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Plutarch · c. AD 46-after 119

Dialogue on Love (Amatorius)

Ἐρωτικός
Ancient Sources / Plutarch / Dialogue on Love (Amatorius)

Plutarch's Dialogue on Love (Amatorius, Erotikos) is told by his son Autobulus to Flavianus. It reports a conversation held at Mount Helicon, near Thespiae, during the festival of Eros and the Muses, which Plutarch and his wife attended in the early years of their marriage. While the company debates whether the rich widow Ismenodora may marry the young Baccho, Plutarch defends married love against the defenders of love between men, argues for the divinity of Eros, with Egyptian and Platonic parallels, and ends with the stories of Camma and of Sabinus and Empona as examples of conjugal loyalty. It is cited for Eros, the festival of the Erotidia at Thespiae and the cult of Eros on Helicon.

Read from the start
Text
Greek original with English translation, 11 passages, about 19100 words in English.
Translator
John Philips (1874)
Edition
William W. Goodwin (ed.), Plutarch's Morals, translated from the Greek by several hands, vol. 4, Boston: Little, Brown and Company; Cambridge: Press of John Wilson and Son, 1874 (Greek text: Gregorius N. Bernardakis, Plutarchi Chaeronensis Moralia, vol. 4, Leipzig: Teubner, 1892, as digitised by Perseus)
Cite as
Plutarch, Dialogue on Love (Amatorius) 1 (by chapter)

Contents · 11 passages

  1. 1–3Helicon and the festival of Eros; Ismenodora, Baccho and the umpires1129 words
  2. 4–5Protogenes against love of women; Daphnaeus and Plutarch for it1730 words
  3. 6–8Pisias on the match; Hesiod's rule on the age of marriage915 words
  4. 9–11Plutarch defends Ismenodora; news that she has carried Baccho off2088 words
  5. 12–14Is Eros a god or a passion? Pemptides' doubt and Plutarch's answer1682 words
  6. 15–16The care of the gods for men; the four friendships; divine madness2346 words
  7. 17Love and war: Cleomachus of Pharsalus and the Chalcidians1596 words
  8. 18–19Love makes men gentle; Soclarus asks about Egypt and Plato2512 words
  9. 20–21The birth of Eros, the rainbow, and love as a recollection of beauty2062 words
  10. 22–23Camma and Synorix; the case against loveless relations1248 words
  11. 24–26The sharpness of early marriage; Sabinus and Empona; the wedding is announced1816 words

More by Plutarch

English translation by John Philips (1874). Original text: William W. Goodwin (ed.), Plutarch's Morals, translated from the Greek by several hands, vol. 4, Boston: Little, Brown and Company; Cambridge: Press of John Wilson and Son, 1874 (Greek text: Gregorius N. Bernardakis, Plutarchi Chaeronensis Moralia, vol. 4, Leipzig: Teubner, 1892, as digitised by Perseus).

Greek text and translation from the Perseus Digital Library, Tufts University, CC BY-SA 4.0 (Perseus Digital Library); translation public domain. Introductions, summaries and notes © GreekMythology.com.