On the Nature of the Platonic Erôs: Daimôn or Theos? [Spanish]
Article Sidebar
Main Article Content
Abstract
Although in the Symposium Plato describes Erôs as a daimôn-metaxy, i.e. as an intermediate and intermediary divinity between gods and men, in the Phaedrus it is said that Erôs is a theos —a god. I will try to show that these different descriptions do not imply a substantial change of mind but work as two complementary views about the true nature of Erôs. According to the Phaedrus, although erôs can remain just at a physical level and not develop its divine power, it is also possible that, thanks to the same intense, sexual desire for the beautiful boy, the lover recollects the Form of beauty and so grows divine Erôs`s wings. However, only the gods never lose their wings and so are in regular, full contact with the Forms. The human souls need to acquire the wings and even so take the risk of losing them; they are then in an intermediate state —metaxy— like Erôs in the Symposium.
Article Details
Section
1. The Author retains copyright in the Work, where the term "Work" shall include all digital objects that may result in subsequent electronic publication or distribution.
2. Upon acceptance of the Work, the author shall grant to the Publisher the right of first publication of the Work.
The Author shall grant to the Publisher a nonexclusive perpetual right and license to publish, archive, and make accessible the Work in whole or in part in all forms of media now or hereafter known under a Creative Commons 3.0 License Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported CC BY-NC 3.0, or its equivalent, which, for the avoidance of doubt, allows others to copy, distribute, and transmit the Work under the following conditions: (a) Attribution: Other users must attribute the Work in the manner specified by the author as indicated on the journal Web site;(b) Noncommercial: Other users (including Publisher) may not use this Work for commercial purposes;
4. The Author is able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the nonexclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the Work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), as long as there is provided in the document an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
5. Authors are permitted, and Eidos promotes, to post online the preprint manuscript of the Work in institutional repositories or on their Websites prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (see The Effect of Open Access). Any such posting made before acceptance and publication of the Work is expected be updated upon publication to include a reference to the Eidos's assigned URL to the Article and its final published version in Eidos.
References
Annas, J. (1999). Platonic Ethics: Old and New. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
Broadie, S. (2001). Soul and body in Plato and Descartes. Proceedings for the Aristotelian Society, 101, 295-308. Doi.org/10.1111/j.0066-7372.2003.00032.x
Cornford, F. M. (1950). The Doctrine of Eros in Plato's Symposium. En W. K. C. Guthrie (Ed.), The Unwritten Philosophy and Other Essays (pp. 68-81). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Davidson, J. N. (1997). Courtesans and fishcakes: the consuming passions of Classical Athens. Chicago: St. Martin´s Press.
Dover, K. (1978). Greek Homosexuality. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Drefcinski, S. (2014). What Does It Mean, to Become Like God? Theaetetus 176a-177b. International Philosophical Quaterly, 54, 411-427. Doi: 10.5840/ipq201410618
Eggers Lan, C. (1992). Zeus e anima del mondo nel Fedro. En L. Rossetti (ed.), Understanding the "Phaedrus" (pp. 40-46). Sankt Agustin: Akademia Verlag.
Fierro, M. A. (2001). Symp. 212a2-7: Desire for the truth and desire for death and a god-like immortality. Méthexis, XIV, 23-43. Doi: 10.1163/24680974-90000377
Fierro, M. A. (2006). Platón y los privilegios de los amantes. Nova Tellus, 24 (2), 170-195. Doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.19130/iifl.nt.2006.24.2.181
Fierro, M. A. (2008). La teoría platónica del éros en la República. Diánoia, 60, 21-52. Recuperado de http://dianoia.filosoficas.unam.mx/index.php/contenido/n-meros-anteriores/60/
Fierro, M. A. (2007). El concepto filosófico de metaxý en el Banquete de Platón. En J. Martínez Contreras (ed.), El saber filosófico (pp. 249-254). México D.F.: Siglo XXI y la Asociación Filosófica de México.
Fierro, M. A. (2013). Two conceptions of the body in the Phaedrus. En G. Boys-Stones, C. Gill y D. El.Murr (eds.), The Platonic Art of Philosophy (pp. 27-50). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Fierro, M. A. (2015). Élenchos y éros: el caso de Sócrates y Agatón en Smp. 199c-201a. Archai Journal: on the Origins of Western Thought, 14, 93-108. Doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.14195/1984-249X_14_8
Foucault, M. (1984). Historia de la sexualidad: el uso de los placeres. México D.F.: Siglo XXI.
Griswold, C. L. (1989). Self-Knowlege in Plato's Phaedrus. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Kahn, C. H. (1996). Plato and the Socratic Dialogues: the philosophical use of a literary form. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Kilmer, M. F. (1993). Greek Erotica on Attic Red-figure Vases. London: Duckworth.
Luce, J. V. (1952). Immortality in Plato's Symposium: a Reply. The Classical Review, 2 (3-4), 137-141. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0009840X00159098
Marrou, H. (1985). Historia de la educación en la antigüedad. Madrid: Akal.
Murray, J. (1988). Disputation, Deception, and Dialectic: Plato on the True Rhetoric (Phaedrus 261-266). Philosophy & Rhetoric, 21 (4), 279-289. Recuperado de
http://www.jstor.org/stable/40237561
Nightingale, A. (1995). Genres in Dialogue: Plato and the Construct of Philosophy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
North, H. (1991). Combing and Curling. Orator Summus Plato. Illinois Classical Studies 16, 201-219. Recuperado de https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/handle/2142/12291
Nygren, A. (1969). Eros y Agape: La noción cristiana del amor y sus transformaciones, vols. I-II. Barcelona: Sagitario, D.L.
Pantellia, M. (Dir.) (2000). Thesaurus Linguae Graecae. California: University of California.
Renaut, O. (2014). Dualisme et metaxu: trois usages de l'intermédiaire chez Platon. Methexis, (27) 1, 121-138. Recuperado de https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01319620/document
Rist, J. M (1964). Eros and Psyche. Studies in Plato, Plotinus and Origen. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
Robin, L. (1908). La théorie platonicienne de l'amour. Paris: Félix Alcan Éditeur.
Rowe, C. J. (2007). Plato and the Art of Philosophical Writing, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Rowe, C. J. (2003). Plato on Knowing and Merely Believing. En W. Detel, A. Becker, y P. Scholz, (Eds.), Ideal and Culture of Knowledge in Plato (pp. 57-68). Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag.
Sedley, D. (1999). The Ideal of Godlikeness. En G. Fine (Ed.), Plato 2. Ethics, Politics, Religion and the Soul (pp. 309-328). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Soares, L. (2009). Estudio preliminar: la erótica platónica en perspectiva. En C. Mársico, Platón. Banquete (pp. 13-128). Buenos Aires: Miluno.
Steinthal, H. (1993). Mógis und exaíphnes: Platon über die Grenzen des Erkennens. En C. Neumeister (Ed.), Festschrift für W. Heilmann zum 65 Geburtstag (pp. 99-105). Frankfurt am Main: Diesterweg.
Stokes, M. (1993). Symp. 172a-c: a Platonic phallacy. Liverpool Classical Monthly, 18, (8), 128.
Szlezák, Th. A. (1999). Reading Plato. London - New York: Routledge.
Vallejo Campos, A. (2002). Razón, seducción y engaño en la retórica antigua: la crítica platónica. Bitarte: Revista cuatrimestral de humanidades, 27, 23-44.