Plato's Symposium: Pandemos Or Common Aphrodite

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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 to love, it does not matter to those who choose to be subjects of the love of Common Aphrodite. Pausanias concludes that the …show more content…

Rather than trying to obtain something pure from love, the love between a heterosexual couple is usually for sexual satisfaction (Cohen, pg.328). Though there are both right ways, and wrong ways to love, it does not matter to those who choose to be subjects of the love of Common Aphrodite. The other goddess of love, according to Pausanias, is the Heavenly Aphrodite, also known as Urania, daughter or Uranus. Along with the fact that she is much older than Pandemos, the love that she parents is strictly in homosexual relationships. According to Pausanias, this is because those who are affected by her love naturally appeal to strength and knowledge (Cohen, pg. 328). Seeing as Pausanias was an expert in the legal field, it is no wonder why he believes that Urania is the most respected of the two. Unlike the lovers under Pandemos, the actions one takes in

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