Since Plato had been, in his early youth, an enthusiastic student of the Greek dramatic arts, the essay style of composition was not for him. He was impelled to write his philosophy in the context of life, talk, and the interplay of personalities. How much he may, through this method, have added or subtracted from the thought of Socrates is difficult to tell. At any rate, he expressed his version of Socratic teaching in the form of several lengthy dialogues, dominated by the person, the intellect, and the conversation of Socrates, and introducing, also, many other personages who actually frequented the company of Socrates. during the latter's public career in Athens. Such a dialogue is THE SYMPOSIUM, or "Dinner-Party", which purports to be a dinner conversation taking place at the home of Agathon, an Athenian poet, among a number of guests which included Socrates (of course), and Alcibiades, a man with many lovers and, at that time, a ruthless political power in Athens.

The conversation in this particular dialogue revolves around the subject of love, and since homoerotic attachments were entirely open and commonplace among Greeks of that particular era (see translator's note below), it is quite natural that this form of erotic experience should occupy most of the discussion. As to the views on the subject of homosexuality held by Plato (and also by Socrates, presumably), and by other members of the company, THE SYMPOSIUM speaks for itself. Meanwhile, those who are unacquainted with the social context in which the teachings of Socrates and Plato took form might appreciate a brief survey of this subject.

During almost the entire period when Socrates was expounding his ideas at Athens, that municipality (or "city-state") was at war with Sparta which, only forty years earlier, had been her ally against the Persians. For a span of thirty years, intermittent battles raged between the warriors of Sparta and of Athens. Thus Athens, then, was in what we would call today a state of "war psychology". Her younger men were in constant readiness for siege, and were frequently away from their wives or families in Athens on long military expeditions. During that time, also, Athens was governed by a primitive and very thorough-going form of democracy, in which all of the free adult males of Athens were expected to take an active and conscientious part. Because of these conditions, and also because education for the Greeks was then largely a male prerogative, the ancient Greek culture was a predominantly masculine culture. It was evolved from the minds of men of varied ages, who were, by nature and training, keenly alive to estethic and intellectual matters, who were often thrown together in intimate association for long intervals, and who had grown up in a society where the intellectual activities and expressions were all but monopolized by the male sex. The manner in which this state of affairs induced men into active homoeroticism -to romantic attachments among one another-is of course obvious; and since there were no arbitrary moral codes which forbade such attachments, homoerotic relationships became quite ordinary. The modern Lesbian will not easily find her exact prototype in Greek philosophy, but merely for the reason that the Athenian men of that time were not especially interested in what women felt or thought, so long as they bore children dutifully, and kept the home. The leadership, the hero-worship, the stirring romances, the profound intellectual and emotional liaisons-these were, again, a male prerogative, with male homosexuality an inevitable expression. But since inversion in either sex is related to a common psychic goal, the Lesbian can easily read herself into the Platonic ideals and, incidently, forgive the Athenian philosophers for their indifference.

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