Becoming Immortalized

During Socrates’ speech about the meaning of Eros in Plato’s Symposium, he constantly brings up the idea of humans wishing to leave their mark on the world and therefore, to be immortalized. He discusses and contrasts two different ways humans have chosen to be immortalized- in the physical and the mental aspect. The physical aspect of human’s desire for immortality can be seen in their desire to beget their own offspring in order to pass along genetic traits along with some of their beliefs (Plato, Symposium 207). The mental aspect, on the other hand, is the desire to pass knowledge down to the next generation and the “ambition” to make a lasting impact in people’s lives that will be remembered by history (208-209). This intellectual immortality tends to have a much more long-term effect in human memory, due to their contributions to society. Physical immortality can only be achieved for so long until people either forget the things you have done or the bloodline is ended, but mental immortality has the opportunity to last forever. Socrates gives many examples of great figures that were remembered as heroes, such as Homer, Hesiod, Lycurgus, and Solon, due to their work to make themselves known to others (209). In contrasting the two types of immortality, he describes his own viewpoint that people who share an intellectual bond produce “finer, and more lasting offspring” than those who share solely a physical bond (209).