Author: Plato
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Publication Year: 2008
Translator: Robin Waterfield
Language: English
Format: paperback
Pages: 160
In his celebrated masterpiece, Symposium, Plato imagines a high-society dinner-party in Athens in 416 BC. The guests--including the comic poet Aristophanes and Plato's mentor Socrates--each deliver a short speech in praise of love. The sequence of dazzling speeches culminates in Socrates' famous account of the views of Diotima, a prophetess who taught him that love is our means of trying to attain goodness, and a brilliant sketch of Socrates himself by a drunken Alcibiades, the most popular and notorious Athenian of the time. Engaging the reader on every page, this new translation conveys the power, humor, and pathos of Plato's creation and is complemented by full explanatory notes and an illuminating introduction.
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I read Symposium as a part of O.W.L readathon for Arithmancy subject which is to read outside of my comfort zone. The prompt is pretty explanatory since I don't usually read ancient Greek text especially the philosophical one. However, I already wanted to read this book even before the readathon. I'm currently trying to learn philosophy bit by bit and I'm highly interested in Plato's texts after listening to one Philosophize This podcast episode of him. The edition that I read is the Oxford World's Classics edition translated by Robin Waterfield. This edition includes translator's introduction, explanatory notes, and index of names which are really helpful to me. There’s also a list of references if you want to explore the subject further. The text references many Greek names, places, and Homer's works which can be confusing if you're not a familiar with ancient Greek history and mythology like me. For me it's important to understand those as a context. That's why the explanatory notes and the name index are really helpful to me.
The text itself discusses the meaning of Eros or passionate love. However, Plato didn’t write it in a straightforward textbook way. Instead, he wrote it as a dialogue. He set it as if there’s a dinner party or a symposium and at said dinner party, the attendees gave speech and praise for the God of Love. Keep in mind that the whole dinner party never happened. It’s a fiction but Plato used real people as the characters in this book. I love the idea of love. Reading these ancient Greek figures (who are actually personifications of Plato's thought because this dialogue is a fiction) praising Love and articulating their ideas on what love is, excited me.
If you heard the saying that human is originally a being with two heads, four legs, and four arms who was so powerful that Zeus was afraid he decided to split them into two beings resulting in humans always looking for their other half; this text is where it comes from. In the dialogue, Plato also examined the meaning of love since to praise something, you must first understand that something to be able to appreciate it. Through Socrates and Diotima, Plato argued that there are different stages of Love and one can ascend from one stage to another. However, I'm not going to dissect more on what Eros is, which Plato was talking about because I’m also still trying to figure out this particular subject.
Overall, I enjoyed reading Symposium so much. Granted, I haven't read many ancient Greek texts, but I think Symposium is the most romantic one that I've read. Reading this book didn't feel like reading a formal philosophical text. It feels like reading a fiction novel instead. Plato presented it in a way that is easy to read and you don't have to be a philosophy scholar to join in the conversation. In conclusion, if you're interested in reading Symposium but feel intimidated, don't be. My suggestion is to find an edition that provide notes because it would help you a lot. I can only suggest the Oxford World's Classic edition because it's the only edition that I've read. If you know other editions that’s suitable for people who don’t read philosophical text, feel free to let me know in the comment.
“Love” is just the name we give to the desire for and pursuit of wholeness
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