The Symposium and love

The Symposium and love
By John Nay

Yet another piece of classical literature read and reflected upon. The symposium is a piece of work that can relate to its readers on many different levels. Through the concept of love through the humor it portrays and even through it’s crude depiction of sexuality. Weather this party actually took place is a question that is up to the scholars which read works like this religiously. My personal opinion about this text is that it was wholly written by Plato. My reason for this will be drawn after I talk about what each member of this party had to say. This party starts off by guests lightly chatting about very common things that any guest would at a party. This conversation is then turned into a more serious conversation when one of the guests decides to talk about Eros or love. Alcohol seems to be the reason for this, once people start to drink more they are more likely to open up epically in a room with the greatest thinkers of the time. The conversation begins with the speech of Phaedra’s; he is a very light speaker in this text he explains that love is the greatest virtue a man and that the greatest army would be one of men and the boys they loved. He feels that love will bring the greatest and most noble virtues out of a man. His speech is short and subtle and moves on quickly to the speech of Pausanias. Pausanias is the first person to bring into light the difference between spiritual love and vulgar love. Vulgar love to him is represented by the goddess Aphrodite while spiritual love is represented by Uranus. Vulgar love in his definition is the love of ones body not soul. An example he gives for this is when a lover takes advantage of a boy before he is old enough to realize what is going on. Spiritual love on the other hand can be seen even externally on a man. A man will do outrageous things when he is in the presence of true spiritual love. The people and the gods will honor him for this; he has shown a true definition of what truly is love. The next speech is given by the doctor that attended the party Eryximacthus. Eryximacthis looks at love as deity of the greatest importance. He explains love as something of compatibility. He uses examples of musicians and even he himself as compatible to what they do. With out this compatibility with the soul love does not exist. Eryximacthis represents the logic behind love in this party. Aristophanes is the next speaker at this social gathering. He explains the mythological story behind love. He explains to the guests that humans where once creature that where male & male, female & female and male & female until Zeus split them in half with a lightening bolts. This why humans long to be with each other. Humans are looking to be whole again, gives us the notion of a soul mate weather it be male or female it doesn’t matter as long as are souls are whole again. This to me is really nice depiction of why love exists but it does satisfy the next speaker Agnation who is a true master of rhetoric. Agathon in his speech mesmerizes his audience with his beautiful dialogue. He begins by talking about Eros the god of love. Eros to Agathon is the happiest god and is forever youthful. The god himself is a perfect example of virtue and is the best guide to lead a person through the world. Although this beautiful speech inspires and mesmerizes everyone in the room Socrates finds many flaws in what Agathon has to say. Through his infamous Socratic method he tears through Agathon’s rhetoric. He makes the point that people who desire love don’t always have it available to them he also makes the point that the people who have it still desire it. Socrates claims that to love something is to always be in possession of it also that love is not necessarily beauty because good things are beauty as well. After arguing with Agathon on theses matters and basically completely shutting him down he tells the story of how he acquired the wisdom of what love is. He uses this character called Diotima for his explanations of what love truly is. Diotima claims love is neither good nor beautiful love is in fact a great spirit that was born the day Aphrodite was born. This spirit links Aphrodite and mortals together. Eros or love ‘s parents were Poros and Penia; Poros meaning resources and Penia meaning poverty. Eros lives an impoverished unbeautiful life with many cunning ability’s that makes him a lover of wisdom. The point Socrates is trying to make is that love is philosophy. Eros lives between wisdom and ignorance that is why he is a lover of wisdom. Another definition of this so-called love is being a lover. To love is to be happy and maintain good things; good will either look beautiful in soul or body that’s why there is a correlation between beauty and love. Love always wants to reproduce beauty weather it is a child or good will. Love can also be defined as a mortal’s immortality. As we learn to love beyond physical attraction we learn than the beauty of our souls are more beautiful than our bodies. The ultimate beauty is the birth of true virtue. After this Alcibiades gives a drunken speech to discredit Socrates that eventually proves Socrates right on so many levels of wisdom. The reason I do not believe this party actually ever happened is because of the order in which people speak. It seems just to lead up to what Socrates has to say. According to what Socrates had to say none of the other speakers where wrong they just did not have a solid definition like Socrates had. Another example is when Alcibiades comes in at the perfect timing to prove Socrates true this to me just to be the clever strategy of Plato. The symposium seems to me just to be a work that Plato wrote to define what he believed to be love. Plato’s well-defined theory of love at the end of this party is something that I truly believe. I really do believe a lover can give birth to true virtue in what he or she is in love with. Love to me is the invocation of the 9 muses. A call and a want for ever lasting beauty for what you are in love with.

