Symposium

interest in something whether it be a sport or any other activity. Love is the strongest emotion human possess, it causes people to do many irrational things, and it is the the only emotion in which almost every movie, play, or novel is about. In the Symposium love is described in many ways, heavenly and common, the search for one’s other half, the reason for extreme bravery, as a ghost, and even as a god. Throughout history nearly every advanced civilization focused someway or another on…

The Symposium by Plato is set after a heavy day of drinking, where the men are still recovering from their hangovers, in which they all decide to go easy on this night and to tell stories instead. Aristophanes, the comic playwright gives a speech in which he talks about a myth of soulmates. People were once doubled in every way and out of punishment for rebelling were cut in half. These people then spent their lives trying to find their other halves and the gods gave them the ability to have…

“The Symposium” in “The Dialogues of Plato” brings back memories of a couple of fraternity parties I attended many years ago, an invitation as it were, to a very active drinking party, but this one is where a group of Athenian intellectuals are exchanging their views on eros, or desire. From their conversation a series of thoughts are offered on gender roles, sex in society, and the diversion of the energy of basic human instincts. The Symposium is a sharing of different viewpoints and ideas…

In Plato’s Symposium the reader is offered many insights on the definition of love. Diotima’s take on love was the most interesting because of her take on love being a spirit, and the ladder of love Diotima’s first objective was establishing that love is a middle ground, not stratified to one spectrum of good or bad. “Watch your tongue,” she exclaims at Socrates, “do you really think that if a thing is not beautiful, it has to be ugly,” (Plato, Symposium, 46). A flaw often found in human…

In Plato’s philosophical text The Symposium, several characters, including Socrates, Pausanias, and Eryximachus, give speeches in praise of Love and human sexuality. Xenophon’s Symposium, on the other hand, balances seriousness (σποθδή) and playfulness (παιδία) to discuss love, desire, knowledge, and wealth (X. Sym. 1.1). Plato’s doctor, Eryximachus, establishes his medical expertise by providing medical advice, as well as his medical opinion on the nature of love. Xenophon’s Niceratus…

At the end of the Symposium, Alcibiades gives a speech, in which he talks about his relationship with Socrates (37-39). Alcibiades talks about how even though Socrates is not physically attractive he has wisdom. He talks about how Socrates’s wisdom can be sexually and emotionally alluring to others (39). This serves as a reminder to the fact that Socrates has the attributes of the ideal lover, which were described in Diotima 's speech. Diotima says, “this will lead him on to consider that the…

centuries after a work has been written, students analyze the insanity behind the actions and the all powerful drive — love— that caused it. In Plato's Symposium, characters examine not only the modern phenomenon of love, but also the god of love, Eros, and his intricate character. Concepts of love brought up by other characters of the Symposium are reflected in Alcibiades desires and mirror the story that Alcibiades tells in his speech about his relationship with Socrates. Alcibiades seems so…

When the boy reached a certain age, the older man would become his sex partner while retaining his role as an educator. In Symposium, Plato has depicted a dramatic scene when Socrates was confronted by drunk Alcibiades, who disclosed their love affairs to every guest present at the party. Alcibiades attempted to seduce Socrates with his handsome appearance so that he could share…

The texts Plato Symposium and Sappho, Selected Poems discuss the topic of love as experienced by a select few of society- and thus reject the notion that love is a universal human experience. Through this essay, love will be examined as it pertains to each text and then these ideas will be observed to understand how they reject the notion that love is a universal human experience. Set in ancient Greece, Plato’s work titled Symposium presents his view that love can only be experienced by men and…

The Symposium is an ancient philosophical text written by Plato. This text depicts several characters giving their own extemporaneous speeches about Eros. However, the text primarily focuses on Agathon’s and Socrates’s speeches. Agathon suggests that Eros is a young, beautiful god, who has all cardinal virtues. However, Socrates completely disagrees with Agathon. Socrates criticizes Agathon’s speech and then provides his account that Eros is a need in reproduction of beauty, called the ladder of…