Plato describes that there are several different types of love. He mainly emphasis about erotic love. Such as gay love and love between an older and a younger man.
For the symposium, each person interpreted their thought about love. The most interesting part is Aristophanes’ argument. He use a myth to explain his idea. He said there were 3 genders, man, woman and half man half woman. Zeus chopped every person into half for punishment. So those who were men and women, they always wanted the other half back, became homosexual. In other words, homosexual is made by god.
I think the most important part is the conversation involved with Socrates. He said love is the thing that people pursue. They want to possess it forever. Meanwhile, as we mentioned in class, Plato thinks that the reason people are falling in love is because of the body. Human is actually pursuing other’s beauty. In addition, love also can be resulted by soul. Breeding between two people makes love immortal. It generated timeless and universal truth. Plato believes this is the most valuable thing.
I completely agree with you that Plato emphasizes spiritual love which Pausanias calls Heavenly Love. I believe that it is important to notice that the setting of the story is at a symposium, and many guests were discussing their views of love. I found it very interesting that Plato believes people fall in love because of a body attraction rather than a physical attraction. He describes love as some sort of strong desire people had in finding the second half of their bodies.