Fun fact: they called it “Platonic” love specifically because Plato was like the one Greek philosopher who didn’t take advantage of and fuck his students. He took a volcel oath because he was too focused on philosophy, and trying to ignore that asshole Diogenes who kept cramping his style by being right about everything.
This passage is an unusual celebration of male same-sex desire by contemporary Western standards. Plato is explicitly linking manliness not with heterosexual desire but with homosexual desire.
Fun fact: they called it “Platonic” love specifically because Plato was like the one Greek philosopher who didn’t take advantage of and fuck his students. He took a volcel oath because he was too focused on philosophy, and trying to ignore that asshole Diogenes who kept cramping his style by being right about everything.
I think this is a myth honestly. Plato fucked his students, he just thought that close relationships where you didn’t have sex were the most ideal typw of relationship to have. https://learninglink.oup.com/access/content/gillis-jacobs2e-student-resources/gillis-jacobs2e-chapter-5-plato-and-same-sex-sexuality?previousFilter=all_resources