Forms of Love in Plato's Symposium
Love, in classical Greek literature, is commonly considered as a prominent theme. Love, in present days, always appears in the categories of books, movies or music, etc. Interpreted differently by different people, Love turns into a multi-faceted being.

In Plato’s work Symposium, Phaedrus, Pausania, Eryximachus, Aristophane and Agathon, each of them presents a speech to either praise or definite Love. Phaedrus first points out that Love is the primordial god; Pausanias brings the theme of “virtue” into the discussion and categorizes Love into “good” one or “bad” one; Eryximachus introduces the thought of “moderation’ and thinks that Love governs such fields as medicine and music; Aristophanes draws attention to the origin and purposes of Love; Agathon enunciates that the correct way to present an eulogy is first to praise its nature and gifts. As the last speaker, and the most important one, Socrates connects his ideas with Diotima of Mantinea’s story of Love’s origin, nature and purpose. Different from the earlier five speakers who regard Love as an object and praise different sides of it, Socrates, referring to Diotima’s idea, considers Love as a pursuit of beauty gradually from “physical beauty of people in general” (Symposium, Plato, 55) to the “true beauty” (55).

The first five speeches bond with each other. Each of them mentions the opinions of the former one in order to either support or against them. However, just like the elements of a beautiful picture, they fail to show us the integration of love. Socrates’ speech does that. It contains the sides mentioned before, and uniquely views Love from a dynamic aspect.

Phaedrus
Phaedrus is the first one to give a speech to praise love. He begins his speech with the claim that Love is a primordial god, with no parents. Hence there must be some human benefits that are due to his existence. For instance, “the ability to feel shame at disgraceful behavior and pride in good behavior, because without these qualities no individual or community could achieve anything great or fine.” (11) “Possession by Love would infuse even utter cowards with courage and make them indistinguishable from those to whom bravery comes most easily.” (11) To show how powerful this bravery is, he puts it into a condition of a battalion in which lovers and their boyfriends compete in avoiding any kind of shameful act. This bravery on battlefield is because, compared to the situation that to be seen by one’s beloved committing some disgraceful acts, nothing shames them more.

There is a response to Phaedrus’ this point later in the symposium. By saying Love is “the youngest of the gods and is forever young” (33), Agathon claims that he cannot accept that Love is the most ancient god, though he agrees with a number of deal of what Phaedrus was saying. To prove his idea, Agathon argues that if Love had already been existed between Hesiod and Parmenids, they could have been living happily and in peace with each other. According to Agathon, not only Love is the youngest, but also Love keeps himself away from old age. “He is a constant companion of young men and (given the validity of the old saying that like always clings to like) he is therefore young himself.” (32) From here, readers can tell that these speeches are not independent. To some extent, they are bonded and reactive to each other.

Another benefits which Love is responsible for is the sacrifice made by lovers for their beloved. They “are prepared to sacrifice themselves—and this goes for women as well as for men.” (11) Even what they have to sacrifice are their lives: in Greek world, Pelias’ daughter Alcestis was willing to give up her life for her husband, Admetus, and men and gods were so touched by this action that they let her soul, among a very few of others, back from Hades. On the contrary, Orpheus, the second character in the example Phaedrus used in his speech, made no such sacrifice and ended in dying at the hands of women. There was another Greek character that got rewarded from those gods-- Achilles. He fought boldly to avenge the death of his beloved, Aeschylus, though he knew that this action would definitely shorten the distance to his own death. By using the example of Achilles, Phaedrus first introduced the distinction between lovers and loved ones, an idea mentioned in many of the speakers in that symposium, such as Pausanias and Agathon. He claims that gods “are more amazed and impressed by…a loved one’s affection for a lover than a lover’s for his boyfriend.” (13) In a relationship, the lover acts more actively, just like what Achilles did, and the loved one is more passive. This goes well in the relationship between either male and male or male and female.

Pausanias
As the second speaker, Pausanias first points out that there is a problem with the topic they set. Since Love is not uniform, it would be arbitrary to praise it as a whole. Thus, he brings up an idea that according to the duality of Aphrodite—Common and Celestial, there are two types of Love; one is the common love experienced by ordinary people; the other is between a male and a male, Celestial Love.

