Naslov
Agon and Eros in Plato’s Symposium

Autori
Zovko, Marie-Elise

Vrsta, podvrsta i kategorija rada
Poglavlja u knjigama, znanstveni

Knjiga
Athletics, Gymnastics, and Agon in Plato

Urednik/ci
Heather L. Reid, Mark Ralkowski, Coleen P. Zoller

Izdavač
Parnassos Press

Grad
Sioux City (IA)

Godina
2020

Raspon stranica
143-156

ISBN
978-1-942495-36-9

Ključne riječi
Plato, Symposium, agon, eros, Socrates, Diotima, Dionysos, beautiful, immortality, virtue, prudence, wisdom

Sažetak
That the Symposium revolves around a contest like that of the Dionysian festival has long been recognized. Opinion is divided, however, regarding the precise nature of the contest. Some commentators believe it is a contest of poetic skill between Agathon and Socrates (Bacon 1959, Anton 1962, Clay 1983, Sider 1980, Gould 1990, Usher 2002), others that it is meant to exemplify the ‘ancient quarrel between poetry and philosophy’ (Republic 607b ; cf. Krüger 1963, Rosen 1987). Robinson sees the Symposium as a “Contest of Wisdom between Socrates and Agathon” (2004), which Dionysos is called upon to judge (175e7-10). The arrival of the drunken Alcibiades (213d8-e5) appears to confirm the authority of Dionysos. Yet more is at stake than rhetorical skill. For the contest is between a human and a divine ideal of eros. Diotima’s teaching leads from preoccupation with physical beauty and limited attempts to make the good one’s own forever, to that which truly ensures immortality: the begetting upon the Beautiful in body and soul. Dionysos’ role as god of the theatre and god of wine is thereby relativized, for the wisdom to be desired lies beyond his jurisdiction. Its ideal is “prudence, and virtue in general”, whose “begetters” are the poets and craftsmen, and beyond these “the highest and fairest part of prudence”, which “concerns the regulation of cities and habitations” and which is called “sobriety” (209a). Both tragedy and philosophy discourse regarding piety, justice, and the object of religion. Tragedy, however, references traditional accounts, addressing the broader public. Diotima’s discourse is addressed to the few, and as such parallels the Dionysian thiasoi and secret hieroi logoi. However, Diotima’s version of philosophical eros is the antithesis of frenzied, orgiastic Bacchic ritual. The preparatory learning culminating in the vision of the Beautiful involves, namely, a transformation of eros, and her rites, though limited to a few initiates, are based on reason which is common to all. The dialogue is revealed thus to be a contest, not between poetry and philosophy, but between the Dionysian and the one true form of erotic cult. This new cult is hostile to the the public religious discourse of the polis, and Socrates will ultimately be put to death for undermining it (Robinson 87). The contest of the Symposium represents, then, an implicit challenge to god of the festival, and a critique of popular conceptions of the divine. The judge of the discourses turns out to be not Dionysos, but Diotima, as representative of a philosophical view of the object of religion and the manner in which it must be approached. The “lord of the symposium” is not Dionysos, nor any other “man in the house” (Robinson), but a woman, and one in full possession of her powers, like her protegé Socrates, who departs the symposium as the last of the guests, unaffected by their drunken revelry.

Izvorni jezik
Engleski

Znanstvena područja
Filozofija, Povijest, Interdisciplinarne humanističke znanosti

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