In Plato’s Symposium there are multiple speeches given by the characters. These speeches aid in the pursuit to figure out exactly what love is and how it is best defined. Ultimately, the most satisfying conclusion of what love is, is drawn from Socrates’ speech. There are significant arguments made by both Socrates and Alcibiades via Diotima’s account of love and the speech of Alcibiades himself. Using the two men’s’ speeches specifically, it is proven that Socrates and Alcibiades are indeed lovers in the Socratic sense. Love, in the Socratic sense, can be noted as an intangible property that is held between two things. It is a love of something and does not have to be beautiful or good itself (201a-203d). Socratic love places great emphasis …show more content…
Diotima’s account uses pregnancy to explain the importance of giving birth and enduring labor in love. Pregnancy in this case means pregnant with ideas to be birthed and given as a gift to others “it is of engendering and bringing to birth in the beautiful… because engendering is born forever and is immortal”(206e). Socrates embodies the wisdom that Alcibiades is enchanted by. In the love between the two, it is the wisdom that Socrates possesses that catches Alcibiades eye. The education of the lover via the loved one makes the relationship concrete. Alcibiades discusses how he offers his own physical love in exchange for Socrates’s highest form of love. Immortality comes from wisdom being passed from one individual to another. Socrates is not fooled, he is well aware that what he has to offer is of the greatest quality while Alcibiades physical offering is not. Socrates proclaims “…in observing my beauty, you are trying to get a share in it and to exchange beauty for beauty you are intending to get the far better deal”(218e). There is an acknowledgement by both men about the fact that Socrates’s goodness and wisdom is of the greatest value. By Socrates allowing a relationship to form with Alcibiades, he is showing that he enjoys having a potential “student” he can educate. Socrates sees the potential in him to better his soul and is concerned with Alcibiades’s heavy …show more content…
Alcibiades, in his speech draws similarities between Socrates and a god, by referring to him as one. This personal account of their relationship solidifies their Socratic love when Alcibiades states, “I declare that he is most like those silenuses” (215b). Silenuses were representations of the characteristics of the god Silenus. The importance of this statement from Alcibiades is that Silenus had great wisdom that was supposed to be revealed to others. This is insinuating that Socrates is god-like in Alcibiades’s eyes. These two men exemplify what love is supposed to be, a struggle between to kinds of beauty trying to get the most out of one another. Anything that is truly divine is to be between a mortal being and a god. Socrates’s ideas and wisdom are of divine and immortal quality, which is obvious to both