Bai La wedding photography shizhuang

-a brief analysis of the ancient Greeks' concept of love

(Fan Liping, Fudan University)

[Abstract]: This paper takes the ancient Greek women as the breakthrough point, investigates the ancient Greek concept of love, and tries to clarify the true meaning of "Platonic love". The author believes that "Platonic love" is not synonymous with spiritual love, nor can it be simply classified as same-sex love. Its real essence lies in moderation. This paper further reveals that the lack of status of ancient Greek women in the love world is closely related to the social status of women at that time and the lofty ideal of love of ancient Greeks.

[Keywords:]: Plato's love Plato restrained ancient Greek women

(Page 1/2)

In the eyes of modern people, Platonic love seems to be synonymous with spiritual love, which refers to the kind of love that transcends time and space and exists only between souls and does not occupy each other's bodies. Although people have all kinds of beautiful expectations for this way of love, most people are not very clear about the true meaning of this word. It can be said that modern people have more misunderstandings about "Platonic love". In Plato's own dialogues, especially "Drinking" and "Fidel" with the theme of love, Plato expressed many views on love through Socrates' mouth, but none of them were about "Platonic love". On the contrary, Plato made a special discussion on the relationship between love and lust. This paper attempts to reinterpret "platonic love" by analyzing Plato's view of love, and reveal the similarities and differences between ancient Greeks and modern people in their view of love. In addition, the article will pay special attention to the position of women in the love world of ancient Greece. Modern people generally believe that love is a natural thing between men and women, and on this premise, they have carried out various discussions on love. However, in the love world of ancient Greeks, women were always in the situation of being expelled. Due to the social reality at that time, it was difficult for women to obtain the right to love. Understanding the ancient Greeks' love concept from the perspective of women can make us have a clearer understanding of the ancient Greeks' ethics.

1. God's love and desire

As long as we have a little understanding of ancient Greek culture, we will find that myths have a decisive influence on people's lives at that time. The ancient Greeks' concept of life is closely related to their understanding of God. Similarly, their view of love is inseparable from their understanding of love. In mythology, there are two goddesses in charge of love and beauty: the older one comes from heaven and is called Aphrodite in the sky; The young were born by Zeus and Dione, and were called Aphrodite on the earth. Accordingly, there are two kinds of love: love in the sky and love on the earth. Because Aphrodite in the sky was born without any lust and debauchery, the corresponding love in the sky is also a noble love, which deserves people's real yearning and pursuit. Aphrodite on the Ground symbolizes the inseparable connection between love and lust on the ground, so it is regarded as vulgar and dissolute.

Goodness and beauty play a very important role in ancient Greek philosophy and outlook on life. The love of the ancient Greeks also yearned for the ideal world of beauty and goodness. "Drinking" recorded the debate between celebrities about God's love and love at that time, and generally reflected people's love view at that time. In this dialogue, Plato expressed his favorite love through Socrates. Socrates got the knowledge about love from Diotima, a witch, which truly reflected the philosopher's deep thinking about love.

First of all, the object of love is kindness. Love is just a desire to own good things. In Fidel, Socrates gave a clear definition of love: "When the desire to enjoy beauty controls the judgment of promoting correct behavior, when this desire gains new power to pursue physical beauty from other related desires, this power provides a name for this desire-this is the strongest desire, called making love". This definition reveals the close relationship between love and beauty and goodness, that is, in Plato's view, the object of love is goodness, not beauty, and beauty is only the driving force of love. But Agathon insists that the object of love is beauty. By praising God's beauty, he infers that the object of love is beauty itself. In the article "Drinking", the dialogue between Socrates and Diotima also clearly expressed the following views: "We only love goodness, and we don't love anything else", "Love never expects the other half or everything except seeking goodness". And "the act of love is to cultivate the beauty of body and soul". Under the influence of love, people look forward to bearing children, just like looking forward to kindness. The real purpose is to look forward to immortality.

