Josh King

Greek Test

In the Symposium, Plato tells the story of Eros, and discusses its aspects.  In the Phaedrus, he does the same with the soul.  Eros and the soul, both driving human action, are described in somewhat similar fashion in these two texts.

Eros, he says, was born when Poverty took a child by treachery through Resource.  Being a product of these opposing gods, Eros is a mixture of Poverty's poorness and desperateness with Resource's appearance of beauty and his ability to find a way through all the difficulties that Eros received from its mother, Poverty.

Plato gives a vision for the soul, then, as a charioteer driving two horses.  One of the horses is a good horse, which has been raised to be a good and proper chariot-horse, the other is of an opposite sort, and not fit to pull a chariot.

This setup is similar to Eros: as Eros is governed by the natures of his parents - one resourceful and one impoverished, the soul is directed by two horses - one being a good leader, and the other wild and sporadic.  And even as the qualities of Eros's father helps Eros get by, the charioteer relies on the abilities of the good horse to make his way, the bad horse ending up merely a nuisance rather than a hindrance.

Another point of interest is where Eros and the soul live.  Eros, as a δαίμων, is one of many that fill up everything between mortals and gods; while this can be interpreted spiritually, it can also be taken spatially, as will be shown.  Mortals, stuck on the earth as they were, can be said to inhabit the lowest plane.  Gods, however, are thought to be on a higher, and from a Christian perspective, on the highest plane of existence.  And δαίμονες, as Plato points out, occupy everything in between, and coerce amongst mortals and gods as messengers and such.

In the Phaedrus, then, the ψυχή is said to float around in the realm of meteors before falling to earth and taking on a fleshy substance.  So shouldn’t it be assumed that the soul, like Eros, is a δαίμων?

Plato also tells a story of a soul going υπερουράνιον, above heaven, and seeing the true things there, i.e. coercing with the gods.  Thus, the soul exhibits such qualities that a δαίμων possesses, inhabiting mortals, who are then driven by it.