Symposium - AIC

David T. Runia
transported to the isles of the blessed. The gods honour excellence all the more when it belongs to and
is inspired by love. The final words of the speech could not be more emphatic (180b6–8): 6 ‘Therefore
I say that Erôs is the most ancient of gods, the most honoured and the most powerful in helping men
gain aretê and eudaimonia, whether they are alive or have passed away.’
The next speaker, Pausanias, develops the theme of the excellence inspired by love further.
Love in itself neither honourable nor shameful. Its nature depends entirely on the deeds to which it
leads (183d4–6). Common love is attached to the body rather than the soul and its outcome is
predictably vulgar (181b, 183e). How different is the higher form of love which looks to the soul. Not
only does it lead to aretê, but also, Pausanias suggests, to a love of wisdom (philosophia) (184c3–d1).
Only in this case is it permitted for a young man to take a lover, when the lover is able to make the
young man better and wiser, and when the young man is eager to be taught and improved by the lover
(184d7–e5). The speech ends with praise of heavenly love, which compels the lover and the beloved
to focus all their efforts on the pursuit of aretê, in marked contrast to what happens in the case of
vulgar love (185b5–c2). The theme of eudaimonia and the good life is not utilized here. It is perhaps
implicit in the earlier mention of the ‘love of wisdom’, but not made explicit. As Frisbee Sheffield has
noted, what needs clarification here is the nature of the above-mentioned wisdom and how it is to be
achieved. 7
The next speaker is the physician Eryximachus and his opening words, directed at the
previous speaker Pausanias, are of immediate interest for our theme. Literally he says that ‘as
Pausanias started off well in his logos but did not complete (apetelese) it well, I must attempt to place
a telos on his logos’ (185e7–186a2). The term logos gives rise to the usual difficulties. Should we
translate ‘argument’ with Reeve and most scholars, or ‘theme’ with Rowe? Or are other translations
such as ‘account’ or even ‘speech’ also possible? We recall the text in the Timaeus discussed at the
outset where telos is the ‘end of an account’. It would certainly be going too far to argue that
Eryximachus is alluding to the fact that his predecessor’s speech did not end with the theme of
eudaimonia and the good life, but that might be taken as at least part of what was missing. The
comment also indicates to us the importance of ending an argument or a speech in the appropriate
way.
So what does Eryximachus say himself? As befits a physician, he focuses on the role of love
in various sciences, although oddly less in medicine than in music, mantic and astronomy. The two
kinds of love identified by Pausanias can be seen in all the phenomena studied by these sciences.
When permeated by the higher kind of love, harmony, health and goodness result, while the other
kind brings on injustice and destruction (188a3–9). Like Phaedrus, Eryximachus emphasizes the
power of Erôs. In fact this theme introduces the climax of his speech, just a few words before its end: 8
‘So much and so great is the power that Erôs has; or rather Erôs taken together as a whole has all
power, but it is the one that is brought about (apoteloumenos) with moderation and justice in relation
to those things that are good, both among us and among the gods, who has the greatest power,
providing us with all eudaimonia, enabling us to associate and be friends both with each other and
with the gods, who are superior to us.’ Here too, as we saw in Phaedrus’ case, the speech ends with
the themes of power, excellence and eudaimonia, to which is added the rich motif of ‘friendship with
god’, another key aspect of what is regarded as constituting the good life that is the goal of human
existence.
Aristophanes now takes over from Eryximachus and, although the comic poet’s speech has a
quite different approach from that of the physician, he does start off with the same theme of Erôs’s
power and the god’s ability to heal human ills and provide the human race with eudaimonia (189c4–
d2). But in order to understand this, Aristophanes says, we need to know the ‘nature of human beings
and what happens to them’ (189d5–6), and so he goes on to tell his famous story of the originally
unified creatures that are now in a divided state. There is only one way for the human race to flourish
(i.e. be eudaimôn), Aristophanes claims as he comes to the end of his speech: we must bring erôs to
its conclusion (ektelesaimen) and return to our original nature (193c3–5). Hence we must praise Erôs,
for ‘he promises the greatest hope of all: if we treat the gods with due reverence, he will restore to us
our original nature, and by healing us, he will make us blessed and eudaimones.’
These are the climactic words of Aristophanes’ speech. Even more emphatically than previous
speakers, he ends with the theme of the blessed state of eudaimonia, the good life for human beings.
The ‘original nature’ (archaia phusis) is of course our state before we were divided. But it is
fascinating to note that in the Timaeus passage discussed at the outset of our paper the phrase returns
6
For the most part I use the translation Nehemas and Woodruff (1997), though I modify it when required.
7
Sheffield (2006) 25.
8
Using Rowe’s more literal version here.
28