Hölderlin's Hyperion as Eros: Between Symposiast and Hermit

Summary

Abstract: In Hölderlin's Hyperion, the protagonist's relationships with lovers and friends define his eccentric path (exzentrische Bahn). These relationships are suffused with ambivalence, as Hyperion both requires and rejects erotic and familial connections. The influence of Plato's Symposium is apparent in the novel's conception of the erotic as guiding political and philosophical thought, and in its embrace of positions that are frequently seen as mutually exclusive, such as the protagonist's ability to nurture both hetero- and homoerotic attachments, and his attempt to bring the ideals of ancient Greece into modern society. The novel explores the inadequacy of modern political and social arrangements and shatters the protagonist's idealized concept of ancient Greece, even as his erotic indeterminacy, linked to Diotima's description of Eros in Plato's Symposium, suggests new ways of structuring love relationships, friendships, and family through a fusion of antiquity and modernity. The novel's “eccentric,” recursive structure allows for an open-ended approach to the questions that it raises and permits reflection on the past as well as a vision of the future.

Keywords: relationships, love, friendship, sexuality, ancient Greece, Romanticism

ALTHOUGH THE PHILOSOPHICAL and political underpinnings of Hölderlin’s novel, Hyperion, have been a focus of much scholarly investigation, the novel's exploration of friendship and erotic attachments has received relatively less attention. Its reception as a Bildungsroman has led critics to focus more closely on the protagonist's development as an individual than on his relationships with others. Some critics, like Sylvain Guarda, have noted Hyperion's attraction to both men and women and discussed the broader implications of this dual attraction for the novel's exploration of political and developmental issues. Others, such as Pascal Firges and Mark Roche, draw attention to the echoes of Plato in Hyperion while emphasizing Hölderlin’s divergence from Platonic philosophy or, like R. B. Harrison, note the influence of Plato's cosmology on Hölderlin's novel, invoking references to Plato’s Phaedrus, Timaeus, and Phaedo, in addition to the Symposium. These earlier readings suggest but do not center the novel's preoccupation with classical formulations of the erotic.