The Many Loves of Socrates
A Dialogue on Love, Loyalty and Political Polyamory
By Plutonix
In this playful reimagining of a Socratic dialogue, Athens’ most famous gadfly encounters Cephalus in the bustling Agora and is drawn into a conversation about an unusual modern notion: polyamory. What begins as a discussion about young people’s unconventional approach to love soon widens into a satire on political loyalty, hypocrisy, and the human appetite for freedom. Socrates, ever fond of questioning everything from metaphysics to lunch menus, compares the island youth’s romantic philosophy with the opportunistic ‘polyamory’ of statesmen who pledge fidelity to principles one day and abandon them the next. With wry humour, the dialogue explores whether loyalty is a virtue, a burden, or merely an inconvenience dressed as morality. Readers are invited to laugh, ponder, and perhaps raise a cup of wine to the delicate balance between constancy and self-preservation.
Political Polyamory. Cartoon – The New Yorker
Setting: The sun is warm over Athens, and the Agora hums like a beehive that has just discovered a sale on honey. Merchants hawk figs, citizens debate taxes, and somewhere a donkey brays as if objecting to both. Into this bustle strolls Socrates, late in years, round in the middle, nose delightfully defiant of symmetry. He spots his old friend Cephalus, the prosperous armorer, ambling with surprising energy.
Socrates: My dear Cephalus! What a rare pleasure to see you outside the fortress of your own household, braving the unwashed crowd. Your step has the spring of a young goat—or at least of a goat that has recently discovered wine. To what do we owe this apparition of vigour?* Read More… Become a Subscriber
Mauritius Times ePaper Friday 12 September 2025
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