Kevin Wu Texts and Ideas: Antiquity and the Renaissance Sarah Q.

Ostendorf April 21, 2012 The idea of love is an ephemeral subject that writers for the past few millennia have been trying to define. It seems to be an idea that varies over time, and at each point in history, there has been a writer to discuss it. The philosopher Plato, in the fourth century BC, attempts to describe love by presenting a dialogue between his colleagues in Symposium. Castiglione discusses the nature of affection and love in The Book of the Courtier, which was written during the Renaissance. Even though they are separated by an immense stretch of time, both Plato and Castiglione, through their works, attempt to show that the pursuit of love will lead to the perfection of the individual, regardless of the sex of the individual. In The Symposium, Aristophanes attempts to explain love as the attraction between two parts of a whole. After telling the story of the circular, four-legged, two-sided human, he says the following: That in this embrace, if a man met a woman, they might beget and the race might continue, and if a man met a man, they might be satisfied by their union and rest, and might turn to work and care about the general business of life. So you see how ancient is the mutual love implanted in mankind, bringing together the parts of the original body, and trying to make one out of two, and to heal the natural structure of man. Aristophanes believes that the gods split the original man into two halves. Since they were originally one being, these two parts are attracted to each other, and they are trying to find each other in the world. Claiming that one person is in fact a half of a true human being implies that the combination of two of these halves will complete the whole. Thus, the perfection of the original, circular structure of man can be attained simply through the attraction between the halves that were originally split. Aristophanes

also treats love as a divine force that is implanted in mankind by the gods who first split humans into two. Much like his colleagues, Aristophanes does not consider love to be something that is controlled by the individual. Rather, like Phaedrus, another member of the symposium, describes, love is an heavenly power that perfects and completes the various parts of the world. In another passage from The Symposium, Socrates, or perhaps Diotima, argues that love is merely the search for the true nature of beauty, and by starting from beautiful bodies, one can find the epitome of beauty. For let me tell you, the right way to approach the things of love, or to be led there by another, is this: beginning from these beautiful things, to mount for that beautys sake ever upwards, as by a flight of steps, from one to two, and from two to all beautiful bodies, and from beautiful bodies to beautiful pursuits and practices, and from practices to beautiful learnings, so that from learnings he may come at last to that perfect learning which is the learning solely of that beauty itself. Socrates, as always, treats the pursuit of love as a philosopher, the one whose job it is to study the world and learn its mysteries. To the philosopher, the pursuit of love is merely a step in the understanding of the concept of beauty. By trying to understand love, the individual first understands the beauty in mortal bodies. Then, by moving upwards on the metaphorical ladder, one can understand the beauty of learning, and eventually to the essence of beauty itself. To Socrates, the pursuit of love is about the creation of thought that will lead to the understanding of true beauty. Unlike Aristophanes, Socrates is not concerned with the continuation of the race. Thought is the most important part of Socrates life, and thus, the perfection of the individual cannot occur if those thoughts cannot be shared (which is what happens with a man and a woman). Although Aristophanes is perfectly fine with the male-female relationship, Socrates sees that bond as being inferior to the male-male relationship. That being said, he believes love exists for the sake of the individual enlightenment. Love serves as the

attractor between fellow men that wish to seek out the perfect knowledge as true thinkers. In Phaedo, Socrates points out that when a philosopher dies, his soul is free to seek out all of the pure knowledge in the universe. Their goal in life is to understand everything there is to know. The perfect state of thought is when the philosopher discards his shackles to the mortal plane and understands the essence of everything. Love is the guide towards the perfection of the individual in the sense that a philosopher that wishes to get close to that perfect nature can love another person, and by interacting and sharing thoughts, reach that state of understanding. Because of this need to obtain knowledge, Socrates believes that the male-male relationship is far superior to the male-female relationship. Although he does not say this explicitly, Socrates does say that the purpose of love is so that the philosopher can come at last to that perfect learning which is the learning solely of beauty itself. During this period of time, females were not supposed to be the one who became philosophers, as they were supposed to be subservient to males and domestic workers. Thus, the learning that is the goal of love cannot be reached with a relationship between a man and a woman. To Socrates, the only way to truly exploit love is to be able to trade thoughts and ideas between two capable people. In this case, males are the only ones who can complete the whole, not females. To strengthen this point, Socrates claims that all these beliefs are from a woman, Diotima, who told Socrates all he believes in. Perhaps he thought that having a woman speak through him would seem more truthful than having a male say it, as it could sound discriminatory. Either way, he makes the distinction that the sex combination of the ideal couple would be male-male. Unlike his teacher, Socrates, Aristophanes does not give a sex to the individuals, but he assumes that they can be completed with both men and women. In doing so, he can claim that any combination of the two halves can heal the natural structure of man. Like the other philosophers in The Symposium, Aristophanes values both the reproduction of ideas and the reproduction of man. With the union between two males, there can be a flow of ideas, and the two can find the perfection that Socrates