Secondly, the highest love is a philosophy. Love is not a life-long combination with a spouse who is flesh and blood, or even a "heart in mind", but an "incredible fusion" of souls and "eternal wisdom" far above human lust. In the eyes of modern people, love and philosophy are definitely irrelevant, but ancient Greek philosophers have linked philosophy and love. No wonder Socrates, who believes in self-knowledge and ignorance, said that love is the only thing he knows. Philosophers' thinking about love is not only a profound understanding, but also a life practice. Plato compared love to a mysterious religion. If a person wants to reach the highest state of love, he must go through four steps: the "deepest road" of love must start with sensitivity to physical beauty. If a person is guided correctly, he will turn his love for a particular beautiful body into a noble conversation. Then he will realize how the specific form of beauty is related to other beauty, so he will fall in love with all forms of beauty and regard the specific beauty as insignificant. Furthermore, he regarded the beauty of mind as more precious than other physical beauty and began to guide the beauty of law and system. Finally, relying on his understanding of the vast field of beauty, he looked at the beauty of Wang Yang sea with his eyes and found that meditation can produce lofty thoughts and acquire the beauty of knowledge. At this time, his soul has neglected beauty itself. He "worked hard for a long time and the beautiful soul will suddenly emerge with the beautiful scenery." It can be seen that on the road to the holy land of love, only by correctly guiding people, that is, from being sensitive to specific physical beauty to paying attention to formal beauty, institutional beauty and intellectual beauty, can we finally have happiness and achieve immortality.

Third, love is indispensable for self-pursuit. In Greek mythology, the birthday of eros, the god of love, in Aphrodite was born by the combination of the god of resources and the god of poverty. Therefore, love is divided into mother's poverty, ugliness, untidiness and homelessness, and father's temperament, so he strongly yearns for all good things-courage, perseverance, wit and the skills to pursue these desired things. But strictly speaking, Cupid is not a god. In the dialogue between Socrates and Diotima, they agreed that Cupid was an elf between man and god. Love is not a real God, so it is not as perfect and kind as God. What Cupid seeks is exactly what he lacks. Therefore, the essence of love also contains the desire for what you lack.

Apart from the explanation of love itself, Plato did not shy away from discussing the relationship between love and lust. In Fidel, he took a carriage as an example to vividly express the role of lust and reason in the process of love. He compared desire to a bad horse, while reason is a good horse. When people are crazy about love, two horses will interact, and the bad horse is unruly, but Plato hopes that the good horse in the soul will prevail, that is, he advocates rationality and moderation. In the madness of love, people should still be temperate and live a life dominated by the noble part of the soul. If love liberates the good power in the soul, then people can live a disciplined and philosophical life and enjoy the glory and greatness brought by love. However, if the love of the soul is not completely forgotten, it is also recognized to do what ordinary people think is happy to satisfy their desires, because no matter whether their love is strong or exhausted, they can be regarded as friends. "Because they have love, they will grow wings when they should." 8

Although the ancient Greeks made a strict distinction between love and lust. However, the ancient Greeks with a healthy and sound concept of life did not shy away from lust, but organically combined love and lust. As long as there is love between people, lust is not a shameful and inferior thing. In contrast, the oriental view of love is very deformed in the view of lust. Plato believes that it is best for people to control the bad horses in their souls, that is, to treat love moderately, so as to live a truly happy life.

Second, platonic love.

As a philosopher, Plato's thoughts on love and his other works, such as The Republic, constructed a world of goodness and beauty. The true meaning of "platonic love" is not to transcend time and space, nor is it entirely because it only exists between souls, but rather an advocacy of moderation. Although Plato was not an ascetic, temperance seemed to him to be the key to true love. Temperance is another horse in the soul, it is very cautious, so that love will not fall into the vulgarity of lust. Love makes people crazy, and the interaction between two horses prevails, which affects people's mood. Plato advocated moderation, so that lovers can have real happiness.

