The Symposium (Penguin Classics) (Paperback)

by Plato (Author), Christopher Gill (Editor, Translator, Introduction) "APOLLODORUS: In fact, I'm well prepared to answer your question.1..." (more)
Key Phrases: interpersonal love, philosophical search

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Translated with an Introduction and Notes by Christopher Gill.

About the Author
Plato (c.427-347 BC) stands with Socrates and Aristotle as one of the shapers of the whole intellectual tradition of the West. He founded in Athens the Academy, the first permanent institution devoted to philosophical research and teaching, and theprototype of all Western universities. Christopher Gill is Professor of Ancient Thought at the University of Exeter. He has written widely on ancient philosophy and literature.

Product Details

• Paperback: 144 pages
• Publisher: Penguin Classics (April 29, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140449272
• ISBN-13: 978-0140449273
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5.2 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #78,835 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Great Book, Less than Great Edition, September 12, 2005

By	Hollie P. Domingue "Rebel Scholar" (Denton, TX USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

"The Symposium" is one of those books that everyone should read. In it, Plato explores, through a series of speeches, the nature and origins of love and passion. However, the Penguin edition fails to clearly distinguish when one speech begins and one ends. It will be confusing for students studying this work to reference a certain speech; however, the "paragraph markers" in the text are helpful. Also, the text incorporates "end notes," but for lay readers of Greek Literature, footnotes may be more useful.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating ancient treatise on the nature of Love, September 30, 2008

By	Ritesh Laud (Houston, TX USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I've read quite a few pieces of ancient Roman & Greek literature and each time I come away greatly surprised at how these 2000 to 3000-year old cultures were so similar to ours in many ways. Well, Plato's somewhat short dialogue "The Symposium" both re-affirms and counters these past impressions.

"The Symposium" investigates the nature of romantic Love. What is it? From where does it arise? What is the aim of Love? What does it accomplish?

On the one hand, this dialogue asks questions that people today still can't really answer. Modern readers should be able to relate very well to these aspects of the dialogue. It should be noted that most of the viewpoints and opinions presented through several speeches in the dialogue make some sort of sense, but only when Love is thought of as a sentient being that can influence a person's thoughts and actions. Most of us today have been schooled in science and don't perceive Love as a separate entity but rather as a mental condition springing from somewhere in the brain. But overall, the speeches are easy to relate to in the sense of scrutinizing the fundamental nature of Love.

However, where "The Symposium" evinces stark differences with modern culture is with respect to homo-eroticism. So many references are made to homosexuality (including one embarassingly revealing anecdote by Alcibiades about his lover Socrates) that if we consider Plato's work to be representative of the time, then we have to believe that many, if not most, highly educated men in ancient Athens were essentially homosexuals whose relations with their wives were limited to providing for them and fathering children by them. The most convincing support for this is in Aristophanes' and Alcibiades' speeches.

The Penguin edition consists of a superb translation by Christopher Gill. The finale to Agathon's eulogy on Love immediately struck me as remarkable and incredibly well worded, so much so that I had to read it again to admire the use of language. And then imagine my astonishment when a couple paragraphs later Socrates says about Agathon's speech: "The rest was not quite so amazing, but who could fail to be struck by the beauty of language and phrasing at the end?" Clearly, Gill nailed the translation of that passage, and I believe in general too.

A must read for fans of classics! It's short too, well under 100 pages.

7 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Conversation, August 23, 2005

By	Sarakani (Harrow United Kingdom) - See all my reviews

We all like to chat about romance around a dinner table but what is romance and love all about? Well, Symposium is one of the most serious discussions about this issue datable to the 5th century BCE. At that time, Greeks at dinner parties used to sprawl themselves on couches with food and wine and a little music, be ministered by slaves and while eating or after have a spirited conversation/discussion. Well this "soire" takes place with Socrates, and its details are related second hand by the author Plato.

As translations go, this particular issue is one of the best on the market and the author had discussed it's details with a Kabbalist teacher of mine Glynn Davies. A translation is dependent to a greater or lesser extent on the author's appreciation and interpretation of the sorts of contents involved - and this translation is pretty current. There is a good introduction about the characters, especially Alcibiades and Xenophon who were real people from the time.

I think this book is a wonderful evocation of deep thinking from the Greek world starting with sensual love and then going on to describe a sort of spiritual love that subverts our expectations of what we would understand by Love personified as a deity. Socrates is in the beginning seen to enter into a meditational reverie which probably indicates that some such sages did meditate as in Indian traditions in order to obtain wisdom. Later, Socrates recounts the wisdom transmitted by an Oracle called Diotima (almost as if to say, "this is not what I think (though it is actually) but it was conveyed to me as follows by this trustworthy source".

Some of your friends should appreciate the wisdom of this book. Above all, it is The Symposium, the important conversation among friends at dinner talking about something of the sublime in a way that echoes but also seriously deepens the level of our own more mundane discussions on romance and true love that crop up regularly if you're at that sort of age.