Poetry vs. Philosophy

Note the similar structures of the Greek myth of Orpheus to that of the structure of the Symposium, by Plato. A feature Plato owes to Aristophanes, and ultimately Homer. Orpheus goes to Hades to retrieve his lost love (female), but returns empty handed. Due to the nature of the trip he no longer valued the gods, only One, Apollo. Orpheus went to pray to Apollo, but in a temple of Dionysus. Dionysus is angry and has him killed.

Dionysus is the key to the Symposium also. Substitute Alcibiades for Orpheus and you get the same logic. But who is Dionysus? None other than Socrates and his satyr Plato: [note the logic, not the narrative. Strauss says "The place of Dionysus is taken by Alcibiades who decides in favor of Socrates. So you see how elegantly Plato pays Aristophanes back." Remember the mysteries "... and the man who divulged them was Socrates himself" p. 24. A lesson on how to read irony.] 

How is Alcibiades punished? By slander, which results in the death of his political career, and subsequently the loss of the Peloponnesian war with the Spartans. This has become the paradigm of the subversion of Western Civilization by a group of resentful males known as homosexuals and is being played out today in the division of the Straussians into West and East coast versions. The East Coast nihilists are emerging as victorious. Dividing the Straussians is too close to the division of humans into male and female by Zeus, as told by Aristophanes in the Symposium, to be merely coincidental.

Hopefully, rereading Strauss will open a path forward.