44217664_The Pursuit of Eros in Plato’s

DOI 10.1007/s12138-009-0070-1 The Pursuit of Eros in Plato’s Symposium and Hedwig and the Angry Inch1 HOLLY M. SYPNIEWSKI © Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009 John Cameron Mitchell’s film Hedwig and the Angry Inch (2001) traces the sexual and spiritual journey of a partially transgendered rock star searching for her “other half.” Her pursuit of erotic completion is depicted explicitly in “The Origin of Love,” a song based on a creation myth told only in Plato’s Symposium. This article demonstrates that the film owes a greater ideological debt to the Platonic dialogue than has been recognized and investigates how the narrative of Hedwig’s story visually dramatizes the Symposium’s many forms of eros. Both works delineate a sphere of all-male sexuality to explore the origin and satisfaction of erotic longing while employing a female persona to show that the highest form of love transcends physicality to culminate in the pursuit of knowledge. While Mitchell transports the premise of the Symposium to the cutting edge of cinema and music, he expands its ideological range to interrogate the definition of love and its intersection with gender identity. Introduction H 1. 2. edwig and the Angry Inch (hereafter Hedwig) is the cinematic interpretation of an off-Broadway rock musical chronicling the sexual and spiritual life of Hansel, an East German teen, transformed into Hedwig.2 An earlier version of this paper was presented at the annual meeting of the South Central Modern Languages Association, New Orleans, LA, 30 October 2004. Discussions of Hedwig with Catherine Freis, Rebecca Resinski and Matt Vieron improved the argument. Special thanks are owed to Anne MacMaster and Alexandra Pappas for thoughtful comments, and to the editor of IJCT, Wolfgang Haase, for his fruitful comments and for valuable bibliographic suggestions. Hedwig and the Angry Inch, DVD, directed by John Cameron Mitchell (New York, NY: New Line Platinum Series, 2001). All supporting quotation of dialogue and Holly M. Sypniewski, Millsaps College, 1701 North State Street, Jackson, MS 39210, UNITED STATES International Journal of the Classical Tradition, Vol. 15, No. 4, December 2008, pp. 558-586. Sypniewski 559 To escape East Berlin, Hansel marries an American GI, but not before undergoing a botched sex reassignment surgery. Left physically indefinable according to binary gender categories, Hansel constructs a feminine persona with his mother’s name, Hedwig, a wig and a trousseau of women’s clothes that mask “an angry inch” – the remains of his masculinity, used as a painful and poignant joke throughout the film. Although freed from Germany, Hedwig is jilted by the GI and stranded in a Kansas trailer park. Reinventing herself as a female glam-rock singer, she tours the country performing gritty rock music to unresponsive audiences in a series of dim salad-bar restaurants, shadowing her former lover, Tommy, a rock star who exploits her music. This physical journey mirrors Hedwig’s attempt to reconcile her fractured physical and psychological identity through an external search for love with a disappointing series of partners: her cold East German mother; Luther, the lecherous and treacherous American GI; Tommy Speck, Hedwig’s young initiate into the mysteries of rock music and homoerotic love; and finally Yitzhak, a transvestite whom Hedwig dominates through a punishing and miserable marriage.3 Set in the late 1980’s, in the years surrounding the fall of the Berlin Wall, Hedwig’s story was inspired by Aristophanes’ myth in Plato’s Symposium, the famous etiology for love as a longing for reunification with one’s “other half.” The appropriation of Platonic thought is easily identified in the film’s second song, “The Origin of Love,” an inventive adaptation of Aristophanes’ speech by musician and lyricist Steven Trask that serves as the film’s thematic center. While this explicit use of the Symposium in Hedwig has been acknowledged in studies of the text’s reception, the film’s greater engagement with Plato’s dialogue has yet to be explored fully.4 Jon Solomon, Martin M. Winkler, and Maria Wyke have advocated eloquently for the value of film as mediator between classical culture and modern contexts.5 Recent scholarship has supported these claims through the lyrics has been taken from this film version. Hedwig is primarily the product of two artists, John Cameron Mitchell (director/writer/star) and Stephen Trask (musician/ lyricist) whose collaboration is discussed below, pages 4-7. Elements of Hedwig’s story exclusively used in stage performances are so noted. The use of gendered pronouns for transgendered and partially transgendered individuals is a complex issue. For the sake of this argument, I have used he/him to refer to Hansel before his operation and she/her to refer to post-operative Hedwig since the character is consistently presented with a female identity following the sex-change operation (despite its failure) until the end of the film. Throughout this argument the term “sex” refers to biologically and physically determined features, while “gender” refers to socially and culturally constructed identity through learned behaviors. James Lesher discusses Hedwig briefly when cataloguing performances of the Symposium on stage and screen as a prelude to his study of artistic representations of the Symposium. (“Some Notable Afterimages of Plato’s Symposium,” in Plato’s Symposium: Issues in Interpretation and Reception, eds. J. H. Lesher, Debra Nails and Frisbee C.C. Sheffield, Hellenic Studies 22 (Cambridge, MA and London: Harvard University Press, 2006) 313-340, on pages 315 and 337. See Jon Solomon, The Ancient World in Cinema, 2nd ed. (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2001); Maria Wyke, “Are You Not Entertained: Classicists and Cinema,” International Journal of the Classical Tradition 9 (2002-2003), 430-445; 3. 4. 5. 560 International Journal of the Classical Tradition / December 2008 many “film-philological” studies of cinematic representations of GrecoRoman history, literature or myth.6 Among philosophic works, Plato’s Symposium has been a particularly appealing text for visual presentation because of its essentially dramatic form.7 Additionally, James Lesher suggests that the text’s structure – a series of speeches whose complexity has sometimes overshadowed the importance of Diotima’s mysteries of Love – has enabled readers “to treat the dialogue as a kind of smorgasbord from which to select the most appealing idea or image.”8 This article demonstrates how Hedwig samples uniquely from several speeches in the Symposium, transplanting, rather than translating, the text to the rock stage and screen.9 In particular, song and music are an essential means to give voice to Hedwig’s discourse on love, an inversion of Platonic views on the best means to seek and convey truth.10 In order to illustrate the ancient dialogue’s influence on the contemporary film, the critical focus of this study shifts repeatedly between the two works to put Hedwig into direct conversation with Socrates and his fellow symposiasts.11 To begin I examine the centrality of Plato’s Symposium as Hedwig’s creators developed the show first for the stage, then the screen. Following a comparison of the narrative frame of each work, I analyze Hedwig’s homosexual relationships as a contemporary reflection of the possible benefits and perils of love suggested by the Symposium’s different speakers. Finally, I explore the ways in which Mitchell and Trask craft Hedwig as an embodiment of the daimonic nature of eros in Diotima’s speech. As a male figure with a female persona who yet lives between genders, Hedwig refocuses Platonic inquiry from the nature of Love and the pursuit of Knowledge onto the nature of gender and self-knowledge. Throughout my argument, I pair aspects of “Introduction” to Classical Myth and Culture in the Cinema, ed. Martin M. Winkler (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2001) and “Neo-Mythologism: Apollo and the Muses on the Screen,” International Journal of the Classical Tradition 11 (2004-2005), 383-423, on pages 383-86. 6. For the term, see Winkler, “Neo-Mythologism” (above, n. 5), 384. 7. Lesher (“Some Notable Afterimages” [above, n. 4], 315) counts six recent stage and screen adaptations, including Hedwig. Among these, Jonathan Miller’s 1965 BBC production The Drinking Party is a sharp counter-point to Hedwig. It nearly omits discussion of homosexuality from Aristophanes’ speech, and thus illustrates the force of contemporary social views on reception of the dialogue. 8. Lesher (“Some Notable Afterimages” [above, n. 4], 339). He carefully qualifies that the text has a dominant central message in Socrates’ speech, but that this is not always readily seen or thought to be the most salient to writers and artists with individual artistic aims in drawing up on the dialogue (340). 9. Here I follow terminology outlined and illustrated by Lorna Hardwick, Reception Studies, Greece and Rome. n.s. 33 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003). 10. Philosophy is inextricably linked to music within the film. Young Hansel was kicked out of the German academy after delivering, “You, Kant, Always Get What You Want,” a paper on philosophy and rock music with a witty title that puns on an eponymous Rolling Stones song. 11. Janice Siegel’s (“Tennessee Williams’ Suddenly Last Summer and Euripides’ Bacchae,” International Journal of the Classical Tradition 11 [2004-2005], 538-570) demonstration of The Bacchae’s influence on Tennessee Williams’ Suddenly Last Summer provided a useful model for my analysis, since both films are based on plays influenced primarily by a single classical Greek model. par 15: http://www. Mitchell qualifies that “people are interested in where our needs come from. available on the 2003 Platinum Series DVD release of Hedwig and the Angry Inch [see above. Interview with Cynthia Fuchs. NY: Automat Pictures.com/docsi/3821. and that myth just stayed with me. 14th 1998 at the Jane Street Theater in New York City. n. In footage of the first Squeezebox show.” interview by S. This groundbreaking act combined drag. For example. 36: http://www. alternating songs with tragicomic autobiographical monologues. and Plato is the beginning of Western culture. Hedwig and Reception of Plato’s Symposium The 2001 film Hedwig and the Angry Inch resulted from seven years of collaboration between actor/writer/director John Cameron Mitchell and musician/lyricist Stephen Trask. He bought the Symposium for Trask. 2003]. It’s interesting that it’s a myth written by a man and didn’t develop as a historical tradition. directed by Laura Nix [New York..com/film/interviews/mitchell-john-cameron. and in not being alone. “The Origin of Love. 12]). when discussing the universality of the film’s message.15 Over four years. 