The Symposium
A philosophical treatise on the nature of love set in a convivial Athenian banquet.
Summary of 7 Key Points
Key Points
- Setting the stage: a banquet in ancient Athens
- Phaedrus praises love as the oldest of gods
- Pausanias distinguishes Common and Heavenly love
- Aristophanes’ comic myth of human nature
- Agathon’s speech on love’s virtues
- Socrates’ discourse on the nature of love
- Alcibiades’ encomium to Socrates
key point 1 of 7
Setting the stage: a banquet in ancient Athens
The setting for the philosophical text is an affluent dinner party, a symposium, which was a common social gathering in ancient Athens where men would recline on couches and partake in food, wine, and philosophical discussions. This particular symposium takes place at the house of the tragedian Agathon, who is celebrating his victory in a dramatic festival the day before. The atmosphere of the event is one of celebration and intellectual camaraderie, where the norms of the time allowed for a free-flowing exchange of ideas and discourse among the Athenian elite…Read&Listen More
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Phaedrus praises love as the oldest of gods
Phaedrus, in his speech, venerates love as the oldest of all the gods, attributing to it an ancient lineage that surpasses other deities. He frames love as a powerful deity whose influence can be observed throughout human history. The reverence for love’s antiquity is meant to suggest that it possesses an inherent wisdom and a fundamental role in the order of the cosmos. As the eldest of the gods, love commands a respect that is rooted in tradition and the understanding of its pervasive presence in the lore and rituals of ancient cultures…Read&Listen More
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Pausanias distinguishes Common and Heavenly love
In ‘The Symposium’, Pausanias makes a distinction between two types of love which he terms Common and Heavenly. Pausanias suggests that Common love is the more base form of love that is purely physical and is driven by desire and lust. It is the kind of love that does not discriminate in regards to the intellectual qualities of the object of affection, focusing instead on the physical act of love itself. This form of love is temporary and often seen as a mere satisfaction of primal needs, without any lasting foundation or higher purpose…Read&Listen More
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Aristophanes’ comic myth of human nature
In Plato’s ‘The Symposium’, Aristophanes presents an amusing and imaginative myth about the origins of human nature, which is designed to explain the human desire for romantic companionship. According to Aristophanes, humans were originally created with four arms, four legs, and two faces. These spherical beings could move quickly and were very powerful. There were three genders: male, female, and androgynous, with the androgynous beings sharing traits of both males and females…Read&Listen More
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Agathon’s speech on love’s virtues
In his speech during Plato’s ‘The Symposium’, Agathon, a handsome Athenian tragedian, presents a series of praises for the god of Love, Eros, describing him as the youngest and most beautiful of the gods. Agathon asserts that Love is young and delicate, suggesting that he must be young because old things are full of strife, but love is always associated with youth. He also believes that the young are more susceptible to love, which implies that Love himself must be youthful. Agathon emphasizes the physical beauty and eternal youth of Love, painting him as an eternally graceful figure who glides over the surfaces of human existence…Read&Listen More
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Socrates’ discourse on the nature of love
Socrates, in his discourse, presents his perspective on love through a recounting of a lesson taught to him by a wise woman named Diotima. According to Socrates, Diotima described love as neither fully beautiful nor good, contrary to what others in the symposium had suggested. Love is rather a spirit that mediates between humans and the gods. It is born from plenty and poverty, understood to mean that love is the desire for something one lacks, which in turn stems from a recognition of one’s own poverty in a certain aspect and the subsequent yearning for the abundance that another possesses…Read&Listen More
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Alcibiades’ encomium to Socrates
Alcibiades, a handsome and prominent Athenian statesman, enters the scene of ‘The Symposium’ inebriated and begins to praise Socrates in what is known as an encomium. He compares Socrates to the statues of Silenus, which are ugly on the outside but hold beautiful treasures on the inside. This metaphor is meant to illustrate the contrast between Socrates’ unattractive physical appearance and the profound wisdom and virtue that lie within him. Alcibiades admires Socrates for his endurance, self-control, and indifference to physical pleasures or material possessions, qualities he finds exceptional and unparalleled by others…Read&Listen More