out of the past

Reprints from the classics; biographies of famous homosexuals.

Extracts from

THE SYMPOSIUM

by Plato

(as translated by W. HAMILTON)

The speech of Socrates follows directly upon that of Agathon, who took great pains to ascribe to Eros not only the quality of Love, but also almost every other admirable. human quality. In formulating this speech, Agathon leaned heavily upon Greek theology which, as with other polytheistic systems, was extraordinarily complex, following the usual primitive pattern of personifying, as gods or goddesses, the various qualities and virtues of human experience. In order to grasp the full import of Socrates' arguments we must remember that he was primary among the so-called "heathen" thinkers

excluding the great teachers of the Orient in the effort to see beyond polytheism into a universe of dynamic, knowable qualities, operating demonstrably in and through all visible agencies. For purposes of human knowledge and judgment, Socrates assumed without question that persons could obtain the most practical concept of this real universe by examining human nature itself.

The contemporary accusers of Socrates claimed, among other things, that he showed indifference towards the gods of Greece. Today, we are in a better position to grasp what Socrates actually accomplished,

one

any-

and to a remarkable degree for one in such times and circumstances. Into a disorganized mass of conjecture, myth, and superstition, into which reason had scarcely before been brought, he introduced all the forces of his own logical and realistic mind, and proceeded a great distance towards the ideal concept of man as a free, reasoning, and responsible agent, answerable to no fundamental law or authority which cannot be found within himself. In this sense, Socrates dispelled the gods of ancient Greece, indeed.

Socrates begins his speech with a direct attack on the notion of love, both as an agent or agency separate from man, and as an abstraction which can be considered without reference to any real object, or goal. org By a typical series of questions and answers, it finally becomes established that love must be love of something, and that what a person loves he does not, at that particular moment, possess. After thus overturning the notions of Agathon that "Love" is at one and the same time, "beautiful," "good," etc., etc., Socrates enters at once into the main thread of his discourse.

“But now I will . . . try to give the account of Love which I once heard from a woman of Mantinea,

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