Mediated Love in Ancient Greece -- Mimetic Theory and Literary Study

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Date Posted: 10:55:39 03/29/08 Sat
Author: Kiernan
Subject: Mediated Love in Ancient Greece

In Plutarch's life of Alcibiades, he discusses the many (yes, male) lovers that pursued Alcibiades as a young man. Alcibiades only accepted one lover: Socrates. Plutarch offers an interesting description of their relationship: "In this way by disparaging himself (Alcibiades), admiring his friend, loving that friend's kindness towards him and revering his virtues, he unconsciously formed what Plato calls 'an image of love to match love.'"

This passage jumped out at me as an excellent example of the way in which, however people come to feel desire/love for each other, once they are in some type of relationship, they begin imitating each other's love for the other one. Plato, apparently, called this "an image of love to match love." In another passage in Plutarch, he discusses how these older male - younger male relationships were viewed. The Greeks saw them as mentor relationships (which doesn't make it any less....disgusting to me....but anyways), in which the younger imitated the older. This seemed to be some kind of tacit acknowledgment of the imitative character of any relationship. Our desire for someone else is mediated in some fashion (in this particular situation, Plutarch says that "Alcibiades was surrounded and pursued by many admirers of high rank," which seems a clear case of mediation). But, once we are in a relationship with them, we begin to imitate each other (and could even potentially become rivals) because someone that we love goes from being an object to being a mediator himself.

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