In a close reading of Symposium, we as readers get to browse through an eclectic mix of brilliant and unique minds belonging to poets, philosophers, lovers, play writes, comedians and even war heroes. Each character takes their turn in describing their own ideal of love in this casual setting and the speeches with which we are presented are clearly melded by the life, profession and personality of these speakers. Plato’s success in giving each speech its own character and personality is quite remarkable, and has a considerable effect on how we as readers paint our own mental pictures of each member of the party. While it may seem as though these differing speeches have been placed next to one another in an arbitrary manner, one might find in…
marriage. It is evident, that Athena uses her femininity to appeal to Nausica’s girlish desire for…
Now Aristophanes wrote two plays called the Ecclesiazusae and The Cloud. In these plays, he also uses the Socrates character where he tries to make Socrates look foolish in his ideas of a just political state. In the Ecclesiazusae (woman in assembly), it tells a story a story about women…
This sonnet depicts the taking and impregnating of Leda by Zeus in animal form. Simple word choice completely inverts the commonly held notion of man’s superiority over animals. The swan’s actions are portrayed with active verbs like “engenders” and “holds,” while Leda is “caressed,” “caught,” and “mastered.” She is “helpless” and “terrified,” while the swan is “great” and “indifferent.” Additionally, the words “staggering,” “shuddering,” and “loosening” shows ambiguity in Leda’s consent and ultimately portray either the power of the swan or the submission of the human. Finally, the notion of the swan’s indifference parallels the human’s indifference to animal life. The reader knows that this encounter will indirectly cause the collapse of Troy and ultimately amass to human death and destruction through the actions of Leda’s children. But the swan is either unaware or uncaring, just as the destruction of rainforests is inevitably leading to the death of entire species and ecosystems, for example. An important note, however, is the fact that Zeus is behind the swan’s actions. His “knowledge” and “power” are alluded to, which undoubtedly play a role in the dynamic between human and non-human animals and justifies this dehumanization of the…
The symposium was a formal drinking party in Greece. They were venues for playful but adversarial discussion. Having this reminded the Greeks on how civilized they were.…
Plato’s Symposium is the somewhat fictional story of a story of a philosophical gathering that Socrates attended one day with his friend Aristodemus at the house of a man named Agathon. After eating, it was suggested that all present give a eulogy to the god Eros, or Love. The speeches are given in this order: Phaedrus, Pausanias, Eryximachus, Aristophanes, Agathon, Socrates, and finally, Alcibiades. Each deliverance coincides with the others as well as offers differences in their descriptions and praise of the god.…
In Women At The Thesmophoria Aristophanes Mockery Of Effeminate Men And Of Foreigners Is As Harsh As His Mockery Of Women…
For these two articles that we read in Crito and Apology by Plato, we could know Socrates is an enduring person with imagination, because he presents us with a mass of contradictions: Most eloquent men, yet he never wrote a word; ugliest yet most profoundly attractive; ignorant yet wise; wrongfully convicted, yet unwilling to avoid his unjust execution. Behind these conundrums is a contradiction less often explored: Socrates is at once the most Athenian, most local, citizenly, and patriotic of philosophers; and yet the most self-regarding of Athenians. Exploring that contradiction, between ¡§Socrates the loyal Athenian citizen¡¨ and ¡§Socrates the philosophical critic of Athenian society,¡¨ will help to position Plato¡¦s Socrates in an Athenian legal and historical context; it allows us to reunite Socrates the literary character and Athens the democratic city that tried and executed him. Moreover, those help us to understand Plato¡¦s presentation of the strange legal and ethical drama.…
“He who knows the truth, knows the light, and he who knows it knows eternity.” (171). Saint Augustine explains throughout The Confessions the challenges he faced in search for the divinity truth. The struggles and triumphs Saint Augustine conquered at each level of the Divided Line presented in Plato’s The Republic.…