15. really” (John Cameron Mitchell. a 2. Said. 14. the artists’ demonstrable engagement with the speech’s larger philosophic context supports broader intertextual readings of text and film. popmatters. Retaining the original music.13 While accidental confluence may account for some of the narrative and conceptual similarities for which I shall argue below.Sypniewski 561 Hedwig with speeches in the Symposium to reveal a rich correspondence of ideas between film and dialogue. . Mitchell and Trask molded the material into a rock musical that opened on Feb.500 year old myth. they expanded Hedwig’s character and her range of experiences. par.html. he was already nurturing the creative seeds of a story that would explore the divided self through Aristophanes’ myth. rock music and aspects of musical theater to tell Hedwig’s story. as Mitchell explains: “I’d seen a stage adaptation of the entire Symposium in LA. charging him to read it and create a song based on the myth within it.12 Their debt to the Symposium for the “The Origin of Love” is well documented. n.”14 When Mitchell met Trask.. filmic and theatrical in- 12. The Context (1 September 2001). PopMatters [2001]. that’s important in every culture. This development is traced at length in the documentary (Whether You Like It or Not: The Story of Hedwig. Plato’s Symposium was seminal in Hedwig’s genesis. “Head to Hed with Hedwig.. drawing on a number of literary.F. Trask’s first song. 13. yet it is noteworthy that both artists experienced Aristophanes’ speech within the context of the whole dialogue. we had that before we had a story.thecontext. a weekly drag night at Don Hill’s in New York City.shtml 2001 [27 June 2007]). Mitchell introduces “The Origin of Love” as the song that “sums up the philosophy of how we feel about love” (as documented in Whether You Like It or Not [above. that was always the centre of it.” was the centerpiece of Mitchell’s debut as Hedwig in 1994 at Squeezebox. so it’s very personal . But this is a particularly Western myth. 2]). n. . 28. 2006]. Giersdorf explores Mahlsdorf as an embodiment of German attitudes toward homosexuality. Interview with S. During initial club performances. underscoring Mitchell’s claim that “Hedwig [is] a walking metaphor for this myth. Interview with Cynthia Fuchs (above. Aristophanes’ speech retained a central position from first drag performance to film debut. who might miss some of the lyrics in the chaotic club setting. Throughout the film. failed relationships compel 16.” The Journal of Bisexuality 5 no. “‘There Ain’t Much Difference / Between a Bridge and a Wall’: Hedwig and the Angry Inch – A Bisexual Aesthetic for Film. Said (above. On the significance of the animation in the film. 171-96. Divorced by the soldier who brought her to the US. 14). A History of the Rock Musical from Hair to Hedwig [Ann Arbor. on page 185). grasp the symbolism of the myth at the heart of the story. an autobiographical documentary on the transvestite Charlotte Von Mahlsdorf. 13).” Gay and Lesbian Quarterly 12. For example. there was all this divided gender going on – so it just came out of the themes and the setting. Plato’s dialogue continued to structure the narrative of Hedwig. and. 109-116. 12). 9. Dean. n. The summary is drawn from Whether You Like It or Not (above. A German army wife.2 [2006]. The Theater Will Rock. 17 Enmeshed with these influences. consequentially. as well as on semi-autobiographical details from Mitchell’s life.16 The character of Tommy was loosely based on Mitchell. The many literary and artistic sources for Hedwig’s persona are worthy of study in their own right. 19. on page 113. 203). an essential part of the plot (Elizabeth Wollman. MI: University of Michigan Press. n. and in the club we were developing it in. Jens R. inspired Hedwig’s character. To the same end. Emily Hubley drew a full animation sequence. 17.F. many aspects of the film’s narrative demonstrate a more serious engagement with the Symposium’s speeches.562 International Journal of the Classical Tradition / December 2008 fluences. the divided self. Hansel’s life as “an ultimate outsider” in East Germany was influenced by the 1992 film I Am My Own Woman (Ich Bin Meine Eigene Frau). 18. Trask’s real-life rock band Cheater. a graphic illustration of the song’s lyrics. identifying Hedwig as one of Mahlsdorf’s successors (“Why Does Charlotte Von Mahlsdorf Curtsy? Representations of National Queerness in a Transvestite Hero. Hedwig was named after a woman destroyed by too much honesty in Ibsen’s The Wild Duck.”18 In particular. 4 (2005). in whose trailer Mitchell played as a child. simple drawings illustrating the myth were projected behind Mitchell as he sang “The Origin of Love” to help the audience. n.”20 While Aristophanes’ etiology of love plainly shaped the way Mitchell and Trask formulated Hedwig’s initial understanding of erotic fulfillment. lowered the volume and toned down their rock style so that the audience would not miss the lyrics. playing Hedwig’s band Angry Inch. see Sharon G. Mitchell explains that even Hedwig’s failed transgender “operation came out of all these divided – Plato. 20. par. 12). son of an army commander general who headed the American forces in West Berlin. Excerpts and still images from the animation are also used to bridge the transitions between scenes throughout the film. Whether You Like It or Not (above. the divided city of Berlin.19 For the film. par. she supported herself by babysitting and prostitution. . including Socrates. in which Hedwig embodies both the union and disjunction of opposites. and Chris Platter [Princeton.21 The conclusion of Hedwig echoes Diotima’s speech through an evocative image of personal re-birth symbolizing knowledge independent of sexual and romantic attachment while shifting abstract epistemological inquiry to personal discovery. But I’ll tell 21. This personal evolution can be read as parallel to the progressive reassessment of eros in the Symposium and its culmination in the mysteries of love revealed by Diotima: love is the pursuit of beauty in all things and knowledge itself. the role of memory and recollection of past events told with a mythic tone. Daniel Selden and Ralph Hexter (New York: Routledge. apart from context.23 Apollodorus reports. 1998]. Paul A. 2004). 104-21. gave speeches on eros (172a1-173d3).” in Innovations of Antiquity. NJ: Princeton University Press. the concept. Aristodemus couldn’t remember exactly what everyone said.Sypniewski 563 Hedwig to abandon external completion for inward self-discovery and ultimate self-acceptance. see “Plato and the Erotics of Narrativity. eds. Apollodorus. On the mimetic nature of Apollodorus’ prologue. heightening desire for knowledge of the “True Nature of Eros” revealed by Socrates and Diotima (“The Myth Which Is Not One: Construction of Discourse in Plato’s Symposium. 95-126. Foucault and Classical Antiquity. It is impossible when reading the Symposium. PA: The Pennsylvania State University Press. written only in majuscule letters. Larmour. Miller. Successive speeches on the nature of love invite the reader to accept and reject these arguments in turn. weaves a complex tale for an anonymous friend while they walk down a road. whether eros refers to the god. 1992). Jeffery Carnes neatly summarizes David Halperin’s theory of Plato’s “erotics of narrativity” which posits that the Symposium cyclically creates desire in the reader through eros for knowledge about Eros. plunging the audience into the dialogue in medias res. the primary narrator. 7-20. “Of course. David H. both since there was no linguistic or orthographic way to distinguish between Eros. to determine.22 Setting the Stages From the outset. whose recollection of the symposium was framed by a journey with Socrates to and from Agathon’s. The Symposium. The events of this evening are reported within an elaborate narrative framework that begins with the answer to a question that is never reported. These he heard from Aristodemus. or perhaps more importantly. For Halperin’s fuller argument. the concept itself. the story of how he retold the events of the symposium where prominent Athenian guests. The linguistic slippage results from such ambiguity since doubleness in form is an equally important premise of Hedwig. pretends to record a description in 406 BCE of the events of the symposium held in 416 BCE to celebrate Agathon’s victory in tragedy at the City Dionysia. Hedwig and Plato’s Symposium share a conceptual framework that represents the physical journey as a metaphor for the psychological. written sometime after 385 BCE. and I myself don’t remember everything he told me. 22. eds. see Kevin Corrigan and Elena Glazov-Corrigan. 23. and eros. Plato’s Dialectic at Play (University Park.” in Rethinking Sexuality. quotation on 108). the anthropomorphic personification of the concept as a god. and the centrality of the listener or audience within both narratives.J. ”25 Accordingly. 26. Stanley Rosen. All translations are from Plato. the staid diners function as silent interlocutors 24. especially Socrates’. 1987).” Thus the song introduces vital questions: How can one determine the truth in an uncertain world? Are things (including humans) defined by their opposition to what they are not? Both questions are inextricably linked to Hedwig’s primary need to find love. Try and tear me down. or the truth. baby. translated by Alexander Nehamas and Paul Woodruff (Indianapolis. Yitzhak. a parallel to the “ladder of love” proposed by Diotima. whether you like it or not – Hedwig. the back up singer. grounded neither in time nor place. we don’t know who we are anymore. As Hedwig performs in a succession of Bilgewaters restaurants. 1989). each one closer to the real event. “heighten our sense that the Symposium is an evocation of the past. standing before you in the divide between East and West. site of her modern-day symposium. The first scene opens at a stage show by Hedwig’s band Angry Inch. the act of reading the text is a model for the message of the dialogue itself: the pursuit of knowledge is a process of uncovering layers of reported speech. and he was half-asleep anyway – but the main point was that Socrates was trying to prove to them that authors should be able to write both comedy and tragedy” (223d1-d5). top and bottom.” Hedwig struts on stage in a skimpy denim outfit. These devices are also reemphasized in the final scene of the dialogue: “Aristodemus couldn’t remember exactly what they were saying – he’d missed the first part of their discussion. destabilizing perceived reality for both internal audience of the show and external audience of the film.” which reveals that Hedwig is not a woman at all. performing for an apathetic audience of diners unprepared for the film’s opening declaration. not in an historical but in a mythical sense. Plato’s Symposium.24 The reader is thereby introduced to the highlights of the event retold through the imperfect lens of memory and the narration of speeches removed three and four times from their original utterance. man and woman. (New Haven and London: Yale University Press. flowing blond wig and exaggerated makeup. but now that it’s gone. Hedwig begins with a similarly disorienting immersion into the story with little immediate context. These many embedded layers of reported speech. 3. 25. Ladies and Gentlemen. Gorbachev. while reiterating the value of hearing and recounting the speeches on love.564 International Journal of the Classical Tradition / December 2008 you what he remembered best. tear down this wall!” . then defiantly introduces herself to the stunned crowd: “Don’t you know me? I’m the new Berlin Wall.”26 She immediately launches into an aggressive rock song. Hedwig is like that wall. Symposium. “Ladies and gentlemen. I am grateful to Wolfgang Haase for noting that the lyrics resonate with Ronald Reagan’s famous charge to Mikhail Gorbachev in front of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin. and what I consider the most important points” (178a1-5). “Tear Me Down. speaks the song’s most important lyrics: “We thought the wall would stand forever. Thus the reader is reminded at the dialogue’s end that the depiction of the symposium was entirely dependent on what Aristodemus could remember and how he reported it. 2nd ed. IN: Hackett. slavery and freedom. 