Eros and valor in Homer's Iliad and Plato's Symposium

Argumentative Essay Comparing Love in Homer’s “Iliad” and Plato’s “Symposium”
Introduction
Both Iliad and Symposium are Ancient Greek Literature Materials, a poem, and a philosophical text respectively. Both pieces contain various themes among them, love. As an English word, love has a variety of definitions. In this essay, the word love used is the equivalent of Eros in Greek, which is recognized as erotic desire and a phenomenon that can inspire valor, courage, performance of great deeds, and vanquishes the fear of death that is natural in man. This essay therefore argues and compares the theme of love in Iliad and Symposium. This is done by analyzing instances in each text and how the various characters play to advance the love theme.
Background
Iliad has the setting of the Trojan Wartime and the ten-year period as the city of Troy was under siege. The poem tells of the events and struggles between the King - Agamemnon and the warriors – Achilles and illustrates the uselessness and despair that is as a result of the war. The tale within the poem is written as a prophecy for the events to happen among them, the imminent death of Achilles and the subsequent fall of Troy.
On the other hand, the Symposium takes the setting of a banquet attended by notable men who given impromptu speeches. The basis of these speeches is to given praises to Eros is the god of love. In both materials, they were written in the philosophical Greek era and thus, the measure of love would be the relationship between two persons and for the sake of erotic love, it would be a relationship between a man and a woman. In this paper, therefore, erotic love is perceived in the traditional conservative model of a sexual relationship that involves a man and a woman/a male and a female.
The role of love
In Iliad, the events contained in the narrative are as a result of love. the love that Paris has for Helen and the love she has for Paris leads to Helen leaving Menelaus and in the company of Paris, leave for Troy. As a result of and the overwhelming nature of this love, Helen leaves for Troy paying little regard to her child or her husband. In return, the love that Menelaus has for Helen causes him to raise an army with which he lays siege to Troy in an effort to recover her. This is the primary cause of the war, which is the primary theme of the narrative. The thousands of young men in Troy gather and as they struggle, many from both sides die.
The battle between Troy and Argos lasts for ten years and the final result is the fall of the city of Troy, the city is plundered, women of Troy enslaved, and men of the city slaughtered. Because of the love Achilles has for Briseis, who is the favorite among the women enslaved in the battle, he withdraws from battle and he does not return to the battlefield until Briseis is found and brought back. For love as inspiration for courage and the vanquishing of the fear for death, it has a role in driving Achilles to return to the battlefield with the aim of avenging the death of Patroclus, but not after Briseis is recovered unharmed. As Achilles demonstrates to Hector, “Would to god my rage, my fury would drive me now to hack your flesh away and eat you raw…!” (Homer, 22.9-10).
In the Symposium, love is the essence of the entire narrative as all the speeches made by the notable persons are all meant to exude love. without the element of love, it is probable that Symposium as a literature material would probably not stand – this is how integral love is in this text. In each of the speeches made, love is approached in a different manner and from this, varying insights on love emerge, and all are worthy of being considered carefully. In the first speech by Phaedrus (Plato, 178a-180b), he starts by confirming that Love is the mighty and eldest god of all gods. Phaedrus states that love that is experienced between a lover and a beloved makes the involved adopt the best behaviors possible, especially when in the presence of the other. This speech concentrates mainly on the nature of love and its effects on two people. First, love is identified as a god, which gives it a lofty nature.
Love, the god, is, however, able to impact on human being love – the feeling, which is more like a gift by the god to humans, and this reverberates in many ways in the lives of lovers – those sharing erotic relationship e.g. between Alcestis and her husband, and beloved, those sharing other-than-erotic caring relationships. The next speech by Pausanias (Plato, 108c-185c), largely agrees with Phaedrus in love as a god but introduces heavenly and common love. Eryximachus and Aristophanes who are the next speakers also agree with Pausanias. In general, Symposium explores a wide variety of ideas of love, in the various speeches, but there is a noticeable failure in coming to a conclusion on the matter of love.
Erotic male and female love
In the Iliad, female characters with a significant role in the narrative and are not gods are Briseis and Helen. While Helen is Aphrodite’s pawn, Briseis is a mere trophy whose role is motivating the male characters into battle and mourning for them when they die. However, it is worth noting that, even though the number of female characters is significantly low as compared to that of male characters, the love these male characters have for them affects how the entire narrative unfolds.
On the other hand, the second speaker in the Symposium is probably the best and most clear opinion in the type of love that exists between men and women. Heavenly love is the love that boys who have a beard and do not have a woman have. This type of love is differentiated with that which mature men have with men is that mature men have gained intelligence (Plato, 181d). It is noteworthy that, this type of love is considered to qualify only when it is consummated for a good purpose, both on earth and in heaven, and it is simply pure bliss.
Conclusion
Love can best be described as an attachment and that which it attaches itself to prescribes the effects of love. in both The Iliad and Symposium, love is clearly evident as a result of the effects those involved manifest. However, the type of love seems to vary in both. In the Iliad, love is a powerful force that is able to motivate and inspire. The source/trigger for love are women, and this causes a major effect on the male characters.
Love in the Iliad has the power to cause men to go to battle or withdraw from battle, which is the primary them in the narrative – war and peace. On the other hand, in the Symposium, love takes a variety of types. However, all speakers agree that love is a god, and the other types seem to emanate from the love god. The most prominent type of love is that which is described by Pausanias, and it depicts love as a gift to humans by the gods and it is consummated with good intentions and its effects are bliss for the involved persons.

Works cited Homer, Rober Fagles, and Bernard Knox. The Iliad. 1998. Print. Plato, Alexander Nehamas, and Paul Woodruff. Symposium. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Corporation. 1989. Print.