Pausanias And Aristophanes's Speech Analysis

The ideas presented by the patrons in Plato’s Symposium differed immensely. All pertaining to a main topic, being love, but none having the same conclusion. Two speeches in particular, those of Pausanias and Aristophanes, seemed to oppose the most. Many elements of their arguments contradicted that of the others, none more than the origin of love and the whom is the eromenos of love.

Pausanias believed that there was two different goddesses of love; the more prevalent of the two being Pandemos, or Common Aphrodite. Pandemos, as described by Pausanias, is the young, and is associated with the love between men and women, so she is more inclined to be involved with vulgar love (Cohen, pg.327). Though there are both right ways, and wrong ways

Eryximachus, for one, believed that Pausanias made a compelling case, and was one the right track, but left many questions unanswered. For instance, he challenges that love is not only seen among humans, and that both animals and plants are able to show emotions towards one another. Aristophanes, also disputes the argument given by Pausanias, stating that he has not truly felt the powers of love. His reasoning behind this being, that if Pausanias had properly come across love, he would have, “...built the greatest temples and altars to him…”(Cohen,

After Zeus had formed the first humans, they began conjoining themselves together, recreating their whole form for the rest of eternity (Cohen, pg.337). Those who had started out as males and females formed homosexual relationships, while those who were originally androgynous created heterosexual relationships. Adding to this, Aristophanes states that the fundamental ideas of love are innate in all humans, and their sexual preferences are predetermined depending on their ancestry. Rather than feeling shame for whichever sexual preference a person sees himself/herself as, Aristophanes says that they should be, “...bold and brave” (Cohen, pg.337), and they should not let social customs to dictate how they live their lives. According to Cohen, Aristophanes believed that when a person finally found their other half, he/she would find life long happiness (Cohen, pg.338). Although he goes on to add that sex is not the only way to portray love, he implies that it is a main component of the relationship. Rather than having sexual relations purely on aesthetic features, as believed by Pausanias, Aristophanes suggests instead, that such relations is meant to a form of appreciation towards the other person in the relationship. It may also represent the lifelong bond between the two individuals, where they are trying to form a whole.