Guiding Eros
Aristophanes delivers a striking account concerning the nature of Eros. In his speech, which primarily takes the form of a myth, he weaves together comical elements with undertones of sadness that serve to create a profound account of what Eros is. The speech describes humans as combined creatures who, after being separated, are filled with longing. These beings spend the remainder of their lives, in a sometimes futile attempt, combating this feeling of longing by searching for the individual that can make them one again. Aristophanes describes Eros as a remedy for this overwhelming emotion. He uses his story to make Eros an entity that acts in tandem with individuals wishing to be whole. As a result, Eros ultimately serves as
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He states, “I do intend to speak in a somewhat different vain…Human beings…have been entirely unaware of the power of Eros…”(Plato 189d). The comic believes Eros to be a “helper of human beings” (189d), and in order to truly understand Eros one must understand human nature. Accordingly, Aristophanes goes on to explain the nature of man and the start of longing by giving a seemingly ridiculous account on the origins of human beings. In his myth, humans were originally sentient, globular creatures with nearly two sets of every body part. As he explains, “…the looks of each human being were as a whole round, with back and sides in a circle…each had four arms, and legs equal in number to his arms, and two faces alike in all respects…”(189e). These creatures were split into three races. Males originated from the sun, females the earth, and the third came from the moon. This third race came from a mixture of male and female, as it was the race that was able to “share in both” (190b). In addition, these beings possessed enough power to rise up against the gods and challenge their authority. Aristophanes expresses, “… they were awesome in their strength and robustness, and they had great and proud thoughts, so they made an attempt on the gods”(190b). From these descriptions, the reader is able to come to the realization that even though these rotund …show more content…
As he exclaims, “I shall now cut each of them in two…and they will be both weaker and more useful to us…”(190d). By doing this however, Zeus instills within each separated human the need of wanting to be brought back together. In fact, this need is so strong that these newly created individuals do nothing else but attempt to embrace their counterparts. Aristophanes describes, “When its nature was cut in two, each…came together; and throwing their arms around one another…in their desire to grow together, they began to die off due to hunger and the rest of their inactivity…”(191b). These lines indicate the strength of the emptiness and yearning these rotund creatures felt when they separated. This amalgam of emotions acts like an affliction that takes over every aspect of living for these humans. They desire to be to the point where they forget even to live when their other half perishes. As further stated, “whenever one of the halves did die…the one that was left tried to seek out another…and so they continued to perish”(191b). Out of pity, Zeus repositions the genitals of these new peoples, so that when they embraced they could experience feelings of pleasure that would replace the feelings of despair. Aristophanes states, “…Zeus took pity on them…he rearranges their genitals towards the front…and by this means made generations possible…and if male meets with male, there
In placing humankind within this world, it is the intent of God that humans enjoy this world and flourish in it through a continuing relationship with Him. And God said, “Let us make a human in our image, by our likeness, to hold sway over the fish of the sea and the fowl of the heavens and the cattle and the wild beasts and all the crawling things that crawl upon the earth” (Genesis 158-159). Therefore, He creates a human in His image, the image of God. God did not want man to be alone and decides to fashion a companion from the rib of man. “And the Lord God cast a deep slumber on the human, and he slept, and He took one of his ribs and closed over the flesh where it had been, and the Lord God built the rib He had taken from the human into a woman” (Genesis 160). Upon learning of this the human said, “This one at last, bone of my bones / and flesh of my flesh, / This one shall be called Woman, / for from man was this one taken” (Genesis 160). Human beings occupy center stage in this account of the world’s origin, but are held in low regard in Mesopotamian and Greek creation stories. In Enuma Elish, Marduk spoke to Ea of his idea for the creation of humankind, but Ea was the actual creator who devised how it should come about. In the Sixth Tablet, Marduk says, “My blood will I take and bone will I fashion / I will make man, that man may… / I will create man who shall
Roman and Greek mythology are filled with multiple interpretations of how the creator, be it the gods or nature, contributed to the birth of the world. These stories draw the backgrounds of the gods and goddesses that govern much of classical mythology. Ovid’s Metamorphoses and Hesiod’s Theogony are two pieces of work that account for how our universe came to be. A comparison of Theogony with Metamorphoses reveals that Hesiod’s creation story portrays the deities as omnipresent, powerful role whose actions triggered the beginning of the universe whereas in Metamorphoses, the deities do not play a significant role; rather the humans are center of the creation. The similarities and differences are evident in the construction of the universe, ages of man, and the creation of men and women on earth.
In the Symposium, a most interesting view on love and soul mates are provided by one of the characters, Aristophanes. In the speech of Aristophanes, he says that there is basically a type of love that connects people. Aristophanes begins his description of love by telling the tale of how love began. He presents the tale of three sexes: male, female, and a combination of both. These three distinct sexes represented one’s soul. These souls split in half, creating a mirror image of each one of them. Aristophanes describes love as the search for the other half of your soul in this quote: “When a man’s natural form was split in two, each half went round looking for its other half. They put their arms around one another, and embraced each other, in their desire to grow together again. Aristophanes theme is the power of Eros and how not to abuse it.
It is ironic that the entity in existence was the being called Chaos, for although it's Greek translation is Chasm, or emptiness, I believe that chaos and disorder will be their fate if the gods continue this eternal cycle of increasing self destructive behavior. All of this, however, was created as through the beliefs and imagination of Hesiod. Historians and mythologists still can not concretely separate, in his two stories, the Theogony and the Works and Days, which parts were of his imagination and which were not; it is therefore difficult to determine what the author's overall message was to the readers. It is possible that Hesiod wrote these stories in order to discredit the gods with gossip of their alleged human-like violence and sexual transgressions.
