Feast (Plato)

1. Apollodorus and his friend

On the way from home (from Faler) to the city, Apollodorus meets his acquaintance - Glavkon, who asks to tell him “about that feast at Agathon, where Socrates , Alcibiades and others were, and find out what kind of talk there was about love ( Greek περὶ τῶν ἐρωτικῶν λόγων 172b). " Apollodorus makes a reservation that he himself was not present at this feast, since it took place many years ago. But he heard about him from the mouth of a certain Aristodem (from Kidathinus), and Socrates himself confirmed these words to Apollodorus.

So, once Aristodem saw Socrates, "washed and in sandals, which rarely happened," who was going to dinner at Agathon. And Socrates offers him to come to this feast without invitation. On the way, Socrates, indulging in his thoughts, lagged all the time. And when Aristodem reached the house of Agathon, Socrates had already lost sight of him. Aristodem was invited to the table and asked why he had not brought Socrates with him, to which Aristodem confusedly replied that Socrates had come with him, but it was not clear where he had gone. Agathon's servant notices Socrates in the hallway of a neighboring house, and his attempts to invite a guest to dinner are futile. For a while, Socrates is left alone, waiting, on the advice of Aristodem, that Socrates will soon appear himself.

In the middle of the dinner, Socrates arrives, and the happy Agathon invites him to sit next to him so that he "gets a share of the wisdom" that dawned on the philosopher in the hallway. Socrates remarks on this: “It would be good, Agathon, if wisdom had the ability to flow, as soon as we touch each other, from one who is full of it, to one who is empty, as water flows over a woolen thread from a full vessel into empty".

"After Socrates lied and everyone had supper, they made a libation, sang praises to God, performed everything that was supposed to, and proceeded to blame." Together, the gathered decided to drink wine only for their pleasure, and not for intoxication. And the doctor Eriksimach suggests devoting this meeting to some conversation - everyone present must say “the best word of praise to Erot”, “such a mighty and great” god of love. And the first speech he solemnly believes in Comrade Fedr, because on several occasions, says Ericksimah, Fedr was outraged by the fact that not one of the poets “wrote even a laudable word” to this deity.

And Apollodorus agrees to give us the most worthy passages from the speeches of the feasts.

2. Speech of Fedra: The Ancient Origin of Eros

Fedr begins by saying that Eros is the oldest god, since he has no parents (he refers to Hesiod's Theogony, Akusilai and Parmenides), and this is one of the reasons why many admire him. Love can teach everything. But why? “To be ashamed of the shameful and ambitiously strive for the beautiful, without which neither the state nor the individual are capable of any great and good deeds.” So, having committed some “ungodly act”, the lover suffers the most from that and is ashamed of the fact that his beloved can convict him of this, and vice versa. Moreover, a lover will never abandon his beloved and will never leave him in danger. "And if Homer says that God inspires courage to some heroes, then none other than Eros gives it to the loving."

Further, Fedr starts from the idea that “only lovers are ready to die for each other, not only men but also women”, and confirms this with convincing examples (Alkestida took death for her husband; Achilles died in the name of Patroclus; however, Orpheus could not give life in the name of a beloved, therefore in Hades he saw only her ghost).

Reasoning, Fedr concludes that “highly appreciating the virtue of love, the gods more admire and marvel and do good when the beloved is devoted to the lover than when the lover is devoted to the subject of his love. After all, the lover is more divine than the beloved, because he is inspired by God. "

The result is an unambiguous conclusion for Fedra: "Eros is the oldest, most respectable and most powerful of the gods, the most capable of endowing people with valor and granting them bliss in life and after death."

3. Pausanias Speech: Two Eros

Pausanias, referring to Fedr, says that there are many Erotov, therefore it is necessary to clarify who exactly in this conversation they began to praise together. Eros is inextricably linked with the goddess of love Aphrodite, but there are two of them - the eldest (daughter of Uranus, called celestial) and the youngest (daughter of Dion and Zeus, called vulgar). Consequently, there are two Eros - heavenly and vulgar, and each of them is endowed with its own special properties.

“The Eros of Aphrodite the vulgar truly went and is capable of anything; this is just the love that people despise love. Such people love equally women and young men, loved ones - for the sake of the body, and not for the sake of the soul, and they love those who are dumber, taking care of their own benefit. They are capable of not only evil, but also good, because after all this love comes from the goddess, who was involved in her origin to the masculine and the feminine at the same time. ”

“The heavenly Aphrodite, on the contrary, is involved only in the masculine principle - therefore, this is love for young men. The goddess is alien to criminal insolence, and that is why those possessed by such love turn to the male sex, preferring that which is stronger by nature and endowed with a great mind. ”

But among lovers of boys, you can recognize those who are driven only by such love. For they do not like minors, but those who already have a mind, and the mind usually appears with the first gun. Those whose love began at this time are ready, it seems to me, to never part and live together all their lives; such a person does not deceive the young man, taking advantage of his unreasonableness, does not get over from him, laughing at him, to another.

