A Beautiful Metaphor

There is an ancient Greek myth found in Plato's 'Symposium' of the origin of man and human love. It's possible Plato made it up, but it seems like it could have more ancient origins. Plato's character Aristophanes describes how mankind was once a larger version of himself, with four arms, four legs, two faces, etc. When mankind became rebellious and sought to overthrow the gods themselves, Zeus split them down the middle and had Apollo reform them to be male and female. And it seems that these half-human two-legged creatures spend the rest of their lives searching for their other half.

There is more to the myth that reflects Greek culture and society, but my description above is the part of the story I'm interested in.

I think it's a beautiful metaphor for love. Something inside a man seems to long for something feminine to make him complete. I'm not a woman, but from my experience with them, they seem to likewise long for something masculine to make them complete. When we each find such a thing (or rather such a person), we have the potential to become something much greater than the single sex creature we were born as. I don't pretend to understand it, but there is something holy about the union of the male and the female. And I mean that in a more profound way than simply sexual. The sexual union is a symbol of the more complete union that's needed to make sex meaningful. When we are truly united with a beautiful person of the opposite sex, I think we have begun to achieve our full potential as children of God.

I recognize that not all men feel masculine and not all women feel feminine. And perhaps this is part of what lies behind homosexual tendencies. However, I think by and large, most men long for something feminine outside themselves to make themselves complete. And most women long for something masculine to make them complete. It's not my intention to take on the topic of homosexuality in this post, but I guess it's worth mentioning because it is part of the metaphor that Aristophanes proposes and is one of the shades of Greek culture that influences the myth.

The myth is somewhat similar to the story in Genesis of Eve being formed from the rib of Adam. Whether symbolic or literal, this story seems to teach the idea that the female originated from the male in some fashion and that 'a man [should] leave his father and his mother and ... cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh' (Gen 2:24). It's interesting that this verse comes immediately after the story of Eve being fashioned from the rib. Once separated, it seems that the focus of male and female should be to reunite and stay together. Kind of a cool idea.