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UT CC 301 - Plato's Symposium

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CC 301 1st Edition Lecture 24 Outline of Last Lecture I. Cover of plays in Ancient Grecian theater. Outline of Current Lecture II. PhaedrusIII. PausiniasIV. EryximachusV. AristophanesCurrent LecturePhaedrusPhaedrus, in customary fashion, begins his encomium to Eros, the god of Love, by explicating the prominence of his birth. Phaedrus eulogizes to a great extent, seeing that Eros is widely acknowledged as the eldest of gods (which is made evident by Hesiod and Parmenides). Only Chaos precedes him in maturity. Phaedrus suggests that by reason of Eros’ seniority, he bestows the greatest rewards to man. To his fellow partakers of intellectual revelry, Phaedrus reveals the great benefits granted to mankind by Eros. The primary gift to man is the instillation of honor. A lover’s principal intention is to give the impression of dignity and nobility to his beloved, which in essence, is distinguished as beauty. Love provokes one to live nobly as it teaches man honor and pride wherein he will attain goodness through his respectable actions. Hence, if a lover were to perpetrate appalling and dishonorable deeds and if his disgrace be learned of by hisbeloved, he would recognize the ugliness of humiliation and shame. Shame consequently propels the lover to do great and noble needs. “And I say that a lover who is detected in doing any dishonorable act, or submitting in cowardice when any dishonor is done to him by another, will be more pained at being detected by his beloved than at being seen by his father, or by his companions, or by anyone else,” (Symposium). Phaedrus also suggests that Eros implants the moral fiber of self-sacrifice into man. Thus, an army exclusively comprised of lovers and loved ones who are ashamed to display any signs of spinelessness would be indestructible, as they would more readily die than disgrace themselves in the presence of each other. Phaedrus further praises the honored men and women (Alcestis, Achilles) who have died for love and informs his companions that the gods reward them as well. PausiniasThese notes represent a detailed interpretation of the professor’s lecture. GradeBuddy is best used as a supplement to your own notes, not as a substitute.Pausanias indicates that Aphrodite, goddess of Love, exists in two antithetical forms: Heavenly Aphrodite (Ouranios), and Popular Aphrodite (Pandemos). Thus, he infers that Eros, as her progeny, is of two divergent sorts and that he must distinguish between them. Pausanius erroneously construes Popular Eros is vile since it randomly targets women and young boys for bodily pleasure, both of whom are devoid of any intellectual capacity. Heavenly Eros is favored because its devotees are firm in their quest for virtue, or teaching it to their beloved burgeoning thinkers. “Those who are inspired by this love turn to the male, and delight in him who is the more valiant and intelligent nature; and anyone may recognize the pure enthusiasts in the very character of their attachments. For they love not boys, but intelligent beings whose reason is beginning to be developed, much about the time at which their beards begin to grow,” (Symposium). Love’s significance emerges purely with respect to virtuous attainment. Lovers ought to enhanceor perfect their intellectually immature beloved whilst this beloved must be subject to acquire wisdom from their lovers. In recognition of the virtue they attain from their ripened mastermind lovers, these youngsters must sexually “make their day”, presumably succumbing themselves to anal copulation. Thus he promotes sexual pleasure provided that virtue is the force behind it. Eryximachus Eryximachus, the snobbish doctor who assumes responsibility over the party, uses his medical proficiency to manipulate his eulogy of Love. He extends Eros beyond sexual desire asserting that it encompasses all life, not only humans. He claims that the physician employs medicine, the knowledge of desire, and strives to satiate the healthy components of the body while it denies the sickly, damaging parts of any gratification that constitute Bad Eros. Thus the conflicting elements of the body, reminiscent of hot and cold, will be acquiescent. “There are in the human body these two kinds of love, which are confessedly different and unlike, and being unlike, they have loves and desires which are unlike; and the desire of the healthy is one, and the desire of the diseased another…the good and healthy elements [in the body] are to be indulged, and the bad elements and the elements of disease are not to be indulged, but discouraged,” (Symposium) Medicine, just like music, generates harmony between divergent elements (notes). The instant that concord among the bodily elements is achieved, the body is in attunement. This attunement is the product of Love. Erixymachus maintains that stability must govern over incongruent elements if there is to be Love, subsequently exemplifying the omnipotence of order. Aristophanes Aristophanes, the comic poet, reckons that Eros is a distinct uplifting force and presents apleasant and genial allegory in describing human nature and its condition with the suggestion that Love helps us to unearth our other half and that one day we may be wholly reunited. Our primordial nature was of another kind where three genders pervaded the earth: male, female, and hermaphrodite. They were exceptionally physically potent and were extreme zealots who wereblasphemous toward the gods, but Zeus did not annihilate their race. Instead of renouncing the sacrifices put forward by them, he enfeebled them by hacking them in two. The androgynous halves, one man and the other woman, were blessed with interlocking genitals that were capable of procreation. The male halves both were stumped with protruding genitals, but Zeus managed to allot another crevice on the body so that they, too, may satiate their lust, and then go on about their business. Apparently, the lesbians, or female halves, were done for; their enjoyment was overlooked. The two halves of each whole were gorged with longing as they pined for one another. Once they embraced, they basked in each other as they sought everlasting union. So Aristophanes effectively concludes that Eros is the name for desire and pursuit of wholeness


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UT CC 301 - Plato's Symposium

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