Philosophy? There was an old greek legend about the female and male existing in one body, being

Question

There was an old greek legend about the female and male existing in one body, being separated by the Gods from fear of being too powerful. Which philosopher is describing the idea, i'm thinking Plato. And what exactly is the whole legend?

Answer 1

I study mythology and the only story that sounds remotely like that one is the story of Hermaphroditus.

Answer 2

This brought up some vague recollections for me. I don't usually answer when I don't really know, but no one else is answering and this is near the bottom, so I'll give you my thoughts.... Also my majors are Classics and Philosophy so it's pretty awful that I don't know this immediately.

It doesn't fit into mainstream Greek Mythology, what with Pandora and all. I feel as though this is a Mesopotamian myth. It isn't in the Enuma Elsih, and certainly not in Gilgamesh. But I'm really feeling Mesopotamia on this one.

Certainly though it could be from one of those symposiums, just some thought experiment of some philosopher.

What I found very interesting is that does seem to be suggested in the Bible (disclaimer, I'm not a Christian). Man contains authority and woman fertility, when the two come together they contain two of the powers of God, which is why the cleaving unto one flesh in marriage brings people closer to god. When they eat from the tree of knowledge they become even more like God, which is why he hides the tree of life from them. I don't feel like looking through the Bible right now, but it's right there in the first few pages... There's even a line that runs something like 'they are coming too much like us'.... How fun.

Answer 3

You're right, although Plato wasn't speaking for himself when he came up with that.

The source is a dialogue known as The Symposium.

The plot? Simplicity itself. There is a party, and the participants having had enough wine to loosen their lips, agree that each of them must give a speech about love, eros.

The final speech of the night is that of Socrates, and that is the one that carries the lessons on love that Plato presumably wants us to remember.

But before we get there, we listen in to/read several other speeches, and the most memorable of that is one attributed to the comic playwrite, Aristophanes. It is Plato's fictionalized version of Aristophanes who recounts this legend ... and Plato's mentor Socrates later says he disagrees with it.

Still, Aristophanes' view of love is so charmingly put that for menay readers it steals the show, and the Socratic points fade into insignificance.

My own guess is that Plato was conveying views he knew that Aristophanes really held, though any more original source for them is unknown to use. After all, the dialogue was written at a time when many people who really knew Aristophanes were still around, and if Plato had attributed to him something completely out of character, his friends would have cried foul.