Love as the God of All Trades, Arts and Sciences

Agathon’s Tale of the Poet, Bringer of Peace and Lasting Happiness

Aug 29, 2009

Agathon praises the various qualities and wisdom of the god of Love whose impact has been indispensable for humans and for the gods.

Agathon, the host of the wine-gathering party, starts his speech with a different aim in mind than his illustrious guests. He claims that the other preceding speakers were not praising the god of love, but were actually only congratulating his benefits on mankind.

The Many Positive Qualities of the God of Love Regarding Humans and the Gods

Agathon begins to enlist the various positive dimensions to this god of love. He refers to him as one of the best, fairest and most blessed of all gods. He is eternally young and youthful, always fleeing age swiftly and with agility.

Before the existence of love, there had been necessity only and that was the reason why there had been violence among the gods, yet with the appearance of this young god the reign of love had begun and peace and sweetness came to exist.

Agathon then quotes a line from the poet Homer who describes Ate, a goddess whose feet are tender and who treads on soft ground. Similarly, the god of love seeks those souls who are soft like him and there he makes his dwelling and home.

In addition, the god of love is the very existence of virtue and can never do wrong to anyone and is completely opposed to any kinds of force. Even when dealing with humans force is never the answer as he rather relies on free will; their service needs to be of a voluntary nature.

When it comes to courage not even the god of war can equal him. He can conquer the bravest of all and he is the master while all the others are merely his servants.

The Wisdom and Poetry of the God of Love and his Influence on the Arts and Sciences

Yet all of those qualities aside, he is also a wise god. In fact, Agathon compares him to a true poet who manages to bring out poesy in others. Merely with his soft touch he can fill anyone with poetry even those who are neither poetic nor musical. This, according to Agathon, requires a special kind of talent as he can create love and poetry in any human being without exception.

Moreover, Agathon continues that no art can exist without the guidance of love and that all the other gods and sciences are blessed with his art. In fact, even Apollo is the disciple of this god since without the help of love and desire Apollo would never have discovered the arts of medicine, archery and divination. The same applies to the muses, the empire of the gods and any other talent or strength the gods may possess since everything comes down to the inventor of all good and beautiful things, love itself.

Agathon finishes his speech with a piece of poetry which again accentuates the relevance of this important god who is the bringer of peace, poetry and gentleness and who replaces the hard and violent times of necessity, pain and hardship with softness and love.

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