Plato's Symposium

Where is the primary setting?

House of Agathon

Who identifies himself as the narrator?

Apollodorus

Who is the narrator's companion/listener?

Glaucon

How did the narrator's companion/listener learn of Agathon's supper?

He learned about the supper from Aristodemus, an acquaintance to Phoenix, son of Philip.

What was the companion/listener's mistake about the narrator?

He mistakenly believed that Agathon's supper was a recent event. The narrator also did not attend the party.

What was the companion/listener's mistake about Agathon? (beginning)

Agathon no longer lives in Athens.

Why did Agathon throw the party?

He won a prize for his first tragedy.

Who told the narrator about the party?

Aristodemus

How did the narrator confirm the truth of the narrative?

He asked Socrates who confirmed the truth of the narrative.

What does Glaucon say about the road to Athens?

It is "made for conversation."

What criticism of the listener does the narrator make?

The narrator dislikes wealthier men discussing the truths that he has learned as they cannot relate the truth as well as he. If they cannot relate the truth, then they are "doing nothing."

What criticism of the narrator does the listener make?

The companion admonishes Apollodorus for his unhappiness, his personal attacks, and his blind devotion to Socrates.

What was unusual about Socrates' appearance in the beginning of the narrative?

He was wearing sandals. He usually went barefoot.

Where was Socrates headed in the beginning of the narrative?

Agathon's banquet

What does Socrates ask Aristodemus in the beginning of the narrative?

He asks whether he will accompany him to the party.

What does Socrates compare Aristodemus' attendance to?

Menelaus attending Agamemnon's feast in the Iliad.

Socrates explains that Menelaus was inferior to Agamemnon in terms of valor.

Also, "demolishing the proverb": (PUN)

"To the feasts of inferior men the good unbidden go,"

to a new one:

"To the feasts of the good the good unbidden go."

How does Aristodemus react to Socrates' allusion to Homer?

He agrees that he is much inferior to Agathon and Socrates but will agree to go along with Socrates as his guest.

Who reaches Agathon's house first?

Aristodemus

What does Aristodemus learn from Agathon?

He had meant to invite him but couldn't find him before. (good thing Socrates didn't hear this excuse)

Where does Socrates go before Agathon's house?

portico of neighbor's house

What is Agathon's response to Socrates' delay?

Agathon wishes to send a messenger to fetch Socrates, but others warn him that Socrates is in the middle of some brilliant idea and that to disturb him would be worse than waiting for him.

What does Agathon ask of Socrates upon his arrival?

He wants to touch him, thereby absorbing Socrates' latest discoveries.

What does Socrates say about wisdom?

His wisdom is not better than a "dream," and Agathon's wisdom is a "stream."

Who shall judge whether Socrates or Agathon holds greater wisdom?

Dionysus

Who is Eryximachus?

He is a physician seated next to Agathon and believes that overindulgence of alcohol is unhealthy and should not be imposed upon guests.

What does Eryximachus propose about the flute girl?

He wants her to leave so that they may make the most of their conversation.

What allusion does Eryximachus make?

He alludes to Melanippe in Euripides by saying, "Not mine the word." It's his segue to Phaedrus.

What is Eryximachus' proposal for the group?

He suggests that each guest give a speech, an encomium, in love's honor, from left to right.

Why does Phaedrus start the discussion on love?

He is the first to the left and the "father of the thought," according to Eryximachus.

What does Socrates wish Phaedrus?

Good luck

What does Phaedrus say love is?

1) A mighty god

2) The eldest

3) No parents

4) Best motivator

What proof does Phaedrus give for love's status?

He alludes to three authors: Hesiod, Parmenides, and Acusilaus. They describe the god of love similarly.

What does Phaedrus say is the greatest blessing bestowed upon a young man?

Virtuous lover

What does Phaedrus say about armies?

The best armies consist of men who are lovers of men, as lovers have the greatest motivation for pursuing honor and abhorring dishonor. "They would overcome the world." (PUN?) Love would motivate even the most cowardly individual to perform brave acts.

According to Phaedrus, how does love conquer individuals?

"That courage which as Homer says, the god breathes into the souls of some heroes, Love of his own nature infuses into the lover."

What example does Phaedrus give of a lover dying for a beloved?

Alcestis who died for her husband and received the gift of returning to life.

How does Phaedrus interpret Orpheus?

He calls him cowardly as he was unwilling to die for love. He describes him as a snake charmer who entered Hades as a man.

