Kitabı oku: «PLATO», sayfa 6

11 Symposium

Overview: In ancient Greece a symposium was a formal drinking party. The symposium of this dialogue was held to honor Agathon who had won a prize the previous evening for a Tragedy Play he had written. All those present at the symposium had had much wine to drink the previous day, so instead of drinking Phaedrus suggested that, as Greek poets have not written much about The God of Love, each person give a speech in honor of this God. They all agree.

Phaedrus is the first to speak. He quotes many ancient legends and concludes that for true love a person would be willing to give up his or her life. Pausanias divides love into Common and Heavenly types. Common love is concerned with bodily pleasures. Heavenly love is more intellectual, being committed and directed towards the betterment of the person who is loved. Eryximachus says that wherever material gain, such as money or power is sought in exchange for love, it should be discouraged. It is only acceptable to give oneself if doing so involves spiritual betterment. Aristophanes says that initially humans were a ball with four arms and four legs, two sides and two faces. These early humans had a quarrel with Zeus who then cleaved them into two separate humans. Each half has been seeking the other half ever since. Hence we have a man and a woman or two women or two men together as lovers. Agathon says that Love is the youngest of The Gods and hates old age. The nearest that humans can come to immortality is by reproduction. A person should lead a life beholding beauty. A healthy man desires good health, but, as he already has good health, desiring it further implies that he wants to possess it forever. Socrates relates what a wise woman called Diotima told him about love. Love’s father was Resource (Poros) and mother Poverty (Penia). Love is neither mortal nor immortal; it is neither beautiful nor ugly, neither wise nor ignorant. Love is a schemer from its father’s side and needy from its mother’s side. Being mortal, love is not a God. Love is between mortal and immortal. It is a great spirit and a beholder of beauty. Love wants to possess everything forever. Love is to behold and be engulfed by beauty. Love is for spiritual uplift, but gratification of bodily pleasures is not its main attribute. This is where Plato’s concept of platonic love, love for the sake of love, is first enunciated.

A newcomer, Alcibiades, then enters the room, claiming to be very drunk. He gives a speech in praise of Socrates, who then claims that Alcibiades’ only motive for this speech was to come between Socrates and Agathon. The party ends late in the night, when most of the other guests depart, leaving only Socrates, Agathon, and Aristophanes. The latter two soon fall asleep, and as the new day begins, Socrates goes off to his usual daily activities.

The setting for this dialogue is fictitious and there is no record of a play written by anyone called Agathon. In the ancient tradition of oral history, the content of this dialogue was handed down from memory, from one person to another for several decades before it was presented by the last person. Here Plato is expressing his views through Socrates. However, Plato has put a distance between Socrates and what he says in his speech by showing that Socrates is quoting another person’s views, rather than his own. The tradition of an older man having a young boy, preferably a youth who has reached the age of understanding, under his care, comes up during this discussion. This custom was an accepted practice in ancient Greece. In practice, different cities had their own rules, but it was the norm in ancient Athens. The mentor has an obligation for the education of the youth. Any other relationship between the two is not always a necessity. It is love on a higher plain, so that neither party is a cause of shame to the other. This is called Platonic Love.

Apollodorus is walking down the street when he is stopped by a friend who says that he heard a rather garbled story about a gathering at Agathon’s house. Several speeches were delivered there to celebrate Agathon’s winning a prize, with his first tragedy. The friend would like to hear about this gathering from Apollodorus. The friend asks whether Apollodorus was there as well. Apollodorus replies that his friend must have been really confused, as he was only a child when the gathering took place. However, Apollodorus says that he heard all about this gathering from Aristodemus, who was there. Later, Aristodemus checked with Socrates who also was at the gathering and Socrates agreed with what Aristodemus remembered. The friend again asks Apollodorus to tell him about the speeches made at the gathering. Apollodorus shows a willingness to do so by saying that he enjoys talking about philosophical thoughts but dislikes business talk, which most people indulge in. The friend asks Apollodorus to stop complaining and tell him all about the gathering.

