ESSAY text by DONATIEN GRAU artwork by ZOE LEONARD The androgyne in Plato’s Symposium is originary and primarily exists as a utopia of unity. Unity is not what we have in our lives; it is not us as we are, individually; it is the original being of which we are only a remnant. The androgyne — literally, the man-woman — was the original creature, a sort of Siamese being, which had two bodies in one. Because of the anger of the gods, the body was cut, and the separation led to sexual differentiation. Some androgynes were male/male; those became gay. Some were female/female; they became lesbian. Some eventually were male/female; they became heterosexuals. Each part kept looking for the other lost half, and their reunion would make for the reconstitution of the androgynes. Love is the desire to reunite with the unity you have lost. Nowadays, we might see Plato’s…