THE SYMPOSIUM

THE SYMPOSIUM: OUTLINE 172a-178a Introductory dialogue: Apollodorus tells his unnamed rich friend what Aristodemus told him about the party. 178a-180b Phaedrus: love is the oldest god, who brings out nobility 180c-185d Pausanias: 2 loves, godly and vulgar; proper pederasty is godly 185d-189a Eryximachus: love is everywhere, reconciling opposites 189d-193e Aristophanes’ myth 194e-198a Agathon, the young beautiful writer and Sophist 199c-201c Socrates cross-examines Agathon 201d-212c Diotima’s erotic ascent to the Form of Beauty 212c-222c Alcibiades and the ambitious misunderstanding of Socratic love

INTRODUCTORY DIALOGUE Apollodorus (last seen wailing in the Phaedo [59a, 117d]) narrates, telling an unnamed rich businessman about the drinking party where Socrates and others made speeches about love. This party occurred around 15 years earlier, in celebration of Agathon’s prize-winning tragedy, in 416 BC. Apollodorus (like Plato) was a child then, so he is telling what Aristodemus (who was there) told him. Socrates bathed and put on his nice sandals, though he stopped in thought on the way and was late. Everyone is hungover, so after the dinner, the doctor Eryximachus prescribes minimal drinking, dismisses the flute girl, and proposes speeches in praise of love instead.

PHAEDRUS: THE CONVENTIONAL VIEW Love is the oldest god, who makes lovers virtuous: lovers are literally on their best behavior for their beloved. Lovers are willing to sacrifice their own self-interest for their beloved. Great heroism occurs because of love (Alcestis, Achilles).

PAUSANIAS: THE CULTURED PEDERAST There are two kinds of love: heavenly love and common love. These are two different Aphrodites. Common love is focused on sex and is indiscriminate. Heavenly love is exclusively male and focused on self- improvement. (N.b. he is Agathon’s lover.) He uses contemporary social practices as examples.

GREEK PEDERASTY “Love of boys”: a relationship between an adult man and a teen boy; during which the older man gave the boy the benefits of his knowledge and experience in the polis and the boy granted sexual favors. The relationship was seen as education and initiation. The older, active partner was the lover (erastes). The younger, passive partner was the beloved (eromenos). The relationship between the erastes and eromenos was defended as contributing to the moral and intellectual development of the youth; it was also demonized as aristocratic decadence. Such relationships usually ended when the youth grew a beard, at which point he could become an erastes.

GREEK PEDERASTY There is little evidence of homosexuality as we think of sexual orientation; the norm was more like social-climbing bisexuality. Athenian society encouraged the manly erastes to pursue boys, to court them with gifts, but nonetheless expected the boy (and his family) to resist the relationship; the youths were not expected to enjoy the sexual relation but to finally give sexual favors in return for the social, practical benefits. Pausanias’ defense of long-term same-sex relationships is atypical. Such relations were suspect because of the male passivity involved.

ERYXIMACHUS: THE SCIENTIST Takes over Aristophanes’ place because of hiccups A doctor inspired by Empedoclean medical theories, he explains love as a general force of attraction in nature. Two loves: health (harmony and balance) vs. strife

ARISTOPHANES: THE COMEDIAN Myth explains nature of love (and human condition) as longing: we lack something essential. Erotic desire is essentially about sex and isn’t one- way. The myth suggests that love is a lack (Socrates will adapt this point also).

AGATHON: THE SOPHISTIC HUMANIST Agathon parodies Sophistic (Gorgian) style, with double entendres. Praises Eros the god as a god, then his benefits to lovers. Agathon’s love is delicate, beautiful, and virtuous: very much like ….?

SOCRATES: THE PHILOSOPHER Love is love for something needed. Love desires beauty and virtue and goodness. No one wants what they already have. So love is neither virtuous nor beautiful nor good.

DIOTIMA: THE PRIESTESS Love is in between ugliness and beauty, ignorance and wisdom, poverty and resource, mortal and immortal. (Cf. the theory of recollection: see 208a.) Who does the description in 203d-e resemble (see 204b)? The object of love is to possess the good forever (206a), by giving birth in beauty—a kind of immortality must be desired to keep the good forever (206e-207a). (How is this related to the immortality in the Phaedo?) Everyone is pregnant in body and in soul (208e-209e).

PLATONIC LOVE ( 210 A B ) The ascent begins by loving one beautiful body. It grows into love for all beautiful bodies and ideas. This leads to love for the beauty of souls: begetting ideas and customs to improve society. Love of the mind leads to the beauty of a sea of knowledge. 210e Suddenly, you will catch sight of something beautiful in itself: the eternal and pure Form of Beauty (211a-e).

ALCIBIADES: THE POLITICIAN Alcibiades is around 34, about to embark on the greatest phase of his notorious political-military career. He will propose (but be prevented from leading) the Silician Expedition that results in Athens’ first terrible defeat. He will betray Athens for Sparta, then for Persia, and then return to Athens before finally fleeing to Asia Minor.

ALCIBIADES Drunk and barely standing, he promptly drains two quarts of wine. His speech is in praise of Socrates, not love. He compares Socrates to Silenus and Marsyas, and to their nesting statues.

ALCIBIADES ON SOCRATES Socrates makes the incredibly successful Alcibiades ashamed of the shallowness of his life (216a). Socrates seems to pursue beautiful boys as a lover (216e), but instead the boys end up loving and pursuing him (222b). When Alcibiades offers Socrates the usual exchange, physical love for wisdom, Socrates rejects it because he would get the worse part of the bargain (218e). Socrates is superhumanly tough and fearless (219d-221c). His bizarre nature is unique and daimonic, bursting with virtue (221c-222a).