Symposion

The Symposium by Plato

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This is Plato's classic exploration of the theme of love.

As everyone should know, a symposium was a Greek dinner party. The guests reclined on couches around a table and ate and drank and enjoyed witty Greek conversation, which, if this narrative is any indication, consisted of talking about the mysteries of the highest form of love, i.e. the love of young boys.

The narrative set-up for Plato is that this is the second night of drinking and gabbing, and everyone is a bit hung-over. So, to temper their drinking, the guests agree to give a speech about love - or about the god of love.

The speeches are, well, interesting, although to a bourgeoisie 21st century American - not a bad thing to be - the pedophilia angle is weird on so many different levels. These Greek men talk about their boys as teasing and torturing and befuddling them. What the heck, their love interests are 14 years old! How much could they really have in common?

Nonetheless, we do get a speech or two that praises boy-love as the highest and best, which is just strange from the standpoint of these are children. Again, how much could these men have in common with the boys? One gets the feeling that equality was not what the Athenians were looking for in love.

There is also the interesting story told by Aristophanes about how humans were once a compound creature with four arms, four legs, two faces, etc., that was split apart by Zeus to temper their industry in overthrowing the gods. Ever since that time, everyone has been looking for someone else to complete themselves. If their form was originally two females glued together, they became lesbians; two males glued together became homosexual, and the inferior types who were male and female stuck together became heterosexuals reduced to breeding the next generation like sniff animals.

Socrates' speech, therefore, comes as something at variance from this He-man, no girls in our club, drinking party. First, Socrates' speech involves his own education at the hands of a wise woman, Diotima. What??? A woman - previously described as fit only to make babies for the superior male species? Why, yes, a woman. We have to think that may be an example of Plato (or Socrates) being transgressive.

Another feature of Socrates' speech is how it is fixated on reproduction, pregnancy, and fecundity. Love is a poor and middling kind of spirit. Not really a deity at all. Love is the offspring of Poria, son of Metis, the shapechanger, and the goddess of poverty, Penuria. Thus, love is needy. Love, therefore, desires what he does not have and what he most of all desires is the good. This is quite a come-down from Agathon's speech which had Love the most powerful of all the gods.

The greatest desire that people have is the good for all time, which means that people desire immortality. Some obtain immortality through children, while others achieve it through being remembered. This is achieved by creating things. Hence, love is inherently fecund.

I think Plato may have been transgressive in this theme. Compare the theme of fecundity with the sterility of boy love. As I pointed out, was it even possible to have a good conversation with a boy (albeit insofar as the older man took on the position of mentor, that person could have been shaping a kind of heir for the future.)

Then, Alcibiades comes in and is persuaded to give a speech in praise of Socrates. Socrates is praised for not getting drunk and being a tough warrior. He is also known for annoying people with his continual arguments and for not having a homosexual/pedophilic interest in the young boys of Athens. Is this perhaps a clue confirming that his description of love as fecund was part of the real Socratic agenda?

Don't know. The narrative makes for a fun and interesting read. There are a lot of jabs and insults at the party-goers that seem like they could have been taken from real life. This is not to say that the narrative is not without its difficulties, but the experience is a lot like the college bull sessions you may have enjoyed back in the day, only at a higher level.

That moment when you read a book and think, “no wonder its been around for thousands of years.”

Fair play, Plato.

I used to think philosophers were dull people, and that reading Plato was for dry academics. Talk about prejudice!

Drinking and revelling only moderated mildly by serious discussion about love.

A pure delight to read!