Eryximachus considers this balancing not only with respect to human relationships but also in terms of the natural world.Īristophanes, a comic playwright, delivers the next speech, which looks not so much at Love’s qualities as Love’s effects. The work of the physician is to balance Love’s elements to ensure beneficial outcomes. As in Pausanias’s speech, Love can be either harmful or beneficial. The third speech is Eryximachus’s, a physician who approaches Love as omnipresent. Pausanias associates Celestial Love with the love practiced in pederastic relationships (relationships between a dominant male and a submissive male ). The second, Common form, is concerned with gratification without regard to whether it is good or bad. One is the Celestial form, which is concerned with the proper, meaning moral satisfaction of desire. Pausanias describes the two manifestations of Aphrodite, which are also evident in Love. Pausanias was known for being in a long-lasting Lover-beloved relationship with Agathon, the host and presenter of the fifth speech recounted in Symposium. Thus, his speech suggests that Love can be beneficial in the moral education of the youth of Athens. Citing numerous mythical examples, Phaedrus argues that Lovers will not want to appear cowardly before their beloveds, and when they are in love, they are possessed by Love. The first speech is that of Phaedrus (who features in other dialogues of Plato, including an eponymous one), who lauds Love for inspiring lovers to commit courageous acts. Aristodemus had not remembered all of the speeches his account featured seven, those of Phaedrus, Pausanias, Eryximachus, Aristophanes, Agathon, Socrates, and Alcibiades. Held in Athens, it was hosted by Agathon, who had won first prize in a tragic competition the day before.

Apollodorus offers to tell the story of a symposium that took place many years earlier that he himself heard from his friend Aristodemus, who had been present.

The dialogue begins mid-conversation between Apollodorus and his friends. This text refers to the 1994 Oxford World’s Classic edition translated by Robin Waterfield.

The symposium by plato