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Love according to aristophanes
Gender relationships in ancient greece
Gender relationships in ancient greece
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Recommended: Love according to aristophanes
With the backdrop of the drinking party, Plato has put forth many views on love, most of which conflict with each other. However, it is Aristophanes’ speech that I’ll be writing about. The rather elaborate myth narrated by Aristophanes talks about the time when there were three different genders- man, woman and androgynous. Humans had 4 legs, 4 arms, 2 faces and so on.
This form did not stay for long though, soon humans started threatening the Gods and Zeus in reply to this unacceptable behavior, slashed the human form into two separate bodies;wholemalesandwholefemaleswerehomosexualpartnersand androgynous individualsweretheheterosexualpartners.These humans for the rest of their lives craved to be in their original form, whenever they found
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The reunification with the loved ones is the reason behind the array of emotions one feels during a romantic or sexual relation.
The narration of this myth by Aristophanes shapes sexuality in four aspects –
1. Love happens between to two separate individuals. The myth holds no space for asexuality, bisexuality or for other forms of love e.g. the love stories of Narcissus and Pygmalion. This puts this speech in opposition of the aforementioned stories of desire, narrowing the otherwise broad narrative about love and desire.
2. Sex need not solely be done for the purpose of reproduction. Sexual relation between same-sex couples for satisfaction and pleasure are completely acceptable and a phenomenon designed by God as opposed to the biblical belief of sex being a method to only reproduce.
3. An individual will be complete only if he/she finds a perfect lover. Search behavior is propagated amongst individuals, leading to a feeling of
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Ranging from TV shows such as ‘How I met your mother’ to the colloquial vocabulary, looking for one’s other half is a concept known to all. Each and every one, as Aristophanes says, looks for a soulmate to feel and complete and show love and compassion towards. The normalcy surrounding homosexual relationships has also gained prevalence today in certain parts of the world and are completely normal, which is in contrast to a darker world where Aristophanes’ speech fails to hold ground and a cloud of unacceptability shrouds over homosexuality. Another phenomenon that is accepted today is having sex for satisfaction and not only for
This passive encouragement of homosexuality further strengthened ties between the separate genders and emphasizing the differences. Human society does not really change. The roles each gender plays in society has not changed drastically since the time of the ancient Greeks, and this goes to suggest that these roles are deeply rooted and possibly genetic. However, chauvinistic Greek myths are telling the truth, which explains why they have influenced modern culture to the extent it has.
prized. This of course was more of a problem for a rich husband than a
Love and affection is an indispensable part of human life. In different culture love may appear differently. In the poem “My god my lotus” lovers responded to each other differently than in the poem “Fishhawk”. Likewise, the presentation of female sexuality, gender disparity and presentation of love were shown inversely in these two poems. Some may argue that love in the past was not as same as love in present. However, we can still find some lovers who are staying with their partners just to maintain the relationship. We may also find some lovers having relationship only because of self-interest. However, a love relationship should always be out of self-interest and must be based on mutual interest. A love usually obtains its perfectness when it develops from both partners equally and with same affection.
People’s different values and morals play a role in defining what they believe. Many people find homosexuality to be not natural, and it goes against many people’s views. However, there is also a lot of people who argue in favor of homosexuality and find nothing about it unnatural. For those people who do think it is not natural they normally use the argument that this kind of sex can not reproduce, therefore it is not right because the point of sex is to reproduce. Many times the Bible will also be used to refer to verses that condemn acts of homosexual sex. People who favor the morality of homosexuality find many things wrong with these arguments. To say that the only purpose of sex is to reproduce would be wrong because there are many examples of heterosexual couples who have sex without the intention of conception. Medical problems, protected sex, and just sex for fun are all reasons why
Pausanias brings up an excellent way to think about Love. He explains that love can be broken down into two types, that of Common and Heavenly love. The common love is that when a man and a woman join merely to satisfy their sexual desires. On the other hand the heavenly love is the type that occurs when two people are attracted to each other with a strong force that goes past the physical appearance but comes from deep within as if from the soul. Although Plato presents examples of the two loves with having the common love as if only happening between a man and a woman and the heavenly love happening between a man and a man, there is not enough proof in the text to say that this if what the whole of Athens really believed.
Aristophanes thinks that a human’s love is clearly “a lack” – a lack of one’s other half- and having no meant to satisfy themselves they begin to die. Zeus, having failed to foresee this difficulty repairs the damage by inventing sexual reproduction (191 b-c). Any “embracements” of men with men or of women with women would of course be sterile – though the participants would at least “have some satiety of their union and a relief,” (191 c) and therefore would be able to carry on the work of the world. Sex, therefore, is at this stage a drive, and the object is defined only as human. Sexual preferences are to emerge only as the human gains experience, enabling them to discover what their “original form” had been.
