By Plato
Date: 6 November 1998

Excerpts from Plato's Dialogues

The Speech of Aristophanes:

Aristophanes professed to open another vein of discourse; he had a
mind to praise Love in another way, unlike that either of Pausanias or
Eryximachus. Mankind, he said, judging by their neglect of him, have
never, as I think, at all understood the power of Love. For if they
had understood him they would surely have built noble temples and
altars,and offered solemn sacrifices in his honour; but this is not
done, and most certainly ought to be done since of all the gods he is
the best friend of men, the helper and the healer of the ills which
are the great impediment to the happiness of the race.

In the first place, let me treat of the nature of man and what has
happened to it; for the original human nature was not like the
present, but different. The sexes were not two as they are now, but
the union of the two...

Terrible was their might and strength, and the thoughts of their
hearts were great, and they dared to scale heaven, and would have laid
hands upon the gods...

Doubt reigned in the celestial councils. Should they kill them and
annihilate the race with thunderbolts ...for gods could not suffer
their insolence to be unrestrained. At last, after a good deal of
reflection, Zeus discovered a way. He said: "Methinks I have a plan
which will humble their pride and improve their manners; humans shall
continue to exist, but I will cut them in two and then they will be
diminished in strength and increased in numbers...”

He spoke and cut each human in two, like a sorb-apple which is halved
for pickling, or as you might divide an egg with a hair; and as he cut
them one after another, he bade Apollo give the face and the half of
the neck a turn in order that each might contemplate the division of
himself: he would thus learn a lesson of humility. 

After the division the two parts, each desiring his other half, came
together, and throwing their arms about one another, entwined in
mutual embraces, longing to grow back into one, as they had been. 
They were on the point of dying from hunger and self-neglect, because
they did not like to do anything apart...

**And Zeus scattered them to the four corners of the earth...where
they eventually met other lost souls who had been split, and even
joined in unions with them... but these unions were never perfect, for
in their deepest hearts each knew that only the other half of their
original self could truly fulfill them...

...so ancient is the desire of one another which is implanted in us,
reuniting our original nature, making one of two, and healing the
state of man. Each of us when separated, having one side only, like a flat
fish, is but the indenture of a man, and he is always looking for his
other half...

And when one of them meets with his other half, the actual origianl
half of himself...the pair are lost in an amazement of love and
friendship and intimacy, and will not be out of the other's sight, as
I may say, even for a moment: these are the people who pass their
whole lives together; yet they could not explain what they desire of
one another. For the intense yearning which each of them has towards
the other does notappear to be merely the desire of lover's intercourse, but of
something else which the soul of either evidently desires and cannot tell...

And these two halves, if necessary, are satisfied if they may be
allowed to live with one another unwedded; and such a nature is prone
to love and ready to return love, always embracing that other half...  

Suppose Hephaestus, with his instruments, were to come to the pair who
are lying side by side and to say to them: "Do you desire to be wholly
one; always day and night to be in one another's company? for if this
is what you desire, I am ready to melt you into one and let you grow
together, so that being two you shall become one, and while you live a
common life as if you were a single being, and after your death in the
world hereafter still be one departed soul instead of two -- I ask
whether this is what you lovingly desire, and whether you are
satisfied to attain this?" 

Were that to happen, there is not a one of them who when he heard the
proposal would deny or would not acknowledge that this meeting and
melting into one another, this becoming one instead of two, was the
very expression of his ancient need.

And the reason is that human nature was originally one and we were a
whole, and the desire and pursuit of the whole is called love.
There was a time, I say, when we were one, but now because of the
wickedness of mankind the Gods have parted and dispersed us...
For if we are...at peace...we shall find our own true loves, which
rarely happens in this world at present.

I believe that if our loves were perfectly accomplished, and each one
returning to his primeval nature had his original true love, then our
race would be happy. 

Wherefore, if we would praise him who has given to us the benefit, we
must praise the god Love, who is our greatest benefactor, both leading
us in this life back to our own nature, and giving us high hopes for
the future, for he promises that if we are pious, he will restore us
to our original state, and heal us and make us happy and blessed.


(This is not the full text, but rather excerpts of the sections I
found most meaningful)

(All are direct translation from the Greek, except for the paragraph
with the "**", which is my summary of a much longer passage)