12 June 1987: “Mr. Hedwig adapts the conceptual structure of the Symposium. Hedwig says. 1). 20). the Greek word for knowledge. complete. . “is on a philosophical tour to find her other half. and render her whole” (par. 161-204.html [10 April 2007]) reads Hedwig’s journey with Eve Sedgwick’s formulation of “queerness” as movement: “Queer is about being in flux. rather to the intense desire which often goes by the name of love” (“Platonic Eros and What Men Call Love. David Halperin clarifies that “by eros Plato refers not to love in the global sense in which we often intend that word but to one kind or aspect of love – or. 30. Hedwig. chosen by Hedwig. emphasizing his voracious appetite and his ability to gobble Hansel up. especially its progressive revision of the nature of eros. equally imperfect and colored by memory as the events and speeches that Apollodorus recounts.Sypniewski 565 for whom she recounts her failed transgender operation and her journey from Germany and across the US in pursuit of love. Beyond framing devices. The word eros is most frequently translated as “love” since there is no English equivalent for the type of desire the term signifies. the film plays with the story of Hansel and Gretel. and as her band shadows the tour of her former protégé Tommy Gnosis. a person who will compliment (sic). genders. Daniel M.29 Throughout the film Mitchell and Trask substitute Christian gnosis for Platonic philosophia to symbolize the individual nature of Hedwig’s quest for (self-)knowledge through erotic completion. in particular. Tommy Gnosis. just as the Symposium uses physical progression to mirror intellectual advancement toward the truth.30 In the Symposium. travel defines Hedwig’s story: her physical movement parallels psychological transformation as she moves from Germany to the US. representing the sexual initiation with a candy trail that lures Hansel through a forest of rubble to Luther. 8). it is about moving or passing across sexualities. see Marilyn B. The film alternates between the depiction of contemporary events – Hedwig’s performances and concurrent scenes of dramatic action within the film – and her recollection of the past related through on-stage soliloquies and rendered as narrative flashbacks.thefilmjournal. Luther’s menace is heightened by a long.” For further discussion of this name.28 Tommy’s stage name. On the role of female companions at the Greek symposium.27 Hedwig’s story. although autobiographic. decide to drink lightly and send away the flute girl. Skinner. “For his graduation present. 571 and n. Cunningham (“Driving into the ‘Dustless Highway’ of Queer Cinema. 2005) 97-104. In a voice over. tight shot on his mouth and gleaming teeth as he sweet-talks Hansel.” Ancient Philosophy 5 [1985]. The significance of the name is clarified within the film. “‘There Ain’t Much Difference / Between a Bridge and Wall’” (above. I gave him his name. part big bad wolf lying in wait. Finally. 29. often mythic or folkloric in quality. 31. when Hansel meets Luther.com/issue5/highway. 28. see below p. 31 Rejecting the 27. On the prevalence of folkloric elements in Hedwig. 46. is a myth of creation.” The Film Journal 5 [May 2003] http://www. symbolizes what she imparts to him and what she seeks for herself. a traditional symposiastic entertainer. desires and practices” (par. who also frequently provided sexual favors (176e4-10). see Dean. the Greek word for knowledge in Gnosticism. one version of a story heard elsewhere. Sexuality in Greek and Roman Culture (Oxford: Blackwell. suffering from the previous night’s celebration. n. part wicked witch. For example. on page 164). the guests. These past events are depicted in fantastic vignettes. On stage and in the film. suggestively expanding the traditional formulations of the male homoerotic relationship – a complex socio-political attachment that introduced elite citizen young men into Athenian cultural and political life. Hansel’s mother and Hedwig’s publicist. a former transvestite forbidden by Hedwig to dress as a woman. 11). Greek Homosexuality. Alcibiades. Hedwig. Both the context and structure of Hedwig echo several features of the Symposium although with notable innovation. Sexuality.566 International Journal of the Classical Tradition / December 2008 presence of women. The six speakers praise the origins and benefits of Eros. “Socrates the Beautiful: Role Reversal and Midwifery in Plato’s Symposium. analogous to those presented by several speakers in the dialogue. centers on a primarily “male” cast that features the all-male band Angry Inch. she plays a man who wants to dress as a woman . It disorients people and allows you to enter a world. all notably feature the incorporation and subversion of the previous speech. . 13]. With limited age-specific roles. 1991). Gender and sex boundaries were further confused in the stage performances when female actresses played Hedwig in later years of the show (Whether You Like It or Not. and two women. Phyllis Stein. “Popular Perceptions of Elite Homosexuality in Classical Athens. The men agree to spend the evening in conversation and accept Eryximachus’ challenge to “honor the god” and “give as good a speech in praise of Love as [each] is capable of giving” (177d2-5). One Hundred Years of Homosexuality (New York: Routledge. 33. following the musical. Hedwig offers a unique picture of a single-gender event. David Halperin. Yitzhak was played by the actress Miriam Shor. while the encomia of eros in the Symposium vary in length and tone. James Davidson. Courtesans and Fishcakes (New York: Harper Collins. 1991). First. The film version supplements with characters whose actions were only related by Hedwig in stage performances: Luther. 6. Hubbard. the superiority of love between men is freely expressed in a way that challenges social norms.” Transactions of the American Philological Association 130 (2000). although her true sex was never revealed to audiences. and Thomas K. it did not supplant heterosexual marriage and the production of citizen children. is echoed by the many erotic roles played by Hansel/Hedwig during different stages of his/her life. where Hedwig is disoriented too” (Interview with Cynthia Fuchs [above. Agathon and his guests emphatically delineate an allmale sphere of interaction that remains undisturbed until the physical intrusion of Alcibiades’ flute girl and the presence of Diotima via Socrates’ speech. 12). 34. Agathon and Aristodemus] to do the same. The main action of the film. implicitly and explicitly. Hansel’s first lover. Representative views in the debate on idealized and real formulations of Greek homoerotic relationships can be found in Kenneth J. a fea32. 1989)..1 (1998). 48-78. (Cambridge. played by John Cameron Mitchell in drag. n. MA: Harvard University Press.. and Society: The Enforcement of Morals in Classical Athens (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. n. and her husband Yitzhak. a range of homoerotic possibilities.” Arion 3rd ser.”34 Further. Dover. Mitchell clarifies that “she doesn’t play a transsexual. Law. on page 262. breaking down the hierarchical relation and replacing it with a kind of philosophic reciprocity. David Cohen. above. 261-285. 1997).33 More importantly.32 Yet within the all-male context of the party. Edmonds demonstrates that mutability of erotic roles is essential throughout the Symposium in which “Socrates plays the role of both lover and beloved in these relationships and compels his partners [sc. par. Radcliff G. 2nd ed. Lovers’ Legends: The Gay Greek Myths (New Rochelle. with “a sense of shame at acting shamefully. such as Aeschylus’ Myrmidons. the younger beloved. 2002). and his eromenos. More specifically.37 Hence. adopts and then rejects several versions of love.M Clark. even in the extreme case of dying for the lover. Symposium [above. I turn now to an explication of how four of these speeches and their subsequent reappraisals are reflected in many aspects of the film: Hedwig. Thus I omit the encomia of Agathon.Sypniewski 567 ture of the form that mimics the dialogue’s message: the attainment of knowledge requires scrutiny and revision. will die for a beloved (179b4). Love imparts guidance and infuses the homoerotic relationship with nobility. 12 n. who praises Socrates instead of Love. with nothing better “for a young boy than a gentle lover. see Andrew Callimarch. 56-57) notes that. or for a lover than a boy to love” (178c35). n.36 In contradiction to homoerotic norms. for Phaedrus. the eromenos gains guidance and political advantage through reputation. on Love as Beauty.17). which gives him the highest form of glory. would be held in the highest honor by the gods. 35. no one is so base that true Love could not inspire him with courage” (179a5-8). inspiring the erastes. NY: Haiduk Press. Phaedrus posits that such lovers would make an ideal army as they will act nobly and avoid cowardice at all costs. Achilles’ actions are all the more noble: a young beloved who would willingly sacrifice himself for a lover. in Phaedrus’ formulation. but rather from a position of calculated gain. is not explicitly homoerotic in Homer’s Iliad. beyond the expected conventions of the relationship. or not coming to his aid in danger – why. . 381-396. but more naturally in the lover: “And as for leaving the boy behind. see W. “Achilles and Patroclus in love: new contributions to Greek funeral ritual. Although Alcibiades’ portrait of Socrates as both lover and beloved has potential resonance in Hedwig. Here Phaedrus departs from the standard paradigm of the ancient Greek homoerotic relationship in which the younger lover is not expected to act out of love for the older lover. and a sense of pride in acting well” (178d1-2). 24]. as I will argue below. n. the homoerotic relationship mutually inspires virtue. Phaedrus stresses the primacy of Eros who leads men to virtue while bestowing the greatest goods. For a queer reception of their relationship in popular form. Stanley Rosen (Plato’s Symposium [above. other ancient sources. “Achilles and Patroclus in Love. trying on new personas in a process of constant self-revision. the older active lover. the film’s end suggests a clear break with the content of the dialogue after Socrates’ discourse.35 Hansel and Virtuous Love In the Symposium’s first speech. 25]. However. Claiming that only an erastes. and seek honor in each other’s eyes” (178e6-7).” Journal of Ancient Civilization 14 (1999). portray Achilles as the lover. Each will “hold back from all that is shameful. 19-25. The relationship between Achilles and his older friend and guardian. Eryximachus and Socrates. 101-110. Phaedrus cites Achilles’ self-sacrifice at Troy for his older lover Patroclus (179e1-a7). Pausanias. each reflecting views of eros in the speeches of Phaedrus. so powerfully influenced by love. and of Alcibiades. On homoerotic interpretations of their relationship in Homer. and Carlos Espejo Muriel.” Hermes 56 (1978). 37. Further. Patroclus. despite being younger than Patroclus (Nehamas and Woodruff. 