Eros as child of Poros ('Resourcefulness') and Peni

1
Chapter 9

• Aphrodite and Eros

2
2 Aphrodites?

• Why the two Aphrodites?
• Aphrodite Urania
• Aphrodite Pandemos

3
Pygmalion

• What is Pygmalions story?
• What is the point of the story (at least as far
  as Ovid goes)?
• Story still has happy ending (though not always)
• Nachleben
• Shaws Pygmalion
• Lerner Loewes My Fair Lady
• Disney, et al., Pinocchio.

4
Aphrodite and Adonis

• What are the basics of the story?
• Owes something to the common myth of the
  fertility goddess and her consort, the male
  fertility figure.
• Consider painting on p. 178.
• Other versions

5
Aphrodite and Anchises, Homeric Hymn 5 (To
Aphrodite)

• One of the 4 great Homeric Hymns (along with 2
  to Demter, 3 to Apollo, and 4 to Hermes)
• Why does Zeus want revenge against Aphrodite?
• How does he accomplish it?

6
Aphrodite and Anchises, Homeric Hymn 5 (To
Aphrodite)

• Consider Aphrodites effect on nature (p. 182).
• Consider the interchange between Aphrodite and
  Anchises, pp. 182ff.
• What is Anchises reaction on learning the truth?
  Why does he feel this way?
• What finally happens to Anchises?

7
Platos Symposium

• What is a symposium?
• Platos philosophical works dialogs
• Question determined
• Socrates and interlocutor(s) approach topic from
  different angles often trying to define terms
• Question here what is Eros?

8
Dramatic Setting, Symposium

• Victory party for Agathons first victory,
  Spring 416 BC

9
Symposium Aristophanes Response

• Aristophanes -- 1 Comic playwright
• His version meant to be taken as comic response
• What is Eros, according to Aristophanes?
• In what way does his version ring true?
• What does he have to say about politicians?

10
Symposium, Socrates Response

• Story told him by Diotima
• Eros as child of Poros (Resourcefulness) and
  Penia (Poverty)
• What does Eros get from its parents?
• Why do the gods not love wisdom?

11
Symposium, Alcibiades entrance

• Alcibiades prominent young politician and
  military figure
• Drunken entrance tries to pick up Socrates
• Alcibiades and the mutilation of the herms.

12
Sapphos Hymn to Aphrodite

• Sappho (late 6th c.), from Mytilene on Lesbos
• Why do you think they call them lesbians?
• Read poem, pp. 197f.
• Unusual familiarity with goddess
• And yet, not a mystical union