“Describe how Plato, Sappho, and/or Catullus conceive of love (and/or friendship). Compare their views on love with The Odyssey, Oedipus Rex, or Lysistrata.”
In Plato’s Symposium, there is a strong emphasis on the masculinity of males loving other males (as well as females loving males). On the other hand, in The Odyssey, masculinity is based much more heavily on where you come from and what you’ve accomplished. However, the reason for this, at least as explained by Phaedrus in Symposium, could be because there are two different kinds of love; “Common Aphrodite’s Love” and “Love of Heavenly Aphrodite.” Common love was more of a sexual attraction that enticed men into ‘loving’ someone, which we must hear and remember the amount of times Odysseus may have been unfaithful to his wife. Heavenly love would be more of a connection, or craving, on both a mental and physical level. It’s through Phaedrus’ speech that I make the assumption that if Odysseus were among the men at the drinking party, he would be considered a common man with a common type of love, despite how greatly he is seen in his own story.
I thought it was quite clever of you to consider that if Odysseus were present at this gathering, his type of love would be considered perhaps the lower of the two–or perhaps not considered by these philosophers at all. I might agree with you: that perhaps Odysseus and the even more Ancient Greek culture that he represents doesn’t belong anywhere in the Symposium or Platonism more generally. Great work!