Meaning Behind Alcibiades Speech At The End Of Plato's Symposium

In this paper, I will attempt to convey what I believe is the deeper meaning behind Alcibiades’s speech at the end of Plato’s Symposium after explaining a little bit of context.

Alcibiades’s speech, by itself, initially makes no sense to the modern day reader. It mainly relates his struggles with being the lover of Socrates. If you can understand the Ancient Greek traditions of loved ones and lovers, Alcibiades’s struggles with being Socrates’s “lover” is confusing. Since Alcibiades is younger than Socrates, Socrates should be the lover rather than the “loved one.” Alcibiades laments that Socrates rejects his love and advances. However, Socrates, in his own way, is loving Alcibiades.

Socrates spoke earlier in the text about a woman, Diotima’s, ladder of love. He speaks of what she taught him of different levels of love. According to Diotima, there’s a general kind of love, which is the desire of good things and of being happy. A specific kind of love is a rational love. This is the kind of love that seeks good things, but realizes that to seek good things, one must understand what “good” is. To understand what good is, says Socrates, one must discuss with others, asking questions and thinking

deeply about the subject.
Now, Alcibiades and Socrates have different kinds of specific love.

Socrates has the rational kind of love and believes that love is spending time together and having deep discussions in search of truth. Alcibiades’s love is an honor-seeking love. His idea of love is being revered by the masses and gaining honor and glory. This is why the break in Alcibiades and Socrates’s relationship happened. Alcibiades wanted to be Socrate’s loved one/lover in order to gain some of Socrates’s knowledge. The reason that he wants knowledge is not for its truth, but for the “power” that it awards Socrates. He praises Socrates’s power to capture an audience with his words. He wants to get closer to Socrates to learn how to get the power and admiration Socrates receives from his

audiences.
So, when Alcibiades climbs under Socrates’s cloak to try and initiate an erotic, sexual relationship and Socrates doesn’t oblige him, Socrates was not rejecting Alcibiades like Alcibiades thought he was. Instead, Socrates was showing love for Alcibiades by spending time with him in discussion. Socrates shows his interest in Alcibiades by engaging him in discussion about the search for truth and the meaning of “good.” Alcibiades feels rejected because his idea of love, the honor-seeking love, doesn’t value the search for good. Instead it values erotic relationships and money, honor, and power.
Alcibiades’s jealousy also plays a huge part in the deeper meaning of this passage. Alcibiades shows clearly his jealousy when the topic of Agathon and Socrates’s relationship comes up. Alcibiades not only wants to be Socrates’s lover, but he wants to be his only lover. If Alcibiades was Socrates’s only lover, he would have gotten more honor. He also would’ve been “another” step above his peers because he had access to all of Socrates’s wisdom and teachings.
So, the deeper meaning of Alcibiades’s appearance, in my opinion, is largely to add meaning to Socrates’s wisdom earlier in the text. Though it adds comedy to Plato’s piece, it mainly complements what Socrates spoke about. Though Alcibiades may or may not have existed, the issues brought up by his appearance reinforce what Plato is trying to teach through his character Socrates, or what wisdom the actual Socrates was trying to impart.