ΣΥΜΠΟΣΙΟΝ
Benjamin Jowett
Plato · Benjamin Jowett
Narrator: APOLLODORUS, a constant companion of Socrates; ARISTODEMUS, a follower of Socrates (the actual eyewitness whose account Apollodorus relays)
Also present: COMPANIONS, FLUTE-PLAYER, REVELLERS
Scene: the house of Agathon in Athens, celebrating the victory for his first tragedy
At a banquet, each guest gives a speech in praise of Love. The summit is Socrates's account of what he learned from the priestess Diotima: that Love is a great daimon, neither god nor mortal, a longing for the beautiful and the good. Rightly guided, the lover ascends a ladder — from one beautiful body, to all bodies, to beautiful souls, laws, and knowledge, and at last to Beauty itself, the Form of the Beautiful.
The dialogue ends with the drunken Alcibiades' tribute to Socrates, likening him to a Silenus-figure, plain without but full of divine images within.
From the Plato Scroll Encyclopedia · open this entry in the reader
Concerning the things about which you ask to be informed I believe that I am not ill-prepared with an answer. For the day before yesterday I was coming from my own home at Phalerum to the city, and one of my acquaintance, who had caught a sight of me from behind, calling out playfully in the distance, said: Apollodorus, O thou Phalerian (Probably a play of words on (Greek), ‘bald-headed.’) man, halt! So I did as I was bid; and then he said, I was looking for you, Apollodorus, only just now, that I might ask you about the speeches in praise of love, which were delivered by Socrates, Alcibiades, and others, at Agathon’s supper. Phoenix, the son of Philip, told another person who told me of them; his narrative was very indistinct, but he said that you knew, and I wish that you would give me an account of them. Who, if not you, should be the reporter of the words of your friend? And first tell me, he said, were you present at this meeting?
Your informant, Glaucon, I said, must have been very indistinct indeed, if you imagine that the occasion was recent; or that I could have been of the party.
Why, yes, he replied, I thought so.
Impossible: I said. Are you ignorant that for many years Agathon has not resided at Athens; and not three have elapsed since I became acquainted with Socrates, and have made it my daily business to know all that he says and does. There was a time when I was running about the world, fancying myself to be well employed, but I was really a most wretched being, no better than you are now. I thought that I ought to do anything rather than be a philosopher.
Well, he said, jesting apart, tell me when the meeting occurred.
In our boyhood, I replied, when Agathon won the prize with his first tragedy, on the day after that on which he and his chorus offered the sacrifice of victory.
Then it must have been a long while ago, he said; and who told you — did Socrates?
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The Athenian who turned Socratic conversation into a written philosophy and founded the Academy.
Plato was born around 428 BCE into a wealthy and politically prominent Athenian family; through his mother Perictione the family traced kinship to the lawgiver Solon, and his relatives Critias and Charmides were among the oligarchs of the Thirty. A late tradition says his given name was Aristocles and that 'Plato' — from the word for 'broad' — was a nickname. He grew up during the long agony of the Peloponnesian War and came of age amid the violence and disillusion that followed Athens' defeat.
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