The Symposium: An Ascent of Beauty, Truth and Wisdom

Throughout the Symposium, the audience hears many accounts from various intellectuals that have been invited to a special party. These great minds are Phadrus, Pausanias, Eryxamachus, Aristophanes, Agathon, Socrates, (Diotima) and Alcibiades. These philosophers talk about Eros (Love) and match their wits to see who can give a greater eulogy of Eros. Through these speeches, we hear different opinions as to where Eros is from, who his parents are, adjectives that describe his qualities, myths on why Eros exists, questions to why Eros exists and more symbolic stories. These stories all mention the themes of truth, beauty and wisdom; however there is only one account by Diotima through Socrates which brings them all together. This speech, famously known as “the ascent” ties all qualities of Eros together by going through stages. Stages from loving a

sight you are now thunderstruck.” (211 D)

Next, Diotima’s description of the ascent also proves Aristophanes’ speech wrong. Aristophanes account of Eros comes in the form of a myth, where he expresses how people search for their “other half.” He tells the story of how there was once three genders: male, female and androgynous. The androgynous were powerful, so they made threatening attacks on the Gods. The Gods were scared, but did not want to destroy them, so Zeus split the androgynous pair apart. He sewed their gashes and turned around their genitals, so that when they finally found their other half they would be able to have intercourse and if it was a heterosexual relationship, they would be able to reproduce. This myth is the origin of man’s lusting desire for other human beings. The male-male relationships are especially critiqued here because other than sexual satisfaction, there is no point to homosexuality. Other than the attainment of knowledge as described in the ascent- a young boy being attracted to an older man for wisdom ends up seeing Beauty and Truth. According to Aristophanes, one does not search for wisdom, beauty or truth, just their other half because of this lusting for another human being. Diotima’s reaction to Aristophanes is that instead of searching for lust and sexual satisfaction, one should take that to another level. Where one can get sexual satisfaction and wisdom- in turn, that wisdom progressing into realization of truth and that truth progressing into ultimate beauty.

The ascent Diotima describes goes against many of the previous points ma

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