having sexual feelings for your partner, companionship is a genuine desire for some. Philosopher C.S Lewis explains that, “Eros makes a man really want, not a woman, but one particular woman. In some mysterious but quite indisputable fashion the lover desires the Beloved herself, not the pleasure she can give.”
Yes, I partly agree with Aristophanes’ idea for a person to want to find a partner; people want to have someone to have a strong emotional connection with, once a relationship reaches a point where your certain you can’t be without your partner. Intimacy can only be strong within a relationship if there is a foundation of emotional and physical connection, in which forms a successful union. In conclusion, Aristophanes’ speech was very clever and cunning. The speech was composed as a myth explaining the creation of humans. The story was unusual, but it is also rather engaging, as it discusses the reason why people fall in love, and the motive behind why individual’s desire a better half. Aristophanes’ can teach us if we look beyond the comical context, leading us to a new standpoint on love.
