#friday the 13th somehow feels like the most appropriate night for becoming a marius girly

[apoptoses]

Bought some Plato at the half price book store on a whim and inadvertently got my heart destroyed over Marius.

In his Symposium, Plato has Socrates attend a party where the parties attempt to define and describe Love.

The love between an older Lover and younger Beloved is the ideal, wherein the Lover, via his intelligence, improves his Beloved’s life. Through his good conversation, education, and introducing the Beloved to connections which will help him set up his future business dealings, the Lover behaves in a way that is noble, just, and not shameful. Thus the Lover is not shamed by gratifying his Beloved and becoming subservient to him, and so long as the Beloved hopes to become more virtuous through his Lover’s love, he is not shamed by gratifying him in turn. This is a love that will help the Beloved earn wings (a point which will be returned to).

The trouble comes when the Lover’s desires and actions are not just. The Lover who lives with his Beloved runs the risk of becoming possessive. He wishes to be with his Beloved day and night, occupies his every waking moment. He prevents his Beloved from making connections with other men which will further improve his life and instead takes such delight in carnal pleasures with his Beloved that they both fall into the realms of hubris. This type of Lover is shameful, for he does not improve his Beloved’s life in any way, only enjoys him as one would a toy, and the Beloved ceases to seek virtue through his Lover.

There’s a concept introduced in the Phaedrus, that all souls begin in the heavens, flying with their chosen god. Suddenly their wings are taken from them and they plummet to earth, becoming mortal. The only way to earn back ones wings is through Love, love that is just and noble and pure. By falling in Love ones wing feathers begin to grow back, and if that love remains just the Beloved will gain their wings back and their soul will one day return to the heavens.

But the Lover that behaves in a way which is not just plucks those wings from his Beloved. He condemns his Beloved to wander the earth in torment for thousands of years as a result of his unjust Love.

Marius is an atheist (so probably doesn’t give much of a crap about the stuff about gods) but he’s also a classicist and I can’t help but think about the trajectory of his relationship with Armand. Even from the start he skirts the line between Plato’s idea of just (life improving) and unjust (possessive and exclusively sensual) love, and by the time Armand is taken the two of them have been going out with Bianca most every night and living more of a hedonist life of fun than the highly educational life Marius seemed to envision for his household. It wouldn’t surprise me at all if Armand’s capture felt to him like the universe punishing him for unjust behavior. How could he have seen Armand in the coven and not been haunted by the concept that unjust love ‘steals the beloved’s wings’ and condemns them to wander the earth in torment?

And so it only makes sense that his redemption must come in the form of Daniel. When Daniel takes on the role of Beloved, Marius is finally able to quantifiably improve a life. By his Love and education Marius pulls him out of madness and metaphorically gives him his wings via giving him the ability to be independent once more.