What does Phaedrus say about Achilles and Patroclus?

Achilles died the nobler death as he chose to honor his lover, Patroclus, over his own life, by killing Hector without regard to the consequences.

According to Phaedrus, who is more virtuous: the lover or the beloved?

The lover is inspired by God.

How does Phaedrus end his speech?

"These are my reasons for affirming that Love is the eldest and noblest and mightiest of the gods, and the chiefest author and giver of virtue in life, and of happiness after death."

Who speaks after Phaedrus?

Pausanias

What is Pausanias' main objection to Phaedrus' speech?

According to Pausanias, Phaedrus does not differentiate between the different loves.

What love does Pausanias define?

Heavenly love--born of male-male bond

Common love--born of male-female bond

According to Pausanias, what qualities are prized in heavenly love?

1) Valor

2) Intelligence

According to Pausanias, who should not partake in heavenly love?

Young boys

Reason: they have uncertain futures

Where is young love lawful? (Pausanias)

Elis, Boeotia

Where is young love unlawful? (Pausanias)

Ionia and other places where barbarians have influence

What reason does Pausanias give for making young love illegal?

Tyrants have more control over people who have weaker bonds to one another.

What final advice does Pausanias give for taking a lover?

"They are honorable to him who follows them honorably, dishonorable to him who follows them dishonorably." (They= lovers)

What does Pausanias say about evil?

"Evil is the vulgar lover who loves the body rather than the soul, inasmuch as he is not even stable because he loves a thing which is in itself unstable, and therefore when the bloom of youth which he was desiring is over, he takes wing and flies away in spite of all his words and promises; whereas the love of the noble disposition is lifelong, for it becomes one with the everlasting." (Does this conflict with his previous comments?)

According to Pausanias, what is a dishonorable love? Why?

1) "hasty attachment"

2) money , wealth

3) political power

These qualities are impermanent and reflect no generosity.

How does one know which love one has? (Pausanias)

After testing both the lover and the beloved through contests and trials, one may discover which love one has.

What duty has the beloved? (Pausanias)

"Virtuous service" leading to wisdom

What is a noble error? (Pausanias)

Loving false virtue/villain as though it were true virtue/hero. Mistakenly identifying a flaw as a virtue.

What keeps Aristophanes from speaking in turn?

Too full

Hiccoughs

What advice does Eryximachus give to Aristophanes?

1) Hold breath

2) Gargle

3) Tickle the nose and sneeze

What problem does Eryximachus find with Pausanias' speech?

Eryximachus disagrees with the division of love as heavenly and common as 1) one may love objects that aren't living such as rock formations & 2) animals may love other animals

How does Eryximachus define love?

Love of healthy

Love of diseased

How does Eryximachus define medicine?

"For medicine may be regarded generally as the knowledge of the loves and desires of the body, and how to satisfy them or not; and the best physician is he who is able to separate fair love from foul, or to convert one into the other; and he who knows how to eradicate and how to implant love, whichever is required, and can reconcile the most hostile elements in the constitution and make them loving friends, is a skillful practitioner."

What are the two loves called in music? (Eryximachus)

Urania--heavenly

Polyhymnia--common

(Does this revert back to Pausanias' idea?)

What does common love produce? (Eryximachus)

Disease and impiety

What does Eryximachus think of divination?

It is the process of communicating between gods and men; it is a "peacemaker."

What does Aristophanes say first?

He makes fun of Eryximachus' love interpretation:

"I wonder whether the harmony of the body has a love of such noises and ticklings, for I no sooner applied the sneezing than I was cured."

What evidence does Aristophanes cite regarding love's neglect?

He points to the lack of temples and altars and sacrifices to love. (Sarcasm?)

What approach does Aristophanes use to describe love's influence on man?

He creates a mythic ancestor race of humans that includes three sexes: man, woman, and androgynous.

What symbols represent each sex? (Aristophanes)

Man = sun child

Woman = earth child

Androgynous = moon child

What reason does Aristophanes give for the human embrace (the hug)?

As man was cut in half, he wants to return to his former self.

What will happen if mankind is disobedient? (Aristophanes)

"And if we are not obedient to the gods, there is a danger that we shall be split up again and go about in basso-rilievo, like the profile figures having only half a nose which are sculptured on monuments, and that we shall be like tallies."

What prescription for happiness does Aristophanes give?

1) Piety

2) Return to primeval nature

3) Reunite with original true love

What is Agathon's criticism of the previous speeches?

