Greek set book: Plato’s Symposium
Plato’s Symposium is a dramatic account of a debate at a drinking party (symposium) on the nature
of erôs (sexual love) – more specifically, homosexual erôs, which in Athenian culture would normally
be between an adult man (the lover) and a teenage boy (the beloved). The participants in the
symposium include the philosopher Socrates, well known tragic and comic playwrights, a doctor, and
(towards the end) one of Athens’s most high-flying young politicians. In this module we will read
Plato’s Symposium in its entirety in ancient Greek, and more briefly look at some other related works
within the Platonic corpus (Alcibiades I and II, Phaedrus). We shall also discuss a range of literary,
historical and philosophical themes that relate to this work, including: Plato’s narratological
technique; his characterizations of Socrates and Alcibiades; the symposium as part of aristocratic
society; homosexuality in Classical Athens; Plato’s ‘Theory of Forms’; and other Platonic and
contemporaneous non-Platonic ideas about erôs.
Course text
There is no specific course text, but you should buy a copy of the Symposium in Greek. I would
suggest the Oxford Classical Text, so you are not distracted by someone else’s translation as we work
through the text. However, the text is available with parallel translation in the Loeb series, and also:
Rowe, C. J. (1998) Plato: Symposium; edited, with an introduction, translation, and commentary
(Warminster: Aris & Philips)
Introductory reading list
Annas, J. (2003) Plato: A very short introduction (Oxford)
Benson, H. H. (ed.) (2006) A companion to Plato (Oxford)
Gill, C. (1999) ‘Introduction’, in Plato: The Symposium (London) x-xlvi
Guthrie, W. K. C. (1975) ‘The Symposium’, in A history of Greek Philosophy, Vol. IV. Plato: The man
and his dialogues; earlier period (Cambridge) 365-6
Lesher, J. H., D. Nalls and F. Sheffield (eds) (2007) Plato’s Symposium: Issues in interpretation and
reception (Cambridge, MA)
Sheffield, F. C. C. (2006) Plato’s Symposium: The ethics of desire (Oxford)