In Plato’s Symposium, the greatest minds of Athens come together for a dinner party. Instead of drinking and eating, they decide to engage in debate over “Love”. Several speeches are given; but Aristophanes, the comedic playwright, gives a stunning speech on the nature of love. Aristophanes engages his fellow companions with a story of how the humans of old disobeyed the Gods, so Zeus split them half and will threaten to do so again if they misbehave. According to ancient legend, human used to be round with 4 legs, 4 arms and hands, and 2 faces. There were three genders, male, female, and hermaphrodites. The humans angered the gods, and Zeus realizing he couldn’t completely destroy humanity in fear of losing the sacrifices that humans offer the gods; decided to split them …show more content…
Sexual preferences for one gender or the other is exclusive and lifelong, and is explained by the type of combination from which one was split. Desire or love is the pursuit of one’s own desire to be complete by finding their other half, and by rebuilding our original human compound of being round people through the act of physical love. In the likely event that one cannot find their complete other half, one should look for a loved one who naturally fits your own character with similar qualities to your own.
Aristophanes argues that sexual intercourse is a key part of living a shared life. Living a shared life was central to Greek thinking on interpersonal relations. Aristophanes’ speech explains the characteristic symptoms of erotic passion by the desire to achieve this ideal natural and original human state; which implies that we share our finite lives with another individual, which is motivated by the innate desire to live a shared life. This speech along with all the other speeches in the Symposium point towards the notion that love is the desire of humans to live a shared life, to self-immortalize oneself via procreation, and that love is the desire for beauty and