Symposium

by Plato

Overview

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.

About the Series: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the broadest spectrum of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, voluminous notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781421893921
Publisher:	1st World Publishing
Publication date:	10/01/2008
Pages:	112
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.27(d)

About the Author

Plato (c. 427–347 b.c.) founded the Academy in Athens, the prototype of all Western universities, and wrote more than twenty philosophical dialogues.

Table of Contents

The SymposiumPreface
Introduction

The Symposium

Notes
Select Bibliography

Editorial Reviews

A fantastic book. Translation is graceful and elegant yet uncannily accurate. Footnotes very useful, especially for teaching purposes, and the price is surprisingly low. --Eve Browning Cole, University of Minnesota

From the Publisher