Phaedrus: Love is a god – the first of the gods.
Love is an incentive to do daring deeds.
Pausanius: Love is not one god but two;
The older and the younger Aphrodite:
The younger Aphrodite represents common love.
Or love of the body while the older one
Represents love of the soul.
Pausanius upheld male loves.
Vulgar love or love of the body is evil.
Love of the soul is everlasting.
Aristophanes was supposed to speak next but
had the hiccoughs so Eryximachus spoke in his turn.
Eryximachus: double love not only in humans but in
all productions of earth: plants, animals, birds.
Two loves: love of the healthy
Love of the diseased
The two loves are disharmonious.
Love is the harmony of man
Within himself; body and soul.
Together and with all things on
Heaven and earth with one another.
Aristophanes: the origins of the sexes;
Four arms, four legs, etc. then split.
Man cannot exist in isolation.
Love is the mediator of the divided human nature.
Earthly loves are an anticipation of a union not yet realized.
Pursuit of the whole is called love.
Agathon: the tragic poet
The distinctions between love and works of love.
Introduces love as being always the love of beauty.
Phaedus: love is stronger than death.
Pausanius: true love is akin to intellect and political activity.
Eryximashus: love is a universal phenomena and the great power of nature.
Aristophanes: love is the child of want.
Agathon: love is of beauty.
Socrates: can only speak the truth.
Diotima: love is not a god, but a spirit.
Love is a mean between gods and men.
Knowledge and ignorance, fair and foul.
Love is unpredictable.
Steps up the Ladder
Ladder of love: has to do with beauty and immortality
First love one fine (Body),
then love many fine (Bodies),
proceeding from the Body to the Mind (fine Soul),
beauty of Laws and Customs/Institutions,
beauty of the Sciences,
then the Ultimate Unchanging Beauty (the wide sea of the Fine or Beautiful)
The Fine/Beautiful Itself
Lesser mysteries: search for immortality; procreation
Earthly loves – seeking immorality through children
or creative work (genius)
Greater mysteries: the love of beauty in its highest, unchanging form.
| Last Updated: 10/19/22 |