2 h 34 minAudiobook9 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What makes someone worth loving: a beautiful face, a fine character, or the way they help us live?
In Xenophon’s The Symposium, Callias hosts a dinner to honour Autolycus, a young athlete celebrating a victory. Socrates arrives with companions, and a visiting showman brings music, dancing, and acrobatics. Entertainment gives way to conversation as the guests explain what makes them proud, from wealth and beauty to poverty and the ability to improve others.
Each answer invites teasing—and a closer look. Critobulus takes pride in his beauty, while Antisthenes finds wealth in having enough within himself. As love becomes the evening’s central concern, Socrates examines Callias’s attachment to Autolycus. His playful questions draw a distinction between desire for a body and affection for a person’s character.
What you’ll discover
- Socrates in playful company Meet a Socrates whose jokes bring serious questions into an evening of shared entertainment.
- Pride under gentle scrutiny Follow the guests as their proudest claims become invitations to teasing and examination.
- Beauty put to the test Join Critobulus’s comic debate about attraction and what good looks can actually accomplish.
- Wealth without a fortune Consider Antisthenes’s claim that true wealth means having enough within yourself, rather than owning more.
- Love that values character Explore affection that asks both people to become better, not merely admire each other.
Who will love it
Readers who like Socrates at his most human, lively table talk, witty arguments about love, wealth and beauty, and a vivid glimpse of an ancient Athenian evening among friends.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A host invites philosophers to dinner
- Entertainers and Socrates the dancer
- Each guest names what he is proud of
- Arguments that defend strange boasts
- A beauty contest and a small quarrel
- Socrates speaks on love and its meaning
Who’s who
- SocratesThe philosopher and guest who jokes about his looks and his shrewish wife, and who steers the table talk toward the nature of love.
- CalliasThe wealthy host, in love with Autolycus, who wants to prove his wisdom and to serve his city.
- AutolycusA modest boy who has just won the pankration and who is proud of his father above his prize.
- LyconThe father of Autolycus, who is proud of his son and wants him to find good friends.
- CritobulusA young man in love with Cleinias, who boasts of his beauty and enters a contest against Socrates.
- AntisthenesA sharp cross-examiner who claims great wealth in the soul and needs almost nothing outside it.
- PhilippusA professional jester who arrives uninvited and wants to make the company laugh in order to earn his dinner.
- HermogenesA quiet, devout man who is proud that the gods care for him and guide him with signs.
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- Audiobook
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- Paperback
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Hardcover
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- Large print paperback
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- Large print hardcover
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Le Banquet
by Xénophon
At a dinner in Athens, Socrates jokes, asks for dancing lessons, and joins a beauty contest before he speaks about love.
Easy read2–5 hours to read25 languages
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In short
Xenophon was an Athenian soldier and writer who knew Socrates well. In The Symposium he sets down one dinner party he says he saw with his own eyes.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A host invites philosophers to dinner
The story opens after a horse race at the Panathenaic festival. Callias, son of Hipponicus, is in love with a boy named Autolycus, who has just won the pankration. He leads the boy and the boy's father, Lycon, toward his house in the Piraeus, the harbor town of Athens. On the way he spots Socrates standing with Critobulus, Hermogenes, Antisthenes and Charmides.
Callias begs them to come. He says his feast will shine far more with men of pure soul at the table than with generals and officeholders. Socrates answers with a tease. Callias, he says, has paid famous teachers like Protagoras and Gorgias for wisdom and looks down on poor self-taught thinkers like them. Callias promises to show them a very different side of himself if they come.
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What is The Symposium by Xenophon about?
It describes one dinner party at the house of Callias in honor of a young victor named Autolycus. Socrates and his friends joke, watch performers, boast about odd things, and finally talk about love and friendship.
Is Xenophon's Symposium different from Plato's Symposium?
Yes, they are two separate works by two followers of Socrates. Xenophon's is shorter, more comic and more everyday in tone, while Plato's is a chain of formal speeches on love.
Is The Symposium a true story?
Xenophon presents it as an event from his own experience, and the guests are real Athenians. Scholars treat it as a crafted dialogue, in which lively scenes carry the author's picture of how Socrates spoke.
The author
Xenophon
430 BC–353 BC · Ancient Greek historian and philosopher
Greek philosopher, historian, and soldier.
More by Xénophon
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