al nature together; it tries to make one out of two and heal the wound of nature." Is he implying that to be incomplete is to be in the state of illness? If so, it is the union then, that provides the cure. Aristophanes view love as a great god that endow our world with the greatest gift: unity and therefore happiness. He believes that we must praise Love. Love draws us towards what belongs us. For the future, Love promises the greatest hope of all: if we treat the gods with due reverence, he will restore to us our original nature, and by healing us, he will make us blessed and happy. When Aristophanes say to revere Love, he may also mean to revere love the phenomenon. For, love is a serious matter. It does mysterious wonders. Yet in the same token, it can relentlessly bring about great pain and misery. Thus, Aristophanes is indirectly warning us when he says so, there's a danger that if we don't keep order before the god, he will split us into two again. According to Socrates, the great work of love, grander than the union of lovers, isoffspring or immortality and happiness. It is the principle of nature that mortals seek asfar as possible to live forever and be immortal. Socrates explains earlier in the speech that love is the desire for good and beauty and that one wants to always possess them. Thus, in the presence of a beautiful body, we naturally want to give birth, to create something beautiful. Love is not beauty alone, but creation of beauty. By doing so, we have immortalized the beauty that is present. Thus it is through love, the messenger, that the divine is born. It is also through love that a vivid painting of Beauty is portrayed for us. It goes from one beautiful body to manifold other, successively higher. Thus, via Love, we can become immortal and know Beauty itself. But in order to do so, as stated by Aristophanes, we must honor the rites of love. We must be true to virtue and nourish it. Socrates states thatto a...