36. ” 39. / like Erich Honecker and Helmut Kohl. in full military dress. the song concludes with a formidable image of German national identity to articulate his innate sense of power over Luther: “It’s our tradition to control. . meets Hansel’s mother over dinner. The older soldier immediately begins to make advances despite the fact that he initially mistook young Hansel for a girl. Sugar Daddy. An embodiment of eromenos’ reciprocal devotion to his erastes. the song “Sugar Daddy” outlines Hansel’s immediate perception of the relationship that offers “the thrill of control” while he beckons Luther to woo him with a fantastic assortment of Western commercial pleasures. He enumerates. Mother. see The Drag Queen Anthology: The Absolutely Fabulous but Flawless Customary World of Female Impersonators. a young man longing to be free of oppressive East Germany. they have an unusual flavor that Hansel finally identifies as “the taste of power.. Hansel declares succinctly: “He loves me. eds. the name of his mother who encourages the sacrifice of his manhood. / and every item on every page / in the Lillian Vernon catalogue. liberates Hansel from the Eastern bloc and a bleak home life. the coy prize to be won. Both men briefly enjoy reciprocity in virtue. / I want all the luxuries of the modern age. Additionally. a Cuisinart / and a hypo-allergenic dog.” Hansel’s physical and psychological feminization as Luther’s lover is marked in this scene by the wig he puts on – a visual pun on his adopted name. The next scene in the film strengthens this identification. Schacht and Lisa Underwood (Binghamton. 2004). And get me the hell out of here. 38. Hansel must first undergo a gender reassignment surgery to pass his medical exam.” Although Hansel’s material desires are flights of fancy.38 Luther’s most delicious gift is the means to escape to the US and the freedom Hansel desires.” In the next scene.568 International Journal of the Classical Tradition / December 2008 A parallel manifestation of homoerotic love is featured as a flashback in Hedwig that transports the audience to the time when Hedwig was still Hansel. Luther aligns with Phaedrus’ ideal soldier-lover: inspired by love and infused with virtue toward his beloved to aid him in any way. to marry Luther. it is justifiable and appropriate within the framework of the relationship: Luther. Sweeter and softer than their bland East German counterparts. devoted beloved. Luther Robinson while sunning naked on the rubble of a bombed church. Each man courts the other with age-appropriate behaviors according to ancient Greek norms: Luther plays the erastes in active pursuit. Luther. a metaphorical death of his masculinity. Come on. and Hansel the eromenos. For a survey of contemporary critical approaches to transvestitism and gender performance. In this way. In his first erotic encounter.39 Hansel’s sex change operation and feminized appearance. Hansel. affirming that “to be free. NY: Harrington Park Press. exemplifies the self-sacrifice that defines Phaedrus’ virtuous love. one must give up a little part of one’s self. “Whiskey and French cigarettes. idealized as the greatest good of love by Phaedrus in the first speech in the Symposium.” However. / remember him from the Ukraine to the Rhone . He wants to marry me. bring me home. / a motorbike with high-speed jets. He(a)d-wig. / a Waterpik.. Luther’s first love-gift is a bag of American Gummy Bears. co-published as Journal of Homosexuality 46. Stephen P. kills his masculine identity to become Hedwig.3/4 (2004). he willingly takes on the female identity of Hedwig. Hansel meets Sgt. a noble guardian. and not every lover will be inspired by love to act nobly (180e5-181a6). In contrast. when these two principles coincide absolutely. and only then. The scene visually emphasizes Luther’s base and callous nature: he shrugs wordlessly while Hedwig. Pausanias claims that only the love between men.” as reflected in its origins. Heavenly Aphrodite and her companion Heavenly Eros have no association with women (180d6-e2). 97) notes that “Pausanias will not allow ‘heavenly’ Eros ever to be heterosexual. particularly an older male and an older boy. Abandoned by Luther. Just as the second speech in the Symposium challenges the first. An army of Luthers would not serve any beloved honorably. where she is stranded both physically and geographically. love can take two forms. Hence. was born from the heterosexual union of Zeus and the nymph Dione. Pausanias clearly frames the virtuous homoerotic relationship as reciprocal. the next episode in Hedwig vividly depicts how easily and quickly Phaedrus’ formulation of noble homoerotic behavior can be overturned. The distinction in erotic intention that Pausanias draws may fittingly be applied to Hedwig’s story. He personifies Pausanias’ “common” sort of lover attached “to the body more than to the soul. Explaining the paradoxical Athenian custom of using attendants to shield male youths from the advances of male lovers. Only when “the lover is able to help the young man become wiser and better. and to the least intelligent partners. Kenneth Dover (ed. Aphrodite Ourania. Aphrodite Pandemia. can lead to honorable action (181c1-4). Pausanias corrects Phaedrus for his simplistic argument that did not clearly define its terms. The younger beloved reciprocates in virtue by devoting himself to the older partner and the education he imparts. Pausanias’ model of Heavenly Love is reflected in Hedwig’s next relationship within the film. is it ever honorable for a young man to accept a lover” (184e2-4). she must be attended by two distinct versions of Eros. an interest only in body rather than in soul (181b1-6). Here love is not praiseworthy in and of itself. Earthly Aphrodite. arose from the genitals of castrated Ouranos which washed ashore on Cytherea. watches a lithe new eromenos struggle to carry Luther’s luggage from the trailer. a purely male genesis. he argues that youth must be protected from the base and should not acquiesce to a suitor unless they will gain virtue (183c4-d8). A frumpy Hausfrau. stunned.Sypniewski 569 Hedwig and Heavenly Love Speaking second in the Symposium.40 He explains further that the Athenians support many types of actions that a lover performs to win a beloved while “no blame attaches to his behavior: custom treats it as noble through and through” (183b3-5). Luther abruptly jilts Hedwig in a trailer park outside an Army base in Kansas. In defining Heavenly Love. . He argues that since Aphrodite had two distinct mythic origins. 1980]. a common and base “earthly” form that seeks only sexual gratification. rather. it is qualified by the action it produces. Just one year after the failed sex-change operation. she reinvents herself as a beautiful glam-rocker with ever-changing personae that evoke different eras 40. virtuous “heavenly” love seeks honorable action (181c2-181e1). Heavenly Aphrodite. Hedwig finds new inspiration in her first passion: rock music. and the young man is eager to be taught and improved by his lover – then. Accordingly. her constant companion. since all they care about is completing the sexual act” (181b3-6). Plato: Symposium [Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. In a montage of scenes. Hedwig’s feminine exterior may give pause in a comparison with the Greek erastes. but that rule should have been disobeyed. vulgar lover. In the gnostic tradition. Hedwig adopts the role of the erastes in a new relationship with teenaged Tommy Speck. and Jesus and Eve are manifestations of that. Hedwig and Tommy are shown singing together in harmony. Hedwig ousts Tommy’s idols – Peter Frampton.44 The film further aligns Hedwig’s 41. And the overarching force was an androgynous force. So. Hedwig dedicates herself to Tommy as an educator and lover. musical abilities. Tommy questions Hedwig about Genesis. when the musical talents of pupil equal those of teacher.” while restyling Tommy in their androgynous image. but an evil force. the man whose love is bound to be inconstant.570 International Journal of the Classical Tradition / December 2008 in rock and roll history. as the knowledge-giver. their burgeoning relationship is portrayed as a delightful union of mentor and apprentice.42 In one of their initial encounters. But this too is fleeting.” with whom the lover is “prepared to share everything” and “to spend the rest of his own life with him” (181d2-5). Her tutelage transforms his appearance. the physical body remains predominantly male. 1990). Practicing the guitar assiduously while looking at the photo of the icons she has chosen. since what he . to move quickly on to someone else” (181d57). 70s “crypto-homo rockers. ones who “have begun to form minds of their own. The film’s persistent linking of music with ambiguity about gender and sexuality implies a Dionysian subtext. or eat of the apple? Why is that a bad thing? I never understood that. The scene reflects Mitchell’s own struggle with the story of Adam and Eve: “Why is God so upset that you wanted to know something. you disobeyed him. The inspired lover is interested in older boys. Finally. Embracing Eve’s desire for knowledge. exactly as Luther has done to Hedwig. Hedwig partakes of the “heavenly” love as defined by Pausanias: reciprocity of virtue between lover and beloved with each obeying “the principle appropriate to him” (184d4). It never made sense. Kansas and other hyper-masculine. Sexual Personae: Art and Decadence from Nefertiti to Emily Dickinson (New Haven: Yale University Press. who loves the body rather than the soul. Eve is connected to Jesus. On the late 60’s rock scene and Dionysus. par. and the creator god is not the overarching god. And this idea of Adam and Eve being together and separating – the separating was the problem” (Mitchell’s Interview with Cynthia Fuchs [above. 13]. In the Symposium. Pausanias contrasts the man inspired by heavenly Eros with the image of the corrupt lover. Tommy soon blossoms as a musician in an idyllic garden scene. The lover “certainly does not aim to deceive him – to take advantage of him while he is still young and inexperienced and then. 44. and his narrow construct of masculinity. Throughout the film frequent references to and jokes about Hedwig’s “angry inch” emphasize this crucial point which is unmistakable after the “drag disrobing” during Hedwig’s last stage performance. longhaired rockers – and introduces Iggy Pop. n. while her external trappings are exaggeratedly feminine. 43.”43 Responding to his biblical invitation. after exposing him to ridicule. David Bowie and Lou Reed. whom she educates in music and love. Luther’s actions embody Pausanias’ “common. which is why the world itself is flawed. however. 16). see Camille Paglia. 42. he asks Hedwig for “the apple. sharing a microphone.41 Soon after. . Yet another form of love eludes Hedwig. In the Symposium. She even christens him with the stage name. found in the Gnostic Gospels (Interview with Cynthia Fuchs [above. I leave aside his parallels between astronomy and divination introduced briefly near the speech’s conclusion. ‘he flies off and away. Hedwig effectively cultivated all aspects of Tommy’s education.” Hedwig puts his hand down her skirt as they kiss passionately. 13].” a doppelganger that has information that completes us. physically or mentally” (181e1-e3). par. 46. Plato may have framed Pausanias’ speech with arguments in keeping with his personal interests since he was well known to be Agathon’s lover (Nehamas and Woodruff. 16). Eryximachus. Frustrated by the fact that Tommy “had maintained a near perfect ignorance of [her] front. omnipresent. whose erotic role as erastes presents further perils. Within the context of the dialogue. 