Plato’s Symposium, his philosophical dialogue on love, or eros, was probably written around 380 BCE, but it’s set in 416, during the uneasy truce between Athens and Sparta in the middle of the Peloponnesian War. A symposium was a drinking party, though Socrates and his friends, having had a heavy evening the night before, decide to go easy on the wine and instead take turns making speeches in praise of love – at least until Alcibiades turns up, very late and very drunk. In this episode of Among the Ancients, Emily and Tom discuss the dialogue’s philosophical ideas, historical context and narrative form, and why Aristophanes gets the hiccups.

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Further reading:

Donald Davidson: Plato’s Philosopher

https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v07/n14/donald-davidson/plato-s-philosopher

Anne Carson: Oh What a Night (Alkibiades)

https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v42/n22/anne-carson/oh-what-a-night-alkibiades

M.F. Burnyeat: Art and Mimesis in Plato’s Republic

https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v20/n10/m.f.-burnyeat/art-and-mimesis-in-plato-s-republic

Emily Wilson is Professor of Classical Studies at the University of Pennsylvania and Thomas Jones is an editor at the London Review of Books.

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