THEOGNIS A PLATÓNŮV SÓKRATÉS: DVOJÍ LÁSKA A PŘÀTELSTVÍ

The study compares Theognis' and Socrates' concepts of love and friendship. Challenging the traditional interpretation that presupposes an agreement between the ideas of the two thinkers, we find out that only Plato's Socrates works with the concept of love as a unique phenomenon that constitutes the identity of an individual. For Theognis, love appears to be a non-essential part of a contradictory political scheme: helping friends / harming enemies. In case of Socrates, love opens a new crucial horizon in the life of an individual by lifting him to see the divine beauty and characters. Within such an openess an individual changes his attitudes to himself, the others, the issues of communal life and the life in general. Openess, which seemingly evokes anxiety, in reality leads Socrates to a bitter-sweet satisfaction with the constantly examined life, whereas closeness in the circle of conforming friends, which seemingly secures Theognis' life, leads in the end to a dissatisfaction and desire to die. Socrates' erotical friendship stemming from love, still ambiguous and ironic, reveals itself to be stronger than unambiguous, pragmatic friendship of Theognis. Only through the erotical establishment, reason and friendship surpass their mortal style and acquire purposeful value for the movement of soul.