Symposium - AIC

Anne Gabriel Wersinger
This tradition continues lately, as evidenced by the following Latin authors:
Tiberianus, Versus Platonis de deo (ed. S. Mattiacci, 1990), vers 21-24 :
136
Tu genus omne deum, tu rerum causa uigorque
Tu natura omnis, deus innumerabilis unus
Tu sexu plenus toto, tibi nascitur olim
Hic deus, hic mundus, domus hic hominumque deumque
“Thou, the first origin of the gods, thou cause and vigor of things,
Thou, universal nature, countless single god,
Thou, the whole sex, it is from thee that in one day are born
this god, this world, this home of gods and men”
R. F. Avienus, Les Phénomènes d’Aratos (ed. J. Soubiran, CUF, 1981, v. 25-28) :
(…) sexuque inmixtus utroque
atque aevi pariter gemini simul omnia lustrans
sufficit alterno res semine. (…)
“(...) mixed with both sexes
with an equally twofold life, running at once through all things
he provides things with seed of either sex”.
In these texts, we see that the focus is on the duality of the sexes, as if Zeus was hermaphrodite, both
male and female. Moreover, in column 7, we read:
Ἀφροδίτη Οὐρανία
καὶ Ζεὺς καὶ ἀφροδισιάζειν κ̣αὶ θόρνυσθαι καὶ Πειθὼ
καὶ Ἁρµονία τῶι αὐτῶι θεῶι ὄνοµα κεῖται.
“Aphrodite Ourania,
Zeus, sexual intercourse, ejaculation, Persuasion
and Harmony are names given to the same god”.
In this excerpt where Zeus is identified with female deities, we can see evidence that Zeus acquires
both sexes. And if Zeus is the noûs, one must notice also that in column 26, the noûs is explicitly
called the “mother” of other things.
Bernabé recalls a Hurrian myth known from a Hittite version, The Kingdom of Heaven (or
Theogony). In one episode, Anu, the god of heaven, is emasculated by the bite of Kumarbi. Then he
swallows the phallus of Heaven. However, precises Bernabé, he finds himself “pregnant” of many
gods.
The Derveni Papyrus seems to reflect a source of inspiration, perhaps Hittite, where the god
creator is pregnant.
The scope of Diotima’s thesis (whose name etymologically meaning, Zeus’timè, might hint at
an Orphic character) makes sense, compared to these traditions.
The ellipsis of ejaculation in Diotima’s speech
Now, on one point at least, Diotima explicitly reverses the tradition of Olympian patriarchal myths of
annexation. Indeed, she describes Erôs’ birth through rather surprising words:
ἡ οὖν Πενία ἐπιβουλεύουσα διὰ τὴν αὑτῆς ἀπορίαν παιδίον ποιήσασθαι ἐκ τοῦ Πόρου,
κατακλίνεταί τε παρ’ αὐτῷ καὶ ἐκύησε τὸν Ἔρωτα (203a3-203c).
“Then Penia, being of herself resourceless, planned to make for her a child from Poros, and
lying down by his side she became pregnant of Erôs”.