We are the children of this Universe. And somehow mother nature knew that a human soul isn’t perfect, as it needs another soul or its better half, to live, to survive and to thrive happily. But this article ain’t about love and all those kinds of stuff, but about the origination of word “better half .”
Out of multiple concepts on soul mates, one could reach the roots of the origination of the term better half in Greek mythology.
Looking into it’s deeper history, the human a beautiful creation of God was once more powerful, faster and stronger than today. Every man, every woman, and every androgyne was double i.e. one head two faces looking out in the opposite direction, 4 arms and legs and a set of two genitalia.
But too much power and freedom ruined it all. These fast and powerful creatures decided to scale Mt. Olympus to attack God. The consequence of challenging the own creator went devastating. Zeus brainstormed and decided that killing these creatures won’t be a good option but little modification is required.
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Their (humans) arrogance level would decrease if the power is divided into two, then they would be only half as fast and half as strong.
With the help of Apollo, the king of God cut man-man, woman-woman, man-woman creatures in half with necessary fixation of face which was previously facing outward.
Humans original body was cut into two. Aristophanes in the Symposium refers to how Zeus cut humankind in half. But, out of emotions, these detached bodies tried to join back together and on failing to unite, they starved to death in sorrow. Zeus again modified his creation and added genitals which would add them temporarily.
This new system created an interesting new means of producing offspring. The creatures who had been double women before, naturally sought out women; those who had been androgynous, sought out members of the opposite gender; those who had been double men, sought out the company of men, and not simply for intercourse, but so they could become whole again by being rejoined with their better half.
Each half then yearned for its other half that had been severed. Love is simply the name for the desire and pursuit of the whole. That why we use the expression “in search of my other half” in modern language.
