Our drive for human connection has been forever fueled by desire to seek love, truth, and wisdom, and to share that information with one another in our quest and pursuit of happiness. Our society is shaped by the process and product of every interaction, both between people, and man and nature. Some sexual, and non-sexual relationships that form between human interaction are better than others for us as individuals, morally and spiritually. In the very old works of ancient Greek poets, Sappho and Plato, we are offered different approaches and insights on the mysteries of love, eros, and the true meaning and desire of human interaction, sexually and non-sexually. By looking at some of Sappho and Plato’s specific works, we can see …show more content…
It was the first time in the era of Epic poems that a poet, male or female, didn’t write about heroes of war, but chose to explore intense personal feelings and emotions of love. This kind of style of writing hadn’t been seen in the world ever at that time. Sappho’s work includes simple lyric style language that delivers vivid images, and awakens intense, influential feelings. As much of her work was burned and destroyed, due to her being exiled, we are left with the work of Sappho in mostly fragmentations and not in their full form. For example, in Sappho’s fragment 48, ‘You came and I was crazy for you and you cooled my mind that burned with longing,’ (Puchner) we see a great awareness of self, generating a fierce fire of desire that occurs frequently within the interiority of Sappho’s writing. Her cry-to- the-heart style lyric poems deliver simple, direct, and honest lines that really get across to the reader with an overwhelming power of love. Sappho didn’t censor, nor simplify love. Sappho’s was not afraid to express feelings of homosexuality or heterosexuality within her work, and most of her …show more content…
Yet, even in our modern times, we have to agree that Sappho is nothing more than correct when she suggests the ultimate goal in life is to seek, in pursuit of happiness and truth, and hold on to that of what you love. Sappho also describes some interactions of love as “sweetbitter,” eluding to this idea of pleasure first, followed by pain. ‘Eros the melter of limbs (now again) stirs me- sweet bitter unmanageable creature who steals in.’ (Puchner) By far, this fragment delivers so much truth, that even after thousands of years the concept is still true. Most of us all have been in some form of relationship where it starts out great, life couldn’t be better, but then everything erupts and falls apart, leaving you to feel all the pain and heartbreak that comes with love and desire. Plato’s outlook on love is very similar to the works of Sappho, yet adds to it, offering more dimensions. In The Symposium, which reads like a post modern text, Plato distances himself from the actual work itself, by delivering many messages through several characters, all based on real people. It is through these characters that Plato sets a frame form narrative, in which sends you as a reader penetrating further and further
By means of this her work shows enamour for unusual remnants that the society saw as useless understood by their actions of discarding these and offers a new strongly held perspective that allows us to see into the perspective of the world from a different angle, that at time was not seen as a tradition.
exactly what in which individuals, whose main focus is to seek the ultimate truth in life
In the poems, “EΡΩΣ” by Robert Bridges and “Eros” by Anne Stevenson both have similar yet distinct concepts of the God of love. “EΡΩΣ” describes the concept of love as being conflicted between humans view of Eros as the god of love and lust; where as Stevenson’s poem describes Eros as being bruised and beat up as a result of this constant misunderstanding by humanity. Thus, both poems are similar with their description of Eros’ constant struggles with human nature. “EΡΩΣ” by Robert Bridges has a contradictory concept of what humans view as love, thus the negative and positive comparisons are between Eros different angles in love and lust. For instance, Eros is described as both having “exuberant flesh so fair” yet
Socrates a classical Greek philosopher and character of Plato’s book Phaedo, defines a philosopher as one who has the greatest desire of acquiring knowledge and does not fear death or the separation of the body from the soul but should welcome it. Even in his last days Socrates was in pursuit of knowledge, he presents theories to strengthen his argument that the soul is immortal. His attempts to argue his point can’t necessarily be considered as convincing evidence to support the existence of an immortal soul.
"Plato." Literature of the Western World, Volume 1. 5th edition by Brian Wilkie and James Hurt. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 2001. 1197-1219.
Euthyphro, is one of the many dialogues that was written by the Greek philosopher Plato dicussion the quest for wisdom by his mentor, Socrates. The time that The Euthyphro takes place is doing the time of a trial that Socrates is in regarding some here say that he was corrupting the youth of Athens, and ultimately leads to his demise. It is very important issue due to the system Socrates used to try to understand wisdom, and gives some input on his and Plato's view on holiness altogether. In all, the Euthyphro is a view of how the Socratic way of getting wisdom works and it enters into what Socrates and Plato define holiness as.
I am often bombarded with a seven word question in life as I am sure many other people are. “What is your ultimate goal in life?” Many answers may differ, but my answer seems to always be the same; to seek happiness. If one can’t seek happiness what is the point of living? If you are miserable all the time and not living life with a positive mindset is there any so called “value” to your life? I’m not saying that you have to be happy all of the time because that is hard to achieve. Sometimes there are so called “punishments” in order to seek happiness, but once one achieves happiness it is a feeling that is indescribable.
Happiness. People go to any means by which to obtain the many varied materials and issues
O’Higgins, Dolores. “Sappho’s Splintered Tongue: Silence in Sappho 31 and Catullus 51.” Re-reading Sappho: Reception and Transmission. Ed. Ellen Greene. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996. Print.
happiness, and can lead to the choice of death over life. Hopefully, we will fully
Though not the focus of epic poetry, the female characters of this ancient genre play a central role, as they have a great influence on the male heroes they encounter. In a genre which idealizes manliness and heroism—that is, acts of courage, strength, and cunning— women are set in opposition to these ideals and therefore less respected. At the same time, women who attempt to take on more “masculine” roles are vilified. Here, antagonist is defined as anyone in opposition to the hero’s goals. Female agency—their free will and ability to wield power—is directly related to their role in epic poetry; that is, the more agency a female character has, the more antagonistic of a role she plays. This agency is often enacted through sexuality or supernatural
Wisdom, in my opinion, is the ultimate goal in life. I agree with Tom Robbins and Switters in saying that these attributes are composed within wisdom, but I believe that good judgement is also
By writing Symposium, Plato uses six characters to convey his idea of Love, the process of learning and thinking in a philosophical way. Each of these characters has a particular mission to elaborate different spheres of Love. However, these speeches given by six characters are not totally independent. They, to some extent, are connected; some of them agree or disagree with the previous one; some of them improve the idea of the former speakers. In conclusion, according to Symposium, Love is multi-faced.
In classical Greek literature the subject of love is commonly a prominent theme. However, throughout these varied texts the subject of Love becomes a multi-faceted being. From this common occurrence in literature we can assume that this subject had a large impact on day-to-day life. One text that explores the many faces of love in everyday life is Plato’s Symposium. In this text we hear a number of views on the subject of love and what the true nature of love is. This essay will focus on a speech by Pausanius. Pausanius’s speech concentrates on the goddess Aphrodite. In particular he looks at her two forms, as a promoter of “Celestial Love” as well as “Common Love.” This idea of “Common Love” can be seen in a real life context in the tragedy “Hippolytus” by Euripides. This brings the philosophical views made by Pausanius into a real-life context.
with some very different views of love as brought to us by Agathon, Phaedrus and