Part 1 of 5 · freeIntroduction
In Athens, in the 4th century BC, Plato, the Greek philosopher and student of Socrates, wrote the Symposium. The Greek title is Symposion. The setting is an Athenian symposion, the men's gathering after dinner where watered wine and intellectual talk went together. That evening the set theme is Eros, the force that drives the soul toward beauty.
Each guest offers a theory of love. The dialogue becomes a climb: from the body to beauty, from beauty to the Forms, the perfect and eternal patterns Plato believed in. And Socrates, Plato's teacher, sentenced to death in 399, has the last word, as he so often does in Plato's dialogues.
The rest is in the Sophia app.The remaining parts, the open-book quiz and the full glossary. Free to start; Premium unlocks everything.
- 2Drinking, talking, competing
- 3The myth of the androgynes
- 4Diotima and the ladder of love
- 5What “platonic” ended up meaning
Open-book quiz8 questions whose answers are in the text.
Glossary8 terms explained in a tap.
30 languagesThe same course, from French to Japanese.