In addition, contrary to the concept of modern people, Platonic love does not refer to the love between men and women in general, but refers to the same-sex love between men and women. It is worth mentioning that Xenophon also wrote "Drinking Articles". Although his writing purpose is quite different from Plato's, in his works, Plato's love also refers to gay men. Platonic love is the pursuit of beauty, and only moderation can lead love to a better world. As we all know, in the eyes of ancient Greeks, only men enjoyed virtues such as temperance and courage. Women are only related to childbirth and family affairs, and do not have these virtues. Even to a great extent, women symbolize indulgence. Therefore, Plato's desire for the best and restrained love must exist only among human beings. Socrates himself was gay. At the end of Drinking, Socrates' lover's admiration for him can be said to be a true portrayal of Platonic love. Socrates' lover is a beautiful teenager. The reason why he likes Socrates, who is ugly and not rigidly dressed, is that he is moved by his personality charm and impressed by the kindness of Socrates' soul and his wisdom. The story of Socrates risking his life to save his lover recorded in the dialogue shows the power of same-sex love. The ancient Greeks generally believed that a lover would be brave in front of the person he loved, so many soldiers were lovers when the army fought. A soldier fights not only to win, but also to show courage and wisdom in front of his lover. Therefore, they will become brave and invincible. In ancient Greek society, the so-called love in heaven basically refers to the love between men and women, that is, gay men. Only love on earth refers to love between men and women, love between men and boys, because most of these loves are out of lust.

Plato's view of love in Drinking is very unique, far beyond the scale of ordinary people's thinking. But the love he described, like the utopia he built, is beautiful, but it has an unattainable ideal color. He compared love to religion, which shows his devotion and persistent pursuit of love. Therefore, to understand Platonic love is not simply to experience the spiritual fit (spiritual love) brought by the separation of time and space, but to practice the kindness and happiness brought by abstinence under the madness of love. Plato conceived a ladder to let people reach the country of love. He hoped that people would be as pious as Christians, constantly releasing the power of kindness in their souls, and finally achieving permanent happiness. When modern people understand Plato's love, they regard the harmony of the soul as the most critical factor, which shows that people see Plato's love is the supreme love between souls, but forget the important significance of temperance for this kind of love. In addition, the modern concept of love makes it impossible for people to understand the inevitable connection between love and knowledge. Plato's view of love is not only a praise of same-sex love, but also contains the ideal of philosophers, that is, the highest realm of love is philosophy. The life of philosophers who pursue wisdom and knowledge is the most desirable, because through meditation, their souls can take care of beauty itself. Therefore, only by understanding the meaning of goodness and beauty to the ancient Greeks, and only by understanding Socrates' concept that knowledge is goodness, can we truly understand Platonic love.

Third, the lack of women's status in the love world.

Although love is so worthy of people's yearning and longing, in the eyes of ancient Greek women, love has nothing to do with them. It is better to examine the reasons why women were expelled from the love world than the status of women in ancient Greece. In ancient Greece, the status of men and women was very different. Modern people think that the spontaneous feelings between men and women are not generally accepted in the ancient Greek concept. After thousands of years, the ancient Greek polis is still an ideal model for people to yearn for democracy and freedom, but the status of women living there is very humble. Even in the world of love, they are the objects of expulsion. In the patriarchal society at that time, women had no economic autonomy in the economic field and no right to vote in the political field. As far as legal status is concerned, women, like minors, have no right to legal independence for life. Women have to live under the guardianship of guardians all their lives. According to historical records, women in ancient Greece were mostly isolated at home, doing housework and having little chance to participate in public activities. Women's seclusion is a universal moral concept, and silence and obedience are women's virtues. The meaning of marriage to ancient Greek women was only to reproduce and take charge of the family.

