We where always told the same story growing up about how knowing it would help us in the future, how it is the rule of life. I can remember the times my mother would tell it to me every night before bed.
"There was a time when people were extremely strong, brave, and courageous creatures who even dared to threaten the Gods. They made threats to overthrow them, establish themselves as the new gods, and govern in their place. The Gods were forced to respond, and they thought about how to handle the threat posed by humanity as well as what had to be done to bring harmony and balance back into the universe. They considered eradicating all humankind, engaging in combat with them, and killing them with lightning, as they had done with the Titans. Nevertheless, if humanity disappeared, there would also be an end to human sacrifices to the Gods, which was an idea that the Gods did not find at all amusing.
Zeus therefore devised a different solution. The humans would be split in half as a form of retribution for their arrogance and conceit. They would double the human population, which would double the amount of tribute that humans would have to pay to them, in addition to the misery that would result from this. And when they did, all of the people split in half. These new creatures were wallowing in utter despair, and consumed by their suffering and anguish. They were so depressed that they didn't care if they died and went for days without drinking or eating.
Apollo, the god of music, prophecy, healing, and light, could not bear to see them in this state. In order to spare them, he stitched them back together, rebuilt their bodies, and only left the navel as a trace of their former selves. Therefore, humans evolved from being creatures with two faces and two sexes and eight limbs to beings with one face and one sex and two arms and legs. And they had an unquenchable desire for their soul and physical counterpart.
Their soul would want for their soulmate, the other half of their soul, to be whole, just as their physical nature would sense a burning need to be completed by the physical nature of the other sex. The myth further states that when these two halves come together, there will be a silent comprehension of one another, a sense of being connected and being in harmony with one another, and there will be no greater bliss than that."
To this day it echoes through my head on repeat, telling me how my life was laid out to be. But what if the story was wrong or the gods made a mistake.
What would happen then?