The Symposium is a book written by Greek Philosopher Plato, dated in c.385-380 b.c. Plato was a student of Socrates as well as a writer and scholar. Amongst many other things like mathematician and scientist Plato helped pave the way to western philosophy. Composed for all who are curious of love and want to further their understandings of love. The symposium tells a story about what love truly is, and how love exactly works, along with the nature, purpose, and idea of love. The book is constructed
Though not as philosophical as many of Plato's other works, The Symposium gives a greater in depth account and characterization into the social life of the intellectual circles in Ancient Greece. The eulogies from each of the philosophers at the discussion examine the origins and theories of love in its many forms. Several of the theories and themes discussed in The Symposium are repeated as well as contrasted by each of the orators. The themes of physical love and lust, and reproduction are most
universe that has transcended time; yet with no absolute answers. There is perhaps no correct answers to the phenomena of love. It exists in many strata. It is perpetually subject to debate, for we all are experts of love in our own rights. In The Symposium, Plato gave accounts of speeches from different speakers. Yet the focus of this essay is on Aristophanes and Socrates. Their explanations of love and critical comments t... ... middle of paper ... ...od. Most of the works are depicting an ideal
allegories. The words of Socrates in the Symposium and Republic were written by his mentee, Plato, who uses Socrates’ persona to reflect his own thoughts (though, not necessarily all of his proper beliefs). Therefore, the apparent inconsistencies between Plato’s works may be reconciled when the disposition of Socrates in these texts is considered: he is a character. Socrates and other characters are purely vehicles of Plato’s thought-provoking persuasion. In the Symposium, the interlocutors give praise to
else matters. When I was reading Plato’s Symposium this song kept playing in my mind for the fact that it addresses different kinds of love, or eros, which is the main concept of the Symposium, just with a different approach. Everyone has heard of Plato’s Symposium at one point in their life, after all it is a literary classic. When I began reading the novel I had no idea what a symposium really was, but according to the book’s introduction a symposium literally means “drinks party” when translated
Plato's Symposium What is the meaning of love? What does love feel like? How does love come about? No one can truly explain it, yet somehow it's understood. In Plato's Symposium, a dinner party was held with the discussion of love as the main topic. Everyone was required to make a speech, an ode to Love, the spirit. The philosopher, Socrates gave his speech last, claiming that his speech was merely a repetition of what a wise woman named Diotima once told him. The speech was a powerful one,
Plato's Symposium In the Symposium, Plato gives us one of the most close-up and personal pictures of Socrates we have. Socrates himself never wrote a line that we know of; all that we know of him (his personality, his views, his biography) we get through Plato's ey es and pen. We cannot, therefore, know how accurate or embellished this account is. The elaborate way Plato introduces the "story" of the Symposium may lead you to believe that it is a fiction, just as the other works we will
ECHOES OF PLATO’S SYMPOSIUM DOWN THE AGES “Because of the centrality and power of love in human experience, men and women throughout the ages have felt the compulsion to sing songs, to write verse, and to tell stories about this ineffable and mysterious force which leads them to the peaks of felicity, and to the depths of despair. Love indeed is an ultimate, if not the ultimate, human concern. It is the universal principle undergirding all human
“Plato’s Symposium” Kaboom, that was the sound of Zeus’s thunder crashing towards the Earth. During this time period the people in Greece believed in these gods. Also happening at the same time period was when the worlds most famous philosophers began to come out and teach. Most importantly the philosophers did what they were suppose to, and that was to question the world around them. One of the most famous philosophers in the Greek period around 416 B.C. was a man named Socrates. Socrates was
Plato’s Symposium: The 7th Speaker - Interstitial Space of the Twin Soul The Symposium is considered one of Plato’s great literary works. Although short in its Platonic dialogue, many philosophers agree that Plato wrote the Symposium to explore the true nature of love through Socrates’ wisdom. The Symposium is set at a dinner party and offers speeches from six prominent Athenian intellectuals. Each speaker presents varying perspectives on love as a eulogy to Eros, the God of Love. The varying perspectives