They focused on the benefits of love without giving adequate praise to love himself.

How does Agathon disagree with Phaedrus? Why?

Unlike Phaedrus, Agathon thinks that love is the youngest of the gods. If love had been present in the beginning, the gods would have been at peace with each other.

According to Agathon, love walks upon the _____?

Soft, which represents the mind

What are the characteristics of love? (Agathon)

1) Flexible

2) Symmetric

3) Fragrant

4) Just---without force

5) Temperate

6) Courage

7) Wisdom

8) Poet

9) World creator

10) Beauty

11) Peace

12) Courtesy

13) Friend of the good

14) Desired and precious

etc. The weakness of Agathon's speech is that he begins a rather large list of love's qualities, none of which is well examined. Is love flexible or inflexible? It depends on how you look at it.

What is love's significance to art according to Agathon?

"He whom love touches not walks in darkness."

What does Socrates think of Agathon's speech?

"For I was reminded of the Gorgias, and at the end of his speech I fancied that Agathon was shaking at me the Gorginian or Gorgonian head of the great master of rhetoric, which was simply to turn me and my speech into stone, as Homer says, and strike me dumb."

What does Socrates think that the others have done wrong?

They have misunderstood true praise to mean the "fairest" and the "best." They have demonstrated what love is for those who are unfamiliar with him, but not for those familiar with him. They have produced a rivalry of praise instead of a truth.

How does Socrates prove that love is not necessarily beautiful?

He coaxes Agathon to admit that a man who desires love has not that which he desires. Therefore, his love has not beauty, yet Love is beautiful: a true paradox.

How does Diotima convince Socrates (and the guests at Agathon's) that Love is not a divinity?

If Love = god, then god must possess the good. However, it is unreasonable to say that Love desires the good if it already possesses it.

How does Diotima answer Socrates' question of Love's essence?

She defines Love as a mean between mortal and immortal---a spirit.

What is Love's function according to Diotima?

Interpreter between the gods and men to carry out wisdom

What does Diotima say that love does?

Love is the "everlasting possession of the good."

What does Diotima give as the reason for procreation?

To procreate as beauty, and that beauty be divine as it is immortal. (Assumption= humanity will procreate to infinity.)

What does Diotima say that a pregnant body conceives?

Children----> Immortality

What does Diotima say that a pregnant soul conceives?

Wisdom and Virtue

Who does Diotima use as an example of children to admire?

Children of the great poets

According to Diotima, what are the ascending steps of wisdom? (Diotima's Ladder)

1) Love of one

2) Love of all beautiful forms

3) Love of all beautiful minds/Nurturer of the young

4) Love of institutions and laws

5) Love of the sciences ---the sea of thought

6) Love of the single science--Absolute beauty

What characteristics does Diotima say that Absolute Beauty possesses?

1) Constancy (Omnipotent)

2) Without point of view/ without relational qualities (Omniscient)

Is it, thus, a god after all?

What does Diotima give as the result of communion with Absolute Beauty?

Man may become the immortal friend of God

Who does Alcibiades say is the "fairest and wisest" of men?

Agathon

Who does Alcibiades crown?

Agathon and Socrates

How does Agathon first address Alcibiades?

He orders that Acibiades' sandals be removed.

Why is Alcibiades surprised?

Socrates is there.

What does Socrates say about Alcibiades?

He is jealous of Socrates' lovers.

What does Alcibiades call Socrates?

universal despot

wonderful monster

How does Alcibiades praise Socrates?

1) Compares him to the bust of Silenus with gods inside

2) Compares him to Marsyas the satyr

3) Accuses him of being a bully

4) A flutist of words

5) He describes a confession that on occasion he wished Socrates were dead with full knowledge that if he were so he would be terribly unhappy.

6) Wine has no effect on him

7) Resists fatigue--has gone without food

8) Courageous

9) Commoner's tongue--He repeats simple words, but these words create beauty

10) Many lovers which he later discards. He

attempts to warn Agathon.

How do the guests react to Alcibiades speech?

They laugh

How does Socrates react to Alcibiades speech?

He accuses him of trying to interfere with his love for Agathon. He ridicules Alcibiades' order:

Socrates < Alcibiades < Agathon

How does Agathon react to Alcibiades speech?

He is more enamored of Socrates.

What was Socrates' last discourse according to Aristodemus?

"The genius of comedy was the same with that of tragedy, and that the true artist in tragedy was an artist in comedy also."

Where does Socrates rest the next evening?

His own home