Alcibiades, Son of Phaedrus

Anand Mangal – November 7, 2022

The ancient Greeks, whose language had few syntactical impositions on lexical order,
often considered the first and last elements in a sequence as having special significance. In the
Symposium, Plato gives the first speech to Phaedrus, the “father of the dialogue.” Through the
speech of Alcibiades, who takes the final turn, Plato reveals the misery that results from
ascribing to Phaedrus’ flawed understanding of Love.
Alcibiades treats the company to an account of his service with Socrates in wartime. His
experience ought to accord with Phaedrus’ prediction that the best kind of soldier is a man in
love, motivated by shame and honor (178d-179a). Alcibiades is such a man; however, Socrates
outmatches him in strength, endurance, and courage. Socrates complains not for want of food
(219e), neither does he feel the biting frost through his thin cloak and bare feet (220b), nor
does the clamor of war prevent him from “swaggering and casting his eyes sideways” across the
battlefield (221b). Socrates is not in love and cares nothing for Phaedrus’ motivational
structure: he feels no shame when he spends a full day lost in thought, to the amusement of his
peers (220d), and he spurns honor when he refuses an award for bravery (220e). Meanwhile,
Alcibiades hopes in vain that Love will “breath might” into him, as Phaedrus says the god has
the particular power to do (179b), but can only receive the award at Socrates’ deferment.
Acting on Phaedrus’ advice leaves Alcibiades rueful, accepting the adulations of lesser men, but
unable to win the respect of a truly great man.
Of course, Alcibiades wants a good deal more than respect from Socrates. Even though
Alcibiades is by far the younger and the more handsome of the two, he is overcome with a
strong attraction for the snub-nosed philosopher. This is an inversion of the dynamic between
the lover and the beloved, and Phaedrus declares that this amazes the gods, as “they reserve
greater wonder and admiration for the beloved and are more generous to him when he feels
affection for his lover. (180b)” It was this sort of rhetoric that assured Alcibiades his pursuit of
Socrates was favored by the gods: “Thinking [Socrates] was keen on my youthful beauty I
thought this was a godsend. (217b)” But Socrates is immune to the apparent beauty of images,
and Alcibiades comes to the bitter realization that Phaedrus’ ideas of Love do not move the
hearts of the gods.
Phaedrus ends his lofty paean by declaring Love to be the “most powerful of the gods in
enabling the acquisition of excellence and happiness by humans. (180b)” This may be true, but
Plato urges that properly understanding Love is a crucial prerequisite. Alcibiades, as an
accomplished military leader and statesman, might seem to possess both excellence and
happiness; but his speech reveals an internal life of shame and insecurity. Phaedrus puts forth a
philosophy that is deeply mistaken, and Alcibiades, who has imbibed this philosophy, reaps the
wretched consequences of that mistake.