Aristophanes and the Missing Half — Symposium

Aristophanes praises Love unlike Pausanias or Eryximachus. People have never understood Love's power. If they had, they would have built temples and offered solemn sacrifices. Love, he says, is the best friend of men, healer of the ills that block happiness. There were three sexes: male from the sun, female from the earth, and a double being from the moon, now only a reproach. The original person was round, with four arms, four legs, and two faces, and could roll like a wheel. They attacked the gods. Zeus would not destroy them, because the sacrifices would end, so he cut them in two, like an egg divided with a hair. Apollo turned the faces toward the cut and left the navel as a memorial.

The halves clung together until they nearly died of hunger. Zeus moved the parts of generation to the front, so the race could breed, or so a pair could rest and return to work. Each of us, Aristophanes says, is like a flat fish, always looking for the other half. He sorts the pairs: the double nature loves women, the woman loves women, and the male loves youths and becomes the statesman. When actual halves meet, they cannot say what they want. If Hephaestus offered to melt them into one body, they would accept. Love is the desire and pursuit of the whole.

God dispersed us for our wickedness. Disobedience could split us again. He asks for piety, so Love may lead people to their true loves, which rarely happens now. He begs Eryximachus not to laugh, or to hear a joke about Pausanias and Agathon. The speech covers men and women everywhere. A return to the first nature would make the race happy. The next best thing is a congenial love. Eryximachus calls the speech charming and will not attack it. Agathon and Socrates, he says, are masters in the art of love.