mirror, mirror

In Plato's Symposium, Aristophanes writes that humans originally consisted of four arms, four legs, and a single head made of two faces.

[Primeval man] 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. Terrible was their might and strength, and the thoughts of their hearts were great, and they made an attack upon the gods...

The gods began to be afraid of their power, and Zeus was offended by their "insolence."

Doubt reigned in the celestial councils. Should they kill [man] 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.

Zeus decided that instead of destroying them, he would simply cut them in half.

[Zeus] said: 'Methinks I have a plan which will humble their pride and improve their manners; men shall continue to exist, but I will cut them in two and then they will be diminished in strength and increased in numbers. . .'

So the gods were safe, but the separation condemned these split beings to spend their lives searching for their other half.

Aristophanes must have foreseen Missy and Simeon.


. . . . . . . Baby Missy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Baby Simeon . . . . . . .

The Momgoose