Work
Symposium (Plato)
Overview
The Symposium (Ancient Greek: Συμπόσιον, Symposion) is a Socratic dialogue by Plato, dated c. 385 – 370 BC. It depicts a friendly contest of extemporaneous speeches given by a group of notable Athenian men attending a banquet. The men include the philosopher Socrates, the general and statesman Alcibiades, and the comic playwright Aristophanes. The panegyrics are to be given in praise of Eros, the god of love and sex.
In the Symposium, Eros is recognized both as erotic lover and as a phenomenon capable of inspiring courage, valor, great deeds and works, and vanquishing man's natural fear of death. It is seen as transcending its earthly origins and attaining spiritual heights. The extraordinary elevation of the concept of love raises a question of whether some of the most extreme extents of meaning might be intended as humor or farce. Eros is almost always translated as "love", and the English word has its own varieties and ambiguities that provide additional challenges to the effort to understand the Eros of ancient Athens.
The dialogue is one of Plato's major works, and is appreciated for both its philosophical content and its literary qualities.
Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).
Philosophers who discussed Symposium (Plato)
- Giovanni Pico della Mirandola
- Lucian
- Sage (philosophy)
- Philo
- Plato
- Socrates
- Martha Nussbaum
- José Ortega y Gasset
- Diotima of Mantinea
- François Rabelais
- Allan Bloom
- Wincenty Lutosławski
- Franciscus Patricius
- María Zambrano
Related ideas
- Socratic dialogue
- Aristophanes
- Symposium (ancient Greece)
- Hellenistic Judaism
- Florence
- Aphrodite
- Athens
- Classical Athens
- Hesiod
- Aelius Aristides
- Iran
- Platonism in the Renaissance
- Giovanni Pico della Mirandola
- Jacques Lacan
- Lucian
- Athenaeus
- Politics (Aristotle)
- Byzantine Empire
- Simone Weil
- Middle Platonism
- Middle Ages
- Marsilio Ficino
- Aeschylus
- Philo
Place in the tradition
Part of Aesthetics.