In the midst of a deep dinner discussion about the forms of love, I find this amusing bit:
"Pausanias came to a pause-this is the balanced way in which I have been taught by the wise to speak; and Aristodemus said that the turn of Aristophanes was next, but either he had eaten too much, or from some other cause he had the hiccough, and was obliged to change turns with Eryximachus the physician, who was reclining on the couch below him. Eryximachus, he said, you ought either to stop my hiccough, or to speak in my turn until I have left off.
I will do both, said Eryximachus: I will speak in your turn, and do you speak in mine; and while I am speaking let me recommend you to hold your breath, and if after you have done so for some time the hiccough is no better, then gargle with a little water; and if it still continues, tickle your nose with something and sneeze; and if you sneeze once or twice, even the most violent hiccough is sure to go. I will do as you prescribe, said Aristophanes, and now get on."
The move of the conversation is towards a form of love that is held in higher place than simply of the body, and perhaps is why they relegate male-female love to a lesser plateau than that of man and youth. Though while this may include a romantic and homosexual form in its physicality and feeling, it is also, to me, a place to which heterosexual love should aspire, as well as that of friendship which is deep enough to encompass all.
Some quotes and thoughts will follow soon.
The Lost Children: A Charity Anthology