Apollodorus agrees but says that he would like to start from the beginning of the story as told by Aristodemus. Aristodemus said that one day he ran into Socrates, who was well dressed. Such attire was unusual for Socrates, and so Aristodemus asked him where he was going? Socrates replied that he was going to Agathon’s house for dinner and to continue with the previous day’s celebration of his victory party. As he was going to the house of a good-looking man, he must look his best. He added that he knew that Aristodemus was not invited but asked him to come anyway. Aristodemus agrees, and they walk together towards Agathon’s house. Agathon welcomes them at the door and says that his people could not locate Aristodemus earlier in the day to deliver an invitation. Agathon asks his slaves to serve dinner and afterwards drinks are served. The first drink is a toast to The Gods. Then the attendees sing hymns and follow the prescribed ritual. At this point, Pausanias addresses the group. He says that they all had much to drink the previous evening and are still recovering. Eryximachus and his son Acumenus concur, that they are recovering and so does Agathon. They all agree to drink in moderation. Eryximachus says that, as a physician he has always advised drinking in moderation. Phaedrus remarks that he always takes Eryximachus’ advice, even more so when he speaks as a physician. At that moment the flute-girl walks in. Phaedrus suggests that they dispense with her tonight and instead spend the night in conversation. Eryximachus says that Phaedrus was complaining to him that their poets have neglected The God of Love, even though Eros is ancient and powerful. Poets and other intellectuals have written volumes praising Heracles and Prodicus, but never a proper hymn to Love. They all then decide to spend the entire evening in honoring The God of Love. Each one of them will give the best speech he can, in praise of Love. It is decided that Phaedrus would present the first speech.

Phaedrus begins by saying that Love is a great God. This God, Eros, came into being without any parents. He quotes Hesiod and Acusilous saying that the first born God was Chaos, then came Earth and then Love. Phaedrus adds that Parmenides also relates this beginning crediting The God of Love for giving the greatest good. He adds that he cannot tell what greater good there is for a young boy than a gentle lover, or for a lover to have a boy to love. A boy needs guidance and nobody, not even his father, can give him that understanding of a sense of shame or a sense of pride, as well as a lover can. If a lover does something shameful, then it will hurt him the most to be seen by the boy he loves, more so than the reactions of his friends. Phaedrus then quotes Homer, who said that, “God breaths might.” This pronouncement, he explains, means that both the lover and the loved one would make superior fighters as they will try to impress each other with their valor. This kind of love can also be between a man and a woman. Phaedrus quotes more tales from Homer, specifically the one that relates what happened when Alcestis’ husband lay dying. Apollo offered a chance for him to live on if someone were willing to take his place in Hades. His parents were there but did not offer to take his place, but his wife, Alcestis, offered herself because she loved him so greatly. Apollo was very much impressed by this offer and gave her back her soul. However, when Orpheus went to Hades in search of his dead wife, Eurydice, he only was able to see her image, as he was not prepared to die for her as was Alcestis for her husband. Hence, The Gods punished Orpheus by having him die at the hands of women for not loving Eurydice enough. Another legend he quotes is that of Achilles, who stood up for his lover, Patroclus, even though he was warned by The Gods that if he killed Hector, then he, also would die. Despite this warning, Achilles dared to carry out his deed of homage. As a reward for this action, he was sent to the Isle of Blest. Aeschylus claims that there was no sexual involvement between the two men; besides Achilles was much the younger. In other words their relationship was pure love. In short, The Gods honor virtue most highly when it belongs to love. This conclusion is then the essence of what Phaedrus believes. Several other speakers follow Phaedrus and Aristodemus explains, that he could not remember the details of those speeches and instead proceeded to speak about the speech delivered by Pausanias.

Pausanias is the lawyer amongst them. He starts by pointing out to Phaedrus that the subject of love is not well defined. He reminds the group that there are two kinds of love, so he asks, whom are people praising when they praise Love? Love and Aphrodite are inseparable, but there are two Aphrodites. Heavenly Aphrodite, the motherless daughter of Uranus, The God of Heavens. This Aphrodite is also known as Urania. The other Aphrodite, much younger, is the daughter of Zeus and Dione. Her name is Pandemos, or Common Aphrodite.

