First read AW:R 6.1 and some love poetry from Sappho; no need to write on these, but keep them in mind when you turn to Socrates' Symposium. The philosopher Plato wrote a series of dialogues featuring his teacher Socrates, legendary Athenian thinker, radical, and social gadfly. His Symposium purports to record conversations from a(n imaginary) drinking party at which Socrates was the featured guest. (full text here). As often happens when wine is involved, the topic turned to sex and love, with each participant waxing eloquently on the origins and meaning of lust and attraction. I'll sort some of this out in lecture -- in particular the institution of pederasty -- but in advance, try to disentangle Plato's fantasies from more plausible Greek attitudes toward sex and sexuality. The format of this particular dialogue is not so much a back-and-forth repartee but instead a series of longer speeches from the (supposed) participants. Read and respond to what Phaedrus and Pausanias had to say on the topic; you may read the entire dialogue for context, but you're only responsible for these speakers. In your response, think openly about Athenian views on gender and sexuality, keeping in mind that it's very very different from modern American definitions, even as universal as we assume the latter to be. Despite some intentionally provocative statements in this dialogue, what these speakers had to say about what sort of love/lust is ideal dovetails with much of what we've read in heroic poetry so far.

First read AW:R 6.1 and some love poetry from Sappho; no need to write on these, but keep them in mind when you turn to Socrates' Symposium. The philosopher Plato wrote a series of dialogues featuring his teacher Socrates, legendary Athenian thinker, radical, and social gadfly. His Symposium purports to record conversations from a(n imaginary) drinking party at which Socrates was the featured guest. (full text here). As often happens when wine is involved, the topic turned to sex and love, with each participant waxing eloquently on the origins and meaning of lust and attraction. I'll sort some of this out in lecture -- in particular the institution of pederasty -- but in advance, try to disentangle Plato's fantasies from more plausible Greek attitudes toward sex and sexuality. The format of this particular dialogue is not so much a back-and-forth repartee but instead a series of longer speeches from the (supposed) participants. Read and respond to what Phaedrus and Pausanias had to say on the topic; you may read the entire dialogue for context, but you're only responsible for these speakers. In your response, think openly about Athenian views on gender and sexuality, keeping in mind that it's very very different from modern American definitions, even as universal as we assume the latter to be. Despite some intentionally provocative statements in this dialogue, what these speakers had to say about what sort of love/lust is ideal dovetails with much of what we've read in heroic poetry so far.