describes in Phaedo when he points out that the goal of a philosopher is to obtain knowledge. As a disciple of Socrates, Aristophanes sees the potential for perfection in this particular union because by reproducing, spreading, and creating new thoughts and new ideas, the two men are able to get closer and closer to understanding the essence of things; they will be closer to shedding their tainted bodies and observe the world with their souls. The union between males and females is a little more muddled. While this combination of sexes can continue the race and complete the original human being, they are unable to create the knowledge of a male-male couple since women are supposed to be subservient to men and thus unable to become philosophers. To Aristophanes, however, the ability to become any sort of union is indeed a completion of the whole, so for his intents and purposes, the male-female and the male-male couples can both create the perfect end result. The components of the final union matter less than the attraction, the love, which brings them together in the first place. Castiglione revisits this idea when he writes The Book of the Courtier during the Italian Renaissance. Here, he uses the character Pietro Bembo to describe how love is not just a force, but a divine creator of perfection that can be found in everything. Bembo, a cardinal in real life and a character in The Book of the Courtier, explains the connection that love has between the divine and the earthly. In Castigliones work, Bembo describes love as an attractive force that holds together and completes the world while bringing humans closer to God. He says that: [Love unites] the elements in harmony, [inspires] Nature to produce, and [moves] all that is born to the perpetuation of life. You join together the things that are separate, give perfection to the imperfect, likeness to the unlike, friendship to the hostile, fruit to the earth, tranquility to the sea, its life-giving light to the sky. You are the father of true pleasures, of all blessings, of peace, of gentleness and of good will; the enemy of rough savagery and vileness; the beginning and the end of every good. And since you delight to inhabit the flower of beautiful bodies and

beautiful souls, and there sometimes consent to reveal a little of yourself to those worthy to see you, I believe that you now dwell here among us. Consent then, O Lord, to hear our prayers, pour yourself into our hearts, and with the radiance of your most sacred fire illumine our darkness and like a trusted guide show us the right path through this blind maze. Correct the falsity of our senses and after our long delirium give us the true substance of goodness. Just like many of the philosophers of antiquity, Bembo sees love as a divine being. However, unlike the all-powerful, omniscient Christian god, this particular spirit is found in everything, and it serves to draw together all parts of the universe. Love, to Bembo, is extremely important to the well-being of the Creators world. The earths fruit, the peoples peace, and the skys light are all driven by the existence of this attraction. On top of that, to see the love that is revealed to those worthy to see [it] is to be enlightened. Bembo likens love to a fire that illuminates the darkness and guides us to the right path through the blind maze. After experiencing this flood of love, humans can see the true substance of goodness. To love is to grow closer to the heavens and to see a little of the divine, according to Bembo, and as a cardinal of the Christian faith, growing closer to heaven is one step closer to salvation. This is especially true if this love can correct the falsity of our senses, which might refer to the original sin inherent in Christianity. Naturally, to a cardinal, perfecting the individual can only be done by addressing the sin in ourselves and slowly bringing ourselves to be faithful adherents to Gods words. Bembos words make it obvious that he considers the pursuit of love to be another method of salvation and righteousness. He says that love gives perfection to the imperfect, is the father of true blessings, of all blessings, and of peace, and unites the elements in harmony. The last phrase resonates with the words of Eryximachus from Platos Symposium, where he claims that love is found in all places in the world, especially in medical practice, where getting the elements of the body to love each other is the goal. To create a healthy and complete person requires the medical practitioner to have an understanding of love. According to Bembo and Eryximachus, the perpetuation of life happens only

when in the presence of love. Additionally, love is the means by which a person can become whole and divine since it shows the path through the labyrinth of sin. Even though they exist in two different eras, these two characters, in their monologues, describe love in similar ways. Both in antiquity and in the Renaissance, love serves as a method to make all humans whole and perfect. Although the sex of the individual seemed to affect their ability to reach this state of perfection, it was merely a social norm that died away as time progressed. Although it was described in different ways over the course of two millennia, the link between love and perfection still remained. For each of their different reasons, Aristophanes, Socrates, and Bembo used different reasons for the existence of love. To Aristophanes, the comic playwright, it was a force that drew together two literal halves of what was originally a whole. Socrates saw love as a guide that would lead philosophers towards true knowledge, the ultimate goal for any thinker. Lastly, Bembo saw love as a kind of glue that held together the world and gave the mortal plane a glimpse of the divine. Even though these three writers all had different images in mind when they discussed the idea of love, the general purpose or idea of love seems to now have a solid definition, one that spans multiple millennia and empires. Love is not an ephemeral ideal. Rather, it is an irreplaceable, indispensable part of human nature, and in the search for perfection and the improvement of the individual, men, women, Christians, pagans, ancient philosophers, and white-collar workers all need love to perpetuate their lives.