Agathon, a young tragic poet, won the prize for his first tragedy. To celebrate the award, Socrates was invited to a banquet to celebrate. This is a conversation that took place at a banquet. Apollodorus relayed to Lao Kong (Plato's brother) the dialogue between the banquet participant Aristodmos (Socrates' most ardent admirer at that time) and apollodorus.
The dialogue mainly consists of several paragraphs praising love and lust at the dinner.
1. Phaedrus, praise from the literary point of view, [178a-]
Pei Zhuo said that Cupid is the oldest god and the source of human happiness. The highest happiness of young people is to have a lover who loves them, and the highest happiness of lovers is to have a young lover. [ 178c]
This passage is actually about the love between men prevailing in ancient Greece. Older men love younger men, the former is called lovers, and the latter is called being loved.
The love between the lover and the beloved is related to morality (the lover is the model of the beloved, on the contrary, the beloved is an excellent citizen with potential because of his young and handsome personality and upward moral character). )。 If a lover is ready to do a shameful thing, or is humiliated and afraid to resist, he will be ashamed, and if his young lover sees him, he will be ashamed. Similarly, the loved one is also afraid that the loved one will find out that he has done something bad.
Pei Zhuo said that an army or a city-state, if it is completely composed of lovers and relatives, will be well managed and everyone will compete in the battle. [179a] (Thebes 300 Holy Army is such an army. )
People who love each other are willing to sacrifice their lives for each other, both men and women.
Achilles and Patroclus, the great heroes in Homer's epic, are the relationship between lovers and loved ones. It is said that Patroclus is old and Achilles is the most beautiful person, implying that Achilles is the beloved and Patroclus is the lover.
2. Legal expert Pausanias worships Agathon. [ 180c]
Bauza, Virginia, distinguishes between God's love in heaven and love on earth. According to the divine spectrum, the god of love in the sky is the heavenly king, the heavenly emperor, who was cut off by his son and thrown into the sea. The white waves that gushed out of the sea became the god of love. Born of Zeus and Dione (Homer's epic). Therefore, the origin of the goddess of love in the sky has nothing to do with women, but is born by men, so her love object is only young men, and because she is old, her object is stronger and smarter. Only those young people with beards on their cheeks can get love, because only in this way can their minds be sound.
Bauza distinguished three love laws of the Greeks. Elias, Sparta and Thebes all regard accepting the love of their lovers as a beautiful thing. However, Ionians (located on the east coast of Aegean Sea) regard this same-sex love as a scandal, and Bauza Nya speculates that this may be related to their long-term rule by barbarians (Persia). Barbarian customs regard love for teenagers, wisdom and sports as ugly things, which may be because the rulers there are afraid that strong friendship and close friendship will overthrow the monarch's rule
Bauza gave a famous example. Athens overthrew the tyrant's rule and established a democratic system only because a pair of lovers and relatives (Alisto Zhaitun and Hamodious, see the picture below) were threatened by the tyrant and rebelled.
Bauza thinks the rules of Athens are the best. It encourages people to love what they should love and avoid what they should avoid. (1) It is shameful to accept a lover quickly. It should take some time, because time is often the best test of many things. (2) It is shameful to be tempted by money and threatened by politics and commit yourself to others.
Bauza pointed out that the beloved accepts his lover's love in order to improve his moral quality (so it is instructive). If a person (beloved) is willing to serve another person (lover) in order to get that person's help to further develop his philosophy (love wisdom) or other moral qualities, this hospitality is not mean or flattering. In this way, the love for young men and the pursuit of knowledge and morality are integrated.
The principle of love is that since the loved one is concerned about himself, he should serve him in all directions; The principle of the beloved is that since the lover can make himself grow intellectually and morally, he should try his best to repay the kindness. According to the custom, the beloved has the obligation to obey the lover's request, but Plato opposes the indulgence of love, that is, the so-called Platonic love. Plato stipulated in the Republic [403b-c] that a lover can kiss, kiss and touch his beloved, just as a father does his son. If you ask someone you love to do something, it must be for the right purpose. )
3. Doctor eryximachus[ 186 a]
From a medical point of view, Elucid Marco said: The power of love is incredible, dominating everything of God and man.
