The Feast of Eros

In this modern adaptation of Plato's (Symposium), a group of distinguished Athenians gather at a feast and take turns delivering profound and playful speeches in praise of love (eros). Over the course of the party, they explore questions of love, beauty, and truth, as each speech builds on and challenges the ideas of the last. Socrates delivers the climactic speech, invoking the teachings of the wise woman Diotima to describe the soul's journey from physical attraction to the contemplation of eternal Forms. Alcibiades' dramatic entrance provides a provocative counterpoint, grounding the philosophical discussions in personal experience. Philosophical arguments blend with bawdy jokes and drunken antics to produce an enduring and entertaining meditation on the nature of love. This edition integrates Stephanus pagination for easy cross-referencing with other translations and the original Greek text.