The allegorical representation of love

In the “Symposium” of Plato, Aristophanes builds up his speech about love on a myth. In bygone days, only androgynes used to exist. They were composed of two beings of opposite sex, placed side by side. Boosted by their double nature, they wanted to challenge the Gods and therefore Zeus decided to punish the androgynes by splitting them in two. They gave birth to human beings looking just like us. According to Aristophanes, love would be nothing else but a feeling of nostalgia towards our ancient nature and a desperate quest for our lost unity. The union of beings or opposites would portray an attempt to re-find the missing link through the search for soul mate.

Originally, the Being stood beyond the polarities merged into the Unity. He was neither masculine nor feminine and far away from the physical features of the hermaphrodite. In reality, he was standing outside of any physical level, at a proper spiritual level.

Splitting of the Being symbolizes the polarization of the primeval Unit, at the source of the manifestation of any thing. A polarization between light and darkness, day and night, Heaven and Earth, hot and cold, fire and water, yang and yin, masculine and feminine as well as between opposites feelings: happiness and misfortune, fear and aggressiveness, sadness and anger, doubt and credo etc.

The Androgyne is neither masculine nor feminine, It is neuter.

It symbolizes, at the same time, the not yet manifested being where the polarities are still merged within the Unity as well as the manifested being who has realized their re-integration and rejoined the primeval Unity.









explanations from [link]