The Doors

I am sitting here in my dorm room after just taking the test. My floor is filled with neo hippies that are listening to the band The Doors. My mind is still overwhelmed with this concept of Dionysus and duality of man. In Antgony it is not necessarily the duality of a person per say but the duality of the concept of a tragedy. On one hand you have Creon who represents the old in the conflict of young and old; and then you have Antigony that represents the young. This is a pretty obvious statement to make but it is far more deep than just a few words that shows I have read Steiner. Creon to me is a fine example of hypocritical old fool. In one scene he tells the watchman greed will bring him down if he is not careful but this is exactly Creons demise. He was a selfish old man that saw his life quickly ticking away and decided to act on written laws when he should have searched into his soul to see that the unwritten laws of the earth are more important. On the other hand you have Antigony. She is young, foolish and will act on her deepest desires without haste. She represents an innocence that knows nothing but unwritten laws of the world. They are essentially polar opposites on all the main themes of this play Man & Gods, Living & Dead, Society & Individual, Men & Woman and of course age and youth. Dionysus is a god but also a concept of human nature. In Antigony he is a god that is summoned to earth to settle the tragedy of these characters. In real life Dionysus is a symbol of every day life. Should I walk through one door that represents Antigony or should I walk through the other door that represts Creon. Each is a choice that will ultimately summon Dionysus and bring are demise as we see in Sophocles Antigony. I would like to relate this to the Band The Doors and their lead singer Jim Morison. This is just my own concept but I feel like the band particularly Jim Morrison constantly wrestled with the choice of going through Anitgony’s door or going through Creon’s door. Ultimately both doors are a path to selfishness. Even Antigony’s door is self-centered and comes to a fast reselotution when she decides to open it. Jim Morrison decides to open her door when nearing the end of his life. He chooses immortality through his restless youthfulness. By opening this door he summons Dionysus and is ultimately immortalized.

poem that i wrote today

Lustfully Broken Spring Nights
By John Nay

Warm spring nights in New Hampshire are my favorite memory

In this fair state resides rolling mountains and lush streams that lead into some of the finest lakes a young mans heart could want

A gust of fresh air and a relaxing smoke

Nights in New Hampshire have a certain calm blissful felling to them

A feeling that can only be corrupted by the harshest of things in this world

A woman? yes

The only thing that can mend and destroy a mans heart in the same moment of relative time and space

This particular lady I write about had a way to her that had taunted me for numerous years of my life

Her intriguing blue eyes, her luscious hair, her beautiful smile and even her voice that sung so fair.

I would ask my self every waking moment of my life why a higher power would put a creature so fair on this planet.

Was it to spite me?

No or maybe so

A question that will be left for the eternities.

On a very peculiar spring night my one wish had been granted

It was a random coincidence that randomly rambles me on, on random lonely nights of my life.

Why was she so accepting than so fast to discard me?

Why?

Why?

Fuck I hate that bitch!

But still to this day I love her so.

I guess it’s something that can be easily drowned by a bottle of bourbon

Black thoughtless nights of resolution for 20 bucks

A mans heart can feel content with rolling hills and the beauty that is his fair state

But his state of mind is something quite contrary.

As I finish this little poem I think of my next high

I know it will never match her affection but it will fill the whole in my heart like an empty glass.

