Plato's Symposium

In this week’s readings, my comprehension of love expanded via Plato’s Symposium. Similar to the Shiva Purana, some of the eulogies given in the text perpetuated males as the dominant gender. Furthermore, the text, especially Socrates eulogy, left me with several inquires.
To begin, a parallel between the works is the concept of the importance of males and the dehumanization of females. For instance, in the Shiva Purana, although Shiva and Parvati were supposedly “in love,” the only love prevalent was depicted in Parvati worshipping Shiva. There were no actual instances of romance or reciprocation for Parvati. Hence, this signifies that love is the product of a woman worshipping and tending to a man, as opposed to a symbiotic bond. Moreover, Symposium evidently
Socrates’ describes love as the love of the body that eventually culminates into a philosophical state, in which greater wisdom and knowledge of beauty is developed. Socrates’ speech is derived from a dialogue from an “instructress in the art of love” named Diatoma. The identity of this character remains ambiguous. Is she real? What connection does she have to Socrates? Furthermore, if Diatoma is not a real person, why is Socrates’ using her as a proxy to explain his philosophy? Additionally, I found it strange that several speeches emphasized that love was at its purest when between men; however, the wisest member, Socrates, learned love from a woman. I feel this is confusing as although the feminine philosophy is advocated here, it greatly contradicts the previous notions of the lack of intellect in women. Thus, Socrates’ speech was difficult to comprehend due to his ambiguous representation of love.
In conclusion, I discovered several different understandings of love in Classical Greek literature via Plato’s Symposium. Despite the overt oppression of women and contractions in Socrates’ speech, I found this work to be extremely