Phaedrus
begins by defining love whom he believes is the third god after chaos and earth. Love is better than public honor, kinship, wealth, and the best society would be run by one completely composed of lovers because no one would ever do anything shameful.
He discusses Alcestis who dies for her husband and was rewarded by the Gods by her soul being brought back from the dead proving that courage and love win over the highest honors of the gods.
Pausanias
the next man to give his opinions of love says that there are two types of love. Heavenly Aphrodite is also called Uranis, the motherless daughter of Uranus, god of heaven, and an older deity or goddess. This type of love is purely for males, and free from the lewdness of youth. This type of love is acted out by those more strong and intelligent.
Common Aphrodite is also called Pandemos. She is the daughter of Zeus and Dione and is a younger goddess than Heavenly Aphrodite. She strikes whenever she recieves a chance and is in it for the body more than the soul, usually being acted out by less intelligent partners.
According to Pausanius no love is more honorable of shameful than the other.
In Athens it is honorable to declare one's love rather than keep it a secret. Conquest is noble, while failure is shameful. Being in love with youth of a good family is a great accomplishment. It is shameful to yeild to quickly and for a man to be seduced by money or political power, which sounds just like a courtesan to me.
It is honorable if one puts himself at another's disposal to gain knowledge. It is also never shameful to be decieved in the act of love.
Eryximachus
Believes that once there was a type of man called androgynous which is a combination of man and woman, being an offspring of the moon because it shares in both. Male he claims are offspring of the sun while women are the offspring of the earth. The androgynous's were powerful with great ambitions that led them to attempt an ascent to heaven to attack the gods. Zeus cut all the Androgynous people in half making each half long with the other half in order to 'grow together.' Therefore love is born in every human being that wants to get back to their original nature. It is also a lesson for mankind to respect the gods unless we want to be split in half again.
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