Plato's Symposium - Aristophanes' speech as a reflection of ancient sexuality

When the original halves, before separation, were dual male, they were considered "the offspring of the sun,"8 for people in ancient times thought of the sun as a symbol of power, which men possessed. Zeus' separation of the dual male created two male beings. As a result of the separation, one male half sought out affection from his other same-gendered half in order to re-establish his original connection: "Men who are sections of the [dual] male pursue the masculine, and so long as their boyhood lasts they show themselves to be slices of the male by making friends with men and delighting to lie with them and to be clasped in men's embraces."9 This reunion attempt reflected the origin of male homosexuality: the physical, emotional, intellectual and romantic connection between two male individuals; and justified its existence within ancient Greek culture, especially within aristocratic circles. Male homosexuality in the ancient world expressed itself in several ways: pederasty, symposiums, appreciation of male beauty, and artistic dedications from older men to young men. Pederasty, an intimate connection between older men and male adolescents, was particularly common and praised as a social, moral, and educational institution. This could be attributed to the fact that sexual activity in ancient Greece reflected social status and identity. Male homosexual activity was often structured through hierarchical arrangements, where aristocratic males possessed power over the lower class males. Sexual relationships were "rigidly polarized: sex between members of the superordinate group was virtually inconceivable, whereas sex between a member of the superordinate group and a member of any one of the subordinate groups"10 were considered normal. Another social custom in which young and older men gathered together, especially within aristocratic circles, were the all-male symposiums; wild drinking and eating celebrations. Close physical contact between males was not uncommon at these parties. One particular ritual that occurred at these symposiums involved intimate contact between the cupbearer, often a young man belonging to a higher class, and the guests.11 Other evidence for ancient Greek males' desire for other young men lies in the strong appreciation of physical male beauty by other men as frequently depicted in literary works (ie. Achilles' love for Patroclus in the the Illiad), and the names of potters' favourite men imprinted on vase paintings in Attica during the fifth century BC.12 Connections between males were normal, and signified the attempts of the two halves to reunite.

Before the separation, the dual female humans were perceived as the children of the earth, for the ancient Greeks associated women with water, fertility, and earth goddesses like Gaia. Zeus'separation of these dual females produced two female beings, one of whom would search for affection from her other same-gendered half: "All the women who are sections of the [dual] woman have no great fancy for men: they are inclined rather to women."13 The passion between two female beings, which resulted from the separation, represented the origin of female homosexuality or lesbianism: the physical, emotional, intellectual and romantic connection between two females. Scholastic knowledge of ancient Greek lesbianism is relatively rare and most writings about classical female sexuality make reference to the prominent poet Sappho from the island of Lesbos. Sappho was the headmistress of all female educational communities, called thiasoi, which existed in Lesbos, Sparta, and most of Greece.14 Thiasoi were complex matriarchal cultures that worshipped their own deities, performed their own unique rituals, and valued education in music, dancing, and the fine arts. They were also taugh techniques of seduction and gracefulness as a precursor to the students' preparation for being desirable women. Emotional, physical, intellectual, and spiritual connections with other women naturally developed within thiasoi settings. Gender and educational segregation allowed for the women of Lesbos, and other geographically isolated locations with thiasoi, to love their fellow female peers with "a passionate love, experienced with exceptional sensibility and ecstasy."15 Outside the thiasoi, Greek society especially in the fifth and sixth century BC, encouraged love between two women because of its association with the rites of passage which needed to be experienced in order to achieve womanhood. Classical society "not only accepted as normal the existence of love relationships between women in the life of the thiasoi, but formalized these, through the celebration of an initiation-type ceremony, which brought two girls together in an exclusive paired bonding of a marital type."16 The evidence for the tolerance and acceptance of lesbian marriages resides in a Spartan choral song entitled the parthenion, which acknowledges the commitment between the two females Agido and Hagesichora17. Commitment between two females was part of initiation rites, for it "arose during the period of female life institutionally designed to mark the passage of a girl from the class of virgins to the class of married women."18 Married life between two women set the stage for freedom from educational obligations and cultivated passionate desires independent of the teacher-student relationship. Women from the island of Lesbos and students of thiasoi were not the only examples of lesbianism in ancient Greece. Courtesans, also known as hetairai, who entertained at symposiums and erotically charged banquets for money, were part of a subculture which appreciated people of the female persuasion in their private lives. Strong bonding and connections between female courtesans drew out natural feelings associated with love, for the banquets "allowed them to escape their professional destiny and feel some non-mercenary emotions."19 Intimate relationships between females from Lesbos, at thiasoi all over Greece, and hetairai existed due to splintered female halves longing to reunite with their other female selves.

