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To: shrinkermd
"In his Symposium, Plato suggests that mankind was originally made up of complete beings. Mankind originally had three genders that were a fusion of two human bodies. "Some were male-male, some were female-female, and some were male-female. These beings were round, had two faces, had four arms, and reproduced asexually. These beings were complete, incredibly happy, and even arrogant. This angered the gods who were incredibly jealous. The gods split these beings in half, which is the present state of mankind. We all search for our other half in hopes of becoming whole again."

Plato doesn't "suggest" this; the poet Aristophanes suggests it.

202 posted on 11/18/2003 7:44:12 PM PST by Reactionary
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To: Reactionary
"These beings were complete, incredibly happy, and even arrogant. This angered the gods who were incredibly jealous. The gods split these beings in half, which is the present state of mankind. We all search for our other half in hopes of becoming whole again."

Actually, Aristophanes says that men and women were originally shaped like the sun, the stars, the moon. They were shaped like the celestial gods, having been created by them.

As to the second point, these "original" human beings rebelled against the Gods. Aristophanes does not indicate as to why this happened.

The rest? I don't have a problem with it. It appears to be accurate. :)

299 posted on 11/19/2003 9:08:00 PM PST by Reactionary
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