3 h 39 minAudiobook8 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 if love is not about what you have, but what you lack?
At a dinner party in Athens, the guests at Agathon’s house set aside heavy drinking for a different pleasure: speeches in praise of Eros. In Plato’s Symposium, a celebration becomes a lively search for love’s meaning. Phaedrus links love with courage, while medicine, comedy and philosophy each offer another way to understand desire.
At the centre stands Socrates, who turns to the teachings of Diotima. What do we want when we love, and where can that longing lead? From the myth of divided human beings to the ladder of beauty, the dialogue asks you to look beyond praise and consider what love is for.
What you’ll discover
- A party of ideas Join Agathon’s guests as a shared evening becomes a contest of views on love.
- Love and courage Consider Phaedrus’s claim that love inspires bravery and brings people great good.
- The search for wholeness Explore the myth of divided human beings and the longing for another half.
- Desire and what is missing Follow Socrates into the question of whether love reaches toward what we lack.
- The ladder of beauty Encounter Diotima’s teaching as Socrates explores the ties between love, desire and beauty.
Who will love it
For anyone curious about love, desire and beauty, and readers who enjoy philosophical conversations, lively dinner parties and myths about human nature.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A dinner party becomes a contest of speeches
- Love makes people braver and wiser
- We are halves searching for our other half
- Love is desire for what we lack
- Diotima and the ladder of beauty
- A drunken guest and a portrait of Socrates
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- 3 h 39 min, complete, read by Lucas Linden.
- 15-minute summary
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- Hardcover
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- Large print paperback
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- Large print hardcover
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Le Banquet
by Platon
At a dinner party in Athens, Socrates and his companions explore what love desires and where beauty can lead.
Challenging2–5 hours to read25 languages
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In short
Symposium is a dialogue written by Plato in the fourth century BC. It describes a dinner party in Athens, held at the house of the young tragic poet Agathon to celebrate his first victory in the theatre contest.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A dinner party becomes a contest of speeches
The dialogue opens at one remove. A man named Apollodorus tells a friend about the party, but he was not there himself. He heard the story from Aristodemus, a devoted follower of Socrates who was present, and Apollodorus has also checked details with Socrates. So the whole work is a story handed down, which gives it the feel of a memory worth keeping.
The party takes place at the house of Agathon, who has just won a prize for his tragedy. Aristodemus meets Socrates on the road, and Socrates is unusually well dressed and washed. Along the way Socrates stops to think and stands still for a time, so Aristodemus goes on alone. When Socrates finally arrives, dinner is half over, and Agathon makes room for him on a couch.
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What is Plato's Symposium about?
It is a dialogue about the nature of love. Guests at a dinner party in Athens each give a speech praising Eros, and Socrates ends the series with a teaching about love as a climb toward beauty and wisdom.
Who are the speakers in the Symposium?
The speakers are Phaedrus, Pausanias, Eryximachus the doctor, Aristophanes the comic poet, Agathon the host, and Socrates. Alcibiades, a famous Athenian, arrives late and gives a speech praising Socrates.
What does Platonic love mean in the Symposium?
Plato means love that rises from desire for one beautiful person to love of beauty itself and of wisdom. It is not love without desire, but desire turned toward the highest and most lasting good.
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