45. Modeling the precepts for eromenoi outlined by Pausanias. is the correspondingly ideal beloved. he pursues both his musical education and Hedwig with passion. to signify all that she teaches him. Having helped “the young man become wiser and better” (184d7-e1). “Then love the front of me. Much of the movie traces her attempts to see Tommy and gain the recognition that is her due. n. 45 This serves as a belated warning for Hedwig. Pausanias cautions lovers to be wary of young boys since it is uncertain “whether a particular boy will eventually make something of himself. nevertheless. many forms of eros described in the Symposium are reflected in the different stages of their relationship. Tommy betrays Hedwig. while she grasps for a new understanding of love.” Tommy runs. He extends this metaphor to claim “medi- loves is itself mutable and unstable. a doctor. The moment the body is no longer in bloom. Tommy Gnosis.Sypniewski 571 actions with Pausanias’ ideals in the scene where she first tells Tommy about her past. Their career and romance flourish. Tommy recoils while telling Hedwig he loves her. a form of male homosexual love not common in antiquity. Symposium [above. Mitchell chose Gnosis to evoke the idea that each person possesses an “other half. 24]. at first undeterred. Tommy and Harmonious Love Hedwig and Tommy’s failed love affair is the center of dramatic action of the rock musical and the film. this may be an attempt to justify the socially taboo homoerotic relationship between two older men. and controlling all things (186a2-b2). Tommy. to become a famous rock star while disavowing his debt to her. and that “the love manifested in health is fundamentally distinct from the love manifested in disease” (186b7-8). the artistic progeny of their relationship. Hedwig counters. Conflicted by the dissonance between his physical revulsion and emotional attachment. He steals the songs. Not surprisingly. envisions eros as a broader phenomenon. 13 n. The whistling sound of a bomb dropping set to Tommy’s stunned look underscores the impact of this revelation. 47. subsequent scenes clarify that he cannot fully reciprocate her devotion. n.’ his promises and vows in tatters behind him” (183e1-5).47 Revising Pausanias’ categories of “heavenly” and “common” eros.46 Nonetheless. including her operation. he argues that the body exhibits two varieties of Love. both in body and soul. 19). Within the third speech of the Symposium. torn t-shirt and jagged zebra-striped pants manifest her anguish and the potential toxicity of love. Her anthem. as if transformed by love into the woman she wanted to become (Whether You Like It or Not [above. with balance. Mike Potter.” and when performed basely. The practice is interrupted when a neighbor croons the refrain of “I Will Always Love You” in perfect pitch.572 International Journal of the Classical Tradition / December 2008 cine is simply the science of the effects of Love on repletion and depletion of the body” (186c5-7). Rosen explicates the deficiencies of Eryximachus’ argument as a defense of homosexual love. But then this leads us to the idea that like must be with like (and is not the harmony of opposites). music must be practiced in accordance with the heavenly form of Love. Through meticulous cosmetics she was to transcend transvestitism (that is appearing like a man playing a woman). heterosexual love would be equated with health. . “Wicked Little Town” to Tommy. resolving tonal discord. and a disco-era dress heightens her femininity. Yet this constructed facade crumbles soon after Tommy abandons her. n. Eryximachus’ physiological theory of eros is strikingly manifest in Hedwig. her makeup flawless. So either there is no natural principle of harmony or pederasty is not in keeping with medical doctrine” (Plato’s Symposium [above n. If health is equated with heterosexuality. “The medical principle he uses states that health is a harmony of opposites: hence. and her transvestitism is at a peak: her features are soft. He tries to get around this by saying that it is right to gratify the good parts of a body and wrong to gratify the bad parts. then homosexuality must be equated with disease. it is “common and vulgar” (187c4-e6). Hedwig reflects Tommy’s new image back to him. that is. and instead seem truly feminine. “Angry Inch. sought to depict visually the power of love over Hedwig’s appearance.48 She is the object of desire of the men in the audience whose gazes she holds while singing the ballad. 25] 101-102). and creating rhythmic concord (187a1-c5). Hedwig performs in yet another dreary Bilgewaters next to Tommy’s packed concert stadium.49 Consequently. Eryximachus argues that love controls even poetry and music: harmonizing opposite forces. She appears similarly feminine and beautiful in pink tank top and miniskirt when Tommy professes his love in her trailer. Building upon his thesis that love guides medicine. The harmonizing effect of love is most vividly portrayed in Hedwig during the pivotal scene between Hedwig and Tommy in her trailer. “Music is therefore simply the science of the effects of Love on rhythm and harmony. the film’s make-up artist. Moving a mirror slowly in front of half of her face. repeatedly hitting a wrong note. The film depicts the health and deterioration of Hedwig and Tommy’s love as visible effects on Hedwig’s physical appearance. an illustration of her psychological deterioration triggered by the relationship’s failure.” graphically narrates the harrowing operation that took her “six inches forward and five inches back. As Tommy practices a new song that he and Hedwig have written. 49. In the beginning stages of their affair.” Grotesque make-up in dark unnatural colors. Embittered by Tommy’s commercial success and full of rage. The camera shows how their faces merge from two distinct 48. 12]). Hedwig etches his forehead with the Gnostic cross in silver make-up. he sings the first line again and again. Hedwig performs in a donut shop. As Tommy fights frustration with his own discord. ” The lyrics reinforce the scene’s message: Hedwig has transformed Tommy. weaving themselves together . Male homoerotic relationships.” As discussed above. each half sought his or her original complement. this concept is drawn explicitly from Aristophanes’ speech in the Symposium which praises Love by clarifying its origin rather than its benefits. an intimacy for which Hedwig has longed. New Orleans. while the children of the Moon were androgyne. they would at least have the satisfaction of sexual intercourse.. and Hedwig is the agent who brings him into balance. 108-115) maintains that Aristophanes jokingly subverts traditional forms of Greek desire by creating a system that defines eros as a means to return to transgressive sexual behaviors. in that condition they would die from hunger and general idleness” (191a5-b1). the gender of which was determined by the original whole creature. Hedwig and the Other Half The visual unification of Hedwig and Tommy’s face in the mirror scene is a further depiction within the film of the idea that love is the pursuit of and reunification with the “other half. n. Out of pity.” paper presented at the annual meeting for the American Philological Association. Zeus moved their genitals around to the front of their bodies so that the androgyne would be able to reproduce. while defended against contemporary Athenian anxieties about their power to feminize. Rebecca Resinski suggests that the scene foreshadows Hedwig’s self-acceptance later in the film and that any good Hedwig sees in Tommy is but a “projected reflection of herself” (“Before and Beyond Love: Hedwig and the Angry Inch and Plato’s Symposium. and look after their other needs in life” (191c68). “but when male embraced male. all but eliminating normal heterosexual relations. an essential longing for completion that clearly favors male-male pairings while accounting for all forms of sexual preference. the children of the Earth were doubly female.. 5). . Carnes (“The Myth Which Is Not One” [above. Androgyne halves are described with an emphasis on their lecherous behavior (191d6-e2). rhetorically prominent as the third part of the tricolon. 21]. after which they could stop embracing. therefore. Aristophanes’ eros is. and alienate politically (191e6-b5). 3 January 2003. are described with an unusual equality. When the two halves would find one another..Sypniewski 573 wholes into one. Women are surprisingly given equal desire for other women (191e25). “they would throw their arms about each other. LA. 50.. After they attacked the gods. 51. with complementary halves. Feeling a great sense of longing. This race had three genders: those with two male halves descended from the Sun. Their unification in love creates a musical harmony in Tommy that he did not previously possess. corrupt. half male and half female (189d6-190b4). This moment immediately precedes the peak of Hedwig and Tommy’s love as it is portrayed in the film – a passionate kiss.51 The biologically and psychologically driven search for the other half as described by Aristophanes is the central metaphor used to structure Hedwig. four legged and with four arms – one half of its body comprised what is now a complete person. return to their jobs. Before love every human being was two faced. Zeus split them in half and ordered Apollo to turn each creature’s face and neck to the wounded side “so that each person would see that he’d been cut and keep better order” (190e4-5). 50 Tommy soon sings the line perfectly: “Look what you’ve done . For the complete lyrics. providing a visual correlative for the true nature of myth and gender – as a journey. 52.” The song appropriates Aristophanes’ myth and remains true to its presentation of love as an attempt to heal a painful separation.org/content/hedwig. almost primitive animation. physically and psychologically fragmented by surgery. never made fully female) complicates reunification with an external “other half. neither medically intersex nor transgender. “The Origin of Love. pp. see Jordy Jones. 113). Last time I saw you We had just split in two You were looking at me I was looking at you You had a way so familiar But I could not recognize ‘Cause you had blood on your face I had blood in my eyes But I could swear by your expression That the pain down in your soul Was the same as the one down in mine That’s the pain That cuts a straight line down through the heart We call it love We wrapped our arms around each other Tried to shove ourselves back together We were making love. Aristophanes’ pre-lapsarian creatures were fractured by divine will.574 International Journal of the Classical Tradition / December 2008 symbolizing Hedwig’s struggle to find love and a sense of wholeness. In this way they serve as an archetype for Hedwig. During her psychological collapse. n. 53. She interprets it as a “myth about gender flux. making love. tight camera shots of Hedwig singing “Exquisite Corpse” are splintered with shards of mirror to accentuate the lyrics: “I’m all sewn up / A hardened razor-cut / Scar map across my body / And you can trace the lines / Through Misery’s design / That map across my body / A collage / All sewn up /A montage. “Hedwig’s Six Inches: Gender Without Genitals. but not a location” (“‘There Ain’t Much Difference / Between a Bridge and a Wall’” [above. For an example of the debate.php (22 June 2007). but strips it from its larger philosophical context. Dean recognizes the importance of Aristophanes’ speech. 