Plato’s Republic, Aristophanes’ The Assemblywomen, and Blundell’s chapter on Sparta women citizen, depicted many ideas of women’s value and participation in their societies. Blundell shows that the more radical lines of Spartan women ensured that female domestic power was accepted and maybe encouraged. In Plato’s and Aristophanes’ works can reflect a comparison to Blundell’s chapter on Sparta. Spartan women were raised in an all-female environment as their father or husbands were training for or at war most of the time. They saw little of their brothers once the barracks had claimed them at the age of seven.…
1. Euthyphro is appearing at the court because he is going to prosecute his father for the murder of one of his servants. 2. In the event of 4b-4e, Euthyphro and Socrates are discussing a case of Euthyphro’s father.…
There is a structure in love where everything and everyone has a similarity, a cookie-ness. This cookie-ness could be as simple as everyone being male, female, loving men or women, and so on. In Plato’s Symposium, we learn about the uniqueness of love, the beauty inside and out, and the relationships between younger men and older men. Most importantly, we learn that Socrates is different. He doesn’t play by the rules of the ‘beauty ladder’.…
The Power of Myth Ch. 7 Precis Chapter seven of The Power of Myth analyzes the meanings of true love and marriage. Joseph Campbell begins by tracing the origin of love; he explains that the modern love or the “person to person relationship” comes from the trabadours of the twelfth century. According to Campbell, there are three types of love: Eros, Agape, and Amor—the meeting of the eyes.…
The Funeral Oration of Pericles is a document which contains a funeral speech made by Pericles, a prominent Athenian politician. This speech was dictated, edited and transcribed by Thucydides, an Athenian historian and soldier in his written work, History of the Peloponnesian War. The speech was given at the end of the first year of the Peloponnesian War (431-404 BCE) and Thucydides fought in the war and lived and therefore wrote his works during the time of Pericles. The speech was made to boost the morale of the Athenian people and its military who needed to continue to fight. It discusses the attributes of Athenian culture and society that are superior to their neighbor’s, including government, independence, and family, social and recreational…
When delivering his encomium to Love in Symposium, Plato’s Agathon genders this deity male and paints a very specific portrait of him. Comparing Love to the other gods, Agathon describes Love as “the youngest”1 and “the most beautiful and the best. ”2 In addition to these virtues, Agathon also argues that Love is “bravest of them all,”3 because “he who has hold is more powerful than he who is held,”4 and Love has a hold on Ares, who is made subservient to Love through his feelings for Aphrodite. Though Agathon uses male pronouns here, indicating the importance he places on the love shared between two men and a refusal to acknowledge the validity or even the possibility of a meaningful relationship between a man and a woman, his decision to mention…
Argumentative Strategies of Plato vs. Aristophanes In Aristophanes’ “Clouds” and Plato’s “Apology” Socrates is satirically attacked and rationally defended respectively. The two argumentative styles of Aristophanes and Plato are on opposite sides of the spectrum. Aristophanes utilizes satire and humorous exaggerations of sophist teachings to denounce Socrates. Alternatively, Plato’s “Apology” uses logic and reason in order to defend himself against the charges brought against him.…
His speech focuses on human nature and a mythical way of how love is a desire to find each person’s “other half.” Aristophanes says that long ago there were three types of humans: male, female and androgynous- both male and female. They were round shaped, had four hands and legs, two faces, two sets of sexual organs and were extremely fast and strong (189E-190B). Because of their strength and plans on attacking the gods, Zeus decided to cut them in half making them weak and longing for their other half. Aristophanes describes this longing and desire for the other half as what the lover wants from love- a desire to be complete.…
Curiosity killed the cat is a common cliché alluding to a negative connotation for questioning. However, everyone dies so is questioning really an awful thing? To the Athenians against Socrates, yes, but Socrates opinion is the exact opposite. Things must be questioned , but the intention for questioning is equally as important. This is where people may have been confused with Socrates which lead to his indictment.…
Love is a very controversial topic. Everyone in the Symposium has different views about Love and what Love is. Agathon and Phaedrus believe love is a god. Eryximachus believes love is a bodily response. Pausanias believes there are two kinds of love, common love from Common Aphrodite and Heavenly love from Aphrodite, Daughter of Uranus.…
Plato’s Symposium is a dialogue of a party that was thrown to honor Agathon on the success of his first tragedy. In order to explain what was discussed at the party, Apollodorus uses information that he’s gained from various sources to explain the events of the party as well as to explain the many eulogies given by men to honor the God, Love. At the party, the men decide to drink until they do not feel like doing so anymore and they also decide to eulogize Love; these eulogies cover a wide range of spectrums and bring forth very interesting arguments and claims. Out of all the men, Phaedrus is the first to give a eulogy. The main point of his speech is to convince the others that love is great because of its origins; he is the most ancient…
The most important part of these two separate accounts is the fearlessness Alexander displays in his love for Bagoas and the crowd’s reaction to the display. Alexander’s openness to displaying his affection for Bagoas shows how the ancient Greek construct of homosexuality allowed for an act like this to occur. A king would only show actions in public that would present him as a desirable leader in order to preserve his status among the society. Because Alexander freely showed affection to Bagoas in front of the crowd, the construct of homosexuality within the Greek society can again be seen as an openness to all love between humans, no matter the gender. Further backing this claim, the crowd’s reaction to the display of affection is even more telling.…
The speeches in Thucydides are critical to the narrative of his History as they provide another perspective on the general context and reveal both the characters of the key protagonists and their intentions. The Sicilian books demonstrate their particular importance where they become a powerful influence on the outcome of the war, notably the two speeches of Alcibiades. Thucydides himself explains: ’of the various speeches made either when war was imminent or in the course of the war itself, it has been hard to reproduce the exact words used either when I heard them myself of when they were reported to me by other sources. Therefore, it is my view that the speeches must be, to a large extent, creations of Thucydides’ imagination.…
The texts Plato Symposium and Sappho, Selected Poems discuss the topic of love as experienced by a select few of society- and thus reject the notion that love is a universal human experience. Through this essay, love will be examined as it pertains to each text and then these ideas will be observed to understand how they reject the notion that love is a universal human experience. Set in ancient Greece, Plato’s work titled Symposium presents his view that love can only be experienced by men and boys -through various speeches given by characters who are giving eulogies on love. Although many different ideas are presented through the speeches, one common theme holds true throughout all seven speeches: not once is the notion of real and virtuous…
The dialogue begins with what is apparently a friendly and innocuous conversation between Socrates and Cephalus, in which Socrates asks Cephalus what he has learned from having lived a long life during which Cephalus has managed to acquire a certain amount of money. Socrates asks Cephalus whether age and theexperience of age have taught him anything, whether he misses the sexual appetites of his younger years, and whether the accrual of wealth may be said to be a good thing or a bad thing.…