The Other Half
Two arms and two legs, one head and one soul
So people are made, or so we’ve been told
But long, long ago and far, far away
Things were quite different, it happened this way:
It may seem strange; it may seem weird
But people had two heads, though one had a beard
Four arms and four legs, twice as many as we
But they found it pleasant; they all felt carefree
The never felt lonely, they never felt sad
They had all they wanted; they were all they had
But the faeries were jealous; the elves didn’t like
People being so happy. They decided to strike
On a mountain they gathered, and combining their strength
They let loose their power over earth’s breadth and length
All the people were shattered, ripped in half everyone
And then they were scattered; the gnomes had their fun
And now everybody searches low, searches high
Looking for their lost partner, though they don’t quite know why
But once they have found them, they feel so complete
They have found their lost half, now isn’t that sweet?
from Aristotle's compleat master piece, in three parts -- Aristotle
Two arms and two legs, one head and one soul
So people are made, or so we’ve been told
But long, long ago and far, far away
Things were quite different, it happened this way:
It may seem strange; it may seem weird
But people had two heads, though one had a beard
Four arms and four legs, twice as many as we
But they found it pleasant; they all felt carefree
The never felt lonely, they never felt sad
They had all they wanted; they were all they had
But the faeries were jealous; the elves didn’t like
People being so happy. They decided to strike
On a mountain they gathered, and combining their strength
They let loose their power over earth’s breadth and length
All the people were shattered, ripped in half everyone
And then they were scattered; the gnomes had their fun
And now everybody searches low, searches high
Looking for their lost partner, though they don’t quite know why
But once they have found them, they feel so complete
They have found their lost half, now isn’t that sweet?
from Aristotle's compleat master piece, in three parts -- Aristotle
Hermaphroditos' name was a compounded of that of his parents, Hermes and Aphrodite. According to Publius Ovidius Naso he was a remarkably handsome boy who was raised by naiads in the caves of Mt. Ida, a sacred mountain in Phrygia (modern Turkey). At 15 he became bored and traveled to Halicarnassus (modern Bodrum) and encountered the nymph, Salmacis, in her pool. "There dwelt a Nymph, not up for hunting or archery: / unfit for footraces. She the only Naiad not in Diana’s band. / Often her sisters would say: 'Pick up a javelin, or / bristling quiver, and interrupt your leisure for the chase!' / But she would not pick up a javelin or arrows, / nor trade leisure for the chase. / Instead she would bathe her beautiful limbs and tend to her hair, / with her waters as a mirror." She tried to seduce him but was rejected. When she left he undressed and entered the empty pool, but she sprang out from behind a tree, jumped into the pool, and wrapped herself around him, forcibly kissing him and touching his breast. While he struggled, she called out to the gods that they should never part, and their bodies blended into one form, "a creature of both sexes." In response he prayed to his parents that anyone else who bathed in the pool would be similarly transformed. By embodying both masculine and feminine qualities, he symbolized the coming together of men and women in sacred union.
ReplyDeleteHermaphroditus
I.
LIFT UP thy lips, turn round, look back for love,
Blind love that comes by night and casts out rest;
Of all things tired thy lips look weariest,
Save the long smile that they are wearied of.
Ah sweet, albeit no love be sweet enough,
Choose of two loves and cleave unto the best;
Two loves at either blossom of thy breast
Strive until one be under and one above.
Their breath is fire upon the amorous air,
Fire in thine eyes and where thy lips suspire:
And whosoever hath seen thee, being so fair,
Two things turn all his life and blood to fire;
A strong desire begot on great despair,
A great despair cast out by strong desire.
II.
Where between sleep and life some brief space is,
With love like gold bound round about the head,
Sex to sweet sex with lips and limbs is wed,
Turning the fruitful feud of hers and his
To the waste wedlock of a sterile kiss;
Yet from them something like as fire is shed
That shall not be assuaged till death be dead,
Though neither life nor sleep can find out this.
Love made himself of flesh that perisheth
A pleasure-house for all the loves his kin;
But on the one side sat a man like death,
And on the other a woman sat like sin.
So with veiled eyes and sobs between his breath
Love turned himself and would not enter in.
III.
Love, is it love or sleep or shadow or light
That lies between thine eyelids and thine eyes?
Like a flower laid upon a flower it lies,
Or like the night’s dew laid upon the night.
Love stands upon thy left hand and thy right,
Yet by no sunset and by no moonrise
Shall make thee man and ease a woman’s sighs,
Or make thee woman for a man’s delight.
To what strange end hath some strange god made fair
The double blossom of two fruitless flowers?
Hid love in all the folds of all thy hair,
Fed thee on summers, watered thee with showers,
Given all the gold that all the seasons wear
To thee that art a thing of barren hours?
IV.
Yea, love, I see; it is not love but fear.
Nay, sweet, it is not fear but love, I know;
Or wherefore should thy body’s blossom blow
So sweetly, or thine eyelids leave so clear
Thy gracious eyes that never made a tear—
Though for their love our tears like blood should flow,
Though love and life and death should come and go,
So dreadful, so desirable, so dear?
Yea, sweet, I know; I saw in what swift wise
Beneath the woman’s and the water’s kiss
Thy moist limbs melted into Salmacis,
And the large light turned tender in thine eyes,
And all thy boy’s breath softened into sighs;
But Love being blind, how should he know of this?
--Algernon Charles Swinburne