In their epics, Plato’s and Homer’s conceptions of love are somewhat alike. In the Symposium, Plato tries to convey the idea that there are numerous perspectives to define love. Agathon’s lover, Pausanius believes that there are two types of love: Common and Heavenly love. Common Love is the affection or physical attraction between lovers, and Heavenly Love is the appreciation or spiritual bond between people.
Compared to The Odyssey, Plato’s Symposium included two kinds of love that are both conveyed in Homer’s epic. There is Common Love between Penelope & Odysseus, and Kalypso & Odysseus again. Moreover, there is Heavenly Love between Odysseus and his soldiers; they praise him for his intelligence and his leadership. Homer depicts Odysseus as a cunning and exemplary warrior that many commonly and heavenly love.
Plato and Homer both have similar conceptions of what love is. They both concluded that Heavenly Love is the best kind of love to experience. In The Odyssey, Odysseus had the privilege of experiencing both, Common Love and Heavenly Love. That is a great example of what Plato was trying to portray in the Symposium.
It didn’t occur to me the connection of Heavenly Love between the two works of literature until I read your post. Common Love is seen throughout a lot of literature, and the real world, but Heavenly Love goes beyond that. After reading this, it has helped me grasp more of the concept, and I never really wouldn’t put together the connection between Odysseus and his soldiers.
Great post, I also wrote about common love and heavenly love and compared it to the Odyssey. I like that you identified heavenly love between Odysseus and his soldiers. We saw their respect towards him, this is exactly what heavenly love it. For the common love, it could be connected to Penelope but I think there is a stronger case of common love when he was trapped on the island.
I really enjoyed the insightful extrapolation of ideas from one text to another. Although, I would argue, that there is in fact a Heavenly love between Odysseus and Penelope. The whole book is about how he longs for her and is trying to return to her. While he did have some trysts with other women those were merely common while his eternal love for Penelope withstood the trials and tribulations of 20 years apart. And likewise I’d also like to argue that the love between Odysseus and his men was purely common as well, as he wantonly sacrificed their lives in the pursuit of home.