The proper expression of human sexuality is a abiding question for the world of sexual ethics. There has never been a society that has not reflected upon and prescribed rules and regulations for this powerful and yet mysterious dimension of personhood; and there has seemingly never been a social order in which sexuality has not breached the boundaries established for it. On the surface scripture and much of the Christian response to sexuality appears to be establishing rules and regulations which attempt to limit sexual behavior until the ‘appropriate’ time or stage in ones life. Though this is a narrow understanding of sexual ethics– instead the goal of sexual ethics should be in the importance of how we relate ourselves and desires to others. Specifically, the relation between God : Humanity, and Humanity : Humanity.
Nearly everyone experiences the feeling of love. Whether it’s for another person or for food, almost everyone feels love during their lifetime. In the play Antigone, the writer, Sophocles, illustrates a very important fact regarding love: love is our most important and most dangerous motivation for doing anything, and without moderation, love can be deadly.
Love, in classical Greek literature, is commonly considered a prominent theme. Love, in present days, always appears in the categories of books, movies, music, etc. Interpreted differently by different people, Love turns into a multi-faceted being. In Plato’s work Symposium, Phaedrus, Pausania, Eryximachus, Aristophane and Agathon, each of them presents a speech to either praise or definite Love. Phaedrus first points out that Love is the primordial god; Pausanias brings the theme of “virtue” into the discussion and categorizes Love into “good” one or “bad” one; Eryximachus introduces the thought of “moderation’ and thinks that Love governs such fields as medicine and music; Aristophanes draws attention to the origin and purposes of Love; Agathon enunciates that the correct way to present an eulogy is first to praise its nature and gifts.
Milstein, Susan A. Taking Sides Clashing Views in Human Sexuality. Ed. William J. Taverner and Ryan W. McKee. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2009. Print.
...at to the stability of family life in our society. Sexual intercourse, explained by Haines (2011), is a special bond that is created for the aim of reproducing children despite not being able to, at times. It unites two dissimilar body parts in a way that can produce a reproductive effect. Thus, same sex relationships are opposed because male-female relationships are the only sort that can fully embrace the sexual complimentary (Haines, 2011). If we de-emphasize the procreative function of marriage, then it is only focused on the intensity of feeling between married couples (Pinkerton, 2014). Pinkerton (2014) said that no matter how deep and intimate one’s feelings may be, it can decrease after many years of raising children. This would ultimately lead to divorce and broken families which threatens the stability of family life in our society as stated earlier.
As any romantic will assert, love is by far the most powerful force known to human hearts and minds. This sentiment is espoused throughout history, almost to the point of cliché. Everyone has heard the optimistic statement, “love conquers all,” and The Beatles are certain, however idyllic it may be, that “all you need is love.” Humanity is convinced that love is unique within human emotion, unequalled in its power to both lift the spirit up in throws of ecstasy, and cast it down in utter despair.
In "A Midsummer Night's Dream," William Shakespeare explains the difficulties of the nature of love. Both false love and true love prevail in the end, leading the reader to come to the conclusion that all types of love can triumph. Hermia and Lysander represent the existence of a "true love", while Helena and Demertrius represent the opposite extreme. Shakespeare presents the idea that love is unpredictable and can cause great confusion. Love is something that cannot be explained, it can only be experienced. Shakespeare challenges us to develop our own idea of what love truly is.
How does 'sexuality' come into being, and what connections does it have with the changes that have affected personal life on a more general plane? In answering these questions, Anthony Giddens disputes many of the interpretations of the role of sexuality in our culture. The emergence of what he calls plastic sexuality, which is sexuality freed from its original relation of reproduction, is analyzed in terms of the long-term development of the modern social order and social influences of the last few decades. Giddens argues that the transformation of intimacy, in which women have played the major part, holds out the possibility of a society that is very traditional. "This book will appeal to a large general audience as well as being essential reading for those students in sociology and theory."(Manis 1)
I will begin first with the idea that sexual behavior should not be granted its own moral code. Sexual ethics only makes sense if sexuality plays a unique role in human life. If procreation has significance precisely because it is a contribution to God's ongoing work of creation, sexuality is supremely important and must be governed by restrictive rules, which would therefore prohibit sexual acts that are not for procreative purposes. This justification of sexuality as a unique aspect of human life, however, is dependent on a theological claim that there exists a God who micro manages the sexual lives of individuals. Without the presence of such a God, there can exist no separate restrictive rules on the nature of sexual acts. Even if we grant that there is a God, most people will agree that sex is more often used as a way to intensify the bond between two people and therefor sex is the ultimate trust and intimacy that you can share with a person.