Pausanias adds that all types of actions must be considered. No action by itself is better than another, but any action depends on how it is performed. For example, tonight there was a choice between eating and drinking or speech making. Both are acceptable, but neither is inherently better than the other. The group has chosen the latter. The same principle applies to being in love. Love itself is not worthy of praise, but rather its value depends on whether the sentiments produced are noble or not.

Pausanias continues, saying that the Common Aphrodite is truly common. This is a younger Goddess, and because she was created by both male and female parentage, she partakes in both male and female roles, only being concerned with sexual acts. Whether these acts are honorable or not is not a matter for concern. In comparison, the Heavenly Aphrodite, whose parentage was purely male, is much older and hence free from youthful lewdness. She is attracted only to males, especially older boys who have acquired intelligence and become the lovers of older men. Heavenly Aphrodite is prepared to do anything for these boys. In Greece, different cities have different rules. Some cities freely accept boys taking lovers, while other cities consider doing so a disgrace. In Athens, a lover’s desire is considered to be the noblest sentiment of all.

Pausanias concludes that in his opinion love is complex. In itself it is neither honorable nor disgraceful, but its value depends on the type of behavior it brings forth. A vile lover is one who loves only the body and not the soul. It is also vile if someone is seduced by money or power. True love helps the young man to be wiser and better. Submitting to your lover for the sake of virtue is honorable. With this pronouncement, Pausanias ends his speech.

Next is Aristophanes’ turn, but he has a bad bout of hiccups and cannot speak. Instead, he asks Eryximachus to either cure him or take his place. Eryximachus suggests some remedies but eventually decides to take over his speaking turn and delivers a speech.

Eryximachus starts by saying that he would like to further expound on the theory of two types of love as described by Pausanias. He says that he learned from the study of medicine that love is universal and occurs in humans, animals and even plants. It also exists in the domain of The Gods. In health, love manifests in different forms than in disease. He agrees with Pausanias in that it is honorable to yield to a good man but shameful to be with a debauched man. However, he thinks that, as per his medical knowledge, everything sound and healthy should be encouraged and gratified and vice-a-versa. The mark of an accomplished physician is the ability to differentiate between noble and ugly forms of love. He notes that love might be capable of curing disease. Love governs everything: medicine, music, stars, hot and cold, and wet and dry. Love has total power and is a source of much happiness. He concludes by observing that Aristophanes’ hiccups seem to have stopped and so he can now proceed with his speech.

Aristophanes opens his speech by making a few humorous remarks about the medical treatment he received from Eryximachus. Eryximachus is put off by these remarks and tells Aristophanes that he should not make jokes at the start of his speech. To this comment Aristophanes replies that he is more concerned about saying ridiculous things than about saying humorous things.

Aristophanes announces that he is going to use a very different approach to Love than that used by both Pausanias and Eryximachus. He believes that people have missed the power of The Love God because otherwise they would have built temples and alters to him. This God loves the human race more than does any other God. He stands by mankind in trouble and cures human ills. Aristophanes continues with two more points.

The first point relates to Human Nature. There are three kinds of human beings, not just male and female, but also the one in-between. In modern times this third kind of human has vanished, leaving only the name “androgynous,” a word now sometimes used as an insult.

His second point is that the shape of humans was originally round, with back and sides in circles with four arms and four legs, one head with two faces and two sets of sexual organs. This configuration is how the third kind of human being originated.