55.53 However. she cannot be properly gay or straight – is more than an academic issue for the queer and transgendered communities by whom she has been alternately embraced and rejected as an icon. Hedwig’s inability to be defined according to traditional categories of gender and sexual identity – neither man. .52 Threatening and powerful. fantastical and trenchant . throughout the film. Hedwig is an imperfect analog for half of the Aristophanic circle-creature. http://www.” which tells “the sad story of how we became lonely two-legged creatures.othermag. The image of the divided self reappears at the end of the film but with different resonance. and her indefinite gender (no longer fully male.” 54 This is most clearly demonstrated in the second song in the movie. see Appendix below. 20]...” Other 1 (June 2003). Sharon G. nor woman.” 54.55 Hedwig sings. a destination. rendered in humorous. 584-586. After performing “The Origin of Love. p. Although Aristophanes’ myth allows for either possibility (he or she).” . 57. it tries to make one out of two and heal the wound of human nature” (191d1-3).” American Journal of Philology 117 [1996].Sypniewski 575 Hedwig’s ballad defines love as the means to restore an essential unity. 571. while replacing Apollo with Egyptian Osiris. I am grateful to the anonymous referee for IJCT who suggested this point. In a flashback. Aristophanes’ speech constructs sexual orientation as a function of biology. Ludwig (“Politics and Eros in Aristophanes’ Speech: Symposium 191E192A and the Comedies. Tommy’s full recognition of Hedwig’s anatomical difference is critical to his acceptance of her. A boy scrawls graffiti on a wall with lipstick: “Deny me and be doomed. gathers these except for his genitals. quotation on 547) asserts that Aristophanes’ explicitly physical and sexual speech “clears away [the] high-minded distractions.” the noble and virtuous aims of love suggested by Phaedrus and Pausanias. 537-62. emphasizes the primacy of the story to Hedwig’s life as well as to her view of love as absence. Trask’s “The Origin of Love” globalizes the mythic pantheon. articulating Aristophanes’ claim that “Love is born into every human being.57 However. Osiris’ sister and consort.56 The animation sequence drives home this point as the song draws to a close. While a surprisingly close adaptation of Aristophanes’ speech. But is it a he or she? What does this person look like? Identical to me? Or somehow complementary?” Each question she asks is predicated on her own self-knowledge. To complete him for resurrection. A symbol of death and rebirth. Osiris is an ominous and appropriate addition to Hedwig’s song. W. Thus the mutilated Egyptian deity supplants the Greek god of music and healing. told by his mother.” Hedwig muses. Hedwig’s nameless sex and self-identification as a woman both expand and complicate her search for love. Nonetheless.” In a secondary parallel. Aristophanes’ myth powerfully influences the way the film presents Hedwig’s vision of eros. Hedwig’s role as Osiris’ avatar is emphasized in a later scene when she furiously reproaches Tommy for misnaming the god as “Cyrus” in his commercially successful version of the song. so that Socrates can start anew with the “true foundations of eros. which he scatters throughout Egypt. To deny Osiris is to deny Hedwig herself.” See above. suggestively connecting gender and sexual identities. while Hedwig’s erotic doctrine is more fluid. That this myth was learned as a bedtime story when Hedwig was still the young boy Hansel. she bristles at Tommy’s “near perfect ignorance of [her] front” and demands “love the front of me. which were thrown into the Nile and consumed by fish. It even brands her physically in the form of a tattoo of two interlocking faces – a yin and yang expressing the union of 56. both dialogue and film suggest that sex is the means to make this reunion of lovers possible. adding Norse Thor and “some Indian god” (who appears as Hindu Shiva in the accompanying animation). In de Iside et Osiride. she models a prosthetic version. “It is clear that I must find my other half. Paul. Isis. it calls back the halves of our original nature together. Plutarch describes how Typhoeus jealously chops his brother Osiris into pieces. and each of us must win the favors of his very own young man. but is not cognizant of the reflection or its significance. so that he can recover his original nature” (193c3-5). or the beloved. 60). 25). As David Halperin argues. its aim neither fully possible nor desirable. she sees his eyes “are the same blue” as hers. an enigmatic and powerful woman. In Phaedrus. “Why is Diotima a Woman?. The original whole must be found elsewhere. I owe this passage to Carnes. n. similarly rejects in turn.59 For Hedwig. reflected in the mirror she holds (see above. Diotima’s feminine perspective allows her to propose an innovative model of male eros which is “not hierarchical but reciprocal .. 61. Socrates demonstrates to Agathon that love cannot both possess and want something at the same time (199c3-201c9). CA: University of California Press. Laura Gibbs [Los Angeles. David Halperin. Aristophanes’ words resonate: “I say there’s just one way for the human race to flourish: we must bring love to its perfect conclusion. and ideologically by the earlier speeches which effectively excluded women’s eros. 255c-e. Next. The introduction of Diotima ruptures the ideological boundary of the evening from which women were omitted physically. she discovers that Aristophanes’ erotic doctrine is temporary. n. union with Tommy creates a similarly ill-fated result. n. Rosen notes that a dangerous form of self-abnegation underpins Aristophanes’ utopian vision of erotic unity: should halves be reunited into an original whole.60 Her authoritative presence is all the more remarkable. since Socrates clearly ascribes the true erotic doctrine of philosophical discourse to her. Plato employs the mirror in a corresponding erotic simile that explains the way a beloved.” an erotic doctrine influenced by her gender that resonates vividly in Hedwig. Plato’s Symposium (above.576 International Journal of the Classical Tradition / December 2008 complementary lovers – an external emblem of her emotional longing. half Hedwig’s. 110. he recounts how Diotima. reverted to an earlier. not acquisitive but creative. as I have argued. When she first talks with him. 130. pp. on page 128. revealed to him the true nature of love. loves but without understanding. including self-reflections. “Why is Diotima a Woman?” (above. 113-51.. and it is not the search for a missing half – formulations of love which the narrative of Hedwig’s story. 21). half Tommy’s. human nature would be lost. newly experiencing eros. Halperin. 19.58 Two pieces of the erotic puzzle are joined and. To explain the intermediary nature of Eros. 1999]) surveys ancient stories about lovers who desire an imago. 572-73).” in One Hundred Years of Homosexuality (above. Socrates demonstrates that earlier speakers misconstrued Love – it does not automatically promote virtue in the lover. 61 58. their eyes are integrated visually in one face. Maurizio Bettini (The Portrait of the Lover. “The Myth That Is Not One” (above. 60. Climbing the Ladder of Love The Symposium climaxes with Socrates’ speech and a philosophic eros that transcends physicality and strives eternally for knowledge. Rejected and swindled. 59. . n. trans. 30). barbarous state of willful self-determination. at least momentarily. The beloved sees himself reflected in his lover. Hedwig thinks that she finds this completion in Tommy. as if in a mirror. To introduce his ideas. In a later scene. Hedwig and Tommy are united through the collaborative production and performance of music. leading to procreation of children. freely traversing divine and human realms (201d10203a8). slavery and freedom. “without me right in the middle. “Tear Me Down. as if spontaneously generated by love itself. She replies that “love is immortal . As they work on a new song. and a spiritual form – conception in “wisdom and the rest of virtue” which is born in the presence of beauty (208e1-209e4). Hedwig both defies and concurrently enables traditional constructs of gender while possessing a unique ability to share in each. resonates vibrantly within the contemporary context of Hedwig. Diotima reasons that it is between all things and establishes Eros as a daimon. Born from the union of the deified personifications Poros. this can only be attained by “giving birth in beauty. A barrier and a bridge.” When Tommy jokingly questions whether this is “procreation” or “recreation. n. whether in body or in soul” (206b7-8). a mortal form of the divine immortality that Love desires (206e5-207a4).62 As the nameless middle between binary opposites. or “Resource. David Halperin argues that Plato first developed this extraordinary metaphor. 60). Socrates temporarily adopts a female voice to convey an essential part of his erotic doctrine. generative formulation of erotic desire as intellectual birth.” evocatively claiming her power as an intermediary force akin to Diotima’s Eros.Sypniewski 577 Building on the premise that Eros could not both be and desire something simultaneously.64 This creativity languishes within both as soon as they 62.. to turn “pregnancy” into a mere image of (male) spiritual labor. 64. then to disembody it once again. a symbol of division between “East and West.” and Penia. as well as its transmission through a combination of male and female personalities. Plato’s unique.” he embodies the middle ground between many antitheses: poverty and riches.” music and lyrics by Stephen Trask. just as Socrates’ male voice at once embodies and disembodies Diotima’s female presence.63 Thus. Diotima next redefines the pursuit of eros from simple acquisition to “wanting to possess the good forever” (206a11-12). perhaps because love creates something that wasn’t there before.” In the next scene “songs explode” from Hedwig and Tommy’s collaboration. Tommy asks Hedwig what she thinks love is. Hedwig tells the audience. beauty and ugliness (203b2-204c6). babe. or “Poverty. 564). you would be nothing at all. Human reproductive potential is divided between a physical pregnancy.. top and bottom” (see above. 63. “Why is Diotima a Woman?” (above. Plato’s presentation of the daimonic force of Eros as “something in the middle” suggests a powerful form of categorical indeterminacy that may have influenced the conception of Hedwig. through Diotima’s persona and her procreative metaphor for philosophical discourse. p.” Hedwig rejects specifically sexual imagery and suggests instead that love is simply “just creation. wisdom and ignorance. or spirit. By taking “an embedded habit of speech. man and woman. For humans. Hedwig’s innate creativity and affinity for music is shown in a flashback to East . The film’s opening song compares Hedwig to the Berlin Wall. a form of intellectual transvestitism in the service of philosophy.” he was first to re-embody it as “feminine” by associating it with the female person of Diotima through her extended use of gender-specific language. 138-39. as well as the play on which it is based. “Black Orpheus. “Tennessee Williams’ Suddenly Last Summer and Euripides’ Bacchae” (above. quoted in the play manuscript: “Jesus said to them. Tht. and an image in place of an image. starting out from beautiful things and using them like rising stairs: from one body to two and from two to all beautiful bodies. She explains to Socrates that physical forms of love. Hedwig not only inspires Tommy’s efflorescence. and the inside like the outside and the outside like the inside. Both formulations of the metaphor appear in Hedwig. which is learning of this very Beauty. (211c1-d1) Berlin where. 