In Lysistrata, Aristophanes makes fun of women, but he also makes fun of his own sex: men. Kinesias, Myrrhine`s husband, is one of many targets of the women's sex strike. In the scene between Myrrhine and her husband, Kinesias is fooled and tricked by his wife (Episode, p.199-203). As how many of the women of Greece embody the idealized or stereotypical female, as so Kinesias represents the stereotypical, dimwitted male figure in this play. In Lysistrata, Kinesias proves himself as a foolish, poor father and woman-hater, I think. Kinesias only seeks out his wife because he has a painful erection. And also he is not able to take care of his own children. In that part of the scene where he talks to his wife he says: “Don`t you feel sorry for the baby, unwashed and unsuckled for six days now?” (lines 58-59), by that he makes her to come out for “him”. So, he is even using the little kid, in order to get what he needs. But he gets outwitted by his playful wife anyways; humor that was used here by the author, for both husband and wife, was really on point. However, the part when he shouts out: “It`s not a blanket I want – I want to fuck!” (line 122), made me feel uncomfortable: so straight forward. After, when he can`t get what he wants, he prays to Zeus saying: “…let her fall back down to earth again, and let her point of impact be this dick of mine right here” (lines 171-174). It is funny, but also really sad; all he wants is just to have sex with her. Kinesias's character confirms that Aristophanes meant Lysistrata to be a play mocking the sexual desires and attributes of both sexes.…
Throughout the course of the speech, Socrates describes love based upon an interaction with a woman named Diotima. After explaining to Socrates that good and bad and beautiful and ugly are more of a grey concept as opposed to a clear cut concept, she tells Socrates that love is a “great spirit” whose purpose is to fill the unknown space between humans and gods. Diotima then tells Socrates of the origin of Love, following Aphrodite’s birth, and how it relates to Love’s parents, the Penia, the embodiment of poverty, and Poros, the cunning and beautiful son of Metis. Additionally, she explains love as a cycle of continuous birth and death. She explains to Socrates that love is neither wise, nor ignorant which further illustrates her claim of love’s equivocalness.…
When most people think of love, they think of love between a man and woman, love between a father and son, mother and daughter, etc. Many do not think of love as a desire. However, Socrates, through his speech in Plato’s Symposium puts love in a different light. Plato’s Symposium examines the topic of love through the speeches of six men. These six men include Phaedrus, Pausanias, Eryximachus, Aristophanes, Agathon, and Socrates. When first reading this text, I was very shocked at how pederasty was somewhat socially accepted and just thought that the men were talking about erotic/sexual love. And while some were just talking about sexual love, we are able to see that love encompasses so much more…
There are many valuable life lessons hidden behind the stories of Greek Mythology. Through elaborate Greek creation stories and tales of gods and goddesses, life lessons are revealed that are still relevant in people's lives today. In her book Mythology, Edith Hamilton portrays love through Ancient Greek stories as a simple emotion that can be interpreted in many different ways. In particular, the ancient love stories of Cupid and Psyche, Pyramus and Thisbe, Ceyx and Alcyone, Baucis and Philemon, and Procne and Philomela hold a much deeper meaning of love. Their stories prove that although a simple emotion, love is so strong that no obstacle, jealousy, or even death can destroy it; love will always find a way.…
In this essay, I explicate connections between Socrates’ descriptions of himself and his role as a citizen and educator in his home city, Athens, as portrayed in Plato’s Apology. The Apology depicts the trial of Socrates, and its entirety is narrated from the point of view of Socrates. Therefore, in the account of this trial, we have a lens through which we can view Socrates’ ideologies and convictions. Additionally, because Socrates is speaking directly to a jury of five hundred and one Athenians, from this dialogue we can interpret how Socrates saw his life and purpose in relation to Athens and her people through his direct interaction with them.…
The comic poet, Aristophanes, discusses the idea that love is essential to becoming whole. This speech establishes a myth which suggests that lovers were once physically joined together. According to Aristophanes, human beings were originally spherical, with two heads that faced in opposite directions, four legs, four arms, and two sets of genitals. The god Zeus, in a rage, severed the union of lovers into two pieces. These halves of men immediately sought out their counterparts and clung to each other. In the soul of each man lies a longing for something that can never be articulated or explained. Aristophanes attempts to elucidate this with a discussion of soul mates and an individual's search for their missing half.…