Thursday, February 14, 2019

Is It The Power Of Love?

“Men seemed to have failed completely to comprehend the power of Eros, for if they did comprehend it, they would have built to him the greatest altars and temples and offered the greatest sacrifices, whereas he is given none of these honors, although he should have them most of all…”


From Aristophanes’ Speech in the Symposium

Please use any of the myths we read about love to critique or support this quotation? In your response, react, evaluate, challenge, or contemplate. (Please complete this blog response by 3:40p.m. on Tues., Feb. 19th, 2019.)

24 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think this quote is interesting. Essentially it is saying people should praise Eros more because he is responsible for meddling in the relationships of gods and mortals. If your belief system is based on the gods then it would be important to praise Eros so that he doesn't tamper with their relationships. Eros is probably not praised as much as cupid is when it comes to love, when in reality both should be considered.

Anonymous said...

I think this quote is very interesting because it delves into the relationship between mortals and gods. Eros is saying he should be praised for being a god, and due to the impact, he's had on mortals. The only issue is that if society's belief system isn't focused on the gods of Olympus than there is no reason for Eros to be praised.

Anonymous said...

The problem with this quote is that love is different for everyone. For some it means pain and for some it means happiness, but no one's love is the same as another's. We don't need to comprehend "love" in general, because love is not a general thing. To understand love, we need to understand each other's version of it. Psyche and Cupid learned to understand what love meant to the other. For Cupid, love meant trust, and Psyche couldn't truly love him until she understood what trust meant to him. I also think it's interesting that love is something everyone experiences, gods and humans alike. The fact that one love can exist between a god and a human sends a strong, beautiful, message.

Anonymous said...

i think "is it power of love?" is very cool to be learning about I think this power has created problems because eros said he think the should be praised just because of he thinks he is a good god not other people but he doesn't think about what the society wants.

Anonymous said...

This quote explains half of the power of love. Love means a lot of things for a lot of different people. Love may be like how Eros portrays it for many but not all. Some may be caught in an unrequited love or a forbidden love. Not all are able to experience what Eros represents. I definitely think that it is important to include the ideas of what Eros is about but it cannot apply to everyone. The love story of Cupid and Psyche does not really show aspects that relate to Eros. It is more about trust and pain than lust. Love is something that gives everyone a unique experience that should not be represented by one idea of love.

Aiden Graeber said...

In my opinion, this quote explains the aspect of how men felt love in the past. When you replace the name Eros with women, it makes sense, in the past men would disregard women and treat them worse then they would any man. They would take them for granted, forcing women to do all the work for them while they sat back relaxing. In this case, men wouldn't build shrines for Eros, taking him for granted, while they relaxed doing nothing. This poem is a perfect example of how men would mistreat women and the idea of love.

Anonymous said...

I think this quote is interesting because it's Eros say he is more important than the mortals and it is making me believe that he is thinking that he is more worthy of love, while others don't.

Anonymous said...

It's interesting to think about how we should've been worshiping love more than any other gods but maybe we didn't because it didn't seem as important then instead of now.

Anonymous said...

I think this quote explains the good in love, having someone, not being lonely, being loved, but it doesn't explain the bad in love, such as heartbreak, fighting, learning to trust, etc. Cupid and Psyche goes into trust and heartbreak, while this quote doesn't.

Anonymous said...

It's interesting how back then love was not worshipped and thought about much. Now love is so much different and I think that if love was thought about the same way it is thought about now, Eros would have been worshipped greatly.

Anonymous said...

I believe that this quote here explains how powerful love should be, but in the end, no-one follows it truly because people don't recognize the power of love and sexual beauty. If we were to know that there was a god for this we would always be pleasuring them because they would want to have the taste of true love with the people that they actually like in real life.

Anonymous said...

This quote explains how men described and lived out of love. Changing Eros to women, men thought women were not given any power or any honor. They were used as toys and property. Men would take control and take women for granted. Men wouldn't do the work in the home and make women do all the work around the house. In this case, build the shrines and alters. This is a perfect example of how men thought love was.



Anonymous said...

I believe this quote is true. We know more about Eros than many more of the gods once Valentine's Day comes around. We have used his power and name in many aspects of media and enjoyment. We have started to build these "altars" and "temples" through the years from books, movies, stories and the passing of knowledge to who he is and what he is capable of.

Anonymous said...

In my opinion, this quote explains how men have found love in the past. Eros was looked at as a god, but was only working with mortals. He was made to look like a mortal. The men in their time did not treat others with respect. Women specifically, as they would force them to do things they didn't want to do. I believe that Eros was looked at as a women. That is why the men in their time didn't make shrines or statues for him. They thought of him as weak, like they thought of women in their time. The poem is a excellent example of how men would mistreat women in their time.

Anonymous said...

Love is so different now we don't value it as much as they did back then they treated it like it was art and how people would got to the ends of the earth to get there lover back and now it seems like we don't do that we do cherish love but not as much as the greeks.

Anonymous said...

I don't fully believe that this quote can imply to modern day social standers. We as a modern society romanticize the idea of love. Back in the time, the quote was written love was a much more worshiped thing, the Greeks didn't expect it.

Anonymous said...

I think the quote explains how love is worshipped and the good things about it. I think it misses some of the struggles like learning to trust. A good example would be cupid psyche story.

Justin L. said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Justin L. said...

one of the myths explains how a person will to the deepest parts of the under world just to get the love of their life back but then goes and ruins it for them selves by doing what they were told not to do in which they doubted that in which they were told and suffered the consequences

Anonymous said...

I believe that the quote is saying that men do not truly understand love and how good it really is and if they did understand love they would treat it as a privilege and as something that needs to be worshiped and earned. Back then, Greek men knew that love was something special but had a twisted view as they thought they deserved this love and treated women like objects and like property in order to receive this love. In todays society I do think that men still don't really understand love and how to treat women in general. I do think the idea of love varies depending on what man you ask but I do think it hasn't changed much. For example, in the love story of Cupid and Psyche, Cupid falls in love with Psyche based off of her physical appearance. Psyche falls in love with Cupid based solely on his personality as she is not aloud to see him in the start of their relationship and I do think that accurately represents how most relationships start.

Anonymous said...

I agree with this quote because men seem to often take love for granted and many do not realize the power that is has to bring happiness and prosperity. If more people knew this, then there might actually be many temples and such built to honor Eros.

Anonymous said...

I agree with the quote because if you think about what makes so many people happy and what so many people couldnt live without it is love and attraction and to have that be such a big part of life people should worship eros more. In almost every story we read there were many examples on how good love is and the things people go through for love and what they would do and or sacrifice for love.

Anonymous said...

This quote is somewhat accurate ,however, many of the myths show how gods or even heroes will go to extreme lengths for the love of another but for some reason they chose not to respect Eros.

Otherwise Known As Anzii said...

Mheret Tatek

Evidently displayed in the myth of Eros and Psyche, love is a both powerful and fickle force. The lack of myths shows the lack of prevalence Eros has in the pantheon. Given the importance that the Greeks gave their Gods and the supposed power of Eros, he should have more temples and sacrifices, and it was impotent of the Greeks to refuse him such a thing.