For the first type of human, the male is the offspring of the sun, while the female offspring comes from the earth. The third kind, namely the ball-shaped, was very powerful and attacked The Gods. Homer’s story about Ephialtes and Otus was about this type of human. Zeus met with other Gods to decide what to do about this third type. The Gods did not choose to destroy the entire human race, but instead cut them in half. This action diminished their power but gave the Gods twice the number of supplicants. Ever since they were cut in two in this way, each half has continued to long for its missing other half. However, as they could not find this other half, they continued to die out. Zeus took pity on them and turned their genitals around. These organs previously were on the outside of the body and so humans cast their seeds into the earth like cicadas. This practice made children from the earth and not within another human. So now, since the genitals had been turned around, when a male embraced a female he would cast his seed into her and have children. Thus now each person is looking for the “matching half”. When a split of a double male found his matching half, the other male, he would have satisfaction and resume his normal work. A split of the double female results in women who are now called, lesbians. When an androgynous double splits, the male looks for the female, resulting in what we call lecherous men and women. When a person meets his other half something wonderful happens.

There are people who have lived their entire lives together, with sex not the reason for this state. Rather, it is the deep joy of being together that joins them. If two lovers lie together, and Hephaestus, with his mending tools asks what they would like? He could weld them together so they can become one and live and die as one. No couple who receives such an offer turned it down. People used to be whole once, but now they must live the lives in pursuit of the original whole being. People must, therefore, treat The Gods with due reverence and take Love as their guide and commander.

Aristophanes interrupts his speech to remind Eryximachus not to turn his speech around. Mankind must praise the God who can give blessings; they must praise Love. He adds that he would like to hear what others have to say on this commandment? Only Agathon and Socrates are left to give their opinions. After some sparing between these two, it becomes Agathon’s turn to speak.

Agathon starts by saying that he wishes first to speak of how he should proceed. Everyone before him has spoken of the good things that come to humans from the God of Love, but none has spoken of what this God is like. Agathon thinks that all The Gods are happy and that Love is perhaps the happiest of them all, the best and most beautiful of them. First of all, he is the youngest of The Gods. He flees from old age; he hates old age. Love lives with the young. This belief contradicts Phaedrus, who believes that Love is more ancient than Cronus and Iapetus. Not only is Love the youngest, but he stays the youngest forever. He flees when he encounters a harsh character or soul. He is fluid and supple and completely enfolds the soul. With regards to Love’s moral character, he is neither the cause nor the victim of any injustice. He has a sense of moderation and power over pleasure and passion. He has power over the brave and thus is bravest of all of The Gods. Whoever has this God as a teacher will become famous. Love is man’s comrade and savior, and every man should follow him. Here he ends his speech and the audience applause.

Now it is Socrates’ turn to speak. He says that it is ridiculous for him to agree to speak on something about which he knows nothing. He now realizes, however, that to praise something or someone, it is only necessary to apply to the object the greatest qualities, whether or not that which is praised truly has them. He will speak the truth about Love but he would like to ask Agathon a few questions. He thinks that Agathon started well when he talked about the qualities and deeds of the Love God. Then he asks, whether love is the love of something or of nothing? He follows this with the question of whether love also desires the one who loves love, especially if that love already has what he desires and loves. A person desires something he needs. Someone who is tall and strong does not desire to be tall and strong as he already has these qualities. When a healthy man desires health, which he already has, it suggests that the man wants those qualities to stay with him forever. Likewise, a man wants love to stay with him in the future. To recapitulate, love is love of something. A man loves something for which he has a current desire. Socrates questions Agathon on several points, and manages to get him to contradict his own speech several times. Socrates then ceases to challenge Agathon and tells a story about love he had heard from a wise woman, called Diotima, who came from the city of Mantinea. Socrates claims that she taught him all that he knows about love. He will try to repeat what she told him.

