Symposium

Books

• 1
  Book 1

  A dinner party at the house of Callias. Socrates and his friends arrive. A Syracusan entertainer has been hired. The mood is light.

  16 lines
• 2
  Book 2

  Each guest must describe what he is most proud of. The responses are playful: beauty, wealth, poverty, the ability to make people better.

  27 lines
• 3
  Book 3

  Socrates claims to be proud of his skill as a pimp — meaning he is good at bringing people together. The joke goes deeper than it seems.

  14 lines
• 4
  Book 4

  A discussion of beauty. Socrates argues (not entirely seriously) that his snub nose and bulging eyes are more functional than conventional good looks.

  64 lines
• 5
  Book 5

  The entertainer's troupe performs acrobatics and dances. The conversation turns to the nature of love and the difference between physical and spiritual attraction.

  10 lines
• 6
  Book 6

  Charmides praises the benefits of poverty. Antisthenes praises the benefits of wealth — the wealth of the soul.

  10 lines
• 7
  Book 7

  Hermogenes describes his friendship with the gods. Niceratus quotes Homer. Critobulus praises beauty. The symposium ranges freely.

  5 lines
• 8
  Book 8

  Socrates delivers a speech on love — distinguishing the love of the body, which fades, from the love of the soul, which endures and makes both lovers better.

  43 lines
• 9
  Book 9

  The entertainers perform a dance of Dionysus and Ariadne so beautiful and erotic that the married guests hurry home to their wives. The party ends.

  7 lines