ABSTRACT
This chapter describes information about the cultural context is particularly useful in understanding where the speakers are "coming from". While for people to say that a relationship is "Platonic" is to say that it has no erotic component, real Platonic love is a form of erōs. In Socrates' speech, the power of erōs is precisely its generative capacity: it is responsible not just for biological reproduction but for all creative activity. It was commonplace for Athenian upper-class men to assume that the most emotionally intense and rewarding erotic relationships were homosexual. The chapter discusses what happened at the long-ago symposium, when each of a series of men gave a speech about erōs. A notable feature of the Symposium derives from its use of distancing forms of mediation. The namesake event of the Symposium takes place at the home of the tragic poet Agathon to celebrate his maiden victory. From the perspective of Alcibiades, the Platonic ascent of love is incomprehensible.
