The Accounts Of Eros In The

“Symposium” Essay, Research Paper

The Accounts of Eros in the “Symposium”

The word love carries with it many, many different interpretations. In modern

day, our views on what is appropriate love is much different from the views from

the time of Socrates and Plato. To them love was eros, a direct translation of

the word love.

However, the word itself wasn’t the only thing that was different about love. In

Plato’s “Symposium”, there is a celebration for Agathon. He had just won a

dramatic contest in Athens, Greece two nights ago. It is customary to drink much

wine at these gatherings, however, every one present is too weak from the night

before. (Nehamas & Woodruff, pg. xiii) So a proposition is made, by Phaedrus, to

properly give praise to the god Eros, and speak on the topic of love. It was

their opinion that no poet has yet been able to properly do so. (Nehamas &

Woodruff, pg. 7) There were a total of seven accounts given in praise of eros,

by seven different people who are present at the party. Of these accounts, the

one that made the most sense was the speech of Socrates when he quotes Diotima.

This account is practical, and shows love not as a heavenly creature, but as a

mortal being, where we can interact with him. It also has answers that most of

the other accounts could not even question. This is what stands the speechof

Socrates and Diotima apart from most of the others. But, there were two other

speeches that were also impressive and brought about points that Socrates did

not make. These accounts were given by Aristophanes and Agathon. Through these

three speeches, we can get a good picture of what eros is. Starting with the

most complete account: Socrates and Diotima; and moving through Aristophanes and

then Agathon, this paper will show why these accounts are superior, and why

Socrates’ makes the most sense.

After Agathon’s speech, it was Socrates’ turn to present his account of eros.

But before he does, he tells Agathon that his speech was marvelous and that at

one time, Socrates also believed in what Agathon believed. That was until a

women named Diotima taught him the real truth in eros. It is however, believed,

that Socrates made up the character of Diotima, the reason, though, is unknown.

In spite of this, Socrates gives a remarkable speech that is truly complete. One

of the first misconceptions among all the speakers was the age of the god Love.

Many believed him to the oldest of the gods, thus making him ancient. Diotima

knows this is not true. She speaks of the way Love was conceived, a clever

scheme by a god to escape her misfortunes. It seems the goddess of poverty,

Penia laid down beside Poros and became pregnant with Love (Nehamas & Woodruff,

pg.48) This makes Love unique. Love is good, though, because he is a lover of

wisdom, that is, he pursues the notion of philosophy. But, he is in between

wisdom and ignorance (Nehamas & Woodruff, pg. 49), according to Diotima, which

is much different an account from the other speakers. Phaedrus had placed Love

at the top of all gods, describing ways in which Love “breathes might into some

of the heroes,” (Nehamas & Woodruff, pg. 10). This is untrue. However, Diotima

speaks of ways in which love helps human beings. This happens when the love for

things like sports or poetry helps a person create something from nothing. Love

is a word used to describe the whole, where there are special parts of love used

to describe specific passions and possessions. (Nehamas & Woodruff, pg. 51). And

love is wanting to posses the good forever (Nehamas & Woodruff, pg. 52) Finally

we see the main points in Diotima’s argument when she accurately describes the

real purpose of love. It is almost like a natural instinct. All animals,

including humans, have a need to reproduce. The real purpose in love is giving

birth in beauty, whether in body or soul (Nehamas & Woodruff, pg.53). This means

that the pregnant person causes the baby, or new born idea if the birth resulted

from the soul, to be beautiful because all new borns are beautiful and this is

as close as a mortal may get to immortality. By producing offspring, the human

being continues life forever. By this, we see what it is that love wants as well.

And that is reproduction and birth in beauty (Nehamas & Woodruff, pg. 53) to

continue the love, and retain possessions that have been acquired through the

good.

Diotima had briefly referred to aspects in her story that closely resembled the

account of Aristophanes. Aristophanes also gave a vivid account that had brought

up arguments that were very interesting. They were somewhat different from

Diotima’s, but nonetheless, they were good.

Aristophanes believed in human nature. No one else had spoke of this. To

Aristophanes, there were three kinds of human beings. To the others, there were

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