Symposium

Symposium

by Plato
Symposium

Symposium

by Plato

eBook

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Overview

During a lively dinner party, a series of speakers offer their views on eros or desire. They see love as a response to beauty, a cosmic force, a motive for social action and a means of ethical education. Through jokes and flirtation they reveal their attitudes to love and personal relationships. Aristophanes, the comic poet, tells a haunting myth about our long-lost unity as couples; since then, each of us has been looking for our 'other half'. Socrates radically rethinks the nature of love, and delivers a massive challenge to ancient -- and modern -- romanticism. Finally, the glamorous Alcibiades appears, drunk and supported by a courtesan, to tell us why he tried to seduce Socrates -- and why he failed.

Full of drama, humour and sharply drawn characters, the Symposium offers profound insights into gender roles, sex in society and the value of sublimating our basic instincts. Perhaps no other single work from antiquity retains such direct and immediate relevance for everyone today.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781531266684
Publisher: Charles River Editors
Publication date: 03/22/2018
Sold by: PUBLISHDRIVE KFT
Format: eBook
Pages: 131
Sales rank: 134,045
File size: 1 MB

About the Author

About The Author
During the Classical era of ancient Greece, the philosopher Plato was born in Athens. He established the Academy, the first university on the European continent, as well as the Platonist school of philosophy. His interpretation of Plotinus had a significant impact on both Islam and Christianity. His theory of Forms, sometimes known as Platonism, is his most well-known contribution. He is also the inspiration for the Platonic solids and Platonic love. Plato was one of the most important figures in the ancient world, and his body of work is said to have persisted unaltered for more than 2,400 years. Even though little of his predecessors' writings have survived, it is believed that he had a significant impact on the works of Socrates, Heraclitus, Pythagoras, and Parmenides. On a tract of land in the Grove of Hecademus or Academus, a mythical Attic figure, Plato built it. The Academy remained in operation until Lucius Cornelius Sulla demolished it in 84 BC. Seneca claims that Plato passed away on the day of his birth at the age of 81. The Suda reports that he lived to be 82 years old, but Neanthes states that he was 84 years old. Tertullian said that Plato merely passed away while sleeping. By will, Plato bequeathed his Iphistiadae land to a younger relative.

Table of Contents

Prefacevii
Introductionx
The Symposium1
Notes65
Select Bibliography85
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