Thursday 12 March 2009

Always this ridiculous obsession with Love: A Greek Story

There is a story, that is both comical and divine. It attempts to explain how we are roaming this earth, half and incomplete, searching for the other that makes us complete. It is a tale that is told countless times, referred to a million times and probably the one I like best (be it told in its original form as Aristophanes' speech in Plato's Symposium or in its modern modification in Hedwig's Origin of Love).

According to the myth, there were three sexes. Two-bodied women, men who were stuck back to back, and the halfmen-halfwomen creatures. They're all us, by the way. One day, they angered the gods and Zeus in his anger struck thunderbolts (or heavenly knives, I am not sure) and split these doubles into singles, and they were scattered all over the world.

Ever since then, we've been trying to piece ourselves back together with metaphorical staples and thread. Happy finding, my friends.