Summary of Plato's Symposium

Overview

The Symposium by Plato is a philosophical dialogue set at a banquet, where various speakers—including Socrates—deliver speeches in praise of love (Eros), each offering unique perspectives on its nature, purpose, and value. The dialogue explores themes such as the distinction between different kinds of love, love's role in virtue and immortality, and the relationship between love, beauty, and wisdom.

Setting and Characters

• The dialogue is recounted by Apollodorus, who heard it from Aristodemus, a devoted follower of Socrates.
• The banquet takes place at Agathon’s house, attended by Phaedrus, Pausanias, Eryximachus, Aristophanes, Agathon, Socrates, Alcibiades, and others.

Structure of the Banquet

• After a meal, the group agrees to moderate their drinking due to the effects of a previous night's revelry.
• Eryximachus proposes that each guest delivers a speech in honor of love (Eros).

Speeches in Praise of Love

Phaedrus

• Claims love is the oldest of the gods and a source of the greatest blessings, especially courage and virtue.
• Argues love inspires people to acts of honor and self-sacrifice.

Pausanias

• Distinguishes two types of love: Common (bodily, indiscriminate) and Heavenly (noble, directed at soul and virtue).
• Suggests only noble love, oriented toward virtue and wisdom, is worthy of praise.

Eryximachus

• Asserts love exists in all things—human bodies, animals, and nature.
• Proposes that medicine, music, and harmony depend on balancing different kinds of love.

Aristophanes

• Offers a myth: humans were once double beings, split in two by the gods; love is the search for our “lost half” to restore wholeness.
• Emphasizes the deep human longing for union and completeness.

Agathon

• Praises love as the youngest and most beautiful god, source of virtue, moderation, courage, and wisdom.
• Asserts love inspires all creation and the finest human qualities.

Socrates (via Diotima)

• Questions previous claims and examines the nature of love through dialectic with Agathon.
• Presents Diotima’s teaching: love is neither god nor mortal, but a “spirit” mediating between them.
• Love seeks what it lacks—namely, the everlasting possession of the good (immortality).
• Love motivates both physical and spiritual procreation, aspiring to the contemplation and creation of absolute beauty and true virtue.

Alcibiades

• Interrupts with a drunken encomium of Socrates, describing his unique power, virtue, and resistance to physical temptation.
• Praises Socrates as incomparable in wisdom, self-mastery, and courage, both in philosophy and battle.

Conclusion and Aftermath

• The banquet ends chaotically with more revelers arriving; many guests depart or fall asleep.
• Socrates, Agathon, and Aristophanes continue discussing until dawn; Socrates ultimately departs for his daily routine.

Key Themes Discussed

• The distinction between higher and lower forms of love.
• The role of love in motivating personal and civic virtue.
• Love’s relationship to beauty, wisdom, immortality, and creativity.
• The philosophical journey from physical attraction to intellectual contemplation of pure Beauty itself.