Individuals who were hermaphroditic before the separation were the children of the moon, "for the moon also partakes of both"20 the male (sun) and the female (earth) principle. The bisected hermaphrodite resulted in two gender-differentiated beings, one male and one female, who would search for heterosexual affection: "All the men who are sections of that composite sex that at first was called man-woman are woman-courters... [and] likewise are derived our man-courting women."21 The search for the opposite gendered half represented the origin of heterosexuality: the physical, emotional, intellectual and romantic connection between a man and a woman. Heterosexuality was expected as reproduction and marriage were required and valued within the classical world. In Aristophanes' speech, the institution of reproduction was justified by Zeus' reconstruction of human beings through alterations of the sex organs:

He moved their privy parts to the front - for until then they had these, like all else, on the outside, and did their begetting and bringing forth not on each other but on the earth, like the crickets. These parts he now shifted to the front, to be used for propagating on each other - in the female member by means of the male; so that if in their embracements a man should happen on a woman there might be conception and continuation of their kind.22

Love was not the essential ingredient for marriage. Marriage was upheld as a moral duty to fulfill to the gods, to make families, to allow for organization and "a trustworthy management of household affairs,"23 and to "ensure the continued existence of the state by the procreation of descendants."24 Heterosexuality was of great importance not only to the individual but to ancient Greek society as well. Ancient Greek males possessed anxiety about the legitimacy of their children due to the strong connection between appropriate paternity and securing privileges that come with citizenship. Heterosexuality derived from the need for one half to find his or her other half of the opposite gender.

Ancient Greek cultures endorsed both male and female homosexual and heterosexual relationships and marriages. Homosexual and heterosexual relationships and marriages were justified as normal and natural by philosophers and writers through literary works which integrated myths to explain sexuality. Plato accommodated the customs, interests and beliefs of ancient Greek society through Aristophanes' speech, which linked eros and sexuality to a creation myth. Social customs of homosexuality and heterosexuality were all rationalized and explained by the separation of the first humans. Aristophanes' speech reflects the importance of the many embodiments of eros. The need to secure love, through homosexuality or heterosexuality, came from humankind's pursuit of beauty, wholeness, healing, and perfection that can only be achieved by a reunion with the spiritual representation of ones former half.

Bibliography

) Brandt, P. & Licht, H. Sexual Life in Ancient Greece. London, 1953.

2) Cantarella, E. Bisexuality in the Ancient World. New Haven and London, 2002.

3) Halperin, D. M. "Why is Diotima a Woman? Platonic Eros and the Figuration of Gender," in Halperin, D. M., Winkler, J. J., & Zeitlin, F. I. (eds.) Before Sexuality: The Construction of Erotic Experience in the Ancient Greek World. New Jersey, 1990.

4) Highwater, J. Myth and Sexuality. New York, 1990.

5) Plato."The Symposium," Lamb, W. R. (trans.), H., & Warmington, E. H. (eds.), Plato with an English Translation. Cambridge and London, 1961.

Highwater, p. 88

2 Brandt & Licht, p. 3

3 Symposium 135

4 Symposium 135

5 Halperin, p. 267

6 Highwater, p. 89

7 Symposium 141

8 Symposium 137

9Symposium 141

0 Halperin, p. 266

1 Brandt & Licht, p. 169

2 Brandt & Licht, p. 431

3 Symposium 141

4 Cantarella, p. 79

5 Cantarella, p. 79

6 Cantarella, p. 81

7 Cantarella, p. 82

8 Cantarella, p. 83

9 Cantarella, p. 87

20 Symposium 137

21 Symposium 141

22 Symposium 139

23 Brandt & Licht, p. 18

24 Brandt & Licht, p. 34

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