at all understood the power of Love. For if they had understood him they
would surely have built noble temples and altars, and offered solemn
sacrifices in his honour; but this is not done, and most certainly ought to
be done: since of all the gods he is the best friend of men, the helper
and the healer of the ills which are the great impediment to the happiness
of the race. I will try to describe his power to you, and you shall teach
the rest of the world what I am teaching you. In the first place, let me
treat of the nature of man and what has happened to it; for the original
human nature was not like the present, but different. The sexes were not
two as they are now, but originally three in number; there was man, woman,
and the union of the two, having a name corresponding to this double
nature, which had once a real existence, but is now lost, and the word
'Androgynous' is only preserved as a term of reproach. In the second
place, the primeval man was round, his back and sides forming a circle; and
he had four hands and four feet, one head with two faces, looking opposite
ways, set on a round neck and precisely alike; also four ears, two privy
members, and the remainder to correspond. He could walk upright as men now
do, backwards or forwards as he pleased, and he could also roll over and
over at a great pace, turning on his four hands and four feet, eight in
all, like tumblers going over and over with their legs in the air; this was
when he wanted to run fast. Now the sexes were three, and such as I have
described them; because the sun, moon, and earth are three; and the man was
originally the child of the sun, the woman of the earth, and the man-woman
of the moon, which is made up of sun and earth, and they were all round and
moved round and round like their parents. Terrible was their might and
strength, and the thoughts of their hearts were great, and they made an
attack upon the gods; of them is told the tale of Otys and Ephialtes who,
as Homer says, dared to scale heaven, and would have laid hands upon the
gods. Doubt reigned in the celestial councils. Should they kill them and
annihilate the race with thunderbolts, as they had done the giants, then