SYMPOSIUM Plato Author
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INTRODUCTION.Of all the works of Plato the Symposium is the most perfect in form,and may be truly thought to contain more than any commentator has everdreamed of; or, as Goethe said of on… More...
INTRODUCTION.Of all the works of Plato the Symposium is the most perfect in form,and may be truly thought to contain more than any commentator has everdreamed of; or, as Goethe said of one of his own writings, more than theauthor himself knew. For in philosophy as in prophecy glimpses of thefuture may often be conveyed in words which could hardly have beenunderstood or interpreted at the time when they were uttered (compareSymp.)--which were wiser than the writer of them meant, and could nothave been expressed by him if he had been interrogated about them.Yet Plato was not a mystic, nor in any degree affected by the Easterninfluences which afterwards overspread the Alexandrian world. He wasnot an enthusiast or a sentimentalist, but one who aspired only tosee reasoned truth, and whose thoughts are clearly explained in hislanguage. There is no foreign element either of Egypt or of Asia tobe found in his writings. And more than any other Platonic work theSymposium is Greek both in style and subject, having a beauty 'as ofa statue,' while the companion Dialogue of the Phaedrus is marked bya sort of Gothic irregularity. More too than in any other of hisDialogues, Plato is emancipated from former philosophies. The genius ofGreek art seems to triumph over the traditions of Pythagorean, Eleatic,or Megarian systems, and 'the old quarrel of poetry and philosophy' hasat least a superficial reconcilement. (Rep.)An unknown person who had heard of the discourses in praise of lovespoken by Socrates and others at the banquet of Agathon is desirous ofhaving an authentic account of them, which he thinks that he canobtain from Apollodorus, the same excitable, or rather 'mad' friend ofSocrates, who is afterwards introduced in the Phaedo. He had imaginedthat the discourses were recent. There he is mistaken: but they arestill fresh in the memory of his informant, who had just been repeatingthem to Glaucon, and is quite prepared to have another rehearsal of themin a walk from the Piraeus to Athens. Although he had not been presenthimself, he had heard them from the best authority. Aristodemus, whois described as having been in past times a humble but inseparableattendant of Socrates, had reported them to him (compare Xen. Mem.).The narrative which he had heard was as follows:--Aristodemus meeting Socrates in holiday attire, is invited by him toa banquet at the house of Agathon, who had been sacrificing inthanksgiving for his tragic victory on the day previous. But no soonerhas he entered the house than he finds that he is alone; Socrates hasstayed behind in a fit of abstraction, and does not appear until thebanquet is half over. On his appearing he and the host jest a little;the question is then asked by Pausanias, one of the guests, 'What shallthey do about drinking? as they had been all well drunk on the daybefore, and drinking on two successive days is such a bad thing.' Thisis confirmed by the authority of Eryximachus the physician, who furtherproposes that instead of listening to the flute-girl and her 'noise'they shall make speeches in honour of love, one after another, goingfrom left to right in the order in which they are reclining at thetable. All of them agree to this proposal, and Phaedrus, who isthe 'father' of the idea, which he has previously communicated toEryximachus, begins as follows:--He descants first of all upon the antiquity of love, which is proved bythe authority of the poets; secondly upon the benefits which love givesto man. The greatest of these is the sense of honour and dishonour.The lover is ashamed to be seen by the beloved doing or suffering anycowardly or mean act. And a state or army which was made up only oflovers and their loves would be invincible. For love will convert theveriest coward into an inspired hero.And there have been true loves not only of men but of women also. Suchwas the love of Alcestis, who dared to die for her husband, and inrecompense of her virtue was allowed to come again from the dead. ButOrpheus, the miserable harper, who went down to Hades alive, that hemight bring back his wife, was mocked with an apparition only, andthe gods afterwards contrived his death as the punishment of hiscowardliness. The love of Achilles, like that of Alcestis, wascourageous and true; for he was willing to avenge his lover Patroclus,although he knew that his own death would immediately follow: andthe gods, who honour the love of the beloved above that of the lover,rewarded him, and sent him to the islands of the blest. Digital Content>E-books>Religion,Inspiration>Eastern Religions>E Religion, SAP Digital >16<
