Symposium: The Five Speeches

As a means of review for myself I’m going back to the five speeches:

Phaedrus says that Love is the oldest of all gods. He claims that “because of his antiquity, Love is the source of our greatest benefits.” This is because love is the inspiration of honor and virtue and is the spirit of self-sacrifice. (In part because a man would rather die than appear as a coward in the eyes of his beloved.)

Pausanias distinguishes between heavenly love and common love.  The object of common love is women and young boys; the object of heavenly love is young men. He advocates laws to rule the proper way to love in society. He thinks that love is neither good nor bad, but it can be used for either depending on the actions behind it.

Euryximachus is a physician. He makes the distinction the distinction of bad and good love (balance and harmony) into a cosmic principle and ergo universally applicable. He says love is everywhere and is the driving force behind everything. This definition acts as a transition from the narrow definition of love as physical desire (Phaedrus and Pausanias) to the intellectual love.  As a physician he speaks of the healthy and the ill and advises from a foundation of practice.  

Ariststophanes is a comic playwright and tells a humorous tale to frame his account of love. He defines love as the "desire and pursuit of the whole”.  He recognizes that love is a need whose satisfaction is more than physical and that love is a longing to regain a lost happiness.  

Agathon is a tragic poet who gives the party. His contribution is the admission that love's object is Beauty. He says love is the force of bringing things together. Unlike Phaedrus, he believes love is the youngest god.