Oedipus is a story about a few basic human emotions. Among them are rage, passion, humility, and guilt. The Ancient Greeks understood these emotions well; their society was based upon the logical emotions, but always threatened by the violent ones. Oedipus was at first told that he was destined to kill his father and marry his mother. Fearful of himself, he fled showing a lack of humility away from his home, thinking that his problems would be solved. Later on, he gets into a tumultuous fight with a passerby on the road to Thebes. Enraged, he kills the man and his servants; this turned out to be a big mistake. After saving the city of Thebes from the Sphinx, he marries and then passionately sleeps with the queen. Towards the end of the play, he realizes that he has indeed killed his father and married his mother, thus echoing the lack of humility that first drove him away from his adopted parents.
Oedipus Rex”, by Socrates, is a play that shows the fault of men and the ultimate power of the gods. Throughout the play, the main character, Oedipus, continually failed to recognize the fault in human condition, and these failures let to his ultimate demise. Oedipus failed to realize that he, himself was the true answer to the riddle of the Sphinx. Oedipus ignored the truth told to him by the oracles and the drunk at the party, also. These attempts to get around his fate which was determined by the gods was his biggest mistake. Oedipus was filled with hubris and this angered the gods. He believed he was more that a man. These beliefs cause him to ignore the limits he had in being a man. Oedipus needed to look at Teiresias as his window to his future.
Aristophanes in Plato’s The Banquet, gave an extraordinary account of sexuality. According to him, in the legend of the ancient world there were three types of people. “In ancient times
Sophocles, the author of “Oedipus the King” led individuals such as Freud to critically analyze this play specifically for its psychological content. Freud utilized this play to expand his dream analysis research as well as the inspiration of the infamous “Oedipus Complex.” Oedipus operates under freewill, yet his fate has been determined by the Gods although the end result may require a winding path of less than obvious events that occur to achieve the prophecy. The supporting roles in “Oedipus the King” truly exploit the protagonist, Oedipus, and his character flaws. All in all, Sophocles demonstrates the power of an individual’s psyche by illustrating the fears and dreams that are transformed into actions; such actions also lead to the rise and fall of the great Oedipus by the end of “Oedipus the King.”
Sophocles explores the psychology of humans through the aristotelian elements of tragedy, in his play, Oedipus Rex. These elements have effectively allowed Sophocles to communicate the idea of fate overpowering intellect. Oedipus and Tiresias are key characters in developing this concept. Tiresias, a divine being, possesses heavenly knowledge whereas Oedipus, a mortal individual, relies heavily on his reasoning and intellect to make sense of his world. Sophocles pairs these characterizations with motifs about blindness and sight as well as truth and ignorance, allowing for the theme to come forth. Tyrone Guthrie’s extraordinary costuming and staging only enhances Sophocles’s message about destiny conquering human judgement.
One of the best summarizes of Greeks’ gods attitude toward human is the claim of Aphrodite in Euripides’ Hippolytus that she will treat well the people who revere her power, but will “trip up” those who are proud towards her, and this pri...
The Oedipus Rex reflects the greatest tragedies of time that struggles consistently for the power of free will and power of Gods. The character of Oedipus depicts his woeful fate as he becomes the murderer of his father. The character of Oedipus depicts selfishness that results in his ignorance.
Because of this omnipotent force, Oedipus’ fate is set in stone, and all of his attempts to fool his fate only sealed it. By establishing the gods as the primary source of fate, Sophocles gives the characters an ultimatum: follow your destiny and obey the gods, or your life will be ruined. This ultimatum shows the true moral of plays, and in turn, it shows how Sophocles wanted to influence his audience.This extreme moral highlights Sophocles’ belief in fate, and how that influences the interpretation of the original myth and its adaptation for the plays. Sophocles shows how fate can often be the deadliest of weapons, and through Oedipus and Creon, we clearly see how it can be such. Sophocles shows the audience what he considered to be the will of the gods, and through that, he taught an important moral and how to please the gods the people of Greece
with some very different views of love as brought to us by Agathon, Phaedrus and
Throughout studying many myths, I came up with many new observations. Many questions came into my mind about these myths. Greek mythology takes us back to a time when people had a connection with nature and when nature played a major role in people’s lives. The religious beliefs of the people who wrote the myths are found in the background of these myths; however, they are not to be read like religious texts. The myths try to offer explanations of “how”, which makes us think deeply about the purpose of these myths and the questions they draw to our minds. According to the myths we studied in class, the world created the gods, not the other way around. The gods were always created in the image of man, which shows how much men were important in their society. Furthermore, many of these Greek myths show us the difference between the views of the Greek then and our view towards many aspects of the society, including nature. Monsters appear in Greek myths and have different representations and roles. Greek mythology reflects a view of the Greeks towards the world and how certain aspects of their lives are similar and different to modern society.
Sophocles' Oedipus Rex (the King) is a tragic play that discusses the discovery of Oedipus that he has killed his father and married his mother. Oedipus is the embodiment of the perfect Athenian. He is self-confident, intelligent, and strong willed. Ironically these are the very traits which bring about his tragic discovery. Oedipus gained the rule of Thebes by answering the riddle of Sphinx. Sophocles used the riddle of the sphinx as a metaphor for the three phases of Oedipus' life and to further characterized him as a tragic man.