Pausanias also considers a problem of his time, the courtship of a fan for his beloved. And he claims that it is worthwhile to please the fan when the fan is worthy of it and when it leads to moral perfection.

Further, Aristophanes was supposed to pick up the speech, however, because of the hiccups that had begun, he asked Eriksimach to deliver his speech.

4. Eriksimach Speech: Erot Spills Throughout Nature

Clinging to the thought of Pausanias about the duality of Eros, Eriksimach claims that this god is dissolved in everything. So, it is already concluded in the very nature of the body, when in the struggle of two principles - sick and healthy - and in the doctor’s ability to instill mutual love into these principles, the doctor’s appointment is seen. Eriksimach transfers the duality of Eros to spheres other than healing — to music (“musical art is the knowledge of love principles relating to structure and rhythm”), to the properties of the seasons (“When ... moderate love takes hold of heat and cold, dryness and humidity and they merge with each other judiciously and harmoniously, the year is plentiful ”), the art of fortune telling, etc.

Hiccup of Aristophanes just passes, and Eriksimach invites him to speak.

5. Speech of Aristophanes: Eros as the desire of man for primordial integrity.

Starting his speech, Aristophanes tells what he once heard from the ancients about human nature. It turns out that "once our nature was not the same as now, but quite different." Which one? People were of three sexes: male, female and ... the special gender, which had already disappeared and which combined the male and female sexes, androgyns. People represented a danger to the gods, because they were "terrible in their strength and power."

... everyone’s body was round, the back was not different from the chest, there were four hands, as many legs as hands, and each on a round neck had two faces, exactly the same; the head of these two persons, looking in opposite directions, was common, there were two pairs of ears, two shameful parts ... Such a person moved either directly, to his full height, just like we are now, but either side forward, or if in a hurry, he walked in a wheel, lifting his legs up and rolling on eight limbs, which allowed him to quickly run forward. And there were three of these sexes, and they were such because the male primordial originates from the Sun, the female originates from the Earth, and the one that combined both of these comes from the Moon, since the Moon combines both principles. As for the spherical nature of these creatures and their circular movement, then similarity with their ancestors affected it.

Not having the strength to put up with their atrocities, Zeus decided to cut each person in half. From now on, they will have to move on two legs.

And to everyone he cut, Apollo, by order of Zeus, had to turn his face and half of his neck towards the cut, so that, looking at his mutilation, the person would become more modest, and everything else was ordered to heal. And Apollo turned his face and, pulling the skin everywhere, like a bag was pulled, to a place, now called the stomach, tied a hole in the middle of the abdomen - it is now called the navel. Smoothing the folds and giving the chest a clear outline - for this he served as a tool like the shoemakers smooth out folds of leather on the block - near the navel and on his stomach Apollo left a few wrinkles to remember the previous condition. And so, when the bodies were thus cut in half, each half lusted toward its other half, they hugged, intertwined and, desperately wanting to grow together, were dying of hunger and inaction in general, because they did not want to do anything separately. And if one half died, the survivor sought out any other half and intertwined with her, regardless of whether she came across half of the former woman, that is, what we now call a woman, or a former man. So they perished. Then Zeus, pitying them, invents another device: he rearranges their shameful parts, which before they had turned in the same direction as their faces, so that they poured out the seed not in each other, but in the ground, like cicadas. He moved their shameful parts, thereby establishing the fertilization of women by men, so that when a man mates with a woman, children are born and the family continues, and when a man meets a man, satisfaction from intercourse is achieved, after which they could rest, take for business and take care of your other needs. That's how long ago people have been loving people to each other, which, combining the former halves, is trying to make one of two and thereby heal human nature.

When meeting, these halves embrace "an amazing sense of affection, intimacy and love, that they truly do not want to be parted even for a short time." However, this is not a simple lust, it is a kinship of souls, but it remains a mystery what these halves want from each other. The story of the Androgyne Aristophanes explains that “love is the thirst for integrity and the desire for it” and that “our family will achieve bliss when we fully satisfy Eros and everyone finds an object of love for himself to return to his original nature.”

6. Speech of Agathon: Perfection of Eros

Noting that the previous speakers rather praised the blessings brought by Eros than Eros himself, Agathon begins to give praise directly to the god of love. Eros, according to Agathon, is the most beautiful, perfect and blessed of the gods, because he is the youngest among them. By nature, he hates old age and runs away from it, but he is inseparable from the young. Thus, Agathon takes a position opposite to Fedr's opinion that Eros is the oldest of the gods. He reasoned this way: “After all, the gods would not have scattered and chained each other and would not have committed violence at all if there had been Eros, but would have lived in peace and friendship, as it is now when Eros rules them.”