Diotima advised Socrates using arguments similar to those that he used against Agathon, specifically that love is neither beautiful nor good. Socrates asked her then whether Love is ugly and bad? She counterquestioned him whether he thought that something that is not wise, is therefore ignorant? She said that there is something between wise and ignorant, and that is called judgment. Correct judgment has character. Some say that love can be something in between wisdom and ignorance. While all The Gods are wise and beautiful, many of them say that Love is not a God. Rather he is in between mortal and immortal and thus he is a great spirit. Gods do not mix but mingle with men and converse with them through spirits. Diotima then asked as to who Love’s parents were. She answered that herself, replying that – Love’s father is Poros (Resource) and his mother is Penia (Poverty). Thus Love is a schemer on his father’s side and needy and poor on his mother’s side. He is neither mortal nor immortal. When he gets his way he springs to life, and then dies the same day. He is between wisdom and ignorance. What Socrates now claims, is what Diotima taught him about the nature of Love. Love desires beautiful and good things, and, when they are achieved he is happy. We can say that everyone desires good things and happiness, however, Love wants to possess the good things forever. This, then, is the purpose of Love. When a man and woman come together they reproduce, which is the nearest mankind comes to immortality. Thus, Love desires immortality. In this way everything mortal is preserved. A person should lead a life that beholds this beauty. Love can not be measured against anything else; Love should behold beauty by putting a person in touch with true beauty. Love begins with love for an individual young man or woman, but goes on to love for the Form of Beauty. This type of love is ever present, never changes, never waxes or wanes; and is not relevant to beauty or ugliness. This love is just what it means to be beautiful, it is not measured against anything else. A man should behold this desire, which will place him in touch with true beauty. Socrates then ends his speech and received great applause from the gathered company.

Just then a very drunk Alcibiades walks into the room saying that he wants to crown Agathon with the wreath he has brought with him. Agathon asks Alcibiades to sit next to him on the couch. Suddenly, Alcibiades realizes that Socrates is also lying on the same couch and teases him for being next to the most handsome youth in the room. Then, following some more drunken revelry, it is agreed by all that Alcibiades will give a speech in praise of Socrates. Socrates protests that Alcibiades will mock him. Alcibiades assures him that in his drunken state he may make mistakes but that there will be no lies.

Alcibiades begins by likening Socrates to the statue of Silenus, who holds a flute in his hands. The body of this statue is hollow, with many tiny figures of Gods made of gold inside. Then Alcibiades compares Socrates to the mythic satyrs who hold flutes in their hands. Unlike them, Socrates does not need a flute to transport people; he can do it with words alone. His words have the same mesmerizing effect as that of the music from a flute. Alcibiades adds that, when he was younger, it was Socrates who pursued him, but now the roles are reversed. He relates that he invited Socrates for dinner some time back. They ate, drank, and conversed late into the night, and, as it was late, he asked Socrates to spend the night. Thus, they lay on the couch together. Alcibiades wanted to be Socrates’ lover so that he could learn all that he could from him, but Socrates suggested that Alcibiades required no further learning. Instead, Alcibiades spent the entire night with his arms round Socrates, but he was rejected as a lover. Then, years later during the war in Corinth, Socrates fought bravely, withstanding cold and hunger and, though he did not drink much, he could drink more wine than anyone else there. When Alcibiades was wounded, it was Socrates who saved his life and carried him to safety. Alcibiades enumerates several other instances when Socrates behaved bravely. The ideas and arguments of Socrates, he avers, are also like the golden statues of Silenus. First, such statues seem ridiculous and people laughed at them, but behind their surface they make more sense and are worthy of a God bursting with golden figures of virtue within. These arguments are of great importance to anyone who wants to become a truly good man. Alcibiades points out that he has praised Socrates, though he has not spared him. Socrates presents himself as a lover, but before a person realizes it, that person is in love with Socrates himself. Alcibiades warns Agathon to be careful and ends his speech.

Socrates tells Alcibiades that he is not drunk at all. His entire speech was made to get between Agathon and himself, and it is now his turn to praise Agathon. Before Socrates could start, however, Apollodorus mentions that the assembly started to drink again. Some of the guests then left for their homes, as it was late. Only Agathon, Aristophanes, and Socrates were awake and still drinking. Socrates tried to discuss how any author who could write a tragedy should be able to write a comedy as well, but during this discussion, both Agathon and Aristophanes fell asleep. Socrates was now the only one still awake. At day-break Socrates washed up and went to the Lyceum and spent the day there as usual.