Because the ancient Greeks held such an idea about women, the love world that advocates beauty and goodness naturally has nothing to do with women. Some philosophers even take it for granted that women are expelled from the world of love. Xenophon's On Economy discusses that women are naturally suitable for indoor work from the perspective of family gender division of labor, so it is their duty to raise children and do housework. A wife pleases her husband not by dressing up and making up, but by doing housework hard. In Xenophon's view, marriage is just a need, and the combination of men and women is only for utilitarian purposes, without any affection. Since the marriage between men and women is not based on mutual love, then men can only get love in the interaction with the same sex. At that time, women didn't even have the right to go out freely, and it was impossible to find a lover by themselves. Ancient Greek society was a monogamous society dominated by men, and the disparity between men and women was one of the reasons for the lack of love between men and women.

The expulsion of women from the love world was not only the reality at that time, but also there was still no place for women in Plato's ideal love world. As mentioned above, love advocated by Plato is still the same-sex love between men. For Plato, the lack of women's status in his ideal love world is probably related to women's lack of education. In the Republic, his special exposition on women's education may give us some enlightenment. Plato yearns for the highest state of love, while a woman without culture has no knowledge at all, so she doesn't know how to be good, so it is natural to be excluded from the world of love.

Aristotle's views on women are also very representative. Modern people generally pay attention to women in Spartan society because they exercise, live and manipulate many public affairs like men. However, in Aristotle's eyes, women in Sparta were "indulgent", and he accused Spartan women of bringing great chaos to the polis when it was attacked by the enemy because of their constant indulgence. 10 For Aristotle, modesty is a woman's duty. He only cares about how to effectively distribute women and children as public property in order to facilitate the unification of the city-state. In Aristotle's system, women have no love at all. Because love between men and women will directly dilute friendship and destroy the beauty of the city-state.

The lack of women's status in the love world is also inseparable from the prejudice of ancient Greeks against women. Women are regarded as incapable of thinking and a symbol of unrestrained sensuality. Excessive lewdness will make men lose control and rationality; In addition, too much contact with women will also make men infected with femininity and lose the excellent quality as a symbol of men-courage. 1 1 Some researchers believe that the status of women at that time was not as low as we thought, and ancient Greece also had a tradition of respecting women. In fact, the ancient Greeks, like modern people, divided women into two types: one is the mother who gave birth to children; The second kind is a prostitute played by a man. The ancient Greeks revered women only because they were mothers, because being a mother meant being responsible for housework and raising children. As far as the overall social status of women is concerned, it is still very low. According to modern understanding, in the face of love, men and women should have equal status, and lovers should respect each other. Women in ancient Greek society have always been in a submissive position, and men's prejudice against women and social ideas about women have also led to women's inability to pursue their own love.

Fourth, a special case: senior prostitutes in ancient Greece.

Most women in ancient Greece were detained because of their lives, and there was no possibility of getting love. However, there is a class of women who gained more freedom than ordinary women because of their careers, and they were senior prostitutes at that time. Although prostitutes have a lower status in the minds of ordinary people, senior prostitutes in ancient Greece have won social recognition because of their good looks, outstanding talents and high education level. In historical materials, we also found traces of love between men and women in the modern sense of ancient Greece. Pericles's love affair with Aspa Sia, a high-class prostitute, is almost well known. At that time, Pericles was a politician with a wife and children and real power, but he divorced his wife in order to marry Aspa. Although Aspa Sia is a high-class prostitute, she is beautiful, intelligent and has first-class communication skills. These qualities enabled her to quickly and successfully make the most important people at that time prostrate themselves in front of her, and even Socrates was not ashamed to associate with her. What's more worth mentioning is that Plato wrote a eulogy to Aspa in Mini Cheros, and Socrates read it aloud. After she married Pericles, her political influence became stronger and stronger, so that Plutarch thought that she had started the war between Athens and Samos Island for her hometown Miletus. In fact, Pericles's love for Aspa West Asia provided his opponent with a powerful excuse to attack himself. 12 finally, the expulsion of Aspa and Western Asia can partly explain that the society at that time could not tolerate this kind of love between men and women.