37). 270-77) observes that Plato inverts his metaphor of midwifery as the intellectual birth by a “pregnant” erastes stimulated by the beauty of the eromenos (cf. There may be further influence of Socrates’ education in midwifery by his mother on Hansel’s introduction to the mythic origin of love by his mother. NY: Overlook Press. in particular verse 22 of the Gospel of Thomas. an intellectual midwife. 66. who. Hedwig’s exaggerated feminine exterior. Hedwig’s explanation of Love to Tommy refigures the content of Diotima’s speech. and “loving boys correctly. ‘When you make the two one. but also her own creativity languishes after their separation – she writes no new songs. and Hardy Fredricksmeyer. enables other men in the dialogue to “give birth in beauty. Myth and Ritual: A Morphological Reading. 2002]. a recurring motif in the film. as well as his possession by the music.” are but steps to climb in an ascent toward a higher form of spiritual love (211b5-6). “Socrates’ presence serves as a stimulus for these youths to bring forth their own ideas. and the above like the below.”66 Diotima’s speech in the Symposium culminates in a challenge to the external pursuit of love. then from beautiful bodies to beautiful customs. the Dionysiac and classical themes in film. as young Hansel. see Siegel. Hedwig.578 International Journal of the Classical Tradition / December 2008 have separated. 11). She describes this mystery as follows: One always goes upward for the sake of this Beauty. hint at his later androgynous and daimonic persona. Hedwig allusively demonstrates a complex reflection of Diotima’s message and medium.” International Journal of the Classical Tradition 14 (2007). n. . so that the male be not male nor the female female. The film. while he uses his philosophic skills to help them with the delivery” (27172). Hedwig facilitates Tommy’s artistic creation. Hedwig and the Angry Inch. Text and Lyrics [New ed. like Socrates. and when you make eyes in place of an eye. he dances ecstatically on his and his mother’s bed to the song “Freaks. he arrives in the end at this lesson. For further explorations of sexuality. the scene between Tommy and Hedwig described above offers a synoptic view of how Diotima functions in Socrates’ speech. and the male and the female into one and the same. John Cameron Mitchell and Stephen Trask. At the same time. casts her as the wise priestess revealing the mysteries of love to Tommy’s uninitiated Socrates. and from customs to learning beautiful things. n. a foot in place of a foot. particularly its procreative metaphor for the immortality and purpose of love. 149a1-151e4). Edmonds (“Socrates the Beautiful” [above. 137-161. 65. then you will enter the kingdom’” (Translation unknown. In this way. Woodstock.65 Concurrently. 34]. so that in the end he comes to know just what it is to be beautiful. In the Symposium. a gendered guise abandoned at the film’s end. and from these lessons.” The song’s lyrics. a hand in place of a hand. also draws upon the Gnostic Gospels to addresses the distinction between and confusion of the genders. 68. 60). suggesting strongly that Diotima was a guise assumed to add emphasis to his theory of eros. the artificial means through which she fashioned her feminine identity. 126. lack of dialogue and fractured visual imagery in the scene can be read pessimistically as indicative of Hedwig’s complete nervous breakdown. in this formulation. He sings to her: Forgive me for I did not know ‘Cause I was just a boy. 69. her knowledge. Hedwig’s version is “relentlessly committed to the human realm and human experience”: her pursuit of beauty is internal. only then will he be able to give birth to true virtue. The final scenes of Hedwig.. and the disrobing of drag costume as a loss of self.. Unlike Diotima’s truth which presents beauty and knowledge as universal principles. preassigned There’s nothing you can find that cannot be found. Hedwig appears suddenly and thoroughly deconstructed as Hansel once again in a dark.. Hedwig’s intellectual transformation requires descent and devolution before she resolves the disjuncture between the two halves of her fragmented psyche – her physically masculine body and her carefully constructed female facade. before her band and audience. In a series of four scenes. She stands as a mirror image before Tommy. 50)... 60). the imagery also suggests strongly catharsis and renewal. specific to the self. Socrates abruptly concludes his own. unlike Diotima’s description of ascent ever upward towards the heavens and Platonic Forms.” Hedwig abandons the external pursuit of love in the bodies and beauty of others.68 Furthermore. “to study erotics is not merely to explore the phenomenon of sexual attraction but to inquire into the structure of reality. n.. n. potentially real or imagined. Hedwig strips herself bare of all elaborate costuming. . you were so much more Than any god could ever plan More than a woman or a man And now I understand how much I took from you . Tommy or any other “half. In the following scene. n. “Why is Diotima a Woman?” (above..Sypniewski 579 Halperin argues that. “Before and Beyond Love” (above. In the middle of a concert.. While the raucous music. echoing both the ideas and the context of the conclusion of Socrates’ speech. only a correct understanding of the nature of being will unlock the secret of our immortal longings. wig and makeup.. further comparison with the Symposium reveals how the film tailors the metaphors of the text to a journey of self-discovery. “Why is Diotima a Woman?” (above. Unfulfilled by Luther. not just images of virtue (211e1-212b1). Although there are many possible interpretations.. 6. Well maybe there’s nothing up in the sky but air And there’s no mystical desire No cosmic lover. expansive space. 148. reinforce the polyvalence of Plato’s erotic doctrine within Hedwig’s story. 67. Hedwig closes with an open ending that requires the viewer to reappraise the use of feminization as an agency of psychological growth.”67 Diotima concludes by claiming that when an individual knows the Beautiful itself. Resinski.. Halperin.. When her speech ends. 2). as the dominant erastes.69 Throughout the film. the camera follows Hansel/Hedwig’s nude body from behind.70 However. The scene is silent. Gender categorization ceases to be important: Hedwig is “so much more / than any god could ever plan / more than a woman or a man. Tommy’s sudden comprehension of the very things Hedwig has learned about love may be understood as the assimilation of his personality into hers. The film. The camera returns to Yitzhak in full drag: the wig – the emblem of femininity long denied – has magically transformed him into a beautiful. looking exactly like the young Hansel. the origins of their relationship are explained. n. then turns and walks away.. this nudity visually synthesizes the three powerful images from 70.” upstages Hedwig in a drag show in a Croatian bar. a transvestite Hedwig married after her affair with Tommy. carrying her bags. Yitzhak subserviently attempts to put the wig back on Hedwig to reconstruct her in the only way she is known to him. performing as “Krystal Nacht. confident woman. After Yitzhak. after the reconciliation scene. an internal completion rather than the Aristophanic union of halves. Their silent reconciliation serves as a metaphor for her psychological unity. Leaving Yitzhak to revel in the audience’s attention. The scene illustrates that Hedwig’s internalized gnosis can guide her actions toward others. .. vanishes. Hedwig solely enjoys sexual gratification and controls Yitzhak’s artistic and personal development by refusing to let him dress in drag and limiting his role on stage to backup singer.” Hedwig’s female persona lives through Yitzhak. Hedwig stares wordlessly into Tommy’s eyes. or perhaps the recognition that each individual has the potential to find such knowledge. Hedwig abandons her performance mid-song and stumbles naked into a dark alley that is illuminated at the far end. effectively deconstructing his feminine identity and her competition. The image may be read as an iconic negation of the premise of Aristophanes’ myth: the pursuit of external completion yields to an integrated whole found within. The tattoo on her hip of the interlocking profiles appears anew as one whole. In contradiction to the way Diotima “depleted by Socrates. singing “Midnight Radio” with her band. . but included on the DVD (above. I suggest. Hedwig also imbues the female persona with a generative power that can be assumed by more than one character. he admires Hedwig and begs to be taken to America. beyond the self.” the lyrics also eliminate “mystical desire” for a form of self-determined knowledge. Wearing the silver cross. wipes the lipstick from his mouth. Hedwig refuses and presents Yitzhak with the wig she no longer needs. Relegated to an inferior status.” the song she first sang to him. freed to begin a journey of self-discovery. acknowledges her agency in his intellectual growth. Hedwig silently removes Yitzhak’s wig. Hedwig appears on stage again.” A rejection of Aristophanes’ “cosmic lover. The image evokes Luther’s young lover departing from the trailer park in Junction City. Yitzhak scrambles along behind Hedwig. turns and walks away.580 International Journal of the Classical Tradition / December 2008 His adaptation of “Wicked Little Town. preassigned. the film’s emblem of gnosis. In scenes deleted from the film. Revelatory rather than erotic. unified face. releasing his hand from her embrace as a symbol of liberation from her domination. pointedly denies the audience the satisfaction of a physical reunion between Hedwig and Tommy as the embodiment of her gnosis. undisguised. As Rebecca Resinski has argued. Mitchell and Trask’s lyric and visual translation of Aristophanes’ speech has not gone unnoticed or unappreciated: since the early versions of the stage show.71 First. and queer studies have recognized that “Aristophanes Rocks. Conclusion In discussions of Hedwig. David Steinberg. 72. or interview observes Hedwig’s debt to .”76 The story’s dependence on Plato gained even greater attention with the film’s release in 2001. “Wigging Out: Mike Potter & Arianne Phillips Get Hedwig Ready for Her Close-up. Halperin. 73. 60). by refusing to categorize Hansel/Hedwig as either man or woman. theater. Hedwig’s slow progress through the narrow shadows toward the light. For a further application of Warnke’s theory. 42-78. identity or even memory” (“‘There Ain’t Much Difference / Between a Bridge and a Wall’” [above. 50). nudity reveals the outcome of those labors. 1996). but both – and it’s a good thing. film. see Chris Straayer. and still continues because of Hedwig’s 71.” Dean expands the scene’s interpretive range to a “liberating possibility that there are no fixed truths about gender. pop culture and mass media outlets ranging widely across music. On Hedwig’s make-up and hair as psychological armor. the film suggests that the answer to one question (What is Love?) simultaneously opens a new philosophic investigation (What is Gender?). 20]. 2001).