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Symposium

by Plato Book 15 in the Penguin Classics: Ancient World series.

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Plato’s Symposium turns a drinking party into a sequence of speeches on love, beauty and philosophical ascent. Socrates’ account of Diotima’s teaching gives the dialogue its central movement from erotic desire to the contemplation of beauty itself, while the arrival of Alcibiades returns philosophy to the politics and personalities of Athens.

Historical Periods

Classical Greece480–323 BCE Athenian Democracy508–322 BCE Platonic Philosophy and the Academy399–347 BCE

Genres

Classical Literature

Historical people

Socrates471 BCE–400 BCE Platoc. 420s BCE–c. 340s BCE

Series reading order

Books in the Penguin Classics: Ancient World series

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