In historical materials, there are also many records of the lives of high-ranking prostitutes in ancient Greece, their love and their inextricably linked with nobles. The reason why celebrities at that time accepted and were willing to associate with these high-class prostitutes was inseparable from their education. Most of these prostitutes with high status are beautiful, smart, lively and have superb communication skills. Their careers make it unnecessary for them to live in seclusion at home, so they have a chance to find their own love. These precious materials give us a revelation: men in ancient Greece were not born without love for the opposite sex. It's just that the patriarchal society greatly limits women's activity space and right to education, which eventually leads to the kind of noble love between men and women that philosophers think is difficult to produce. The whole society can only understand the love between men and women as lust inseparable from physical satisfaction.

Five, the mystery of love between men and women-the enlightenment of a myth

Modern people think that love between men and women is natural. This theory can only be found in ancient Greek mythology. In Drinking, aristophanes told a famous fairy tale: The original people were completely different from us now. It turns out that there are three kinds of people: besides men and women, there are also hermaphrodites who are half men and half women. Primitive man is spherical with a round back, two sides and two identical faces. The other organs of the body are twice as many as those of people now, and they can walk at will and run very fast. The first man was born in the sun, the woman was born in the earth, and the hermaphrodite was born in the moon, which has two gender characteristics. Because human beings want to create a rebellion against the gods and fly to heaven, Zeus and the gods discussed a way to deal with people: split people in half. In this way, the number of people has increased and the number of people serving God has doubled. In addition, people's ability is only half as strong as before and will not pose any threat to God. After Zeus split man in half, Apollo made some slight changes to him, and he became what he is now. People who are split in two miss their other half so much that they run together and hug each other. This love for the other half revived the lust and became a bridge between people. 13

According to this myth, each of us is looking for the right partner. People cut by primitive people love to make friends with men since childhood, and they are followers of men, that is, gay men. Primitive women cut people who were not interested in men, so they became lesbians. People cut by primitive hermaphrodites, both men and women, will be attracted to the opposite sex, that is, they will develop into lovers. We were originally complete, and now we are looking forward to and following this original integrity. This is called love. 14 According to aristophanes's explanation, whether gay or straight, love comes from the desire for the other half. Although ancient Greek society generally believed that men symbolized virtues such as temperance and bravery, homosexuality was considered noble. But this myth also proves that the love between men and women does have its origin, just like gay men, it comes from nature. There were three kinds of people at first. The existence of androgyny makes the combination between men and women not only out of lust, but also out of the desire for the other half of themselves. Only in the mythical world, women are not expelled, but are recognized as having the right to love.

This myth of aristophanes has almost become the most famous chapter in Drinking, largely because of its incisive exposition of the relationship between love and human nature. Modern people take the love between men and women for granted, and gradually tolerate homosexuality and recognize same-sex love. However, in ancient Greek society, people held high the love of men and women who symbolized lofty morality, while belittling the love of men and women of the opposite sex. Although there are records of love stories between men and women at that time in historical materials, it is still the lack of women's status in the love world that dominates. In ancient Greek society, the domination and oppression of male power made women lose their autonomy, and even their desire for love was deprived by the power of male ideology.

On the one hand, the investigation of the ancient Greeks' concept of love enables us to understand the profound thinking of ancient Greek philosophers on love and understand the true meaning of Platonic love. On the other hand, taking women in ancient Greece as the breakthrough point, we can also see the bad influence of monogamous society in ancient Greece on women. Although the ancient Greeks had lofty ideals for love, they did not shy away from the lust brought by love. But the love mode they admire is undoubtedly deformed in the eyes of today's people. By comparing the love views of ancient Greeks with those of modern people, we can understand the ethical concepts of ancient Greeks and the reasons for the decline of ancient Greek society.

When describing the Athenians, Pericles famously said, "He loves beauty without losing his simple taste, and he loves wisdom without losing his man's courage". 15 this is also a portrayal of the whole society at that time. Ancient Greek society symbolizes the flourishing age of civilization, and women living in ancient Greece show modern people the other side of the flourishing age. Perhaps, from the perspective of modern people, we can't really understand the ancient Greek concept of love. But the ancient Greek philosophers' thinking about love is still worth learning today.