Plato’s "Feast", summary Automatic translate

The Symposium is one of the most famous works by the ancient Greek philosopher Plato, written in the form of a dialogue sometime between 385 and 380 BC. The text is a series of speeches delivered at a friendly banquet in Athens, where each participant praises the deity of love, Eros. The uniqueness of this work lies in the fact that it not only describes philosophical concepts but also demonstrates them through living characters, culminating in a speech by Alcibiades, who shifts the conversation from abstract love to the person of Socrates.

Apollodorus and the Outro

The narrative begins with a conversation between Apollodorus and an acquaintance (presumably Glaucon). The acquaintance asks him to tell about the famous banquet at the house of the tragic poet Agathon, attended by Socrates, Alcibiades, and other prominent Athenians. Apollodorus explains that he himself was not present at that meeting, as it took place many years ago, when they were still children.

The events take place around the time Agathon won his first victory in the tragedian competition. Apollodorus recounts the story from Aristodemus of Cydathena, a man who was at the banquet and reputed to be one of Socrates’ most devoted admirers. Socrates himself later confirmed the belief that people come to the worthy without invitation. At Agathon’s house, Socrates lags behind, lost in thought, and stands frozen in the neighbor’s entryway. Aristodemus enters alone and hesitates, but the host welcomes him warmly. Socrates appears only halfway through the meal.

Eryximachus’s Proposal

When dinner was over and libations were offered to the gods, the guests decided not to drink, as many were suffering from hangovers from the previous day’s victory celebrations. Pausanias suggested moderation, and so did Eros.

It was decided that each person present would take a turn praising Eros. Socrates remarked that, although he claimed to understand nothing but love, he would gladly support this idea.

Phaedrus’s Speech: Antiquity and Valor

Phaedrus spoke first. He extolled Eros as the most ancient god, who had no parents, a claim supported by the testimonies of Hesiod and Parmenides. Eros’s greatest gift to humanity is shame before the shameful and the desire for beauty. Phaedrus asserted that an army of lovers and their beloveds would be invincible, since no one would dare show cowardice in front of their beloved.

The orator, who knew the prophecy about his death, preferred death to revenge for Patroclus, for which he was sent to the Islands of the Blessed.

Pausanias’s Speech: The Two Eros

Pausanias corrected the theme, declaring that there are two Eros, just like the goddesses Aphrodite. There is the Celestial Aphrodite (daughter of Uranus) and the Vulgar Aphrodite (daughter of Zeus and Dione). Accordingly, there is the Celestial Eros and the Vulgar Eros.

The vulgar Eros of those who have already developed reason. This feeling is strong and noble.

Pausanias examined the customs of various states in detail. In Elis and Boeotia, yielding to suitors was considered normal, while in Ionia and among the barbarians, it was considered shameful, as tyranny did not tolerate strong alliances between people. In Athens, the rules were more complex: open courtship was encouraged, but easy accessibility was frowned upon. "Servitude for the sake of perfection" was considered honorable, when a young man yielded to a suitor for the sake of acquiring wisdom and virtue.

Eryximachus’s Speech: Cosmic Harmony

The physician Eryximachus, who spoke for the hiccupping Aristophanes, expanded the concept of Eros to a universal scale. He claimed that Eros dwells not only in the human soul but throughout all of nature. Medicine, he said, is the art of guiding the body’s love principles, creating harmony between opposites: hot and cold, bitter and sweet.

The same principle operates in music, where harmony arises from the adjustment of high and low notes, as well as in astronomy and agriculture. A moderate Eros brings health and abundance, while an unbridled one causes illness and cataclysms. Even divination serves to preserve the right love between gods and humans.

Aristophanes’ Speech: The Search for Integrity

The comedian Aristophanes recounted a myth that humans originally had a different nature. There were three sexes: male (from the Sun), female (from the Earth), and androgynous (from the Moon), combining characteristics of both. These people were spherical, had four arms and legs, and two faces. They were so strong and daring that they challenged the power of the gods.

Zeus, unwilling to exterminate the human race entirely and lose his sacrifices, decided to weaken them by cutting each in half. Apollo stitched up the cut (the navel) and smoothed out the body. Since then, each half desperately searches for its lost part. Those who were part of an androgyne seek the opposite sex. Women who were part of a single female being are prone to lesbian love. Men who descended from a single male being seek men.

Aristophanes defined love as a thirst for wholeness and a desire to return to one’s original state. Happiness is only possible when a person finds their true soulmate and heals their fractured nature.

Agathon’s Speech: The Perfection of God

The master of the house, Agathon, criticized the previous speakers for praising Eros’s gifts rather than himself. He described Eros as the happiest, most beautiful, and eternally youthful of the gods. Eros is gentle, as he dwells in soft souls, and flexible, penetrating everywhere unnoticed.

This god is just, for he does not recognize violence, prudent, for he rules over passions, and brave, for even Ares yields to him. Agathon ascribed every possible virtue to Eros and called him a master poet who makes creators of everyone he touches. The speech was so beautiful and rhetorically precise that it elicited a thunderous ovation.

Socrates’ Speech: The Dialectic of Love

Socrates began with the ironic remark that he couldn’t make beautiful speeches, but was willing to speak the truth. After asking Agathon a few questions, he forced him to admit: love is the desire for what one does not have. If Eros is the love of beauty, then he himself is deprived of beauty and in need of it. And since the good is beautiful, he is also deprived of the good.

Socrates then recounted his long-ago conversation with the wise woman Diotima of Mantinea. She explained to him that Eros is neither a god nor a mortal, but a great genius (daimon), a mediator between humans and the gods.

According to Diotima’s myth, Eros was conceived on Aphrodite’s birthday by the gods Poros (Wealth) and Penia (Poverty). Therefore, he combines the traits of both parents: he is poor, rough, and homeless like his mother, but drawn to beauty, brave, and inventive like his father. He is a philosopher, eternally striving for wisdom, hovering between knowledge and ignorance.

The goal of love, according to Diotima, is the eternal possession of good. People strive to be delivered in beauty in order to attain immortality. Those who are physically pregnant seek women to procreate. Those who are spiritually pregnant bear reason and virtue.

Diotima described the path of ascent to higher knowledge (the "ladder of love"):

1. Love for one beautiful body.
2. Understanding that the beauty of all bodies is one.
3. Preference for beauty of the soul over physical beauty.
4. Love for beautiful morals and laws.
5. Love of science.
6. Contemplation of the Most Beautiful - the eternal, unchanging idea of Beauty, which does not depend on human flesh and mortality.

The Invasion of Alcibiades

When Socrates finished, a crowd of revelers burst into the house, led by the drunken Alcibiades. He was supported by a flute player. Alcibiades’ head was adorned with wreaths and ribbons. He had come to crown Agathon for his victory, but upon spotting Socrates, he was surprised and agitated.

Alcibiades took the ribbons from Agathon’s head and crowned Socrates with them, declaring him victorious in his speech. Eryximachus invited the newcomer to also praise Eros, but Alcibiades refused, declaring that no one else could be praised in Socrates’ presence, lest he become violent. Instead, he decided to deliver the eulogy to Socrates himself.