Plato's Symposium-posted for Zariyana

 Love

[ləv]

noun/verb

1. an intense feeling of deep affection
2. a great interest and pleasure in something
3. a person or thing that one loves

Love. It’s in the air, and it can be a beautiful thing. It has many different textbook definitions, but that does not stop us from creating our own theories about what it could mean. Plato’s Symposium(Symposium, by Plato) helps us in that aspect.

It is based upon dialogue between different people during a dinner at a man named Agathon’s home. In the midst of the supper, an attending guest (Eryximachus) pitches the idea that they discuss what love is to them; most people agree, and as a result, we receive philosophical text about different viewpoints of love. This text is narrated by Apollodarus, a man who was at the dinner, but did not give his own interpretation of love. 

In this blog post, we are going to unfold the different views within the Symposium. As you are reading this, I’d like for you to think about the following question: what does love mean to you?

Let’s start off with a quick, outside view of the theories of love:

https://youtu.be/aTJzL2sIjd8?si=cIV9kpM3MxtQDnWa

Now, let’s get down to business.

The first theory of love we receive is from Phaedrus. He starts his view by expressing that Love is a mighty god, and Love is the eldest god created. With this in mind, Phaedrus explains that Love causes nobleness. He further states that Love causes people to make sacrifices for the ones they love, such as risking their lives, and he mentions multiple Greek tragedy stories, including Alcestis, Achilles, and more as examples for his meaning of love.

Pausanias, on the other hand, points out that there may be two loves instead of one. He mentions that one love is common while the other is defined as heavenly, but they are both subparts of the goddess Aphrodite. He builds onto Phaedrus’s theory by stating the common Aphrodite puts out behavior for the body instead of the soul, and there is no nobility showing in these common relationships. However, the heavenly love is when one turns to selecting intelligent beings as a lifelong partner as opposed to younger people, specifically boys. 

Eryximachus agrees with the split loves, but he believes that one of these loves is targeted around animal’s bodies, and our own bodies. Eryximachus uses medicine as an example—he brings up that physician’s careers are based around the loves and desires of the body. He also believes that love requires harmony and rhythm, and when melding the two in real life, it requires a “good artist”. He concludes his views with a statement of how hot and cold seasons of love do not harm it, but they actually bring health to the relationship. 

Aristophanes further splits the “two theory” to be a theory of three. He believes there were originally three genders—he justifies this by stating the sun, moon, and earth are three. He believes the third gender, Adrogynous, originally had four arms and four legs until Zeus cut them in half, and combined them with men and women to form only two genders. Aristophane believes that the people who were added into go throughout life looking for their other half—they are in no rush to get married because they know something else is missing, and they have intense yearning until they find the one for them. 

Agathon shifts back to the theory of love being one; he believes Love is the youngest God as opposed to the eldest. Agathon theorizes the God of Love walks in soft hearts and souls, but he departs from hardened hearts and souls. Agathon also believes that the God of Love cannot suffer any wrong nor do any wrong, and he states that war Gods are no match for him, but he is a servant to Aphrodite. Finally, he believes that Love is a great poet, and he makes others poets with the touch of his hand. He backs this up by saying most artist rise to fame that have love behind their works. 

Now we come to our showstopper—Socrates. He starts off by saying he will not make the God of Love something bigger than what he views him as. Socrates then questions Agathon about his speech of love—once he gets Agathon questioning his viewpoints, he admits he once had the same views as them. His perspective changed after talking with a friend, Diotima. He reveals that he believes Love is a great spirit that is neither mortal nor immortal. Love was conceived by Plenty and Poverty—he is anything but tender and fair. Socrates believes that Love is poor like his mother, but he has hunting skills from his father. Socrates concludes with Love not being beauty itself, but it is striving towards beauty and goodness from poverty. 

            Now, I’m going to circle back to my question from before, and that is what love would mean to me. This is a complex question in itself—I can describe what love is to me, but I can not give a proper definition. My description of love is a bit cliché—it is most definitely the common phrase of “actions speak louder than words” ("Actions Speak Louder than Words" Meaning, Origin and Examples • 7ESL). If you say you love someone, but you treat them poorly, could you properly back up that you love them? I don’t mean gifting someone flowers 24/7 and showing it that way—no, I’m referencing remembering your best friend’s coffee order without being told multiple times. I mean helping your elderly grandmother with finding something on the internet because she cannot properly navigate it herself. That is what love is to me, but that does not have to be what it is to anyone else.

Thank you for reading my post. Here’s a few songs to top off the topic of love:

https://youtu.be/GB1BhWTXVjE?si=nhP8zG5T1PCHd3tn

https://youtu.be/tVi0A_E9MyQ?si=mMtB0AxWp9FJZbfK

https://youtu.be/j5iXa7bwTRE?si=tnAclMk2M0hKsCQ8