Hölderlin's Hyperion as Eros: Between Symposiast and Hermit

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.