Socrates’ rejection of Alcibiades in Plato’s Symposium clearly demonstrates the former’s understanding of the art of love as presented to him by Diotima. Diotima outlines the art of love in a very particular way, laying out its origins, its characteristic properties, and its relation to the Form of Beauty. Socrates rejection seamlessly aligns with this description and demonstrates all of these essential concepts. It must be noted the broader, more general use of the word love is presented interchangeably with its physical embodiment (Love) in the Symposium. I will be laying out the origins and essential characteristics of the art of love, being sure to distinguish between the ambiguous use of love/Love before then highlighting how in each case, Socrates’…show more content… Diotima’s account begins with the origins of Love and its role in matters of god and mortals. The first conclusion she and Socrates reach is that Love is neither beautiful nor good, but also neither ugly nor bad (Sym. 202a). This is because, according to Socrates, all gods are beautiful and happy. In this case, happy means possessing good and beautiful things. Because Love desires good and beautiful things, but does not possess them, he cannot be a god. But he cannot be a mortal either. Since Love is neither mortal nor god, Diotima concludes that he is a spirit, because everything spiritual is “in between god and mortal” (202e).
Next, Diotima describes Love’s conception during the celebration of the goddess Aphrodite’s birth (203b). Penia conceived Love after finding Poros, asleep in the garden during the celebration and sleeping with him, in an attempt to relieve herself of lack of resource. Love possesses several distinct
