on a round neck and precisely alike. He could walk upright as men now do,
backward or forward as he pleased, and he could also roll over and over at
a great rate, whirling round 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. Terrible was their might and strength, and
the thoughts of their hearts 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 there would be an end of
the sacrifices and worship which men offered to them; but, on the other
hand, the gods could not suffer their insolence to be unrestrained. At
last, after a good deal of reflection, Zeus discovered a way. He said;
"Methinks I have a plan which will humble their pride and mend their
manners; they shall continue to exist, but I will cut them in two, which
will have a double advantage, for it will halve their strength and we
shall have twice as many sacrifices. They shall walk upright on two legs,
and if they continue insolent and will not be quiet, I will split them
again and they shall hop on a single leg." He spoke and cut men in two,
"as you might split an egg with a hair."... After the division the two
parts of man, each desiring his other half, came together.... So ancient
is the desire of one another which is implanted in us, reuniting our
original nature, making one of two, and healing the state of man. Each of
us when separated is but the indenture of a man, having one side only,
like a flat-fish and he is always looking for his other half.

And when one of them finds his other half, the pair are lost in amazement
of love and friendship and intimacy, and one will not be out of the
other's sight, as I may say, even for a minute: they will pass their whole
lives together; yet they could not explain what they desire of one