Auf dem Weg zum pädagogischen Eros Ein Versuch, Platons Symposion in seinem inneren Zusammenhang zu lesen

 

Otto Kaiser

 

Philipps-Universität Marburg

 

 

Abstract. On the route to pedagogical Eros. A reading of Plato’s Symposion accord­ing to its inherent connections. Plato’s Symposion is a masterful and sophisticated com­position: With its threefold chain of witnesses for its course and its highly differentiated characterization of temper and mind of its participants by their speeches it has fascinated its readers throughout the times. The present article attempts a demonstration that this is also valid for their content which in the horizon of homoerotic love is leading the reader by their main theses according to the principle of connection and contradiction to understand Socrates as the true lover, who as master of his sexual passions has been able to educate the beloved youths to a blessed life by virtue and piety.

 

Keywords: Plato, Symposion, Alkibiades, homosexuality in Ancient Greece, transforma­tion of homosexuality in pedagogical Eros by Plato