“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 2:30p.m. on Tue., Oct. 6th, 2015.)
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27 comments:
Why did the men not comprehend what Eros was saying? Did they build to him anyway? If they knew what Eros was about what would they have built for him him and how much building would they do to Eros? Eros was a man himself so how come the men did not comprehend him?
I think that most of the stories/poems that we have read would support that Eros should've had the best alters and the best sacrifices. But men we unknowing of what Eros power was until they were deep into the spells that he cast. From what i have read it seemed that men were unaware of what loves true power was so they didn't really consider worshiping it.
I think that most of the stories/poems that we have read would support that Eros should've had the best alters and the best sacrifices. But men we unknowing of what Eros power was until they were deep into the spells that he cast. From what i have read it seemed that men were unaware of what loves true power was so they didn't really consider worshiping it.
I think that the myths we read support this quote. Love caused many of these people to do many extreme things. I'm pyramus and thisbe, they both ended up killing themsleeves for love. In Orpheus and eurydice, Orpheus when to the underworld to retrieve his wife. These all show that love is extremely powerful. They might not realize how powerful love is, but it is causing them to do many things.
I feel like this quote is inaccurate because between the 8 lovers myths, there is truth behind all of them describing lover's thoughts and behaviors. There is no need for sacrifices or to build altars for gods. Who's to say there even is a God of Love and that it isn't just inside of us. There are a lot of factors of love, and it depends on the lover's personality too/mainly, that decides the fate of the relationship.
In this quote Aristophanes explains that humans have not grasped how powerful love is. Aristophanes believes that Eros/Cupid deserve that largest and nicest temples, and the most sacrifices, but Eros/Cupid is not given those things. In saying this, Aristophanes is stating that love is the most divine thing in the world. Aristophanes claims that love is the most important thing. In the Greek myths we read a similar argument was made. The myth of Pyramus and Thisbe argued that love cannot be forbidden. Pygmalior and Galatea shows that you may find love in what you hate. Orpheus and Eurydice showed that you must be bold for love. The over all theme is the love is all you need!
This quote applies even to the present day. We build cities and building and skyscrapers devoted to business and money and "success" but we do nothing really for love. And we should do more. The world would be better if we did.
I feel like this quote could be supported even in our present day. We tend to support things that we don't really focus on, or things that don't really matter. We focus on success and building our own empires, money and fame, et cetera, and yet, we should be focusing on the little things in life that make us happy, like love. Hence, Eros (love) should not be ignored and we should be praising it more than the things in life we take for granted (fame, money, power).
This quote is even evident in the present day. The world is ran around money, when the only thing that matters is love. Wars are fought, people die, and people dedicate their entire life to money, to try to buy happiness when it cant be bought. It only can be achieved. The world would be a much better place if the only thing that mattered was love. The Greeks also struggled with this idea though. There is always a need for power and most of the people who want power don't want love.
I think that since Eros is the god of love, he represents it's values, and is understood as equally so. This quotation might be posing a metaphor between love and Eros, saying that love is inadequately understood and appreciated among men, just like Eros. This relates to Pyramus and Thisbe because in that myth, they both die in the wake of their love, and I think that this might have happened because love is so poorly understood and appreciated.
I would disagree, in most of the stories we have read, love only leads the characters into trouble. The only story that has love work out is Cupid and Psyche.But on the other hand, you may want to worship Eros,in the hope that he will grant you with great love, and no tricks. If you respect him, maybe he will help you out.
I think that this quote suggests that if people made things for love and not money or other reasons they would be more creative and better constructed. I would have to agree because things made out of love, such as gifts, are usually made better and have more thought into them than things made to sell.
In reference to the myth of Zeus and Io, mankind should consider love to be both enchanting and dangerous due to the effects it can have on one's sense of rationality and/or inhibition. Io loved Zeus despite Hera's wrath while Zeus' love is frequently a display of infidelity; both suggest that love can not be purely sacred, but could be deceptive or destructive. By giving love a distinct figure in mythology, the Greeks recognized its powerful influence over other emotions and behavior, however they likely did not worship love due to the risks associated with it as well as its somewhat intangible form. Aside from a strong emotion, love does not have a definite physical manifestation which makes it difficult to recognize as well as worship. It fits so many contexts, that to worship it would require people to make many exceptions in addition to being able to separate the love worth celebrating from the love that causes harm or unhappiness.
Like Aristophanes said in the above statement, men do not know the true power, intensity and importance of love, until they themselves have felt it. Like in the myth of Pygmalion and Galatea. Pygmalion, a declared women-hater creates a statue. manifesting his true love. It is not until love falls upon him that he realizes the true gift love is. This theme/idea is found else where in myths, at least with the men. The women have a very different pattern and devotion to love. They either are waiting for the one to come or along, or in the case with the myths of Daphne, opposed to the idea of love and marriage, and Alpheus and Arethusa. The women in these myths flea from the coming of love, not giving into its presence. Back to the quote, men do not honor Eros/Cupid with the greatest of sacrifices and temples because most likely they have not yet fallen under the divinities powers. Love is a feeling that one can not fully appreciate until they are in it.
