Philon von Alexandria hat sich in seinem Kommentar zur Genesis (II 21 f.) zu diesem Thema geäußert. Das Werk ist nur in einer armenischen Handschrift überliefert. Die englische Übersetzung lautet:

What is the "side" which He took from the earth-born man; and why did He mould the side into a woman?
The literal sense is clear. For by a certain symbolical use of "part" it is called a half of the whole, as both man and woman, being sections of Nature, become equal in one harmony of genus which is called man. But in the figurative sense, man is a symbol of mind, and his side is a single sense-faculty. And the sense-perception of a very changeable reason is symbolized by woman.

(Philo: Questions on Genesis. Ed. by Ralph Marcus. Cambridge (Mass.)/London1953, pp. 14 sq.)