The Myth Of Aristophanes

In The Symposium, Plato presents the poet Aristophanes speaking about love... At the dawn of humanity, there were three types of beings: male, female, and androgynous. Each of these creatures had a head with two faces set back-to-back, rounded flanks, four arms, and four legs. The male type had a pair of male genitalia, the female type had a pair of female genitalia, and the androgynous type had both sexes. They moved either by walking upright or by tumbling and performing acrobatic feats. They were happy, creative, highly intelligent, and so self-assured that they grew arrogant, plotting against the gods who had created them.

Zeus, unable to tolerate their arrogance any longer, decided to punish them. He ordered Apollo to split them in half, thus weakening them…

From that moment on, only two genders remained: female and male… and each of us spends our life searching for our other half to regain our original wholeness.

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Further along, I meet the sheep and then the shepherd and his dog sharing an umbrella. Like me, he really enjoys talking. He reminds me that we've met before; in fact, we crossed paths one day when I was visiting the sheepfold with my brother – and he was going down to the village. We chat about this and that, about Jean-Pierre and Fernande – the people who sold me the sheepfold – whom he has known since childhood. I learn that the village grocer is his niece. His dog, who was wary of me at the very beginning, now puts his muzzle in the palm of my hand – as if to say: “I like you!… You’re kind!” Despite the rain and the icy wind, I feel warm…

Jean-Louis Bouzou – Text Bubbles

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