The rest of the Symposium is interesting too .. and so is Socrates' conception of Eros whom he thinks is neither man nor a God but a Daemon (someone superior to men but inferior to God's) who carries the oblation's and sacrifices of men to the Gods and brings back the blessings from the Gods ... He is the child of the Goddess of poverty (Penia) and the God of resource (Poros) and shares equally of the characteristics of both. He sleeps in doorways and on open streets but is always plots to find a way to trap the beautiful and the good !
But the most surprising things are those spoke by Aicibiades towards the end of the book. Socrates was (what we call in India) a Sthitapragnya ! They say that by pure reason alone one can find God. So he probably did, or was quite close ! He pretended to be a lover of these beautiful youth but at the end in fact it turned out that they chased him ! He was always moderate in drinking but if he was forced into a contest he could out drink anyone and not become drunk. He could walk about just the same way in winter, as he would in summer .. He could wrestle better than the best but would accept no prize for it. These and many more signs of a true man of God !
Now that's news to me !!!!!
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