Symposium - AIC

Aikaterini Lefka
Agathon 26 follows all the rhetoric rules to elaborate a praise of Eros where he is depicted as
absolutely excellent, concerning his form, his ethics and his intelligence. The benefits that god and
men enjoy from his creative action are also of supreme importance: everybody has learnt the science,
the art or the activity he likes best because of his love for this particular knowledge and therefore
because of Eros, who becomes thus the wisest of teachers. Let us remind here that the extraordinary
artistic or scientific creations open another way for humans to obtain an “immortal fame”. Eros
always seeks harmony and beauty; he installs peace and concord in the whole world, against the hard
struggles imposed by Necessity. In times of war or peace, on land or at sea, this god is the best guide,
supporter and “saviour” for us.
Socrates 27 insists also on the knowledge of the truth concerning Love and transmits to his
interlocutors the “initiation to the mysteries of Eros” that he received when he was still a young man
from the wise priestess Diotima, who was invited to Athens in order to “save” the city from the
menace of a plague 28 . Eros is presented here as a philosopher, a constant lover and seeker of beauty
and wisdom, like Socrates himself. This daimon guarantees the survival of the human race by the
desire of beautiful bodies and of procreation of physical children. He also helps us to realise the most
excellent and happy life thanks to intellectual creations due to the progressive attraction to the
knowledge of higher kinds of beauty, up to the contemplation of the Idea of the Fine itself; creations
that bring immortal glory, by making their author a better person and inciting others to start the
practice of philosophy. The eternal and absolute felicity of the soul, promised by all doctrines of
mysteries, is offered here by the salutary action of Eros.
Alcibiades 29 enters uninvited and in great fuss to the banquet, after the end of Socrates’
speech. He shall crown the philosopher, however, as the winner of the competition for the best praise
to Eros, and shall give a touching personal testimony of the philosopher’s way to behave in amorous
relations, where indeed he seems to apply the model of the “initiated” lover depicted previously: he is
virtuous (courageous at wartime, capable of saving his fellow-soldiers, moderate and just at peaceful
moments), wise and perfectly detached from any material charms. He creates enchanting speeches
that have the power to turn the listeners towards the practice of philosophy and the pursuit of virtue
and therefore eternal felicity.
Conclusions
After the close examination of the Symposium’s speeches, under the light of the salutary
characteristics of Eros, I think we may conclude that Plato accorded much more importance to this
aspect of the divinity than currently believed. The interlocutors pronounce more than praises to the
benefits of Love; they present in fact Eros soter in an original combination of traditional and new,
philosophical dimensions. If we possess the right knowledge concerning Eros, this daimon helps us to
survive (at wartime and at peace) and to lead a terrestrial existence as good and as harmonious as
possible internally and externally, in unity with our companions and with our fellow citizens, as well
as with the gods and all the other parts of the universe. Thanks to his benevolence, we may even
overcome the limits of our human condition and achieve immortality (understood in various ways:
physical childbirth or intellectual creations of eternal glory) and eternal felicity – the components of
the homoiosis theoi –. Socrates, through Diotima’s “initiation in the mysteries of Eros” offers the
summit of the philosophical interpretation of Love as our “saviour”, while Alcibiades gives evidence
of its concrete realisation.
But I think that the most important innovation of the Platonic vision of Eros is that he doesn’t
operate in the usual way of the other divine rescuers. Possessing the human soul with a “divine
madness”, as Socrates says in the Phaedrus 30 , he incites us in fact to become wise, virtuous, happy and
finally the “saviours” of ourselves and of our beloved ones. Eros offers us the possibility of becoming
responsible for our own “salvation”, but also of the help provided to other humans and thus to
“resemble the divine” in an original way: as soteres.
26 Idem, op. cit.,194 e 4-197 e 8.
27 Idem, op. cit.,198 b 1-212 c 3.
28 In the text (idem, op. cit., 201 d 3-5) Socrates supports that Diotima with her sacrifices succeeded only in delaying this
“divne punishment” (of Apollo), imposed to the city ten years later (431-430 B.C.).
29 Idem, op. cit., 215 a 4-222 b 7.
30 See idem, Phaedrus, 244 a 3-245 c 4 and 265 a 9-b 5.
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