Symposium

An Army of Committed Love

The Symposium, a post war celebration where each member in attendance gave a speech in praise of love, had a wide variety of not only praises of love, but the actual idea and formation of love and human kind. The idea of love that I am especially interested in is the single idea of love, pure and good, as working to build the best army ever in existence. I believe, and agree with Phaedrus when he says that the best kind of an army would be one made of lovers. This idea I believe is a valid argument because not only would each lover be willing to sacrifice their love for the other in any situation, but they would also want to do nothing to disgrace their lover. However I am going to argue that the best army would not be those of homosexual relations between temporary lovers, but between married couples.

This army which Phaedrus is discussing is one made up of men and boys, or lovers and the boys they love. It was very common for Greek men to have an additional homosexual relationship alongside of their marriage, simply in search of satisfying their sexual desires. Though Phaedrus argues this army of lovers will be the best army, I don't agree. This army of boys and men will not be the best fit, because as stated in the introduction of the Symposium, this love relationship was not equal. The boys of this relationship were not necessarily in love with their lovers, they were simply wooed by them into a relationship, in addition, the boys were not necessarily supposed to be in love with the older man, they were simply trading sex for the knowledge that the men possessed, they had no knowledge to give back to their lovers so the fair trade off was sexual favors. So if the boys do not have a necessary love connection as Phaedrus was saying for the army to be successful, this army of lovers and boys would not necessarily work. I do believe the concept of an army of lovers to be successful, but in the context that the army was made up of married couples, or life partners. These relationships I believe to be better examples of how love could aid in a "best" army. The relationships between men and boys do not last. Usually around the age of puberty, after the boy has been taught everything he needs to know, the relationship ends and they simply become friends. If the war was to last for many years, and was made up of lovers, once the young boys were taught everything they could possibly learn from their lovers it would be probable that the relationship would end, and without much fight, since this is the natural course for these relationships. That is much different from that of married couples who would hopefully put up a fight if one or the other spouse decided to leave. Because that is the natural course for the relationship between men and boys to end, and marriages are meant to be for life, through thick and thin, sickness and in health and through any problems that might arise I argue that married couples or life partners would be the ones to last through a war. I do agree that this kind of an army would be made of individuals not wanting to disgrace their spouse, be even more importantly I think the fighting and the acts of bravery would be even greater because one would do everything in their power to spare their spouses life over their own. This idea was discussed by Phaedrus when he tells of the story of Alcestis in his speech, who was willing to die in place of her husband even when his father and mother were still alive, for even they did not volunteer their own life to spare their son's. This example helps to illustrate and prove how powerful love is, the strongest of all forces working to keep an army together and strong. And in the examples of Alcestis it was not an act between a man and a boy, but between a husband and a wife.

An opposition one might have to the idea that the best armies would be made of devoted couples might possibly be that in relationships the Eros and love that was once had between two people which initially brought them together and helped them become so close can start to loose it's glue, and out of routine many couples stay together, not out of love and passion or Eros. So if they were not as passionate of lovers later in their relationship as when they first started out together, then the rules that they would make a great army because they were lovers would not apply, and therefore they would not make a great army of lovers. I argue against that in there are many things that would still keep a couple together and devoted, and give