On 04-20-98 Frank Masingill wrote to Day Brown... 
DB> that culture.  So, Plato was not extolling the love of sex; he 
> did not know there was a difference. 
 FM>  
 FM>    That is quite true and the Agape love spoken of by Paul and the 
 FM> writers of
 FM> the Christian gospels were sometimes used interchangeably with Philia 
 FM> (brotherly love) and quite frankly, while I am reasonably sure it was 
 FM> present 
 FM> in the Symposium hymn to love of Plato-Socrates I never have found 
 FM> anybody who 
 FM> knew it's orgin.  I suspect it is the love associated with a 
 FM> mother-goddess as 
 FM> I've heard that speculated.  That is why it could become a 
 FM> "disinterested" love for all as a part of the Christian sermons. 
Joseph Campbell suggests that the Madonna & Child are adaptations 
to Demeter and Dionysus; that the love of the mother and child is 
further extended since Dionysus grows up to be Demeter's consort, 
and loves both his mother and his wife, who begets himself as a 
result of their love.  A God who begets himself. hmmm. 
 
This union is sanctified in the temple with surrogates well into 
Greek times.  Since Dionysus was also associated with wine, and 
in Greek 'symposium' translates as 'drinking party', I expect the 
hymn was a prehistoric drinking song. 
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 * OFFLINE 1.58 * Asking love for a reason to live is a bit much. 
--- Maximus 3.01
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