It is certain that the
origin of the idea must be sought in Plato's time.
In intercourse with women man dimly felt the vague elementary condition
from which he had struggled hard to emerge, and fled to the more
familiar companions of his own sex. Would not love between man and man
deliver him from the basely sensual, strengthen his spirituality and
lead him to the gods? In this connection Zeus is called in "Phaedros"
[Greek: philios], the maker of friendships. Plato, in propounding this
doctrine, drew thereby the most radical conclusion of the new,
apparently male, but at heart hermaphroditic ideal of civilisation,
conceived in the heroic epoch and elaborated and brought to perfection
by the Greek of classical times. This ideal was the victory of the
spiritual principle over promiscuous sexuality and irresponsible
propagation and, quite in the true Hellenic spirit, it was again
interpreted materially.
Because individualised love was an unknown quantity to the ancients,
they ornamented their sarcophagi with symbols of ecstatic life, with
dancing and embracing fauns and maenads.
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