Platonic love

Platonic love  is a deep and spiritual connection between two individuals: within such a relationship there does not exist any form of sexual connection or sexual elements.

At the same time, this interpretation is a misunderstanding of the nature of the Platonic ideal of love which originally was that of a chaste but deep love transcending mortal life. In its original Platonic form, this love was a sublimated pederastic eroticism. The force of desire was meant to be harnessed for pedagogical purposes, bringing the man and the boy closer to wisdom and the Platonic Form of Beauty. It is described in-depth in Plato"s Phaedrus and Symposium. In the Phaedrus, it is said to be a form of divine madness that is a gift from the gods, and that its proper expression is rewarded by the gods in the afterlife; in the Symposium, the method by which love takes one to the form of beauty and wisdom is detailed.