29 March 2009

The Romantic Discourse: Bacchus & Aphrodite in the Same Room


Regarding the 7 thinkers of Plato's Symposium:
Phaedrus: "Love is a mighty god" and "the source of the greatest benefits to us" (Plato 6-7).

Pausanias: "Open loves are held to be more honorable than secret ones" (Plato 10).

Eryximachus: "Love is the reconciliation of opposites" (Plato 13).

Aristophanes: "Now there were these three sexes, because the sun, moon, and earth are three; and the man was originally the child of the sun, the woman of the earth, and the man-woman of the moon, which is made up of sun and earth" (Plato 16).

Agathon: "Love is the fairest and best in himself, and the cause of what is fairest and best in all other things" (Plato 21).

Socrates: "Love is the love of the everlasting possession of the good," namely, the immortality of us and our ideas (Plato 29).

Alcibiades finally enters after what seems to have been an extended visit to the Bacchus Pub and, rather than discoursing on love, expresses his love for and attraction to Socrates (Plato 34-40).

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I am interested in Pausanias' remark that i listed above. What is a "secret love"? If a love is secret then it must not be a love at all. This was my initial reaction because I could not understand how someone who was truly in love would be fully capable of keeping it a secret. But then, I thought of Romeo and Juliet, the true star-crossed lovers. They loved each other severely, severely enough to die for each other; was their love not honorable until they both died and made their love known? I think it was honorable even in secret. Yet I do see the premise of Pausanias' comment via my initial response.

I also noted Eryximachus' note that love is the "reconciliation of opposites" (Plato 13). The connection I am about to make is patent. In this statement, Eryximachus refers to the most critical of the five conflicts of opposition, the place where drama originates - the opposition between man and woman.

I really enjoyed Aristophanes' statement of the origin of the three sexes. You always hear about Mother Earth, but never Father Sun or Androgyne Moon. I think we should start referring to the sun and the moon in this way. I suppose it might not work in the framework of our culture, but it seems only fitting.

Lastly, I was most appalled by Socrates' opening words. It should not have come as much as a surprise since this is typically my reaction to Socrates; however, it surprised me yet again. He always makes very good arguments and succeeds in making them extremely apparent to all listeners/readers, but I cringe at the way he treats others. His tone is so mocking and arrogant. He says, "Whereas I see now that the intention was to attribute to love every species of greatness and glory, whether really belonging to him or not, without regard to truth or falsehood - that was not matter; for the original proposal seems to have been not that you should praise, but only that you should appear to praise him" (Plato 23). How rude.

Also, here's another website that I found interesting. Pretty simple, but it lays it all out.

http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/classic/wilson/core/sympos.htm

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