Week 4

Aristophanes: Love of one’s own (missing) half, the (horizontal) longing for wholeness

October 7, 2025 6:30 PM - 8:00 pm

Aristophanes explains Eros by presenting his own myth about the gods and the origin of human beings. Were the original, globular humans in his myth erotic beings? What leads them to rebel against the gods, if not eros? How does the splitting of these original beings in half, as divine punishment, help explain the nature of erotic longing? What does it mean that lovers are unable to say what they want from each other (192c-d)? Why don’t lovers seem to care about death if united “as one” (193e)? What does the absence of any mention of beauty suggest about the limitations of Aristophanes’ account? On the other hand, what in it so powerfully conveys the possessive and heart-rending power of love?

Reading: 189b – 193e

Readings are from Plato’s Symposium, trans. Seth Benardete (Univ. of Chicago, 2001).