Distinguish between love in healthy state and love in sick state. We want to love people with good taste and people who are willing to make progress with small shortcomings; We should be wary of earthly love, and don't develop lewdness because of its pleasure.
4. aristophanes, a famous comedian [189c]
Aristophanes told a famous myth here, explaining the origin of homosexuality and heterosexuality. The earliest humans had three sexes, male, female, male and female. Their bodies are spherical. Everyone has four hands and four feet. There are two faces on his head, one facing forward, the other facing back, and a pair of genitals. These human beings are very strong in physical strength and energy, and they try to open a road to heaven against the gods.
Jose cut everyone in half in order to weaken people. After being split in half, this half misses the other half very much and often hugs each other and refuses to let go until hunger paralyzes them. Zeus was merciful, so he moved human genitals to the front and let men and women hug each other and have sex. In this way, men and women can hold together and pass on their offspring. Men and women embrace each other, at least they can calm their passions and relax their hearts so that they can engage in their daily work.
Therefore, each of us is incomplete, but something that becomes a whole together. So people are always looking for their other half. For those who are cut off by men and women, men are attached to women and women are attached to men (heterosexuality). Women who cut off women prefer women and have little interest in men (lesbians). Those men who cut off men love to keep company with men (gay men), and most of them are the best and strongest men among young men. Most of such men will achieve something in politics when they grow up. In their prime, they will be attached to young men and often stay with the people they love.
Agathon, the young tragic poet and host of the banquet, was deeply loved by Bauza. [ 195a]
What is Cupid? Cupid is young, delicate, flexible and beautiful.
What can love God do? Love God is just, prudent, brave and wise.
6. Socrates, a great philosopher and an admirer of Alkki Buades (Socrates' love is more like the love between father and son today, or the love between teachers and students, which is spiritual love without physical desire). [20 1d]
Socrates' dialogue is the essence of the whole article, which is divided into two parts, one is a dialogue with Agathon, and the other is a dialogue with Diotima (a female philosopher from Mendenia) in Mantiania.
Socrates and his dialogue with Agathon
(1) Love must have an object;
(2) The lover does not get the object of love;
(3) Love is the desire to possess the object you love;
(4) Since the object of love is beauty, as Agathon said, it still lacks beauty, and the statement that "God's love is beautiful" cannot be established;
(5) Beauty is good, so loving God is not good.
(Another way of saying it is, "People who abide by morality are immoral people")
Socrates relayed a conversation with Diotima, a female philosopher from Mendenia. It turned out that he and Agatha held the same view, and Diotima changed her mind.
(1) So is Cupid ugly and bad?
(2) Being unattractive does not necessarily mean being ugly, and there is an intermediate state between them. For example, there is an intermediate state between knowing (based on correct opinions) and ignorance-opinions (with correct opinions, you can't say why).
(3) Cupid is an elf between mortals and immortals. She can translate people's affairs to God, and God's affairs to people. Eros is a descendant of Aphrodite's birthday party, and is a combination of a god of scarcity and a god of abundance. Later, eros became Aphrodite's entourage, and she naturally loved beauty.
Love is between wisdom and ignorance, and it is because of ignorance that he hopes that he is wise and has the ability to pursue wisdom at the same time (don't forget that he is also the son of the God of Wealth).
(4) Love means wishing to have something beautiful and wishing to have it forever.
(5) What ways do people (lovers) pursue courtship and how do they carry out this so-called love activity?
(6) This activity is nurtured in beauty, and the beauty it relies on can be either the body or the soul.
(7) The purpose of love is to sow seeds in the object of beauty, and use it to reproduce and achieve immortality that ordinary people can enjoy. This kind of reproduction can be material or spiritual. Poets, legislators, educators and all creators are spiritual reproducers.
(8) If a person has been receiving the education of love until the knowledge of love is over, he will suddenly discover beauty itself. It is eternal, without beginning or end, and immortal. This kind of beauty is not manifested in a beautiful face, or in a certain part of the body, nor in words or knowledge, nor in the sky, nor in the ground, but in itself, which is always the only thing that belongs to itself. (the ultimate state of philosophy) and all other beauty is just shared in some way. If a person can be immortal, then he is immortal.
