Plato’s _Symposium_ contains two curious theories of the cause and
origin of love, which, in conclusion, may be briefly summarised, as they
help to characterise Greek notions on this subject. The first is placed
in the mouth of Sokrates, who says he heard it of the Hetaira Diotima.
What, she asks, is the cause of this love-sickness, this anxiety of men
and animals, first to get a mate, and then to take care of the
offspring? It is, she replies, the desire to perpetuate themselves. For
just as the famous heroes and heroines—Alkestis, Achilles, Kadros—would
not have so nobly sacrificed their lives had they not been sustained by
the thought that their fame and glory would survive among future
generations; so the fact that parents in the affection for their young
will even go so far as to sacrifice their own lives to protect them, is
due to their craving for immortality in their offspring.
This theory may be regarded as a vague foreshadowing of Schopenhauer’s,
which will be considered in another place.
The second theory of the origin of love is attributed by Plato to
Aristophanes, who relates it in the form of a myth. Human nature, he
begins, was not always as it is now. At the beginning there were three
sexes: one, the male, descended of the sun-god; the second, female,
descended of the earth; and the third, which united the attributes of
both sexes, descended of the moon. Each of these beings, moreover, had
two pairs of hands and legs, and two faces, and the figure was round,
and in rapid motion revolved like a wheel, the pairs of legs alternately
touching the ground and describing an arc in the air.
These beings were fierce, powerful, and vain, so they attempted to storm
heaven and attack the gods. As Zeus did not wish to destroy them—since
that would have deprived him of sacrifices and other forms of human
devotion—he resolved to punish them by diminishing their strength. So he
directed Apollo to cut each of them into two, which was done; and thus
the number of human beings was doubled. Each of these half-beings now
continually wandered about, seeking its other half. And when they found
each other, their only desire was to be reunited by Vulcan and never be
parted again. “And this longing and striving after union—this is what is
meant by the name of Love.”
The waggish Aristophanes appends a caution to human beings not to offend
Zeus again, because it was that god’s intention, on a repetition of the
offence, to split human beings once more, so that they would have to hop
about on one leg!
One of the metaphors used by the comic poet is very pretty, even if
translated into terms of Modern Love. He compares the two divided halves
of one human being to the dice which among the ancients were used as
marks of hospitality, being broken into two pieces, of which each person
received one, and which were afterwards fitted together in token of
recognition. A pair of lovers, then, are like these halved dice,
naturally belonging to each other, and craving to be reunited.