Chapter 10. Theognis: Faceless Exile Theognis of Megara is a shadowy figure whose poetry offers us some evocative hints about his life; one can only wonder if it is a real life or a stereotypical poet’s life. [1] As early as Plato, we read of the “poet … Theognis, a citizen of Megara in Sicily” (ποιητὴν … Θέογνιν, πολίτην τῶν ἐν Σικελίᾳ… Read more
Chapter 11. Tyrtaeus: The Lame General Virtually all critics agree that the story of Tyrtaeus, in which the lame Athenian schoolmaster is sent to the Spartans as a joke, only to become their general in the Second Messenian War, is unhistorical—a piece of Attic propaganda, perhaps, to account for the fact that the Spartans even produced a poet. [1] H. J. Rose… Read more
7. Where is Socrates on the “Ladder of Love”? Ruby Blondell On the Road “Where is [Socrates]?” Agathon asks Aristodemus, when the latter shows up at his house a couple of pages into Plato’s Symposium (174c12). Later Alcibiades tacitly likens Socrates to Odysseus (220c), the archetypal wanderer, thus obliquely raising the question of where he is in his larger “travels.” [1]… Read more
8. Tragedy Off-Stage Debra Nails Plato weaves strands of the tragic and the comic, high seriousness and low bawdiness, into his Symposium; that much is uncontroversial. If someone should miss the sweep of the plot from the celebration of Agathon’s prize for tragedy to the waves of drunken revelers, the kômos, there is a telling reminder at the end. With snores in the background, Socrates is… Read more
9. The Virtues of Platonic Love Gabriela Roxana Carone Socrates’ speech on Love in the Symposium (201–212), reporting his conversation with the Mantinean priest Diotima, stands as prima facie counterintuitive. First, it is not clear that it has anything to say about interpersonal love at all; and even if it does, it might seem to offer a view that conforms pretty well to our popular… Read more
10. Agathon, Pausanias and Diotima in Plato’s Symposium: Paiderastia and Philosophia Luc Brisson My goal in this contribution [1] is to shift the center of interest of Plato’s magnificent dialogue the Symposium on two points. First, by showing that the dialogue develops a critique of a specific form of education within the framework of paiderastia , [2]… Read more
Eleven: Female Imagery in Plato Angela Hobbs The Image of the Pregnant Philosopher At Symposium 206c–e Diotima tells us that all humans (anthrôpoi) are pregnant (kuousin) in both body and soul, and require contact with the beautiful in order to be able to relieve their pangs and give birth to their physical or spiritual children. She also makes it very clear that the virtues… Read more
12. Plato in the Courtroom: The Surprising Influence of the Symposium on Legal Theory Jeffrey Carnes It is not often that classicists find themselves in the middle of public policy debates, at least not in this day and age; yet this is precisely what has happened in recent years in the ongoing public battle over gay rights, in which proponents of both sides have invoked… Read more
13. Plato’s Symposium and the Traditions of Ancient Fiction Richard Hunter Among the most striking products of the literature of the Roman empire are large-scale fictional narratives in prose, or occasionally a mixture of prose and verse. Such “novels”—the validity of the term is much debated but its usefulness seems undeniable—appear in both Greek and Latin, and cover a remarkable range of tone, style and milieu. Read more
14. Some Notable Afterimages of Plato’s Symposium [1] J. H. Lesher From the fourth century BCE down to the present day Plato’s Symposium has provided a stimulus to reflection on the nature of love. [2] Among the earliest known responses to the dialogue are portions of Xenophon’s Symposium, Petronius’ Satyrica, Plutarch’s Dialogue on Love, Tacitus’ Dialogue… Read more
