Symposium

form was round, having back and sides in a circle; it had four hands, and legs equal in number to its hands, and 190a two faces on a rounded neck, alike in every way; and one head for both the faces, which were set opposite each other, and four ears, and two sets of genitals, and all the rest as one might guess from these. It walked upright, too, as now, in whichever direction it wanted; and whenever it set out to run fast, just as tumblers turn cartwheels, swinging their legs round to the upright, so they, pushing off on their limbs, which were then eight, were carried swiftly round in a circle. And 190b the kinds were three, and of this sort, for this reason: that the male was in origin the offspring of the sun, the female of the earth, and the one that shared in both of the moon, because the moon too shares in both; and they were round, both themselves and their way of going, through being like their parents. So they were dreadful in their strength and might, and had great thoughts, and they made an attempt on the gods; and what Homer says of Ephialtes and Otus is said of them, the attempt 190c to make an ascent to heaven, to attack the gods.¹ So Zeus and the other gods deliberated what they should do, and were at a loss; for they could neither kill them and make the race vanish by thunderbolts, as they had the Giants — for then the honours and sacrifices they had from human beings were vanishing — nor let them run riot. With difficulty Zeus, having considered, says, ‘I think,’ he said, ‘I have a device by which human beings could both go on existing and stop their licentiousness by 190d becoming weaker. For now,’ he said, ’I shall cut each of them in two, and at the same time they will be weaker, and also more useful to us through having become more in number; and they will walk