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The Symposium (Penguin Classics) (Paperback)

by Plato (Author), Christopher Gill (Introduction, Translator) "APOLLODORUS: In fact, I'm well prepared to answer your question.1 ..." (more)
5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
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Product details

  • Paperback: 144 pages
  • Publisher: Penguin Classics; Rev Ed edition (27 Feb 2003)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0140449272
  • ISBN-13: 978-0140449273
  • Product Dimensions: 19.6 x 12.7 x 1 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 13,094 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in these categories:

    #2 in  Books > Society, Politics & Philosophy > Philosophy > Philosophers > Plato
    #5 in  Books > Fiction > Authors, A-Z > G > Gill, A.A.
    #6 in  Books > Society, Politics & Philosophy > Philosophy > History > Ancient Greek & Roman: 500 BC-400 AD

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Product Description

Product Description

In the course of a lively drinking party, a group of Athenian intellectuals exchange views on eros, or desire. From their conversation emerge a series of subtle reflections on gender roles, sex in society and the sublimation of basic human instincts. The discussion culminates in a radical challenge to conventional views by Plato's mentor, Socrates, who advocates transcendence through spiritual love. The Symposium is a deft interweaving of different viewpoints and ideas about the nature of love - as a response to beauty, a cosmic force, a motive for social action and as a means of ethical education.


About the Author

Plato (c.427-347 BC) stands with Socrates and Aristotle as one of the shapers of the whole intellectual tradition of the West. He founded in Athens the Academy, the first permanent institution devoted to philosophical research and teaching, and theprototype of all Western universities. Christopher Gill is Professor of Ancient Thought at the University of Exeter. He has written widely on ancient philosophy and literature.
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APOLLODORUS: In fact, I'm well prepared to answer your question.1 Read the first page
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8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars The Conversation, 2 Sep 2006
By Sarakani (Harrow United Kingdom) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   
We all like to chat about romance around a dinner table but what is romance and love all about? Well, Symposium is one of the most serious discussions about this issue datable to the 5th century BCE. At that time, Greeks at dinner parties used to sprawl themselves on couches with food and wine and a little music, be ministered by slaves and while eating or after have a spirited conversation/discussion. Well this "soire" takes place with Socrates, and its details are related second hand by the author Plato.

As translations go, this particular issue is one of the best on the market and the author had discussed it's details with a Kabbalist teacher of mine Glynn Davies. A translation is dependent to a greater or lesser extent on the author's appreciation and interpretation of the sorts of contents involved - and this translation is pretty current. There is a good introduction about the characters, especially Alcibiades and Xenophon who were real people from the time.

I think this book is a wonderful evocation of deep thinking from the Greek world starting with sensual love and then going on to describe a sort of spiritual love that subverts our expectations of what we would understand by Love personified as a deity. Socrates is in the beginning seen to enter into a meditational reverie which probably indicates that some such sages did meditate as in Indian traditions in order to obtain wisdom. Later, Socrates recounts the wisdom transmitted by an Oracle called Diotima (almost as if to say, "this is not what I think (though it is actually) but it was conveyed to me as follows by this trustworthy source".

Some of your friends should appreciate the wisdom of this book. Above all, it is The Symposium, the important conversation among friends at dinner talking about something of the sublime in a way that echoes but also seriously deepens the level of our own more mundane discussions on romance and true love that crop up regularly if you're at that sort of age.

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