Aristophanes' Myth of Love in Plato's Symposium
This paper examines Aristophanes' speech in Plato's Symposium, evaluating the myth he presents about the nature of love. It considers whether the myth is useful, misleading, or insightful, exploring Aristophanes' claims that love is the pursuit of wholeness and that all forms of love — including same-sex love — are natural. The paper argues that while parts of the speech are comically exaggerated, its core message about human desire for completeness and its acceptance of diverse loves remains profound and relevant. The analysis concludes that Aristophanes demonstrated a deeper understanding of love's complexity than much of modern society reflects.
- Introduction: Overview of Aristophanes' speech and its themes
- The Nature of Love in Aristophanes' Myth: Love as healing, unifying, and non-gendered
- Usefulness of the Myth: Acceptance and Wholeness: Myth's value in accepting diverse love and wholeness
- Comic Elements and Serious Undertones: Balancing humor and serious philosophical insight
- Conclusion: Myth's enduring relevance and understanding of love
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What makes this paper effective
- The paper balances textual analysis with personal evaluative judgment, directly engaging with the assigned questions (agree/disagree, useful/misleading) rather than merely summarizing the myth.
- It uses direct quotations from Aristophanes' speech to anchor each claim, grounding interpretation in the primary source.
- The paper draws a meaningful connection between ancient ideas and contemporary experience — particularly the modern concept of the "soul mate" — making the argument feel relevant and accessible.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper demonstrates evaluative close reading: the writer does not simply describe what Aristophanes says but judges the merit of his claims, distinguishing between the myth's comic surface (the round two-headed beast) and its serious philosophical core (love as the pursuit of wholeness). This layered reading — separating literary device from substantive argument — is a useful technique for analyzing philosophical texts that blend humor and meaning.
Structure breakdown
The essay follows a clear five-part structure: a brief framing introduction, an exposition of the myth's view of love, an extended analysis of the myth's usefulness (its most developed section), a discussion of its comic versus serious elements, and a short concluding synthesis. Each section builds logically on the last, moving from description to evaluation to conclusion.
Introduction
This paper examines the speech of Aristophanes in Plato's Symposium, evaluating the myth it presents and addressing several key questions: Is this view of love agreeable or disagreeable? Is it useful? Is it misleading? Aristophanes' myth is meant to be funny, but it also makes the reader stop and think about the roles we assign to one another as humans and as lovers. Myth is, by nature, something constructed to educate or amuse, and this myth accomplishes both in its own way. Love is one of the strongest of human emotions, and it brings out strong reactions — just as this speech does.
The Nature of Love in Aristophanes' Myth
The view of love that Aristophanes presents in his speech is certainly not the most conventional one, yet it has its own merit. Love does not have to be between a man and a woman. There is perhaps no deeper or more abiding love than that of a parent and child, and this bond is not based solely on sex or gender — it is based on the love one has for family and for the product of a loving relationship. Thus, the product of a relationship such as Aristophanes describes should also have a loving nature and yearn for another loving relationship. This is how we recreate our own needs and wants in our children, and this is how love is perpetuated.
Aristophanes said that love "tries to make one out of two and heal the wound of human nature" ("Speech" 27). These words could serve as an anthem to love and to humanity's capacity to love.
Usefulness of the Myth: Acceptance and Wholeness
This definition of love is quite useful because it reflects an understanding and acceptance that seems to have largely disappeared in much of modern society. Aristophanes finds nothing wrong with homosexual love; in fact, he regards it as entirely natural. He says, "In every way, then, this sort of man grows up as a lover of young men and a lover of Love, always rejoicing in his own kind" ("Speech" 28). Clearly, not all societies have succumbed to the homophobia of modern times, and ancient Greek society appeared largely unaffected — even strengthened — by its acceptance of alternative forms of love. Grecian society did eventually crumble, but not because of its acceptance of diverse expressions of love.
Aristophanes also contends that the most anyone could ever want is to be joined to another so as to form one complete "whole." He writes, "'Love' is the name for our pursuit of wholeness, for our desire to be complete" ("Speech" 29). This sentiment remains true even today. We still search for our "soul mate" — the one true love who will make us whole. It sounds like a fairy tale, yet people still embark on this hopeful search every day. Love remains one of the most compelling forces in human life; we look forward to it, pursue it throughout our lives, and when we do not find it, we remain unfulfilled in some fundamental way. Aristophanes clearly understood both the importance and the intricacies of love, and his speech is a celebration of love and of finding the connection that makes us complete and fully alive.
Conclusion
Aristophanes' myth is not misleading; in fact, it is quite profound in its understanding of human nature and the complexity of love. There is no single definition of love, just as there is no single definition of man or woman. Each individual is unique and possesses an equally unique capacity to love another. Whether man or woman, the particular gender matters less than the ability to love and to give of oneself freely. Aristophanes seems to have been far more understanding about the complexities of love than many people are today. For that reason, his myth endures and remains compelling to readers across time.
References
Aristophanes. "The Speech of Aristophanes." Symposium, pp. 25–31.
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