Abstract:
The discussion on the nature of Eros (love as sexual desire) in Plato’s Symposium
offers us special insights concerning the potential role played by love in social and
political life. While about Eros, the dialogue also claims to offer a true image of
Socrates, generating a complex puzzle. This article offers a solution to this puzzle by
reconstructing and interpreting Plato’s theatrical presentation his argument, making
use of the structure of the plays of Aristophanes, a protagonist of the Dialogue. The
new image of Socrates, it is argued, signals Plato’s move beyond the way he
envisioned so far his master, best visible in his introducing Diotima, a prophetess who
takes over the role of guide from Socrates; and by presenting the truth about Socrates
through Alcibiades, cast into the role of a boastful intruder, a central figure in
Aristophanes’ comedies. Eros and Socrates are both ‘in-between’ or liminal figures,
indicating that Socrates is still entrapped in the crisis of Athenian democracy. The
way out, according to the new philosophy of Plato, lies by redirecting Eros from the
hunting of beautiful objects to be possessed to elevating the soul to the essence of
beauty as a primary means for further generating beauty, in particular through engendering and educating children, thus reasserting a harmonious co-existence with
the order of the cosmos.
