Notes on Eros in Middle Platonism

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The Platonic Eros and the history of its interpretation is an inexhaustible topic.In this paper, I shall take up the relatively rarely raised question of what happened, within Platonism between Plato and Plotinus, to the idea of Eros as a sublime, awe-inspiring, and ennobling force, the daimonic Eros, "Eros Ouranios" .1 I am not concerned, principally, with qnlvia or ayan11 or other forms of emotional inclination, or with ordinary sexual love.Perhaps surprisingly, there does not seem to have existed a separate Platonist theory of sexp.allove,distinct from the Aristotelian, Stoic, or Epicurean theories of emotion where sexuality is a risky appetite or passion to be kept in check, but friendship is a recommendable attitude.2And Platonists after Plato, and before the Renaissance, show little or no interest in homosexuality. 3 Though the evidence is very fragmentary, I shall try to focus on two problems: did a doctrinalization of the theory of Eros come about before Plotinus; and how did t

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