Eros is forever young and gentle, living in the soft souls of gods and people. However, bumping into the rudeness of any soul, Eros leaves her forever. This God is unusually beautiful. In addition to his incredibly beautiful appearance, Eros is famous for his virtues: he is fair, reasonable, truly brave, endowed with wisdom. He is a poet in the highest degree and is able to make any other poet. Love Agathon calls the root cause of many divine and human blessings, which were not before him. As the apotheosis of his speech sounds praise to Eros:

Delivering us from alienation and calling for unity, he arranges all kinds of meetings, such as today, and becomes our leader at festivals, round dances and sacrifices. A lover of meekness, a persecutor of rudeness, he is rich in affection, not rich in dislike. To the good, tolerant, revered by the sages, beloved by the gods; the gasp of the unlucky, the fortune of the lucky; the father of luxury, grace and bliss, joys, passions and desires; the noble guardian, but despising the worthless, he is in fear and in torment, and in thoughts and yearnings the best mentor, helper, savior and companion, the decoration of gods and people, the most beautiful and worthy leader, which everyone should follow, singing beautifully him and echoing his beautiful song, bewitching the thoughts of all gods and people.

The speech of Agathon was absolutely approved by the audience. Even Socrates himself, who should continue the conversation with his monologue, recognized his verbal impasse, appreciating the delivered speech worthy of ardent lips of the "great talker" Gorgias. Socrates remarks somewhat sarcastically: "... the ability to deliver a wonderful commendable speech consists ... in attributing to the subject as many excellent qualities as possible, without thinking whether he possesses them or not." In contrast to this, he says, he is going to tell the truth about Eros “and, moreover, in the first expressions taken at random,” and he clarifies with Fedor whether this will really be interesting to those gathered. Having received approval, Socrates begins his speech.

7. Речь Сократа: цель Эрота — овладение благом

В отличие от формы монолога, с которого начинали и которым заканчивали свои устные тексты прежние выступающие, Сократ прибегает к своему излюбленному приему — диалогу.

Путём вопросов к Агафону, который словесной логикой вынужден во всём соглашаться с философом, Сократ заключает, что Эрот — это любовь, направленная на кого-то или на что-то, а её предмет — «то, в чём испытываешь нужду». Более того, так как Эрот есть любовь к красоте, то самой красоты Эрот лишён и, что ещё парадоксальнее, нуждается в ней. А раз Эрот далеко не прекрасен, то он не может быть и добр. Таким образом, Сократ полностью опровергает Агафона.

«Я, — сказал Агафон, — не в силах спорить с тобой, Сократ. Пусть будет по твоему». — «Нет, милый мой Агафон, ты не в силах спорить с истиной, а спорить с Сократом дело нехитрое».

Отталкиваясь от этих заключений, Сократ далее уже в форме монолога пересказывает слова некоей мантинеянки Диотимы ( греч. Διοτίμα ). Во-первых, Эрот беспрекрасен, однако это отнюдь не говорит прямо о том, что он безобразен и зол. Эрот «находится где-то посредине между этими крайностями». Дальше — больше. Признавая право на наименование богом прекрасных, добрых, красивых, Диотима ставит под сомнение божественность Эрота и его смертность и говорит, что он «нечто среднее между бессмертным и смертным». Эрот — великий гений, «ведь все гении представляют собой нечто среднее между богом и смертным».

Тогда поднимается резонно вопрос о назначении Эрота в мире. И Диотима говорит:

Быть истолкователями и посредниками между людьми и богами, передавая богам молитвы и жертвы людей, а людям наказы богов и вознаграждения за жертвы. Пребывая посредине, они заполняют промежуток между теми и другими, так что Вселенная связана внутренней связью. Благодаря им возможны всякие прорицания, жреческое искусство и вообще все, что относится к жертвоприношениям, таинствам, заклинаниям, пророчеству и чародейству. Не соприкасаясь с людьми, боги общаются и беседуют с ними только через посредство гениев — и наяву и во сне. И кто сведущ в подобных делах, тот человек божественный, а сведущий во всем прочем, будь то какое либо искусство или ремесло, просто ремесленник. Гении ( греч. δαίμονες 203a) эти многочисленны и разнообразны, и Эрот — один из них.