7. After Socrates' speech, Alkki Buades (Socrates loved, the most handsome man in Athens at that time) came in drunk. Alkki Buades appeared here as a villain to set off the spiritual love advocated by Socrates. He envied Socrates sitting with any beautiful young man; As a beloved person, he actively pursued Socrates and hoped to have a further relationship with him, but all failed. [2 14e-]
"With the gods, I slept with Socrates like this, that's all, just like with my father or brother."
Alkki Buades also described several stories that happened during his military service with Socrates. Socrates is patient and brave. In the battle, Socrates saved the life of Alkki Buades and gave him a reward. Alkki Buades praised Socrates as an unparalleled figure in ancient and modern times. His ordinary and ridiculous words contain very sacred thoughts and are full of virtues, leading people to the noblest goals. This is a lover's love for a lover.
Alkki Buades complained that not only he but also Charmides (Plato's uncle) and Euthydemus suffered greatly. Socrates was originally the pursuer of his elders, but later these "victims" discovered that Socrates was actually the pursued (referring to Socrates ignoring the "kindness" of the "victims" to Socrates).
The end of the whole conversation is intriguing. When everyone was asleep, only Socrates, Agathon and aristophanes were awake. They drink water from large glasses. Socrates wants to force the two poets to admit that talented tragic writers are also comedy writers.
At dawn, both poets fell asleep, and only Socrates was awake. He got up and went to Lv Keang (a famous garden with a stadium, and later Aristotle opened his own academy here) to take a bath, then stayed there all day as usual and went home to rest at night.
~
Supplement: "Drinking Articles" 2 17b-d (it was found that this article was also swept away by "anti-pornography" and republished as information)
Alkki Buades: ... I often go to see him. It was just the two of us at that time. I expect him to say something about lovers whispering when they are alone-I like the idea. But it never happened! He went on talking as usual until it was time to go home. So, I suggest that we go to the gym to do some exercise and think about what is bound to happen there. Next, can you imagine? We exercise together and wrestle constantly, but there is no spiritual communication at all, and I still have no progress. I see. This will definitely get nothing. However, I have already started, and I won't look back until I fully understand my situation. Therefore, I decided to start a frontal attack. I invited him to dinner, just like a lover seduces a lover, not the other way around. It is not easy for him to accept this, but I will work hard to the end. "
He is Socrates, and this dialogue was written by Plato, Socrates' most famous disciple. Alkki Buades (also a disciple of Socrates, an Athenian aristocrat and general, a controversial figure, largely decided the direction of the late Peloponnesian War) was crazy about Socrates.
The lover is the active party, usually the old man; A lover is the pursued party, usually a young person. Plato writes ironically here, because Alkki Buades is young and handsome, while Socrates (nickname: flat nose) is old and ugly, but it is Alkki Buades who pursues Socrates.
Plato himself is very handsome (Plato means broad shoulders) and his figure is like a god. Xenophon, another disciple of Socrates, is a cavalry commander and historian. He is also extremely handsome. Socrates has these three famous disciples, which can be described as the first master at all times and in all countries.
Plato wrote this passage in his drinking articles, which seems to be insulting Alkki Buades. Xenophon and Plato are even more competitive: Plato wrote drinking articles, Xenophon also wrote drinking articles, Plato wrote utopia, Xenophon wrote Ju Lushi's education, Plato wrote a complaint to record Socrates' death, and Xenophon wrote memories of Socrates.
Of course, Xenophon's most famous masterpieces are the Long March (Xenophon was the commander who led Greek mercenaries to return safely from the hinterland of Persian Empire, which directly inspired Alexander's eastward expedition) and the History of Greece (this book follows Thucydides' History of the Peloponnesian War, which is equivalent to Ban Gu and Chen Shou behind Sima Qian).
Reference: Wang Taiqing translated Plato's dialogue, seminar, by Plato.
(Old text)