Homeric Hymes

Yet another blog post. I admit my first blog was rather lacking but I hope that this next one has a little more sustenance to it. For this blog post I am going to chat about the Homeric Hymns To Demeter and to Hermes. Both of these hymns did reflect many of our modern day tales. As Doc Sex explained how these tales related to our own reality I begin reflecting on my life and how these hymns and metaphors have played a role in shaping my own reality. I will explain more about my life as I write my views on these classic pieces of literature.
To Demeter: this hymn I found had less humor in it than the hymn to Hermes. It was a lot more serious and had tremendous amounts of pain and suffering. First of all I thought it was very apparent that Zeus in the Homeric Hymns is on a constant power trip. Demeter was more powerful than Zeus but was made to have less force because of Zeus’s struggle for superiority. Zeus was even so content that he was supreme that he gave away Demeter’s daughter. This betrayal I feel is a metaphor for the incompetence of men. Zeus not understanding the bond of mother and daughter felt it was just a favor to his brother. Another thing I found quite interesting about this hymn was how Demeter felt so compelled to take care of another child after her own Persephone disappeared. This to me sort of reminded me of when you here a story of a mother losing her child and clinging on to someone else’s child it apparently happens al the time. I do not personally no anything about being a women but this part of the story makes me feel that there is some sort primal instinct that women follow when it comes to children. This to me is something men can never understand and never will understand. The only thing men can really understand about things of this matter is the actual wrath of a woman. When women are truly upset, as I have found it really can be compared to the apocalypse. In the hymn to Demeter she literally tries to start the end of the world and I feel this is one of the main metaphors to this story. The reuniting of mother and daughter in this story is also something that really stuck out to me as well. When they are finally reunited at the end of story the world seems to change for the better. It is a bond only mother and daughter can have. The metaphor for Demeter and Persephone being reunited is a quite visual one because of the correlation of springtime and Persephone being aloud to leave Hades. Demeter to me is one of the biggest insights to the mind of a woman every metaphor I received from this has been true. I can see now how these classics translate into are modern day lives.

To Hermes: This tale is much more masculine and is geared more for understanding the lives of men. Even the story of how Hermes came into this world is a fine display of men being men. This story as do most of these Greek tales comes back to Zeus. Hermes father is Zeus as are many of the gods and goddesses. Zeus is what in modern times is what we call a player or a pimp. He has no problem committing adultery and doing whatever the hell he wants. This is a great metaphor for certain types of men. They really don’t care who they sleep with. Anyway back to Hermes; Hermes was a character that represented the swindler side of masculinity. He was very cocky and deceiving and did as he wished at all times. At the beginning of the story he kills a tortoise to make a lyre. The lyre he posses is sort of like a trophy of his man hood. It is representation of him becoming who he was. This to me is something every man try’s to accomplish they look for trophies to show there accomplishments. Hermes setting the cattle free is a metaphor for him being the king of swindlers and his adolescent misbehaving ways. I know when I was a young boy I caused all sorts of mischief. This mischief usually leads to a great deal of trouble with in a family. We see this when Hermes has conflict with his mother. Mother son conflict usually results disappointment and grief as we see demonstrated in this text. One of the most comical parts of the story of Hermes is when we see the image of this little baby jumping around with a walking stick herding the cattle. Doc Sex talks about how these stories are western literature’s original comedies and I can understand why after reading this. Anyway back to analyzing the story more. After Hermes stole the cattle Apollo is quick to find out that his younger brother stole the cattle. When the two first meat there is a tremendous amount of sibling rivalry. Hermes is a complete wise ass to his older brother. Since they are brothers it makes it even more of a vicious rivalry. I actually think this is another metaphor I read somewhere that men always try to compete with the other men in family and this to me is a perfect example of this behavior happening. Of course this brotherly conflict is resolved by their father Zeus. This conflict getting resolved by Zeus represents the father son bond. When you have an older more powerful man telling you what to do you listen. Eventually at the end of the story they resolve their differences and learn to respect one another. Apollo is especially moved by Hermes talent at the lyre. The soft note that Hermes plays moves Apollo to respect Hermes for who is.