Следует за этим рассказ о родителях Эрота. Он был зачат в саду Зевса ( греч. Διὸς κῆπον 203b) на дне рождения Афродиты двумя богами — нищей богиней Пенией и опьяневшим от нектара и заснувшим богом Поросом. Поэтому Эрот всегда спутник и слуга Афродиты, влюблённый во всё красивое. Сам же Эрот беден, некрасив, груб, не обут, бездомен, однако он тянется к прекрасному и совершенному, он храбрый, смелый, всю жизнь занимается философией, он искусный колдун, чародей ( греч. φαρμακεὺς 203d) и софист. «По природе своей он ни бессмертен, ни смертен». «Он находится также посредине между мудростью и невежеством». Но почему? Потому что боги и так мудры, им не пристало заниматься философией, а невежды не испытывают в этом нужды. Философ занимает промежуточное положение между мудрецом и невеждой, а Эрот — философ, который любит прекрасное благо на свете — мудрость, потому что тянется к прекрасному.

Эрот приносит людям много пользы. Он стремится к прекрасному постоянно. А тот, кто хочет прекрасного, хочет блага, через которое способен прийти к счастью. Таким образом, Эрот способен привести нас к счастью. Любовь — это не стремление к прекрасному, по Диотиме; это любовь к вечному обладанию благом и к бессмертию (путь к последнему — деторождение или увековечивание в истории своего имени).

Так Сократ заканчивает свою речь. «Вдруг в наружную дверь застучали так громко, словно явилась целая ватага гуляк, и послышались звуки флейты». Это был пьяный Алкивиад. Его пригласили за стол. Он присел между Агафоном и Сократом, не узнав сперва последнего. Опознав философа, он пребывает в изумлении, что от него никак нельзя избавиться. Сократ же, говоря, что боится влюблённости в него Алкивиада, просит Агафона защитить от вероятных глупых действий того. Алкивиад предлагает безудержно пить, но Эриксимах поясняет, что на этой встрече собравшиеся договорились воздавать похвальное слово Эроту, и ему надо сделать то же. Но Алкивиад, признавая речи Сократа логически неоспоримыми, отказывается. Тогда, говорит Эриксимах, воздавай хвалу Сократу.

8. Речь Алкивиада: панегирик Сократу

Алкивиад сравнивает речи Сократа с игрой Марсия (215b) на флейте, говоря, что он сатир без инструментов. «Когда я слушаю его, сердце у меня бьется гораздо сильнее, чем у беснующихся корибантов, а из глаз моих от его речей льются слезы; то же самое, как я вижу, происходит и со многими другими».

Алкивиад также признаёт философа высокоморальным человеком, перед которым ему бывает иногда стыдно за своё поведение. Сократу, говорит Алкивиад, не важно, красив ли человек. И в подтверждение приводит рассказ о том, как однажды пытался его соблазнить. Ни гимнастика, ни совместный ужин, после которого заставил Сократа остаться ночевать (в обнимку с самим Алкивиадом), не произвели никакого на него эффекта, он остался непоколебим. Так Сократ покорил Алкивиада.

Во время похода в Потидею под предводительством Лахета гоплит Сократ (219e-221a) удивил его выдержкой, терпением, «неспособностью» быть пьяным. А в одной из битв Сократ спас его жизнь. Когда Алкивиад просил дать награду за это Сократу, Сократ просил её присудить именно Алкивиаду.

Однако самое поразительно то, что Сократ «не похож ни на кого из людей, древних или ныне здравствующих», что его совершенно не с кем сравнить, разве что только с силенами и сатирами. Речи его божественны, «таят в себе множество изваяний добродетели и касаются множества вопросов, вернее сказать, всех, которыми подобает заниматься тому, кто хочет достичь высшего благородства».

9. Заключительная сцена

Тут ввалились в дом гуляки, стало шумно, кто-то ушёл домой. Аристодем же заснул, проснувшись, обнаружил Сократа, Аристофана и Агафона, которые вели беседу и пили вино из большой чаши ( греч. φιάλης 223c). Однако вскоре уснул Аристофан, а вслед за ним — Агафон. Сократ же встал и ушёл, а Аристодем последовал за ним. «Придя в Ликей ( греч. Λύκειον 223d) и умывшись, Сократ провёл остальную часть дня обычным образом, а к вечеру отправился домой отдохнуть».

• Пир (Ксенофонт)

• Шичалин Ю. А. «Пир» // Новая философская энциклопедия / Ин-т философии РАН ; Nat social science fund; Pres scientific ed. Council V. S. Styopin , alternate representatives: A. A. Huseynov , G. Yu. Semigin , school. sec. A.P. Ogurtsov . - 2nd ed., Rev. and extra. - M .: Thought , 2010 .-- ISBN 978-5-244-01115-9 .

• Преамбула к диалогу Платона «Пир»
• Греческий текст