Common Love occurs when people are attracted to each other because of bodies, not intelligent, and to them, love is a way to fulfill their desires, especially sexual desires in a random way. To explain the word “random” here, Pausanias’ another point should be mentioned-- “it is in the nature of every action to be, in itself, neither right nor wrong…the outcome depends on the doing, on how each of them is done. If is done well and properly, it is right; if it is done badly, it is wrong.” (13) People who associated in Common Love satisfy their desire in whatever ways; no matter they are done properly or not. Right or wrong means the same thing to them. Thus, their behaviors are described as random here. Also, only caring about satisfying their desires is the reason of their ignorance of minds of their lovers.

Celestial Love, on the contrary, is wholly male, especially is between an old man and a younger boy. Following the idea that the action done well and properly is right, Pausainias distinguishes those affairs “with boys who are younger than the age at which intelligence begins to form”. (14) The man who involved in Celestial Love appreciates the gratification given by his boyfriend and is willing to increase his intelligence and other aspects of greatness. The boy in that relationship appreciates everything he does for the man and eager to enhance his knowledge.

The distinction between the Common Love and the Celestial Love is whether they gratify their lovers for the sake of virtue; a word appears for a few times in the next four speeches.

Eryximachus

Eryximachus develops his speech based on the two-type-love theory demonstrated by Pausanias. He promotes that Love exists in everything. According to Eryximachus, those “two kinds of Love are inherent within the body.” (20) In the domain of medicine, love reconciles extremes like cold and hot, bitter and sweet, and so on, and has them love and get along with each other. It also goes in fields like music and astronomy.

In Eryximachus’ speech, Love is capable of moderating diverges into a harmonious state. This point of view

Compared to other speeches, Eryximachus’ speech tends to be narrow, since its definition is purely medicinal.

Aristophanes
Aristophanes provides an explanation of why people in a relationship, when they find their lover, always feel “whole”. This explanation, then, supports his claim that love is really powerful.

The explanation begins with the understanding of human nature. According to Aristophanes, there were three genders: the male, the female and the “androgynous” who is half man, half woman. The primal shape is also different from that of human now. It is more round like “with their backs and sides forming a circle”. (25) Each person has four hands and four legs and two same faces on a single head. These creatures tried to measure the heights of heaven and managed to attack the gods. This action threatened Zeus and the rest of the gods. Though they cannot stand humans’ exorbitant behavior, they did not want to give up the veneration and sacrificial offering that human beings gave them. At last, Zeus decided to cut them half in order to reduce their power. Each half people missed the other half and tried to go back to its original state. Then, from that time, the half people started to do whatever it can to search for the other half. Thus, when the half human finally finds its other half, it would like to spend every minute staying with it and feels “complete”.

Love brings two people together, which fulfills human innate nature that is the willing to recover their original nature. As Aristophanes says in his speech, “Love draws our original nature back together; he tries to reintegrate us and heal the split in our nature.” (27) ‘“Love” is just the name we give to the desire for and pursuit of wholeness”’. (29)

Not only Pausanias mentions the wholly male relationship, but also does Aristophanes. Aristophanes considers the love between two males, who were split from a male gender, as an action prompted by courage, manliness and masculinity, not immorality. On the contrary, the description for the male who rejoins with a female is “an adulterer” and for the female is “an adulteress”. (28)

Aristophanes ends his speech with the claim that if men continue to oppose gods’ will, they will be cut in half again. It is Love who guides humans to find their counterparts. Hence, people should not oppose Love.

