Plato on love and desire
Plato's Symposium (written around 380 BCE) is set at a dinner party where each guest praises Erōs, the god of love and desire.
- Aristophanes gives a comic myth. The first humans had four arms, four legs and two faces. They grew proud, so Zeus split them in two. Each half now longs for its partner. Love, he says, is "the desire and pursuit of the whole".
- Socrates reports the teaching of the priestess Diotima. Erōs is not a god but a spirit between gods and humans. It is a lack: we desire what we do not yet have. What we really want is to possess the good for ever, so love leads to "giving birth in beauty": children, poems, laws or ideas that outlast us.
- The ladder (ascent) of love: one beautiful body → beauty in all bodies → beauty of souls → beauty of practices and laws → beauty of knowledge → the Form of Beauty itself, eternal and unchanging.
In the Phaedrus, Plato adds the image of the soul as a charioteer with two horses: a noble one and an unruly one. Love can lift the soul towards the Forms when reason guides desire.
Seneca and Musonius Rufus on marriage
The Stoics taught that the good life is a life of virtue guided by reason, and that strong passions (like anger or wild desire) disturb the mind.
- Musonius Rufus (1st century CE) taught that the main purpose of marriage is a shared life and the raising of children. Husband and wife should care for each other completely, in health and sickness, "each wanting to outdo the other" in kindness. He said sex belongs inside marriage and that husbands should be held to the same standard of faithfulness as wives.
- Seneca (c. 4 BCE–65 CE) warned that love driven by passion is like a disease of the mind. A wise person loves with reason. His letters praise friendship and show deep affection for his wife Paulina, but he criticised loving one's wife "too passionately".
For both, a good marriage is a partnership in virtue.
Sappho and Ovid on love
- Sappho (c. 630–570 BCE) was a lyric poet from Lesbos. Only fragments survive. She describes love as a physical force: a fire under the skin, ringing ears, trembling, being unable to speak. She calls Eros "sweet-bitter" (glukupikron), a word she seems to have invented. Her poems are personal, written in the first person, and focus on longing and memory.
- Ovid (43 BCE–17 CE) was a Roman poet. His Amores and Ars Amatoria (Art of Love) treat love with wit, as a skill that can be taught, a game with rules, and "every lover is a soldier". His light attitude clashed with the emperor Augustus's laws to promote marriage, and Ovid was later sent into exile.
Compare: Sappho shows love happening to us; Ovid shows love as something we do with skill. Plato tries to lift it towards wisdom; the Stoics try to calm it with reason.
Ancient ideas of men and women
- In most Greek cities, citizen women could not vote, rarely owned property in their own name, and were expected to manage the home. Roman women had more freedom in daily life but still lived under the authority of a father or husband for much of the period.
- Aristotle argued that the husband should rule the household, and that women's reason was less able to rule. This view was common.
- Plato in the Republic suggested that women in the guardian class could be trained and could rule, as their natures differ from men's only in strength.
- Musonius Rufus said women have the same reason and the same capacity for virtue as men, so they should also study philosophy.
- Poets like Sappho show a woman's own voice on love, which is very rare in surviving ancient texts.
Try it: make a two-column table: "love as passion" vs "love as reason". Place Aristophanes, Diotima, Musonius, Seneca, Sappho and Ovid in it and give one reason for each.
Key formulas and definitions
- Erōs: love as desire (often romantic); philia: friendship; agapē: later term for selfless love
- Symposium: Plato's dialogue on love, set at a dinner party
- Ladder of love: body → bodies → souls → laws → knowledge → Beauty itself
- Stoicism: virtue guided by reason; control of passions
- Glukupikron: Sappho's "sweet-bitter" description of love
Worked examples
1. Summarise Aristophanes' myth in the Symposium in three sentences.
Step 1: Humans were once round beings with two faces, four arms and four legs. Step 2: Because they were proud, Zeus split them in half. Step 3: Love is each half's longing to find its partner and become whole again.
2. Explain how Diotima's ladder moves from the particular to the universal.
Step 1: The lover starts with one beautiful person (particular). Step 2: He sees that beauty in one body is like beauty in all, then that beauty of the soul is greater. Step 3: He moves to beautiful laws and knowledge, which belong to many. Step 4: Finally he sees Beauty itself, eternal and the same for everyone (universal).
3. Compare Musonius Rufus and Aristotle on women.
Step 1: Aristotle: the husband naturally rules; women's reason is less able to rule. Step 2: Musonius: women have the same reason and virtues; they should study philosophy. Answer: Aristotle defends hierarchy; Musonius argues for equal ability and education.
4. How does Sappho describe the effect of love on the body?
Step 1: She lists physical signs: a fluttering heart, no voice, thin fire under the skin, blurred sight, ringing ears, sweating and trembling. Step 2: The list shows love as a force that takes control. Answer: Love is felt as an overwhelming bodily experience, both sweet and bitter.
5. Why might the Roman emperor Augustus have disliked Ovid's Art of Love?
Step 1: Augustus passed laws to encourage marriage and punish adultery. Step 2: Ovid's poem treats love affairs playfully, as a game to be won. Answer: it seemed to mock the moral programme of the emperor; Ovid was later exiled.
6. Would a Stoic agree with Sappho that love is a sweet-bitter force we cannot control? Explain.
Step 1: Sappho presents love as something that overpowers us. Step 2: Stoics think passions come from false judgements and can be controlled by reason. Step 3: A Stoic would value steady, reasoned affection, not overpowering passion. Answer: No; a Stoic would say we should not let love rule us.
Common mistakes
- Saying Aristophanes' speech is Plato's own view. It is one speech in the dialogue; Socrates/Diotima's speech carries more weight.
- Thinking "platonic love" in the Symposium means love with no desire. Diotima's ladder starts from physical attraction and redirects it.
- Mixing up Seneca and Musonius: Musonius gives the fullest argument for marriage as partnership and for women studying philosophy.
- Treating ancient views on women as modern equality. Even the most open thinkers worked within unequal societies.