literature, is commonly considered as a prominent theme. Love, in present days, always appears in the categories of books, movies or music, etc. Interpreted differently by different people, Love turns into a multi-faceted being. In Plato’s work Symposium, Phaedrus, Pausania, Eryximachus, Aristophane and Agathon, each of them presents a speech to either praise or definite Love. Phaedrus first points out that Love is the primordial god; Pausanias brings the theme of “virtue” into the discussion and
The Symposium (which means “Drinking Party”) (Puchner), is a connotation that goes back to Ancient Greece from approximately the seventh century BCE, and was a significant part of the Greek culture, known as a gathering for the upper socially classed Greek men. A symposium was held at one of the homes of a participant, in a room specifically dedicated to such assemblies called the “andrōn”. In this room seven to eleven couches were organized along the walls, allowing the men to sprawl out on while
The Tragedy of Alcibiades in Plato's Symposium In Symposium, a selection from The Dialogues of Plato, Plato uses historical allusions to demonstrate Alcibiades’ frustration with both social expectations for the phallus and his inability to meet these expectations. Alcibiades’ inability to have a productive sexual relationship effectively castrates him and demonstrates the impotence caused by an overemphasis on eroticism. The tragedy of Alcibiades is that he realizes he is unable to gain virtue
these immeasurable things into literary defecation. Love, for instance, has been constant subject among writers and philosophers for eons. Everyone from E.L James to Plato has written on love and attempted to explore it with language. In Plato’s Symposium, love is discussed
Plato’s The Symposium creates an atmosphere that attempts to justify love in a way that excludes women in order to substantiate Plato’s belief that men are more intellectually capable than women. The constant explanation and praise of love among men not only illustrates Plato’s view that males are superior, but it also reveals his reverence for relationships between men as opposed to relationships between men and women. In addition, while the Symposium focuses on a sense of love that yearns to find
Aristophanes' Theory of Love in the Symposium 2. Aristophanes' Theory of love: from Plato's Symposium The love as discussed by the characters in the Symposium is homosexual love. Some assumed that homosexuality alone is capable of satisfying “a man’s highest and noblest aspirations”. Whereas heterosexual love is placed at an inferior level, being described as only existing for carnal reasons; its ultimate purpose being procreation. There are differing views in these dialogues, Aristophanes
The Significance of Feet in Plato’s Symposium Plato’s Symposium presents an account of the party given at the house of Agathon, where Socrates and Alcibiades are in attendance. The men at the party take turns eulogizing the god Eros. In Agathon’s eulogy, he describes Eros as a soft and tender being. When Socrates speaks, however, he makes a correction of his host’s account, by saying the soft and tender thing is the beloved, and not the lover, as Agathon would have it. When Alcibiades enters
I’m going to give you my view on Aristophanes, Socrates, and my account of love. Aristophanes speech on “What is Love,” in the Symposium was very interesting. I say this, because back then humans were more powerful, and knowledgeable than we’re today. Nowadays there’re a lot of things that we can’t prove about the past, simply because we don’t have any evidence or proof. Aristophanes says, “Humans once had four legs, four arms, two heads, and so on.” So us humans, were combined with our significant
The ideas presented by the patrons in Plato’s Symposium differed immensely. All pertaining to a main topic, being love, but none having the same conclusion. Two speeches in particular, those of Pausanias and Aristophanes, seemed to oppose the most. Many elements of their arguments contradicted that of the others, none more than the origin of love and the whom is the eromenos of love. Pausanias believed that there was two different goddesses of love; the more prevalent of the two being Pandemos,
Context and Contradictions in Plato's Phaedrus and Plato's Symposium It is well known that Plato, a devoted student of Socrates, chronicled many of Socrates' speeches and conversations. Every so often one can find instances where Socrates and other players in these conversations seem to contradict themselves, or at least muddle their arguments. One such occurrence of this is in Plato's Symposium and Plato's Phaedrus. Both texts speak of love in its physical sense, both texts describe love and