Vulgar Eros and divine Eros were both considered to be connected, and part of the same continuous process of pursuing perfection of one's being, with the purpose of mending one's human nature and eventually reaching a point of unity where there is no longer an aspiration or need to change. This concept of divine Eros was later transformed into the term 'platonic love'. Pausanias defines vulgar Eros as material attraction towards a person's beauty for the purposes of physical pleasure and reproduction, and divine Eros as starting from physical attraction but transcending gradually to love for supreme beauty, placed on a similar level to the divine. Pausanias, in Plato's Symposium (181bвЂ“182a), defines two types of the love known as 'Eros': vulgar Eros, or earthly love, and divine Eros, or divine love.

in Plato's terms, Being or idea.'(106) Eros virtue for the Greeks means self-sameness. Pregnancy of the soul, the next step in the process, produces ' virtue'-which is the soul (truth) translating itself into material form. Pregnancy of the body results in human children. Socrates defines love based on separate classifications of pregnancy (to bear offspring) pregnancy of the body, pregnancy of the soul, and direct connection to existence. For Diotima and Plato generally, the most correct use of love of human beings is to direct one's mind to love of divinity. Of particular importance is the speech of Socrates, who attributes to the prophetess Diotima an idea of platonic love as a means of ascent to contemplation of the divine, an ascent known as the 'Ladder of Love'. It explains the possibilities of how the feeling of love began and how it has evolved, both sexually and non-sexually, and defines genuine platonic love as inspiring a person's mind and soul and directing their attention towards spiritual matters. Platonic love is examined in Plato's dialogue, the Symposium, which has as its topic the subject of love, or more generally the subject of Eros.

1 Classical philosophical interpretationД¬lassical philosophical interpretation.

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