I think that these myths have shown just how powerful love is and that love can make us do crazy things. In the tales it seems like it just leads the character into trouble, but they also show how the character is going through all this trouble just for love. I feel like people who have never experienced true love (not the kind you tell your 2 week boyfriend) don't see how someone would go through so much trouble for someone, until they experience that all in love where you would do anything for the other person. That is what these myth's/ tales are trying to show us in my eyes
The quote is essentially saying that humans, maybe even particularly men, will worship many gods but not the goddess and god of love, Aphrodite and Eros, even though he should be worshiped the most objectively. With Pygmalion and Galatea, Pygmalion's wishes and anguish was not recognized until he finally came forward and confessed his wish to Venus, and his words were heard. Back to the real world, Love is taken for granted because it isn't seen as being very needed to be understood and praised. It exists, therefore it is. But no one sees it as something that should necessarily be given the time of day because it isn't really seen as an impact of life. War victories, beauty, the harvest, wine, marriage, all of these things are tangible and sought after, but love comes closer to the soul and people just see it as something that'll happen when it happens, and doesn't need the worship that it deserves.
I think that all of the stories, poems, and other things we have learned about show that Eros should have had the biggest and best altars and temples because of the massive amount of power he had. Men did not realize the type of power that he had until they were deep under his spell. The men did not know what true love was and this made them unaware that they should be worshipping him more than they already are. In all cases gods and goddesses tend to hide things that they have done and in doing so, they do not get the glorification they deserve. This is especially true in Eros's case.
Despite this quote being outdated, the main concept is still applicable to our lives today. Our culture doesn't build shrines or temples to Greek gods anymore, but we still prioritize a lot of things other than love. Some people put work or school before their families. If love were as important a trait to our society as it should be, our lives would improve, and our earth would improve. Everything is centered around love and family.
This is true, love is very powerful and can easily affect decisions and other modes of interest. Not many things can help you to forgive someone, or come back to them if they, or you have done something wrong. Love can make us do crazy things that we wouldnt usually do. Like how Pyramus went down into the underworld to save his love. and what do we do? Text them over and over again hoping theyll come crawling back. we dont realize the power of love anymore, let alone we dont even know what it is anymore.
This comment supports the themes that waft throughout the greek love stories. Love is very powerful, because it makes us irrational, and to do things that we wouldn't otherwise. Many other emotions are tied into love, as reactions... whether they be anger, sadness, trust, as we saw with Cupid and Psyche, "Love cannot exist where there is no trust." Eros should be respected and honored because we no longer seem to value love the way people did in the past. It would be beneficial to have the god of love on our side, to help us through times of weakness and irrationality because of love.
Despite this quote being old, the main concept is still prominent in our lives today. Our culture doesn't make alters for or pray to Greek gods anymore, but we still prioritize a lot of things other than love. Some people put work or school before their families. If love were as important a trait to our society as it should be, our lives would get better, and our earth would improve. Everything is centered around love and family.
I disagree with this quote because in all the myths there seems to be some sort of love interest that therefore it is recognized and appreciated, but love always seems to get the protagonist into some sort of trouble. Either that or it does not work out because love is too complicated and there are more important things to the gods than love such as godly status, strength, or happiness/pride. The only myth that seems to have worked out was in Cupid, and that still caused all three parties pain and suffering. The people in the myths have recognized the power of love, however that power does not deserve to have a temple built for it.
This quote says that men do not understand the power of Eros until they are under it. Man would've built the greatest towers and altars to it if they had understood it's immense power. Instead of receiving great honors like the other gods Eros is left behind. But Eros deserves the most respect and worship out of all the gods. I agree with this quote because while in many of the myths love is involved, the Greek people seem to worship very specific gods and Eros is not one of them despite the emphasis on love.
Love influences almost everything we do in our lives including music, art, and acting. Without it life would be bland and boring because nobody would have the motivation to do anything creative. So this quote makes a lot of sense in saying that love can be something that man takes for granted.
I think this quote supported the stores we have read because in the quote they couldn't understand/comprehend Eros, and in most of the love stories we have read they were filed with confusion, distrust, and figuring out what to do for them selfs after the fact. Also Eros has power and they would do anything and get the best for him but in the love stories it doesn't come down to power it comes down to the person they are and how they feel about something/love.
I think that it is hard to comprehend Eros. I think that people use love as motivation to either change their lives or try to live a certain way. It's not that they didn't understand Eros it's just that people can get intoxicated by love and it is hard to break its bounds. With this being said love is a very dangerous emotion and it can either take control of us as people or turn us in the right direction
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