Aristophanes’ speech from Plato’s ‘Symposium’

With Valentine’s Day this week, what better time is there to analyze the true definition of love?

This lengthy dialogue is taken as an excerpt from Plato’s “Symposium,” particularly from the speech delivered by Aristophanes, the eminent Greek comic playwright of the time. Although Aristophanes warns that his speech is absurdist, its satirical content still strikes a chord in many respects to modern readers.

Aristophanes professed to open another vein of discourse; he had a mind to praise Love in another way, unlike that of either Pausanias or Eryximachus. Mankind, he said, judging by their neglect of him, have never, as I think, at all understood the power of Love. For if they had understood him they would surely have built noble temples and altars, and offered solemn sacrifices in his honour; but this is not done, and most certainly ought to be done: since of all the gods he is the best friend of men, the helper and the healer of the ills which are the great impediment to the happiness of the race. I will try to describe his power to you, and you shall teach the rest of the world what I am teaching you.
In the first place, let me treat of the nature of man and what has happened to it. The original human nature was not like the present, but different. The sexes were not two as they are now, but originally three in number; there was man, woman, and the union of the two, of which the name survives but nothing else. Once it was a distinct kind, with a bodily shape and a name of its own, constituted by the union of the male and the female: but now only the word ‘androgynous’ is preserved, and that as a term of reproach.

In the second place, the primeval man was round, his back and sides forming a circle; and he had four hands and the same number of feet, one head with two faces, looking opposite ways, set on a round neck and precisely alike; also four ears, two privy members, and the remainder to correspond. He could walk upright as men now do, backwards or forwards as he pleased, and he could also roll over and over at a great pace, turning on his four hands and four feet, eight in all, like tumblers going over and over with their legs in the air; this was when he wanted to run fast.

There is so much history all around those of us who live in Pickens County, truly one of the most beautiful places on earth.

By Dr. Carl Thomas Cloer, Jr.
For The Courier

We have our Jocassee Gorges, the Blue Ridge Escarpment, and historic Clemson University with its magnificent forests and botanical gardens. We need no more than 30 minutes to be atop the escarpment and in the heart of the Blue Ridge Mountains.

Most of my life has been spent atop the escarpment in the mountains. If one travels west in Pickens County on scenic Highway 11, the Keowee River (now lake) is crossed, and the traveler junctions with routes leading into the Jocassee Gorges. Highway 130, for example, travels north through the Jocassee Gorges and connects with Highway 107 into Jackson County (N.C.) and the historic Cashiers Valley, where the mighty Whitewater River of Jocassee Gorges fame originates. I have fished the mighty Whitewater all the way to Cashiers.

The story unfolding herein has the components of a Shakespearean tragedy, with bloody divisive politics, terrible tragedy, loyalty, and love. My father was a key actor in the tragedy, and related the story to me in vivid detail. I will have an imaginary Paul Harvey, the old iconic newscaster and storyteller, turn and address you, the audience, in the same manner Richard III does in that Shakespearean masterpiece. In Richard III, most all the bloody and violent acts are not viewed directly by the audience. Note that similarity as this story unfolds. I have always believed this story would make a marvelous novel and/or movie.

Martin Luther King, Jr. was born in Atlanta, Georgia in 1929 to teacher Alberta King and Baptist Minister Michael Luther King. He graduated high school in 1944 at age 15 and enrolled at Morehouse College, where he earned a B.A. in Sociology in 1948. Following this, King went on to earn a B.D. from Crozer Theological Seminary in 1951, and a Ph.D. from Boston University in 1955.

In 1953, King married Coretta Scott, a New England Conservatory music student, and they eventually had four children. The son of the pastor of the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, King was ordained in 1947, and in 1954, he became the minister of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Ala.

King’s legacy as a Civil Rights advocate began in 1955 when he led a boycott of Montgomery’s segregated city bus lines. The following year earned King a major victory and prestige as a civil rights leader when Montgomery buses began to operate on a desegregated basis. As a result of his outspoken criticism of segregation, King’s home was bombed.

At 6:01 p.m. on April 4, 1968, civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was hit by a sniper’s bullet. King had been standing on the balcony in front of his room at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tenn., when, without warning, he was shot. The .30-caliber rifle bullet entered King’s right cheek, traveled through his neck, and finally stopped at his shoulder blade. King was immediately taken to a nearby hospital but was pronounced dead at 7:05 p.m.
Violence and controversy followed. In outrage of the murder, many blacks took to the streets across the United States in a massive wave of riots. The FBI investigated the crime, but many believed them partially or fully responsible for the assassination. An escaped convict by the name of James Earl Ray was arrested, but many people, including some of Martin Luther King Jr.’s own family, believe he was innocent.

Origins of the Holiday

Hanukkah (sometimes transliterated Chanukkah) began on December 8 and will continue for eight days and nights this week, ending on December 16, 2012.

Hanukkah falls on the 25th day of the Jewish month of Kislev. Since the Jewish calendar is based on lunar cycles, every year the first day of Hanukkah falls on a different day — usually sometime between late November and late December.
According to Jewish law, Hanukkah is one of the less important Jewish holidays — compared to other holidays such as Passover, Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, or Purim. Hanukkah has become much more popular in modern practice because of its proximity to Christmas.

Life-changing wreck leads local ‘outlaw
biker’ down new path

By Nicole Daughhetee
Staff Reporter

One of the profound blessings of my job, aside from certain liberties and freedoms afforded me in my writing, is the opportunity I have to develop and investigate feature stories.

My interest in people has been cultivating for as long as I can recall. When I was younger, my mom and I would go to Aventura Mall on Saturdays, and as much as I enjoyed the girlie-girl aspect of shopping, I equally treasured quiet time spent sitting on a bench outside the food court people-watching.
People and their stories fascinate me. They always have, and I suspect they always will.

As many of my regular readers know, my passion for people and writing has transcended the Courier, as I continue to work on a book about the various personal stories and significances of people’s tattoos.

By Nicole Daughhetee
Staff Reporter

Confession: I often find that when I do the math, I am older than I think I am!

Ruminating about what I was going to write and compile for this week’s B-Front, it seemed liked only years ago that I graduated from high school. I was thinking about the palatial digs all these kids are going to high school in as they enter any one of the four majestic buildings in Central, Liberty, Easley or Pickens.

I recently had the opportunity to tour the new EHS, and walking the halls was more reminiscent of being in a museum than my old high school.

Time is one of our most valuable commodities, yet most of us give it away without honestly thinking about where it’s going or with whom we should really be sharing it.

EASLEY — The final regional qualifying tournament for the Big League World Series was finished Sunday afternoon, so now all that remains is 11 teams from across the world gathering in Easley this week to determine the best 15-18 year-old baseball team in the world.
The host team is South Carolina District 1, hoping to win its first title since 2007, when the locals took the crown for the fourth time in five years. Gregg Powell, city of Easley athletic director, has served as the manager for each of the four title teams.

By: Elizabeth Boleman-Herring
Publisher, WeeklyHubris.com

Poet James Dickey, whose poetry student I once was, called my “Up-Country” South (among many other things) “the country of nine-fingered-men.”*
In Pickens, the county seat of Upstate South Carolina’s eponymous Pickens County, you can still see some of those men, the symmetry of their hands rearranged by close encounters with farm or mill machinery; their full beards, Confederate-flag attire and bright blue eyes harking back to the moonshiners and stubbornly isolationist Calvinists who were their (and my) forebears.