The Origin of Love
In the Symposium (translated as "drinking party" although it was decided not to drink at this one) the eulogies were given for Love. In one a man described the origin of love. Rufus Wainwright wrote a song about this Greek myth.
"Origin Of Love"
Rufus Wainwright
Rufus Wainwright
When the earth was still flat/And the clouds made of fire/And mountains stretched up to the sky/Sometimes higher/Folks roamed the earthLike big rolling kegs./They had two sets of arms./They had two sets of legs./They had two faces peering/Out of one giant head/So they could watch all around them/As they talked; while they read./And they never knew nothing of love./It was before the origin of love./The origin of love/And there were three sexes then/One that looked like two men/Glued up back to back/Called the children of the sun./And similar in shape and girth/Were the children of the earth./They looked like two girls Rolled up in one./And the children of the moon/Were like a fork shoved on a spoon./They were part sun,/part earth Part daughter, part son./The origin of love/Now the gods grew quite scared Of our strength and defiance/And Thor said,"I'm gonna kill them all/With my hammer/Like I killed the giants."/And Zeus said, "No/You better let me/Use my lightening, like scissors,/Like I cut the legs off the whales/And dinosaurs into lizards./"Then he grabbed up some bolts/And he let out a laugh/Said, "I'll split them right down the middle./Gonna cut them right up in half."/And then storm clouds gathered above/Into great balls of fire/And then fire shot down/From the sky in bolts/Like shining blades/Of a knife./And it ripped/Right through the flesh/Of the children of the sun/And the moon/And the earth./And some Indian god/Sewed the wound up into a hole,/Pulled it round to our belly/To remind us of the price we pay./And Osiris and the gods of the Nile/Gathered up a big storm/To blow a hurricane,/To scatter us away,/In a flood of wind and rain,/And a sea of tidal waves,/To wash us all away,/And if we don't behave/They'll cut us down again/And we'll be hopping round on one foot/And looking through one eye./Last time I saw you/We had just split in two./You were looking at me./I was looking at you./You had a way so familiar,/But I could not recognize,/Cause you had blood on your face;/I had blood in my eyes./But I could swear by your expression/That the pain down in your soul/Was the same as the one down in mine./That's the pain,/Cuts a straight line/Down through the heart;/We called it love./So we wrapped our arms around each other,/Trying to shove ourselves back together./We were making love,/Making love./It was a cold dark evening,/Such a long time ago,/When by the mighty hand of Jove,/It was the sad story/How we became/Lonely two-legged creatures,/It's the story ofThe origin of love./That's the origin of love.
So tell me what you think of story/myth/song. I don't want to know if you belive it or not and why or why not... Tell me parts of the song that are interesting. Tell me something interesting you find about the song. Do you have any insight into where the song might have come from? Do you see any similarities between this view of the creation of man and the christian view?
21 Comments:
i think that the whole incompleteness thing is kind like christanity, but the myth makes it like a bringing back together what was seperated, and christianity makes it bringing together to creat life and happiness, the myth seems to make it a last attempt to bring relief to agony. the last thing that could ever make things 'right' again. it's like backwards of christainity, where in christianity love brings forth life and in the myth life brings forth love. love is not the start all but a remedy to pain. pain brings forth love, where in christianity sin brought pain and also the distortion of love.
9/25/2005 09:02:00 PM
nice comment (clap clap) i was noticing how in christianity eve was part of adam that was rip apart. in that sense they r very similar. we both believe in bringing a man and women together in love to become one. i think its cool that they had the idea of soul mates way back then... like there is one person out there, only one, who can complete you. in HST we try to look at the past for reasons why we are the way we r today.. and i think this s agood example of a beleif that carried on until today. soul mates.
9/25/2005 09:09:00 PM
wow yeah that is similar mmmmmmmmmmm...
9/25/2005 09:17:00 PM
i wonder when the jews wrote genisis and when the greeks told this story... my discussion leader said that maybe the judeo-christian belief came from the greeks.
9/26/2005 10:34:00 AM
i think that the jews were before the greeks, abraham came from Ur which was a sumerian city, sumer was slightly before the greeks and in a different region. and he came from Ur before Ur became babylonian so it had to be pretty early.
9/26/2005 11:20:00 AM
the epic of gilgamesh was also sumerian and a lot like the story of noah's ark
9/26/2005 11:21:00 AM
yeah i know the hebrew people came before the greeks... i would assume they had the story first... maybe i will bring that up to Sarah (my disscussion leader). I knew about the ark thing from discovery channel. they ahve some cool stuff on there. sometimes they talk about the "holy" books that weren't included in teh bible. that is pretty interesting.
9/26/2005 03:33:00 PM
people other than u and me need to post here lol.
9/26/2005 03:33:00 PM
yeah there are like 50 other 'gospels' that aren't a part of the bible, there are probably tons of other books that didn't make it into the old testament...yeah where's kenric and rachael and tom?
9/26/2005 03:52:00 PM
Tom's Great Enterance(and that may be a misspelled word by the way):
I can't post on this. Neither can Sarah.
9/26/2005 04:34:00 PM
...comment... tom, u r annoying
9/26/2005 04:40:00 PM
Oh yeah, this is your blog, so you can do anything or say anything you want. I am sorry.
9/27/2005 08:14:00 AM
come on, this is a cool post... y is sarah the only one who says stuff about it. grr. thanx sarah.
9/27/2005 10:37:00 AM
im not smart enough to commment profoundly. i dont feel like thinking smartly right now. sarah, now can you remember that history info? did you copy that right out of the book?
9/27/2005 11:28:00 AM
how
9/27/2005 11:28:00 AM
new post!
9/27/2005 12:22:00 PM
new post? come on... i posted two at once this time, that should count for something!
9/27/2005 02:49:00 PM
u didnt even COMMENT on this post and u want me to make a new one!? jerk :P
9/27/2005 02:49:00 PM
well i was just learning about all that stuff in art history, and i just took a test on it ( and got 99% thank you very much) so it is fresh on the brain i guess...and why do you think you have to be profound, i wasn't profound and jennifer wasn't either, we just were stating our thoughts on the subject. and rachael you need to comment...
9/27/2005 03:25:00 PM
right on sarah! when r u coming up here?
9/28/2005 10:38:00 AM
um well i'll have to see when i am working, but soon...i'l get back to you...soon
9/28/2005 03:26:00 PM
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