ifices in men and women who cannot bear to have a lover view them poorly. As he asserts, ôFor what lover would not choose rather to be seen by all mankind than by his beloved, either when abandoning his post or throwing away his arms? He would be ready to die a thousand deaths rather than endure thisö (Jowett, 2003, 1).
Pausanius speaks of the heavenly conception of love inspired by Aphrodite. The conception makes a distinction between love of the soul and love of the body. The code of Athens is lenient with respect to spiritual love inspired by virtuous impulses, but is opposed to love based on lust or financial or political motives. Love is blameless when submitted to due virtue. Eryxmachus, a physician, describes love in medical terms. All arts and sciences are under the control of love, just as the seasons and motions of the stars. Still, one must distinguish between earthly and heavenly love. Earthly love causes mischief and destruction because it is not based on the harmony and virtue of heavenly. When guided by this form of love, opposites are united by loveÆs regulation of universal harmony.
The conception of love being based on the desire to find completion in another is provided by AristophanesÆ fanciful speech on love. Mankind originally existed as a combination of two individuals, with two faces, four arms and so on and so forth. When they tried to rival the power of the gods, Zeus split all humans in two and love represents the search for the missing half to find completion. AgathonÆs speech involves praises for the god of love, a being that exhibits all of the virtues, gives longing and desire and helps preserve us.
SocratesÆ is the highlight of the speeches and the most interesting philosophically. Whereas the other speeches were either simple rhapsody in praise of love or, as in the case of Aristophanes, a mythical history of love, SocratesÆ discourse is philosophically complex and changes...