-Dec.” The Gay and Lesbian Review (Nov.74 Mitchell corroborates this interpretation: “Hedwig walks out into the world naked and whole because she doesn’t see herself as half a man or half a woman. the end of Hedwig is a “trial balloon” of Georgia Warnke’s proposition that the removal of gender categorization may enable a richer variety of features used to define human identity. a metaphorical birthing scene. see Resinski. opens a philosophic dialogue beyond Platonic doctrine.7 (2 July 2001). gender and sexual norms.Sypniewski 581 Diotima’s speech. 115). Nearly every article. For a discussion of more traditional formulations of “temporary transvestite films” in which unmasking scenes reaffirm. 18.”73 The film’s closing scene. it reminds the audience that ontological insights have not altered the physical reality of the body.” leaving Hedwig’s gender (and how she defines it) a mystery. Steele. Finally. not challenge. 110-11. however. “Aristophanes Rocks. “Before and Beyond Love” (above. see John Calhoun. 147. “Why is Diotima a Woman?” (above. The Advocate (14 August 2001). review. It is still “something in the middle. NY: Columbia University Press. 76. depicts Diotima’s description of male spiritual labors. n.”75 And in true Socratic fashion. 7-8. Interview by Bruce C. 75. his acceptance of his nude body represents psychological growth. Deviant Eyes. Using a “bisexual aesthetic. Secondly. Hansel no longer hides behind the defense of Hedwig’s facade. Deviant Bodies: sexual re-orientation in film and video (New York. n. 50-51.” Entertainment Design 35. sexuality. n. 74.72 Thus feminine identity for Hansel/Hedwig has functioned much as Diotima for Socrates in the Symposium: a “symbolic language employed by men in order to explain themselves and their desires to one another across generations. and Wollman. who. The film has also become a popular subject of theses and dissertations. Iconoclasts and Anti-Icons” (above. And they’re all going to sit around. 82. 2007 [currently in development for Helios as “The Trouble With Icons: Recent Ideological Appropriations of Symp. Ilia T. “Sundance’s Newest Kids. and relatively little appears in print. 81-82. 81. For a representative sample. See Judith A. Hollywood and Washington. 12).77 Academia. Plato usually figures as side note. 79.” Time. 78].80 This may be due. 2006). is tripping his brains out and spinning in a circle in the driveway. Peraino. 2007).79 Given the recognizable centrality of the Symposium to the creative genesis of Hedwig and the flourishing area of film studies within Classics.”82 77. p. Christian Blood aptly notes that the “good-faith mis-reading” of Stephen Trask. 1 January 2001. but also in music and film. Listening to the Sirens: musical technologies of queer identity from Homer to Hedwig (Berkeley: University of California Press. For example. For sharing their papers with me. who employ a range of “musical technologies” to question (in her terms “queer”) sexual and gender identity. I owe a special debt of thanks to Rebecca Resinski (above. what love is. p. In contrast to Trask’s own interpretation of the work.C. see Don Shewey. 5. University of Wisconsin-Madison. “Why don’t we talk about where love comes from. 2003) to shoppers looking to buy the DVD of Hedwig. figurative bookends to a musical continuum. to Mitchell and Trask’s sometimes free-wheeling and blatantly homosexual reading of the dialogue. “Betwixt. n. and they’re all too wasted from the night before to do any more drugs or drink or party at all. although usually without much discussion. or some intersection of these. Between on a Glam Frontier.582 International Journal of the Classical Tradition / December 2008 status as a cult film. diss. Wick. Iconoclasts and Anti-Icons: Plato and His Symposium in Athens. there has been surprisingly little disciplinary interest in Plato’s larger influence on the film.” Advocate (3 March 1998).com cleverly cross-markets Christopher Gill’s translation of Plato’s Symposium (London and New York: Penguin. the openly gay lyricist for Hedwig. 80. San Diego. illustrates “how the queers – and the readers of Plato who are outside of the academy – are super-queering Plato. Whether You Like it or Not (above. n. and someone says. in part. n. Jess Cagle. For example.D. Plato. Dean argues that Mitchell reads the Symposium “through a bisexual . including. “Queer Icons. An exception is Lesher (above. Powellsbooks. 20 July 2001. n. has embraced Hedwig. Monstrous Fictions of the Human: from Frankenstein to Hedwig (Ph.” And Aristophanes tells this story that is in “The Origin of Love. Sanctifying Queerdom: Religious Identity in New Queer Cinema (M.” paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Philological Association.78 Yet even here.1.”]). 19). D.” New York Times. Stephen Holden. sec. predominantly in the fields of sexuality and queer studies. 6 Jan. Christian Blood (“Queer Icons. too. 4). 78. except for Socrates. most recently. Blood. “Split Personality. 227-230) briefly covers the use of Aristophanes’ speech in Hedwig in her study of poets and singers from Homer to Hedwig. as far as I can tell. and to H. Marcus Torres. n. 50). thesis San José State University. H. n. 126.” 81 He quotes Trask on the premise of the Symposium: All the great fag writers and thinkers in Greece were all coming to dinner with their boyfriends on their arms. E. 2006). The Theater Will Rock (above.A. Peraino (Listening to the Sirens [above. 189d-193d. 80). Where Art Thou?. deliberation on the origin of love. while understandable. dramatizing for contemporary audiences an inventive and powerful reception of the dialogue – a genderbending vision of love that transcends physicality and seeks ultimately to ascend to a form of gnosis. it evokes the various forms of eros in the speeches of the Symposium. For O Brother. 83.8 [2001]. 85). in adaptations of either historical or literary subjects. theater and film.”83 And regardless of the critical distance between source text and reception. From its inception to the film’s premiere. are beside the point. Variation and Codification. Throughout his discussion. in the broadest context. Where Art Thou?. International Journal of the Classical Tradition 15 [2008]. Mitchell and Trask’s collaboration was widely recognized for its “jaw-dropping originality” with numerous critical awards. itself an innovative.” Classical and Modern Literature 25. “The Vacillations of the Trojan Myth: Popularization and Classicization. n. n. We fear that they will bore us (philosophy).” Film Journal International 104. one way to appreciate Mitchell and Trask’s collaboration is for its unabashed and outrageous provocation of audiences to engage with a cinematic version of Greece both philosophic and erotic. but as Winkler argues. scholars’ demands for authenticity. Weinlich. and Audience Choice and Best Director awards at the Sundance Film Festival (2001) (David Noh. 20]. 86. Hartwig Heckel. a trend Gideon Nisbet maintains is driven by film consumers.”86 Whether or not we take this as the full explanation for the popularity of Rome over Athens in film. Where Art Thou?. although his book was published before the release of the popular film 300 in 2007. and ideas are much harder to sell. n. Hedwig unquestionably reinvigorates Plato’s erotic doctrine on the cutting edge of music.84 This despite Hollywood’s general preference for Rome and Roman stories. “Zurück in die Zukunft via Ithaca.Sypniewski 583 The liberties of this summary might make any Platonist wince. quotation on 113). Nisbet. even revolutionary. “Neo-Mythologism” (above.2 (2005). . see the critical review by Jon Solomon. Jon Solomon.85 Greece is “a more daunting and less enticing prospect. lens” (“‘There Ain’t Much Difference / Between a Bridge and a Wall’” [above. 385. 84. 571-589. As the film traces the physical and psychological development of Hansel/Hedwig. most recently. “Inches from Stardom. corrupt us (Greek love) – or both. Through structural parallels. Nisbet (Ancient Greece in Film and Popular Culture [Exeter. 5). “as far as cinematic recreations of times past are concerns. recent exceptions of O Brother. 112-15. and Barbara P. Ancient Greece in Film (above. Hedwig and the Angry Inch gives a modern voice to questions raised in Plato’s Symposium. see. 85. implicit thematic echoes and explicit creative reception. Winkler. 510-514) underplays the notable. Where Art Thou?’: Myth and Mythmaking in the Twenty-First Century. 43. “‘Odyssey. 89-108.” International Journal of the Classical Tradition 11 (2005/2006). Troy.” International Journal of the Classical Tradition 14 (2007). It carries the threat of ideas. 2006]. 481-553. 16-17). UK: Bristol Phoenix Press. including an OBIE for Best Off-Broadway Musical (1998). and for Troy. and Alexander (a critical and box-office failure). its nature and purpose. Mississippi: Technik und Funktion der Homer-Rezeption in O Brother. Folks roamed the earth Like big rolling kegs. part son. They had two sets of legs. Like I cut the legs off the whales And dinosaurs into lizards. They had two faces peering Out of one giant head So they could watch all around them As they talked. Said. You better let me Use my lightening. Gonna cut them right up in half. And they never knew nothing of love. It was before the origin of love.584 International Journal of the Classical Tradition / December 2008 Appendix: “The Origin of Love. Sometimes higher. part earth Part daughter. while they read. They were part sun. And the clouds made of fire. Like I killed the giants. One that looked like two men Glued up back to back. And similar in shape and girth Were the children of the earth. And the children of the moon Were like a fork shoved on a spoon. “I’m gonna kill them all With my hammer. The origin of love Now the gods grew quite scared Of our strength and defiance And Thor said.” . The origin of love And there were three sexes then. like scissors. “I’ll split them right down the middle.” And Zeus said. They had two sets of arms.” Then he grabbed up some bolts And he let out a laugh. Called the children of the sun.” music and lyrics by Stephen Trask When the earth was still flat. “No. And mountains stretched up to the sky. They looked like two girls Rolled up in one. . Such a long time ago. You were looking at me. And some Indian god Sewed the wound up into a hole. And if we don’t behave They’ll cut us down again And we’ll be hopping round on one foot And looking through one eye. To scatter us away. In a flood of wind and rain. And it ripped Right through the flesh Of the children of the sun And the moon And the earth. To wash us all away. Last time I saw you We had just split in two. That’s the pain. It was a cold dark evening. I had blood in my eyes. So we wrapped our arms around each other. Cuts a straight line Down through the heart. But I could swear by your expression That the pain down in your soul Was the same as the one down in mine. Cause you had blood on your face. Making love.Sypniewski 585 And then storm clouds gathered above Into great balls of fire And then fire shot down From the sky in bolts Like shining blades Of a knife. Pulled it round to our belly To remind us of the price we pay. But I could not recognize. And a sea of tidal waves. We were making love. You had a way so familiar. Trying to shove ourselves back together. We called it love. And Osiris and the gods of the Nile Gathered up a big storm To blow a hurricane. I was looking at you. It was the sad story How we became Lonely two-legged creatures. . That’s the origin of love. It’s the story of The origin of love.586 International Journal of the Classical Tradition / December 2008 When by the mighty hand of Jove.