SYMPOSIUM by Plato

Paper Back Book, 85 Pages
Print Book: Digest (5.5 x 8.5 in / 140 x 216 mm), High Quality Black & White, Thick Paper, Paperback Perfect Bound, Matte Cover.

Join a gathering of Athens' most brilliant minds at a drinking party (symposium) held to celebrate the tragic poet Agathon's first victory. One by one, the distinguished guests—including the playwright Aristophanes, the physician Eryximachus, the young Phaedrus, and Socrates himself—deliver eloquent and diverse speeches in praise of Eros, the god of love and desire. From Phaedrus's depiction of Love as an ancient and inspiring deity, to Aristophanes' poignant and humorous myth of humans originally having two faces and four arms, later split by Zeus and forever searching for their "other half," each speech offers a unique perspective. Eryximachus sees love as a cosmic harmony, while Agathon delivers a florid, poetic tribute to Love's beauty and virtues. Then, Socrates recounts his own instruction by the wise priestess Diotima of Mantineia. She reveals a profound mystical vision of Love, not as a god, but as an intermediary spirit, a desire that ascends from physical beauty to the beauty of souls, then to the beauty of institutions and laws, and ultimately to the absolute, eternal Form of Beauty itself. This "Ladder of Love" represents a philosophical journey towards wisdom and immortality. The revelry is famously interrupted by the dramatic entrance of a drunken Alcibiades, who offers a passionate and deeply personal encomium to Socrates, portraying him as the embodiment of true philosophical love. Symposium is a literary and philosophical tour de force, a captivating exploration of desire, beauty, and the pursuit of the highest knowledge, showcasing Plato's dramatic skill and profound insights into the human heart and mind.