Agathon
Agathon organizes his speech by dividing it into two parts—Love’s nature and goodness. He complains that the previous speakers “were congratulating the human race on how much they thrive on gods the god contrives”. (32)

Love has plenty natures that attract people. Among them, four should be praised. As mentioned before, Agathon says Love is the youngest of gods and keeps himself away from old age. Besides being young, Love is sensitive as well. Agathon takes the fact that Love does not “even step on men’s skulls (which are not particularly soft), let alone on the ground; he lives and moves in the in gods’ and men’s dispositions and minds” (33) as evidences to prove the sensitivity existing in Love’s nature. Another nature worthy of mention is “fluid in form”. (33) Love is capable of adapting himself fully into the world and people’s minds. The differences in the speeches of this symposium efficiently provide good examples that Love stays in dissimilar forms in people’s minds. Love is young, sensitive, fluid in its form and lovely as well. Like what Agathon says, “Love doesn’t settle on a body, a mind, or anything else which has no bloom or whose bloom has faded; but a fragrant spot full of flowers—that’s where he settles and remains.”(34)

Love’s fairness is the most important goodness he owns, according to Agathon. He treats men fairly. Oppression always cannot be under the same roof with Love. Also, Love has the ability to control pleasure and desire. Thus, he is self-discipline. Agathon also implies that Love is the bravest in the world, since “Love captured Ares”. (34) What is more, Love is the symbol of wisdom. From the word “Love has only to touch a person and, however coarse he was before, he becomes a poet” (35), it could be understood that Love has a high intelligence. It is his knowledge that passes on to the person and turns him into a poet.

Socrates
As the last speaker, Socrates introduces a expert of Love, Diotima, an intelligent woman, in his speech. He repeats the question-and-answer session in a course given by Diotima, connecting lots of ideas mentioned in the previous speeches. Diotima’s course is a process of an exploration to find the truth of Love. As what they are talking about becomes deeper and deeper, they are getting close to the truth.

Socrates first agrees with Agathon about a description of Love’s nature and characteristics should be used as a start. However, at that point, Diotima has a totally different opinion that “Love wasn’t attractive or good”. (42) Also, Love was not bad or repulsive. Instead, Love “falls between these extremes”. (42) This point of view indeed shares some similarities with Eryximachus’ “moderation”, since they both mention the area between the extremes. Occupying the middle area let Love be one of those important spirits who fill the middle ground between men and gods. He contributes to connecting the universe as a whole.

Why it is always the middle place that Love presents? Parentage is a significant reason. Diotima explained that Plenty and Poverty are Love’s parents. Attributes from both parents could be seen on Love. For example, Love is constantly companioned by need, just like his mother; Love goes after “things of beauty and value” and is brave, just like his father. Thus, Diotima drew on this fact to argue against the usual notion that Love is sensitive and attractive. What’s more, Love is not the symbol of wisdom. Due to the fact that “knowledge is one of the most attractive things” (45) and Love pursuits beauty and value, based on the belief that god and ignorance people do not need knowledge, Love falls between knowledge and ignorance. Again, these claims she addressed are oppose against Agathon’s opinions that Love is sensitive and represents wisdom.

Then Diotima summed up the object of Love as “the permanent possession of goodness for oneself”. (48) In another aspect, Love’s purpose is to attain immortality. Diotima stated that humans were in love with immortality, thus they longed to procreate and let their offspring resemble the old ones in order to achieve the continuity of existence that means immortality. For procreating, in Diotima’s course, there are two ways; one is physically giving birth to ordinary children, the other is mentally giving birth to offspring. These two types of procreation represent two stage of Love. The former is for Love that stems from the attraction to the beauty of human bodies, while the later is for Love that starts from the appreciation of the mental beauty. Hence, in conclusion, according to Diotima, Love is the journey of the true beauty.

Diotima’s statements about Love contain some corrections of ideas mentioned in the previous speeches. The first five speeches demonstrate different spheres of Love. It can be taken into consideration that not only Diotimas’ speech shows the process of gaining knowledge, but also the five speeches as a whole present this process.

By writing Symposium, Plato uses six characters to convey his idea of Love, the process of learning and thinking in a philosophical way. Each of these characters has a particular mission to elaborate different spheres of Love. However, these speeches given by six characters are not totally independent. They, to some extent, are connected; some of them agree or disagree with the previous one; some of them improve the idea of the former speakers. In conclusion, according to Symposium, Love is multi-faced.