Plato's Symposium

It has often been said that Plato’s Symposium is the greatest prose work to survive from the Ancient Greek world. It portrays a group of intellectual men at a dinner party talking about sexual desire and the mysteries of love. Almost all of the men clearly have experience of same-sex relationships and are candid about what this means to them. As a result, the text has sometimes been thought of as a dangerous work, because, to use E M Forster’s ironic phrase, it is frank about the ‘unspeakable vice of the Greeks’. Nowadays, it is easier for us to appreciate the subtlety of Plato’s analysis of gender roles.

A major aspect of Plato’s perspective relates to his view of love as a kind of mystical force which is connected to our sense of beauty and plays an important role in moral education.  This vision was very attractive to the Renaissance humanists, and has influenced Christian apologists over the thousands of years in which the book has been read.

For readers who are not particularly interested in philosophy, the text has appeal because Plato, unlike most philosophers, was a gifted writer. He offers us a variety of characters,  all doing their best to account for the role of love in our lives. The modern world can boast many self-appointed experts here – including artists, philosophers, doctors, the therapeutic community, gurus, agony aunts and charismatic influencers to name but a few – and Plato presents us with a very similar kind of range, skilfully satirising them all. He finally presents a startling conclusion, when the person who is portrayed as having the deepest understanding turns out to be a woman . . .

There’s a great deal  to ponder here, much of it very Greek (whatever that means), but much also that speaks to us with stunning directness across the millennia, and which may even lead you to question what philosophy is.

One final point: the text is riddled with irony, which is not always easy to spot if you are reading silently to yourself. There is much to be gained from reading The Symposium together as a group.

JOINING DETAILS:

• Four-week study led by Keith Fosbrook
• Thursdays, 5.00-7.00 pm, 21 & 28 November, 5 & 12 December
• Please note that it is important we all use the same translation: The Symposium by Plato, Penguin Classics, translated by Christopher Gill, Penguin Classics, ISBN: 9780140449273
• £120 for four meetings, to include introductory notes and resources