Symposium

Interesting Facts

• The dialogues in the book take place at a banquet organized to celebrate Agathon's victory in a dramatic competition.
• Each participant at the banquet delivers a speech in honor of Eros, the god of love and desire.
• In his speech, Socrates recounts the teachings of the priestess Diotima on the nature of love, asserting that love is a pursuit of immortality through birth and creativity.
• In his speech, Aristophanes tells a myth that humans were once androgynous but were split by Zeus, and since then, they seek their other half.
• Alcibiades, appearing at the end of the dialogue, delivers a laudatory speech in honor of Socrates, describing him as a man of extraordinary wisdom and inner beauty.