Plato's Love Speeches

Plato's master stroke here is to have a series of raters give speeches about love. Thedrus, the namesake of the other logue i'll be discussing in a moment, describes love as a god who brings great blessings. Another character called pausanius insists that there are two gods called love, one of whom is preferable to the other. This idea that love can manifest itself as crass desire, fulfilment or as an exalted pursuit also appears in the phaedrus. And eraximachus, who is a doctor like the presocratic empedocles, sees love as a force that pervades the cosmos.