Dante and Virgil’s relationship starts off as a guide and a follower. Virgil being the guide and Dante being the follower. Dante being lost in Hell seeks guidance and Virgil comes in the form of a guide. Later on as they move through different circles of Hell, Virgil takes the form of a teacher because he educates Dante of different punishments of the different circles in hell. Virgil sympathizes with Dante because Dante felt pity for the poor souls who had to face the punishment of hell. Gradually Virgil’s relationship with Dante turns into that of friendship.
Author: m.hasib
Describe how Plato, Sappho, and/or Catullus conceive of love (and/or friendship). You can choose to only discuss one of the three works or compare two or three of them. You can also choose to compare their views on love with The Odyssey. You can also choose to focus more specifically on either the lover or the beloved if you like.
In his work, Plato describes love in various ways. He starts off by giving a vague meaning of love but as the conversation progresses, love found a new meaning with each speaker. The first speaker Phaedrus describes love as either being “Heavenly” or “Common”. Heavenly love takes place between two people overlooking the sexual pleasures and Common love is only being attracted to a persons body. The description of love that stood out for me was the description given by Aristophanes. He starts off by saying that there were three genders: male, female and androgynous. They were cut in half by Zeus. To them love is finding their other half. This description is creepy yet interesting. Eryximachus compares love to body parts. He says that, the correlation between different body parts is love.
Do you totally trust in Odysseus’s desire to return home? Do you think Homer does? Why or why not?
After going over the text properly I believe that Odysseus is not sure whether he wants to return home or not. Although the author focuses on the fact that Odysseus loves his wife and is loyal to her, I think otherwise. Odysseus is an opportunist. During his stay at the Island of Ogygia with the nymph Calypso, Odysseus did have sexual intercourse with her but still claims himself as loyal. He is an opportunist because he saw that Calypso desires him and he took advantage of that. He wanted to make his stay at the island very pleasant and the only way he could have achieved it was by giving into his sexual desires.
Odysseus shows that he desperately wants to return home but I think that he wouldn’t mind staying in Ogygia forever. He is getting everything he wants. He is being taken care of by a Goddess who wants to make him her immortal husband. What else could someone ask for? I think Homer believes the same thing. He also believes in the fact that Odysseus wouldn’t mind staying with Calypso.